What the Doc Wants

ETDBW — or Easier To Do Business With — has been a marketing and sales tactic for years. How do you make your business ETDBW? By knowing what the doctor wants.

Consider a small, independent provider that had been trying for years to get the referrals of a prominent pulmonologist. Again and again, the doctor told the DME owner — let’s call him “Jeff” — that he was happy with another provider, a provider he thought was of higher quality than Jeff’s company.

One day around five o’clock as Jeff’s team was preparing to leave, the phone rang. Jeff told his staff to go home; he would take the call. When Jeff answered, the pulmonologist was on the line. He expressed great pleasure that the phone was answered, telling Jeff, “I called Provider X and got an automated attendant that had the audacity to tell me my call was important while it put me on hold for five minutes. I was angry, so I hung up and called you. I have a referral for you.”

This doctor had been saying for years that the other provider was better. Now he is calling Jeff. Why? What changed so suddenly? The answer is that Jeff’s company was now easier to do business with.

Research associate Jill Hanson has examined what doctors want from DME providers for some time. This is primary research, which means that she is getting the information straight from the doctors she interviews. Since the research is in its early stages, this is preliminary data. But because the results thus far are so consistent, they are worthwhile to share.

Responding physicians were given a list of nine factors they might consider when making referrals to a DME provider, then asked to rank the three most important.

First, note what doesn’t even rank: Doctors said it doesn’t matter how frequently you contact them and if you have some specialization of products or services. Your in-services to their staffs don’t persuade them either. Instead, doctors cite timeliness of delivery and ease in making a referral as the two most important characteristics they consider.

What services do doctors value most from a DME provider? The choices are: willingness to honor special requests to provide specific models; availability of accurate and informative materials for customers to make the choice to purchase product; service dispatched to any area with one call to the store; and certified clinical personnel to fit clients for customized equipment. The highest rankings come from a DME provider’s ability to dispatch service to any area with one call, and employing certified clinical personnel.

What do doctors consider a cardinal sin for a DME provider? Their most common comments here involve late delivery and being labor intensive. “Labor intensive” applies in part to CMN (Certificate of Medical Necessity) processing. Doctors’ offices said they want to get the CMN as quickly as they can after the order. The longer a provider waits in getting the CMN to them, the doctors said, the more difficult it is to complete. “Labor intensive” also applies to the number of faxes they have to deal with per referral.

A Simple Conclusion

A common thread runs through all of these responses. Doctors want to work with the HME that is easier to do business with. Be warned. It would be a mistake to interpret this conclusion — though simple and perhaps obvious — as trite.

Harnessing the power of this simple conclusion can make a provider more profitable by reducing customer acquisition costs and referrer turnovers. Customer acquisition costs are equal to the cost of sales staff salaries, advertising and promotion, sales transportation costs, etc., divided by the number of referrals (preferably qualified referrals).

The provider that is easier to do business with is likely to get more referrals per sales/marketing rep and, thereby, have a lower customer acquisition cost. And the provider with low referrer turnover needs to find fewer doctors to create growth. Replacing a referral source is very expensive.

If you want to make a better company, find ways to become ETDBW.

Wallace Weeks is founder and president of The Weeks Group Inc., a Melbourne, Fla.-based strategy consulting firm. He can be reached at 321/752-4514 or by e-mail at [email protected].