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Home Health & Hospice Week

Marketing:

Tailor Your Marketing Message To Docs' Tight Schedules

Published on Thu Feb 12, 2004

Follow these 5 tips from a leading physician to make sure your sales pitch hits the target.

Physicians are bombarded with information from all sides. How can you make sure your message gets through - and results in referrals?

Don't waste your golden opportunity to communicate with a physician when it comes along, advised Dr. M. Tray Dunaway in a Feb. 5 tele-seminar for Tweed Jeffries' Leading Home Care. With physicians' busy schedules, you're likely to get only a few minutes of face time to get across your marketing message.

Dunaway offered these tips to make your sales pitch as effective as possible:

  • Keep it brief. You should come up with a two-minute "elevator speech" - one you could deliver in one elevator trip - to give to physicians who are in a hurry, Dunaway recommended. It should hit all the usual points of a well put-together oral presentation - strong opening, highlight points backed up with facts, and a strong closing.

  • Rehearse. To present an effective message in such a short time, you'll need to practice it on your own ahead of time, Dunaway noted.

  • Make emotional connections. In addition to figuring out a physician's business and clinical needs and addressing those in the brief presentation, you can build rapport by connecting on a personal level, noted Leading Home Care CEO Stephen Tweed in the teleseminar.

    But don't make the mistake of asking the physician directly about his hobbies, family, etc., Dunaway cautioned. Physicians don't want to feel like they're being interviewed and wasting time.

    Instead, tap hospital or physician office staffers for details or observe what's in her office. For example, if the physician has a picture with her family displayed, feel free to broach that topic to break the ice.

  • Be memorable. Sales reps that are merely "nice" usually don't get the job done, Dunaway contended. It's more important to be memorable, "in a positive way of course," he said.

    Incorporating a novel approach into your rehearsed script makes sure you make a lasting impression. A jewelry salesperson who says "you have got to see this wonderful piece" as you walk by rather than "may I help you" may be pushier, but more successful, Dunaway gave as an example.

  • Exude confidence. Home care reps often make the mistake of being too timid when approaching referral sources, Dunaway added. Confidence will get you in the door and will bring home your message.

    HHAs should understand they have resources that provide enormous value to physicians' patients, Dunaway stressed. "A home care agency can provide services a physician could not dream of personally providing."

    Editor's Note: More information on Leading Home Care's teleseminars, including Dr. Dunaway's, is available at www.tweedjeffries.com or by calling 1-888-668-9333.

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