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Clarity image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Suppose there are some intuitive insights that have occurred during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic for hospitals. In that case, it may very well be that to gain organizational efficiencies, increase cash flow, and provide a higher quality of patient care, experience, and engagement, that outsourcing will be required.    It is understood that one does not outsource every department in the hospital as some functions still need direct organizational control, such as nursing.  However, it has become increasingly apparent as healthcare 3.0 is further defined with digital healthcare, the decentralization of care to community-based sites, innovations in treatment, technology, and pharmaceuticals, the hospital or health system faces formidable challenges. Changes and reductions in reimbursement also have significant impacts are that can negatively impact cash flow and the ability to meet internal or external demands. While leadership understa...

Image by ganderboy from Pixabay Marketing to physicians is hard. It is tough to reach physicians trying your mightiest to get that elusive appointment for face-to-face selling. Then came the pandemic, and it became nearly impossible. One segment of the vendor healthcare market hit particularly hard was revenue cycle management (RCM) vendors. These companies battle among the thousands of local mom-and-pop billing and coding shops and the national behemoths. Competition in the healthcare vendor segment is primarily price-driven and can be considered in many ways that billing and coding are commodities. So how can an RCM break through this loggerhead? You need to get the physician's attention in the right marketing channel, with the right message, the first time. Image by Sammie Mendes from Pixabay Getting the attention of physicians and practice leaders can seem like a nearly impossible task for business development executives. At the same time, cold calling sometimes works and re...

  Image by Gerd Altmann ffrom Pixabay I could have written a rant about how healthcare vendor sales executives are using LinkedIn to prospect. It doesn't matter if it's revenue cycle management, medical device, pharma, information technology, analytics, or any other vendor segment. But I didn't as that would have been too easy.  Unfortunately, there are some common characteristics in prospecting using LinkedIn, causing wasted time, effort, and rejection. But in thinking it over, I decided to provide some helpful tips for using LinkedIn for becoming more sales productive .   And maybe in the process, stop getting useless, poorly targeted, as well as disjointed sales emails and calls. Oh, and this goes for their employing companies too. Now that being said, I get that currency for being on LinkedIn is relationships, connections, networking, and the ability to prospect. I am good with that.   What I am not okay with is the seemingly increased amount of inappropriate ...

  Image by Anastasia Gepp from Pixabay Word-of-mouth marketing. We all talk about it. We all understand the importance of patients and clients spreading the good work of our hospital or business. So, while we all talk a good game, little attention is paid to the "how" of how you leverage word-of-mouth marketing. Taking an "if it happens, that's a great approach," providers and vendors then turn their attention to the traditional and digital marketing channels to get the brand message out. Interruptive marketing is easier the implementing a word-of-mouth marketing plan. Word-of-mouth means you will take a risk to identify strategies, tactics, and metrics to execute.   It also means that in highly undifferentiated markets such as those that exist for hospitals and revenue cycle management companies, word-of-mouth marketing can be a powerful way to break away from the competition. Word-of-mouth marketing is far more targeted and persuasive than traditional forms...

  Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Everybody talks about Artificial Intelligence (AI), but what does that mean for the healthcare provider and vendor marketing? AI is already with us as a part of our everyday lives; look at Alexi, Siri, Google Home, and Cortana. These devices already know what we want and assist us in navigating a complex world at home, at work, and in our play. They help us search for medical services and vendors who provide medical products and services. If you think about it, AI will have a profound effect on how hospitals anticipate the needs of and engage with patients and how vendors create a new prospect journey independent of sales. At some point, direct contact with an individual, be it a physician, clinician, or salesperson, will come into play, as human touch will always be needed. But for sales, prospecting for new customers will become less about cold calling and existing client referrals, to responding to well-developed leads uncovered by the buye...

Over the last couple of weeks in the Lessons from the Field series, we looked at the ten deadly sins that midsized healthcare vendors make daily that stall growth. ( In case you missed parts one and two, here are the links "Lessons from the Field - 10 Deadly Sins Stopping Midsized Healthcare Vendor Growth Part 1" http://bit.ly/300vgUS and "Lessons from the Field - 10 Deadly Sins Stopping  Midsized Healthcare Vendor Growth- Part 2" http://bit.ly/2N3aP7a .) Image by Peter Linforth from Pixabay This week we're going to take a look at essential leadership characteristics needed to drive growth. There is no way around the fact that leadership and company growth are highly intertwined.   It makes not a bit of difference if you're a start-up, small or midsized healthcare vendor, or a large multinational company whose revenue counts in the billions of U.S. Dollars or Euros. Leadership determines whether you're growing or stalling growth. Leadership? I'm a...

  Image by Tumisu from Pixabay Part two of a two-part series. In part one of “Lessons from the Field - 10 Deadly Sins Stopping Midsized Healthcare Vendor Growth”   http://bit.ly/300vgUS , we examined the first five reasons why midsized healthcare vendors are not growing organically. To recap, the first five reasons were:  1.        The person or group who started the company or came in and grew it to a certain level is still there.  2.        The entire focus of the management team is making money.  3.        A comprehensive business vision and strategy is lacking.  4.        Internal communication is limited and focused on a transactional basis.  5.        There is no organizational culture, or the culture is broken .   In part two, we continue our journey with reasons six to ten. Reasons six to ...