How You Can Tell if a Hospital is Customer Centric! Part 2

Much has been written about improving the patient experience within hospitals. Under healthcare reform penalties are incurred if patients with certain conditions are re-admitted within 30 days of discharge. For these and other reasons many hospitals have gone to some extreme measures to make their facilities more patient friendly. It’s taken awhile for hospitals to […]

Concession Strategy in Complex Negotiations–Planning Your Give-And-Take: Part 2

In “Concession Strategy Part 1” we explored what goes into a concession strategy, the importance of detecting your counter-part’s approach to negotiation (collaborative vs. competitive) and four guidelines for conceding. In Concession Strategy Part 2 we’ll focus on the five skills you should develop or refine to become a better practitioner of “win-win” negotiations. It […]

Concession Strategy in Complex Negotiations–Planning Your Give-And-Take: Part 1

Consider this situation. Your manager offers you a newly created sales management position that includes an increase in salary and a $30,000 bonus. As you reflect on the offer you realize that if you earn your bonus, your total compensation will increase but not markedly since you are paid a salary plus commission now and […]

Is Sales Planning a Waste of Time?

The Context In a recent sales workshop we had lunch with three sales representatives. For purposes of anonymity we will call them Abbie (A), Bill (B) and Charlie (C). It was 10 months into their fiscal year and the conversation turned to their sales funnels, sales planning activities and their efforts to close the year […]

A Sales Skill That is Often Ignored: Listening!

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Stephen R. Covey Are you a great listener? Most, if not all, sales professionals would say that they are great listeners. While most sales professionals would receive high grades many would be wrong if their clients or customers […]

Handling Disruptive Negotiation Tactics: Defusing Anger, Threats & Ultimatums

During the lunch break for a recent negotiation workshop a participant asked “How do you handle a customer who seems friendly during the sales process but turns into a monster when negotiating?” He shared with us a story of a mild mannered executive who was engaging and value-focused throughout the sales process but became aggressive, […]

What You Should Know About Hospital Committees!

We have all heard the jokes about committees. For example: a committee is a group that keeps minutes but loses hours1 or a committee is a group of the unprepared appointed by the unwilling to do the unnecessary.2 While these are humorous, in general they do not apply to healthcare organizations. Within hospitals committees play […]

30 Words or Phrases That Resonate With Hospital Buyers!

Newsflash! Hospitals don’t simply buy products and services; they seek out quality solutions to solve problems. Healthcare professionals are looking for partners that can help them to fix gaps in service delivery and help them to avoid complacency in order to achieve exceptional results. If you want to connect with hospital buyers, it’s essential to […]