The 2000 Physician's Office World Class Sales Audit

Face-To-Face Still Sells

By Mark Thill, Editor
Repertoire Magazine

Salespeople who make quality calls are being rewarded with more business.

"Live" interaction between sales rep and customer - either face-to-face visits or telephone conversations - still makes the difference in medical products sales. This is true despite the industry's preoccupation with Internet-based ordering systems, particularly for physician-owned (as opposed to hospital- or PPM-owned) physician practices.

"The more face-to-face interaction, the higher the customer satisfaction and loyalty, and the higher the percentage of business the customer gives to a given vendor," says Howard Stevens, CEO of the HR Chally Group, Dayton, OH.

For the second year in a row, Chally interviewed buyers in physicians' offices - doctors, nurses, office managers, etc. - about their distributor reps and distribution companies. The results have just been released in Chally's second Physicians' Office World Class Sales Survey, reported on exclusively in Repertoire.

Chally helps companies in a variety of industries choose sales reps who will fit their culture and strategic plans. The company also conducts world-class-sales surveys in a number of industries.

Face-To-Face

In one of the more telling pieces of data from the physicians' survey, 97% of those who see live salespeople said they know their reps by name, up dramatically from 80% who reported the same last year.

Interestingly, though, a lower percentage of buyers (68%) reported taking face-to-face visits from salespeople this year than last (73%).

Stevens believes this is because the bar is being raised by customers. They're saying, "If you're not going to give me a quality guy making quality calls, I don't want to waste my time,' says Stevens. But they are rewarding salespeople who do make quality calls with more business.

The loyalty level increased among those who were being serviced in a live manner - either by phone or face-to-face, he says.

Ordering Methods Reflect Preferences

In what may be another sign of the continuing importance of personal contact, physicians' office usage of the Internet to order products remains extremely low, according to the Chally survey.

Groups owned by hospitals or physician practice management organizations are moving very gradually toward the Internet, though their volume still remains in the low single digits. But among physician-owned groups (which still constitute the majority of the market), fewer than 1% of orders are placed via the Internet. Among some groups - e.g., OB/GYN and colorectal specialists - the number is zero.

As in other industries, some customers are pushing toward greater automation, says Stevens. Most likely, these are the ones who work on contract or who are corporate-owned.

"But it doesn't work with offices owned by physicians. For them it's still a 100% relationship market."

Fax usage has increased, but electronic data interchange transactions have decreased.

Customers' Perceptions Of Reps

As was the case last year, almost half of the average customer's perception of a supplier is based on the skills of the salesperson who calls on him or her.

Customers report that the four most important traits among salespeople are:

Of those four, just the last one - keeping customers up to date - is new to the list. (Last year, the fourth trait was the ability and willingness to offer innovative and new ideas.)

"This happens when a marketplace is in flux," says Stevens. "Customers say, 'I count on my salesperson to let me know what's going on, because he saw 20 people last week, and I maybe saw one.''

Rankings

As they did last year, local distributors dominated the upper end of the rankings, occupying 19 of the top 25 spots.

One reason could be that smaller companies are simply easier to manage than big ones, says Stevens.

"If I have five people working for me, I can make sure they're all good. But if I have 300, it may take me a long time to discover that I have 5% who are ineffective.

"Obviously, consolidation is occurring," Stevens continues. "The challenge [for large companies] is to maintain the level of quality, penetration, customer satisfaction and, therefore, profitability. But unless you really have your controls and measurement systems in place, that's difficult to do."

Meanwhile, some companies dropped off the list altogether, and new ones came onboard.

"The good guys have gotten better and the worse guys have gotten worse," says Stevens. At the same time, customers seem to be raising their standards all the time.

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