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A Site for Satisfied Eyes
October 06, 2008
Take full advantage of this critical closing tool
By Sharon Yoon
When it comes to closing sales at Toshiba America Medical Systems, the company has a secret weapon: its show sites and headquarters visits.
That's because when hospitals and other healthcare facilities are looking to buy new medical imaging equipment—for instance, CT scanners and MRI systems—they first want to see the system in action, in a clinical environment similar to that in which they operate. And they want to meet the senior executives of the company from which they are purchasing. It's important these prospects know, understand and feel confident about the company they're doing business with when investing anywhere from $200,000 to well over $1 million in the purchase.
This sales strategy has become so successful that Toshiba has a team of people working with the sales department to arrange, on average, 20 to 40 site visits per week. According to Toshiba sales executive Steve Sherman, the site visit process has been a huge boon. Toshiba is the smallest of the four major companies in the diagnostic imaging market. Only during the last few years has the company enjoyed considerable growth, expanding over 20% in a market that has only grown about 3%.
When Sherman started with the company three years ago, only a handful of hospitals and imaging centers in his West Virginia territory had Toshiba systems (about 10 installations total). Today his installed base has more than tripled. Sherman credits at least part of that growth to frequently taking his customers on a clinical site visit, followed by a visit to the company's headquarters in Tustin, Calif.
Sales Site Selection Criteria
There are many details that help make for a successful site visit. Here are some recommendations that can help make your own program a success:
One of the most critical aspects of the site visit process is, not surprisingly, selecting the sites. In the case of medical sales, hospital, imaging center and group practice sites can become an extension of your company, helping to form the company's reputation. Given that, it's critical you have a strong relationship with the sites and know they're committed to your success.
Look for customer sites with strong, credible reputations. It does no good to have a site visit at a location that is not viewed positively by prospects. National sites should be on a plan for system upgrades—their equipment has to be the most advanced and always maintained in premium condition. The local physician (if in the medical industry) or customer needs to be available to speak with visiting prospects, and the support staff must be articulate, well-educated in system protocols, and able to demonstrate the technology and answer questions thoroughly.
Location of the site is also critical. Because customers may frequently visit your headquarters, it's important to develop local partners so the site visit is conducted in a reasonable amount of time … and so customers don't spend the majority of their visit traveling from the headquarters facility to wherever the site is.
Toshiba's sites in Southern California include the University of California, Irvine and Methodist Arcadia Hospital. Across the country, sites housing Toshiba equipment include Beth Israel Deaconess, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Cardiovascular Institute of the South, Steinberg Diagnostic Medical Imaging and Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes.
Finally, one of the most critical aspects of site selection is the specific clinical focus for medical or applications focus for other industries. In other words, the prospect's and the site's focus and application needs must match. If a show site is primarily conducting abdominal imaging, the visiting prospect will not be happy visiting that site if they are primarily interested in neurology imaging.
Details Make the Visit
Reasonable or not, how the details of a site visit are managed can create lasting impressions—positive or negative—of how the company manages its business overall. That's why it's crucial to pay attention to every component of the visit. Each site visit presents its own special challenges, from organizing cross-country travel to booking hotels to developing the site visit schedule. A dossier should be prepared on each account, with information gathered on each of the prospects.
Presentation schedules should be developed and sites selected based on the type of facility, their specialty (radiology or cardiology, for instance), the equipment they are specifically interested in (Xray, CT, MR or ultrasound), the protocols they use and the participants' positions within their respective company. Site visit participants in the medical industry should include not only physicians and technologists but also senior executives, administrators, purchasing managers, facilities representatives, financial officers, physicists and biomedical engineers.
Appropriately matching your company's site visit personnel with the prospects can make or break a visit … and mean the win or loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars of business.
The Headquarters Visit
The headquarters visit presents special challenges. Coordinating senior executives' schedules to make sure each visitor feels special and appreciated is no small feat. In addition to the visit and tour of your headquarters operations—and perhaps your training facility or manufacturing operations—there are meals and transportation to be arranged. Also, it's not unusual for a company to host more than one customer group in a single day. Each of these visits lasts at least a few hours and must be carefully coordinated, so that customers are not feeling rushed to make room for the next group.
Senior Management Commitment
Few business activities are successful without senior management's commitment, and the site visit is no exception. At least one (and many times, two or more) of the company's senior executives should spend time with the visiting prospects. The executives should take special care to make sure they understand the particular issues and concerns of each visiting site and ensure that all customer questions are addressed.
The ROI
Because of the tremendous costs associated with a site visit program, each request for a visit must be carefully evaluated. Prospects should be fairly far along in the sales cycle to warrant a trip to headquarters. The customer should have already had a technical presentation made by the local sales team and be carefully qualified as a legitimate prospect—not just a group looking for a free trip. At Toshiba, about 75% of potential new customers choose to visit a site, with approximately 50% of them then purchasing one or more of Toshiba's imaging systems.
The return on investment is measured in more than just dollars, however. "During these visits, customers see what we are about in a very controlled setting," Sherman says. "Showing prospects, in carefully orchestrated presentations, why your company's products are unique provides an extra edge that can make a big difference in a very competitive marketplace."
Sharon Yoon is director of education and sales support at Toshiba America Medical Systems.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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