Telemarketing has become a successful tool in sales to government and healthcare. In recent years, much has changed in the way contracts between suppliers (business) on the one hand and the government and healthcare sector on the other. A commercial(er) approach to acquisition nowadays ensures better results. In the procurement process, the government and the heavily government-influenced healthcare sector now pays a lot of attention to a sustainable, social and innovative offer. By responding to this as a company, you will be more successful with your sales. Telemarketing plays an important role in government and healthcare to constantly stay in the picture.
Below we describe current developments in business-government collaboration and healthcare. We show that you do not have to idly wait to see what is in a tender. On the contrary, your sales process can contribute to better cooperation between your company and the government and healthcare sector. More than in the commercial sector, a long breath is important; nurturing is the solution. Telemarketing is therefore the ideal tool in government and healthcare. By the way, even healthcare organizations themselves have to become more commercial these days to survive.
Do sales and procurement actually go together?
Many of the purchases made by government and healthcare are made through public tendering. The client announces in a Schedule of Requirements (PoR) or "specifications" which products or services it wishes to purchase. Companies can respond to the tender with an offer that meets the schedule. Among other things, the contract is awarded to the company that provides the lowest priced offer or offers the most value for the price. The purpose of working with a public tender is to buy as transparently as possible (after all, it involves public money) and to make the best purchase at the least cost.
There seems little place for "sales" in this process: the client asks, the supplier satisfies. In practice, however, this turns out to be a misconception. Good, permanent communication between suppliers and customers in government and healthcare is extremely important. For suppliers, in order to know which way the government and healthcare sector want to go in the coming years and what kind of products and services are needed to achieve this. And for the clients, who otherwise do not have a complete picture of the products and services the market offers. The client can therefore write better specifications that match what the market demands.
Telemarketing is an excellent tool for keeping in touch with clients in government and healthcare. On the one hand, it gives you a good idea of what the needs of the clients are, and on the other hand, telemarketing can make a personal appointment with the client to achieve a better match between supply and demand. As a result, the supplier finds out what is really needed and can thus submit a better bid for the tender.
Government
By "government" we mean national, provincial and municipal governments and quasi-governmental institutions such as water boards. More and more companies are focusing on the stable government in these economically less stable times. Moreover, the government nowadays has the policy of investing more at times of low economic activity in order to maintain employment. An attractive client as a result.
How does the government work with suppliers?
Government procurement policy is reasonably transparent. For example, the government makes public its procurement plans, which suppliers are currently doing business with, what tenders are coming to market soon, and retrospectively to whom contracts have been awarded.
As described above, the government works with public tenders, to which companies can bid. Allocation of a bid today is no longer done solely on the basis of lowest price or highest value. On the contrary, the government has indicated that it is open to more bids with a sustainable, social and innovative offer. For a supplier to have a good idea of what the government means by this, regular contact is important.
By the way, below a certain amount no European tender needs to be issued. For this segment, regular contact with buyers is entirely important. Because of the lower value of the contracts, telemarketing is an excellent tool for this.
Selling to the government
To successfully sell to the government, just making good bids in public tenders is not enough. This is not to say that preparing a good bid is not important. If you do not have sufficient experience with this, there are specialized agencies that can help you with this.
Sales plays an important role in influencing the strategy of a government agency when tendering. By keeping good contact, especially with the end user of your services or products in government, you will get a picture of what is needed and when that need will be met. Telemarketing is the most appropriate means of contacting the decision making unit (DMU) and to communicate with these decision makers get in touch with them, gather information and make an appointment for a personal interview at the right time.
That decision making unit is often more complex in government agencies than in companies. For example, at municipalities, the DMU consists of aldermen and city council, policy officials, procurement office and officials in charge of implementation. Quite a job to figure out which contacts are important to you. Fortunately, we have a lot of experience with this and can assist you well.
The end goal is clear: by maintaining frequent contact with government decision-makers to get a clear picture of the needs that exist, to clearly communicate what you have to offer, and thereby enable you to write the best-fit bid for the public tender.
The role of innovation
We want to take a moment to highlight the role of innovation in government procurement policy. Business is constantly innovating. Without proper communication with business, the government always has an incomplete picture of what business has to offer. The government has indicated it is open to more bids with sustainable, social and innovative offerings. Good communication with the government allows you to better respond to this. It also helps you innovate in a more focused way.
What we can do for you
As mentioned, ongoing, good communication with government decision-makers is critical to enable you to make winning bids on public tenders. A time-consuming activity. We can help you compile a database of those decision makers and keep in touch with the DMU on a regular basis (nurture). We collect information for you and at the right time we make appointments for your account managers. This way they can fully devote their knowledge and skills to contacting decision makers at the right time.
Care
By "care" we mean both cure (healing: hospitals, medical liberal professions) and care (care: care and nursing homes, home care, care for the disabled). The healthcare sector is growing steadily due to innovation, aging, prevention and an empowered patient, among other things. It is an attractive sector for many companies to be active in because it is a certain growth market, regardless of the state of the economy. Because of our years of experience with it, we know our way around in the healthcare sector, especially acquisition aimed at healthcare providers, but we can also assist the healthcare providers themselves now that they have to be more commercial than before.
How does the healthcare industry work with suppliers?
The target populations in the healthcare industry are diverse: hospitals, nursing homes, physicians, specialists, home health and youth care providers. Large healthcare facilities have an extended decision making unit (DMU). In smaller medical practices (e.g., general practitioners and specialists), the practitioner himself is the final decision maker. Especially in large institutions, it is important to get in at the right level: not too high, because unreachable, and not too low, because too little influence. Our people know how to find the right decision maker.
In recent years, there have been significant innovations in healthcare procurement. The government aims to focus less on the procedure and more on the content of care and the best way to cooperate. There has also been a shift from awarding on the basis of the most economically advantageous tender to awarding partly on the basis of qualitative criteria such as cooperation, innovation and sustainability. This gives entrepreneurs more room to come up with creative solutions to improve the quality of care. The transfer of care from the state to the municipalities also has a major impact on the procurement process.
Selling to the healthcare industry
Healthcare is a highly innovative sector. Both the medical care itself and the internal organization of the care institution (purchasing, hrm, ict, finance) are looking for continuous improvement to provide good care to a larger and aging group of patients in a (cost) efficient way. This means that it has long since ceased to be about "you ask, we turn.
It is precisely a distinctive approach and a creative approach that offer many more opportunities for success than simply responding to the demands of care. With proactive suggestions for better and more efficient care and care organization, you can achieve much success. Keep in mind that healthcare organizations are unwieldy organizations. To be successful, a long-term approach is necessary. This is precisely where telemarketing can play an important role. By keeping in touch with the various decision makers on a recurring basis, telemarketing can gauge the right time to make an appointment for an account manager. This division between telemarketing and the specialist account manager saves the account manager a lot of time. It increases your reach to healthcare facilities and therefore your chance of success.
Approaching medical practices
Approaching medical practices, whether general practitioners or dentists, physical therapists or specialists, is a profession in itself. The decision maker is the attending physician who, as the name implies, is almost always treating. He or she is therefore difficult to reach. Good cooperation with the practice assistant is important here. However, we must resist the temptation to "do business" with her. The decision-maker is ultimately the physician himself. Fortunately, we have years of experience with long-term assignments aimed at this target group. We therefore know exactly how to get in touch with this hard-to-reach decision-maker to make an appointment with him or her directly.
What we can do for you
Creativity, responding to needs, but above all providing innovative solutions to achieve better care and more efficient care organization are key success factors. We can help you develop a distinctive and successful proposition.
As mentioned above, ongoing, good communication with the various decision makers in healthcare is very important.... A time-consuming activity. We can help you build a database of those decision makers and keep in touch with the DMU on a regular basis (nurturing). We collect information for you and at the right time we make appointments for your account managers. This allows them to devote their full knowledge and expertise to contacting decision makers at the right time.
Healthcare facilities also have to sell these days
Above, we talk specifically about selling to healthcare. Are you yourself a healthcare institution? Then, due to market forces in healthcare, you must also "sell" your healthcare products and services to health insurers, healthcare offices, municipalities, referrers and chain partners. A long-term strategy is important here. After all, these are usually long-term agreements. Care buyers are increasingly looking for solutions, not products. Care procurement involves several levels: management, policy and implementation. It is important to map out the decision making unit well and keep in regular contact with those decision makers. That way you know when new contracts are being concluded.
That regular contact with the healthcare buyers is a time-consuming affair, for which you may not always be able to free up the people internally. With our knowledge of the healthcare sector, we can provide you with excellent support. We map out the market for you and maintain contact with the healthcare buyers. At the right moment we make appointments for you, after which you take over the contact.
THE FIRST STEP TO NEW BUSINESS
Is a conversation. Online or on location. You talk about what you want to achieve, your target audiences, your wonderful product and/or service. We put our more than 45 years of experience against it and discuss a strategy. After all, B2B Telemarketing as part of lead generation offers unprecedented opportunities. Let's discover it together!
Want to know more? Contact Margot +31 70 3134444.
