Established Leaders

6 Hacks to Prevent EHR Sales and Support Cycles

Among the biggest difficulties plaguing Electronic Health Records (EHR) salespeople is how to shorten lengthy EHR sales and support cycles. B2B EHR sales and support processes, unlike shorter B2C cycles, require engaging several decision makers and teaching them the benefit of your solution. Persuading each that your solution is perfect for their challenges can be very time-consuming. And because will likely hold different opinions about your solution, the EHR sales and support process can become excruciatingly prolonged. And if that isn’t enough, a study from Demand Gen, these processes involving B2B decision makers are only growing longer and more complex, and that frustrates the already agonizing EHR sales and support cycle.

However, there are many EHR sales and support tactics you can employ to accelerate your EHR sales process in your:

1. Craft Buyer Personas

Don’t waste time reaching out to unqualified people. This could throw you into a ridiculously long cycle with zero likelihood of a sale. So, before engaging in the sales process, identify exactly who your ideal customers are. Buyer Personas (aka your ideal customers) might include ‘Physician Philip,’ ‘Hospital Administrator Alice,’ and ‘Medical Director Daniel.’ These Buyer Personas will ideally represent decision makers in the companies on which your focus or they might even be key influencers. With clarified Personas, you are able to recognize their traits by answering such questions as:

  • What are their responsibilities?
  • What are their goals?
  • What problems are they dealing with?
  • What trigger drives them to buy?
  • What inhibits a purchase?
  • How do they like to research?

Answering these questions grants you better strategy for effectively approaching them.

2. Provide an introductory video

In days past, leads became familiar with salesperson only through in-person meetings. But you don’t need to go through the trouble of arranging such meetings. Instead, send potential clients an introduction video detailing your interest in them (flattery), providing something of value to them (research you conducted, etc.), and a call-to-action (“let’s schedule a time to continue the discussion!”). Having done this, they are better prepared to engage you by phone. And this doesn’t mean require a hefty budget for video production. Your smartphone camera with good lighting is often adequate. Soapbox by Wistia is our preferred app for these videos.

3. Deliver pre-sales appointment content

Give clients some content to engage with before the sales appointment. Not doing so can be grounds for an awkward, one-sided conversation. In fact, it might require many such appointments to establish what this preliminary content could have accomplished.

So provide Lead Nurturing Emails with educational content they can read prior to the meeting. For instance, to ‘Hospital Administrator Alice’, perhaps a link to a blog post that reveals statistics on how administrators save time with EHR solutions. Maybe include a comparison chart to reveal benefits your product provides that are superior to the competitions’. Continue intentionally educating your prospects along their journey so as to establish yourself as a valuable source of information.

4. Deliver post-sales appointment content

When the appointment has concluded, your prospect will probably throw out objections and concerns. As a salesperson, your role in the EHR company is to address these concerns and overcome any obstacles.

Consider follow-up emails including industry reports, case studies, or videos tackling their concerns. And this content should be employed for navigating other prospects through their journeys as well. Eliminating obstacles with content accelerates the sales process remarkably.

5. Be upfront with pricing

Among your prospects’ chief issues seems always to be the pricing of your company’s products or services. And so many salespeople will put off disclosing prices until far too late in the sales cycle. This only prolongs the EHR sales and support process. Not to mention, skirting the issue of pricing can result in lost trust with potential clients. Transparency with your prices is always advisable from the outset the sales process, as it eliminates the potential for some later hangups.

So, the question is: How do I come immediately clean with pricing and not scare the prospect away?

The simplest answer is to demonstrate the savings potential value of your solution, putting the price into its appropriate context. And use phrasing like, “prices starting at $…” or “From as little as $…”

6. Harness the power testimonials

Testimonials are powerful for winning your prospect’s trust and closing sales more quickly. To leverage social proof, consider sending case studies that highlight the ROI or net positive gain of using your product or service. And case studies should highlight businesses similar to your prospect’s company. If you haven’t a case study to share, you might uncover shared acquaintances via LinkedIn who might introduce you to the potential customer. This yields results far superior to a simple cold email. In fact, B2B News Network found that 84% of B2B decision makers act first on the recommendations of a referral. Perhaps invite the prospect to attend an event in which your existing customers are present. By speaking with your customers, you increase the odds your prospect will commit to a decision more quickly.

The Bottom Line

We know it can seem impossible at times to think about anything but closing the sales to meet your quotas, but you do yourself a grave disservice by ignoring the power of buyer personas and intentional engagement. Integrating your EHR sales and support process with an effective lead nurturing strategy allows you to become in your prospects’ eyes something more than just another person looking to make a sale. It allows you to become a trusted consultant during their buying journey, which, obviously, means more sales.

And we know how difficult it can be to implement these strategies alone. That’s why we here at Responsify partner with EHR sales and marketing pros to build strategies, offer them support, and help them integrate these processes. By teaming up, we help marketing and salespeople draw new and better website traffic, and convert them to qualified leads and happy customers.

We’ve assisted countless sales pros like you to integrate Inbound with existing sales processes. So, reserve a free strategy session now and we’ll get to work evaluating your assets, delivering free actionable insights, and offering suggestions to help you shorten those tedious sales cycles!

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