Supercharge Your Pipeline with Medical Sales Training

Unleashing a new sales representative into the halls of physicians’ offices without proper medical sales training is a bit like driving a Porsche without a windshield, gas pedal or a steering wheel. In both cases, the idea, in concept, makes sense; but like that funky Porsche, the results will be haphazard, misguided – and most likely, fall well short of expectations.

Quite simply, sales training is the catalyst of any exceptional sales team – as in our vehicular example, it is the windshield that will help us to see opportunities most clearly; the gas pedal that will accelerate us through the sales funnel; and the steering wheel that will help us arrive at our sales goals.

In particular, medical sales – with its nuanced terminology, highly regulated environment and deeply complex array of medical conditions and diseases – requires a true commitment to medical sales training in order to ensure success.

Of course, simply delivering a hefty course load worth of content over time won’t exactly lead your sales team across the finish line. Since your sales representative will be one of several lined up to collar their white-coated prospects asking for a deal, it’s critical to quickly, efficiently – and dynamically – train as many members of your team, as quickly as possible.

Experts say that one of the best ways to maintain a competitive sales edge, and, in turn, to supercharge the sales pipeline, is to turn to a Learning Management System (LMS), like Mindflash. A report by Roland Berger found that 77 percent of US companies are offering online corporate training to its employees – a number predicted to rise exponentially as more employees adopt training on mobile platforms.

So why make the investment in an LMS now for your medical sales training needs? A good LMS, will help your sales representatives:

Speak the same language of physicians and Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs)

Providing the right product or solution for the right challenge is a universal truth – but nowhere is this more critical than in the medical field. U.S. medical interests spend more than $150 billion a year on new medical devices, so chomping off a piece of this valuable pie can be an enterprise-maker for an adept salesperson. However, medical equipment is heavily regulated, with complex regulatory and device classification schemes imposed by the FDA. Ensuring that your sales team understands how to communicate in this landscape will set your team apart from the rest. Loading your LMS with the terminology, visuals, and statistics relevant to the product offering will allow your team to access and drill this key information, at their convenience, until they have achieved a level of proficiency acceptable for your sales organization.

Learn how to use Active Listening to understand your prospects’ needs 

Active Listening is a technique that helps sales people probe into the “pain points” of a prospect so they can learn how their product solves their unique needs and concerns. One of the key benefit of a good LMS is that you can customize your content and, for example, load the most common pain points into your training scheme.Then, drill your sales repsuntil they become expert at the kind of active listening that serves to reassure – and not repel – your prospective purchaser. And, with an LMS you can add quizzes to assess their understanding.

Build credibility by providing industry knowledge and clinical data/research

No longer will your salespeople simply ramble on incessantly about your own products and services. Use a contemporary LMS to help reps truly build a relationship with clients and prospects. You can do this by training your medical sales team on how to become a trusted resource and expert on trends in the industry, including the latest clinical data and research in their specific area of practice. This type of credibility, experts say, can help sales reps outsell their peers by a ratio of nearly 8-to-1, according to Forbes Magazine.

Keep reps up to date on latest healthcare regulations

A cloud-based online training platform or LMS will ensure that your medical sales training program never goes out of date. Use it on a rolling basis to ensure your sales team stays up to date on the latest healthcare regulations. Like the previous point, this will cement your sales representatives’ credibility with their prospects, greasing the pipeline for sales today, tomorrow and into the future. Oh, and one last, but no less important, point – getting your facts straight isn’t just good business practice – it’s the law. The FDA has been known to fine medical sales organizations for misrepresenting their products (just ask Pfizer, which paid $2.3 million in fines back in 2009 for such transgressions).

Today, many healthcare and medical device companies are turning to Learning Management Systems to ensure their sales teams are at the top of their game. With competitive forces changing the way business is conducted in nearly every segment of the market, it’s never been more important to equip your sales representatives – as you would your beloved sports car. And, you can do it with modern tools that will help sales reps retain what they’ve learned so they look like experts when they go to that next appointment. This way you’re also helping to build your company’s medical sales pipeline to drive more closed deals!

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