By Dave Zirkle
Success in today’s challenging healthcare environment rarely occurs by chance but rather through well-designed and executed planning. And this is definitely true in the category of physician relations. Good physician sales planning addresses four basic questions as steps in developing a strong sales plan:
1) Where are we?
2) Where do we want to go?
3) How do we get there?
4) How are we doing?
Let’s discuss the components of each step:
Step 1 (where are we?) involves the collection of background information to assess the current situation. This includes the organization’s strategic goals and objectives as well as local and national trends, targeted product areas, market dynamics and competitive intelligence. More importantly, successful planning moves beyond simple collection of data to critical analysis of the information to support the sales planning process.
Step 2 (where do we want to go?) identifies the strategic growth areas the sales program will support. The initiatives can be broad – strategic service lines, rural outreach – or more tightly defined such as an increase in breast cancer patients in the primary service area. Following a thorough analysis of the information collected in Step 1, sales should identify 3 to 5 strategic initiatives that the program can play a significant role in terms of volume and revenue growth.
Step 3 (how do we get there?) involves two separate stages that include physician targeting and forecasting. Several techniques are available to support the targeting process but almost all attempt to classify physicians into growth or retention categories. In general, targets are identified based on a historical analysis of volume and/or financial data along with other factors such as physician specialty, age and geographic location.More importantly, successful planning moves beyond simple collection of data to critical analysis of the information to support the sales planning process.
Once targets have been identified, forecasts and growth projections for each targeted physician should be developed. The forecasting process begins with an analysis of baseline volume which is based on historical data and any other information or market intelligence known at the time (e.g. changes in the practice or loyalty to the organization, competitor actions, payor issues, etc.). Baseline volume represents the best estimate of future physician activity without any sales effort, while forecasted volume represents the incremental growth that can be achieved with a targeted sales effort.
Step 4 (how are we doing?) identifies upfront how progress will be evaluated and appropriate performance measures. Items to consider include sales activity, physician volume, financial indicators, market share and physician satisfaction. Two standard reports used to monitor sales programs include: 1) monthly activities completed by sales staff, and 2) quarterly comparisons of actual to forecasted physician volume.
While more mature sales programs will generally focus on all four planning stages, those new to the process should take small, incremental steps to ensure success. Newer programs should focus first on analyzing background information and development of realistic sales goals before moving to the other steps in the planning process.