Stovall Grainger & Modleski & Modleski, Inc.: Partners in Building Competitive Immunity

Articles & Resources

Print This Page

2/20/2009

The Rise of the Rapid Expeditionary Force The New Healthcare Sales Professional

By Tom Stovall, Dusty Grainger, and Matthew Modleski

The Rise of the Rapid Expeditionary Force

The New Healthcare Sales Professional

By Tom Stovall, Dustin Grainger and Matthew Modleski

“Ideas and concepts are subject to obsolescence, but brains and thought processes are not. In today’s competitive marketplace, the mind of the strategist is an asset that always appreciates in value.”— Kenichi Ohmae, “The Mind of the Strategist”

For quite some time now, we predicted that there could be a contraction in the total numbers of healthcare sales professionals hitting the road each day. And based upon what we hear in our interviews with healthcare providers, they are already doing their part to show that overwhelming force is not the best approach to changing their preferences. In fact, most healthcare professionals tell us that they are already either implementing or about to start processes to limit access to their time.

The biggest reason for this is not in that they don’t see value in meeting with sales professionals, in most cases it is a business decision based upon their need to be more efficient…they just need more time, and one way to do this is to limit access afforded to sales people.

Also, there are several consulting organizations currently conducting profitability and ROI studies on the current healthcare sales professional business model. Reports show that market share and profitability would not be compromised if indeed many companies reduced their field force size by 25%. And some sales professionals feel that they have been stifled by their own organizations which they feel are to linear and too slow in their approach to marketplace opportunities. They feel that their organizations are still conducting business as they did years ago in an easier access, fee for service healthcare paradigm where most costs could simply be passed along to the payer.

Based upon some of our experience, this isn’t too far off the mark. Though some companies are restructuring themselves to compete in a leaner and meaner way, many are still taking the same approach that they took 30 years ago. And they are continuing this approach even after the restructuring. It is our position that physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other clinicians will always have a place and time to meet with the more informed representative.

In fact, in a recent interview with a specialist associated with the Johns Hopkins Healthcare System in Baltimore, we were told that he no longer would meet with a representative just to have a social call or just to say “hello.” But he also said that he had a “select group” of sales people with whom he would meet at most any time. He said that they had earned that right through the knowledge they had of the world of healthcare and not just their clinical expertise.

These “Rapid Expeditionary Force” sales professionals have an ability to achieve their objectives and do so efficiently. They are often afforded much more in the way of resources from their own companies and from their customers because they have earned that right through demonstrating a higher level understanding and relevance to their customer’s world and to their own organizations. They are welcomed into their customer’s world with open arms, and they do so without having to “pay the price” those other sales people must pay.

The R.E.F. (Rapid Expeditionary Force) Approach

For several years, we have been honored to speak on strategy at the US Air Force Air Staff & Command College, the Air War College, and to participate in the National Security Forum. We’ve certainly learned a great deal more in these sessions than we have contributed. One of the most compelling areas of development within the US armed forces is the focus on the Rapid Expeditionary Force or R.E.F. These are more highly evolved personnel who are at the apex of performance and thus are of great value to their organizations. They are highly sought after, and difficult to find.

This approach replaces the old paradigm of massive, slow moving forces with high performing teams who place a premium on personal development and responsibility. With their model as a context, we would like to describe our view of the successful representative for the “new world” of selling to healthcare providers.

The Model: Re-forging the Healthcare Sales Professional

“What does it matter if my competitor has greater resources? If I control the situation, he cannot use them!”—Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”

Able to be much more mobile, unencumbered by the typical tactical requirements of less evolved sales professionals, the strategic, consultative sales professional will work more closely with all members of the sales and marketing organization. They will have earned the right to have immediate access to those who control resources and influence the inner workings of their own organizations and those of their customer’s. And they will know how to minimize this access for their competitors. From their customers, they will be given “insider” information that assists them in achieving their objectives.

And their unique competencies:

They will know their own strengths and weaknesses inside and out.
They will understand what it is that makes their organization, their products and solutions, and themselves unique, and they will be able to tell you this at a moment’s notice;
They will know the strengths and weaknesses of their competition as well as their own. They will be capable of effectively handling their own weakness when it is exposed, and through taking “the high road,” they will set a standard that judges their competition when misrepresentation happens;
They will go beyond the expected knowledge of their therapeutic and clinical arenas, and become just as comfortable with the evolving healthcare issues of their customers;
They will understand what each customer feels is unique about his/her situation;
They will have dialogue with customers which leads to the knowledge of what the customer’s business and professional challenges might be, and they will work to provide resources and product positions/solutions that address those challenges;
They will be keenly focused on strategy, but highly agile with their tactics;
Their interpersonal skills and marketing knowledge will attract business and recommendations;
They will be capable of switching between approaches based on a more thorough knowledge and develop new thrusts faster than their opponents can cope. More importantly, they will be allowed to do so (SGM covers this aspect more fully in our whitepaper “The OODA Loop in Healthcare Sales and Marketing.”);
They will understand that success, depends most upon people and ideas, and not merely on having the latest technology;
They will realize that fulfillment and empowerment can come from creativity and initiative in their current positions, and not from constant rotations through other positions in their organizations;
They will move away from the ponderous and logistical nightmares that were created in the “early days” of selling to healthcare professionals and into a more mobile, agile, and proactive team of professionals; and
They will set the standard for communications, able to understand what it takes to win, how to communicate this winning position, and how to make it happen quickly and efficiently.

Others will seek them out for their insights and their direction. Every sales organization will envy and covet them. Instead of being hamstrung by larger organizational issues, projects, and decrees, the “Rapid Expeditionary Forces” of healthcare sales ranks will be enhanced and empowered by the creation of lighter, smaller, and more mobile teams of sales professionals who are given much more latitude to achieve objectives. Why? Because they will achieve their objectives quickly and with excellent return for their resource use.

It is our position that these will be the “sought-after” strategists that will be on the list for every laboratory diagnostics, pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical equipment sales and marketing organization.

Many will ponder… …when will this evolution really start to happen? …will my company announce this new approach? ...will my organization or my industry really change to this type of sales professional soon even if some companies remain profitable in the old model?

Those that wait for the typical signs that the new approach will become “company policy” will be the ones that are left behind. Those that begin to undertake the R.E.F. approach today will be the professionals selected to participate in this new paradigm of customer access and competitive advantage. Remember, the R.E.F. will already “be there” when others discover that “there” is where the rest of the business is going.