You can revive sales in the healthcare industry with a focus on brand relationships. As a medical supplier, your customers are most likely other businesses, such as hospitals and clinics. By nurturing the relationships you have with your current customers, you can encourage more brand loyalty and hopefully see your sales start to revive.
This guide will take you through a few key principles in building strong relationships between brands and customers.
Key Takeaways
- Customers want businesses to focus on their needs.
- Businesses can improve sales by building relationships with key opinion leaders.
- Having a trustworthy brand reputation is one of the most important factors for a company when a customer is making a sales decision.
- Sales staff should get to know customers personally to build stronger relationships.
The Importance of Relationship Selling
As a medical supplier, you need repeat business for your company to succeed. The best way to earn loyal customers and improved sales is by building solid relationships with your customers. Your customers – whether they are hospitals, medical directors, or others involved in the decision-making process – want to have someone they can rely on when a need arises.
Anyone can use the powers of the internet to find information. However, with a personal relationship with your customers, you can offer them something that they cannot get online – a human connection.
Here are some valuable B2B statistics:
- 65% of B2B buyers found value in talking with a salesperson about their needs.
- B2B buyers, on average, are 57% of the way towards making a purchasing decision before engaging with sales.
- A typical business with 100 to 500 employees has an average of seven people involved in purchasing decisions.
- 68% of B2B customers are lost because of perceived indifference as opposed to making mistakes.
These statistics show how important building solid and trustworthy relationships can be when working with customers.
Relationship selling is particularly important for medical suppliers as many health-related items are expensive, complex, and require a lot of commitment. Caring about your current and potential customers and taking an interest in their needs can have a major impact on improving sales outcomes.
Focus on Key Opinion Leaders
The best customers to focus on when building relationships are the key opinion leaders (KOL). These are people within a company that can make influential decisions or at least have a major effect on key decisions. In a hospital setting, this could include:
- Medical directors
- Hospital executives
- Researchers
- Patient advocacy group leaders
Once you know who the KOLs are, you need to find out what their goals are. The simplest way to do this is by asking. You can then explain to them how your products can meet their needs, improve their patient outcomes, or even beat out their competitors.
This YouTube video touches on many of these points.
Improve Your Branding
According to a 2019 LoSasso study, 70% of businesses buyers say a company’s reputation is the most influential factor when deciding who to purchase from. This means that if your company is struggling to present the best brand message, it could be hurting your sales.
The Northwestern Kellogg School of Management says B2B companies should focus on three aspects when building their brand: functional, economic, and emotional.
Incorporating these factors into your brand message will make it easier to build customer relationships. When a customer knows you are trustworthy, reliable, and focused on their needs, they will likely share that information with other potential customers.
This chart shows what factors most strongly influence the buying decisions of B2B customers.
7 Tips to Help Revive Sales in Healthcare with Brand Relationships
Successful brand-customer relationships can lead to loyal customers and frequent sales. Happy customers are more likely to share their experiences with your company among their network of business associates.
Here are 7 tips to help you build those budding relationships.
1. Listen to Your Customers
If your company is focused too much on pushing out product messaging and not enough on listening to what your customers need, this has the potential to squash sales leads. When meeting with customers or even communicating with them online, keep asking questions and listen to what they have to say.
2. Find Common Interests
Your customers are people. They have hobbies and interests. Use your social media skills to discover things you have in common with your customers. By talking about these common interests, you can make a more meaningful connection. You might even realize you enjoy spending time with your customers. This leads well into the next tip.
3. Have Genuine Conversations
Customers do not like sitting through sales pitches, especially if it is not something they were looking for. Keep your initial interactions casual and have meaningful conversations. As your relationship grows, the sales will come organically. Make sure you are being sincere, as they can tell when you’re not and your clients won’t trust you.
4. Ask for Feedback
With already established customers, it is a good idea to get frequent feedback from them. You can do this through a phone call, an email, or even send them a survey. Look for areas where you can make improvements to improve their satisfaction with your products.
5. Give Them Something
Everyone likes free stuff. Be prepared to share something of value with them as you continue to build your relationship. Here are some simple ideas:
- Pen with company information
- A solution to one of their problems
- A link to a blog you think they would like
- A network connection that would benefit them
- A desktop calendar
- A bag of their favorite coffee or tea
Your customers will see you for the generous person that you are and will hopefully return the favor with sales.
6. Respond Quickly
When a client contacts you, be sure to respond to them as quickly as you can. This shows them that they are a priority to you. You need to respond to leads and requests for additional information within 5 minutes. This is because 78% of customers will buy from the first company that responds to their inquiries.
7. Make Things Easier for Them
You don’t want your sales-client relationship to feel like work, especially for the customer. Do whatever you can to make their sales experience easy. Try to make your business fit into their schedule and always be available to them if they have any questions or concerns. With an easy relationship, your customers will hopefully love working with you.
Share Moving Media Can Help You Improve Your Brand Image So You Can Grow Your Relationships
If you are ready to start improving your brand relationships with your customers, Share Moving Media can help. We can help you create the right marketing package that can help your brand stand out from the competition. Once more customers recognize your brand, you can begin building those strong relationships that the healthcare industry relies on.
Are you ready to revive your sales by cultivating new relationships? Contact us today to get started.