By Jack Siney
With the sounds and scents of the season in every room of the office, sales managers struggle to keep their teams motivated. How do you sell medical devices, fitness apps, hospital, lab and healthcare products and services when both the sellers and buyers are thinking about cookies, parties, vacations and Santa? Yes, year-end distractions do create challenges, but they can also create opportunities. With the right leadership, this time of year can often be the best when it comes to your pipeline from prospecting to closings. Here’s why. Healthcare executives will be reachable because while they may go home, they never really leave the office. Here are three ways to motivate your healthcare sales teams to drive sales in the final weeks of the year.
1. Remind them where they Rank.
Nothing motivates a Type-A personality more than someone else edging ahead of them. Keep the standings and ranks visible through an office white-board, company social channels, and announcements during company meetings and conference calls. Whether they are selling to practices, hospitals, clinics, researchers, labs, rehab or long-term facilities – sales pros will always get their juices flowing when they see others nudging ahead.
2. Design frequent contests and incentives.
Separate from your other incentives or cumulative award programs, create promos just for the holiday weeks. Have contests across different variables that drive sales like reaching decision-makers, setting up conference calls, landing in-person or video meetings, etc. The idea is to be sure their sales efforts during the holiday season are chock full of mini, medium, and large stocking stuffer ways to win. Set up different time-frames from end-of-day, week, and month to flash-sale incentives during one to three-hour time-frames, etc. Make the contests as bustling as the season!
3. Make sure the prizes are fantastic.
Yes, everyone loves extra money in their pocket especially during the holidays but make sure you also have plenty ofunique, special prizes too. Consider gift certificates to high-end retail and dining establishments, tickets for the whole family to special performances, a one-day exotic car rental, premium parking space for a month, a work-lunch with one of the C-suite execs, even extra paid time off in the New Year.
As we begin a new decade, there is excitement and optimism in healthcare because of the advances being made from devices to technology to services to research and more. Motivate your team with meaningful recognition and rewards and it will make a difference in your pipeline progress!
Jack Siney is a top sales professional across all industries including healthcare and the nation’s leading expert on selling to the government — completing over $1.5 billion in government sales. He is the co-founder of GovSpend which maintains the only database of purchase order records for federal, state and local agencies. With over 25 years of working in the public sector, he is highly sought after as a sales consultant and speaker by organizations focused on winning government business. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.
