Many healthcare organizations have invested in the development of a brand through an image, mark, loyalty, name and/or personality. One way to extend the brand’s personality is through the staff (sales, marketing, service and operations) that interacts with prospects and customers. 

Recruit the Right Staff

In the book, Good to Great by Jim Collins, an example is given of “get the right people on the bus and then we can head in the right direction . . .” In order to accurately reflect your organization’s brand to targeted customers, it’s critical to hire the right person to represent you, your organization and its offerings in any face-to-face relationship strategies.The staff working with customers to ensure retention and growth of referrals into your organization should be comfortable with their targeted customer population, demonstrate an ability to generate a credibility-based dialogue that reveals customer’s wants, needs and desires and be able to match those needs with organizational solutions that deliver positive outcomes. Many organizations are opting for structured, behaviorally based interview screening to more accurately recruit to their culture, customer type needs and to obtain staff who can deliver on the organization’s brand promise.

Train Them
 
While you may have worked hard to recruit the right talent, you still need to train them. Don’t assume that they will capture everything from the overall hospital orientation or through meetings. Build an orientation and training program customized to both of your needs—and develop a timeline and accountability plan to support your staff. This training guideline should identify with whom they need to meet/learn from internally, and what you will expect them to demonstrate after those meetings. For some products or services, ensure that they observe or “see, touch and feel” the product offering and process for delivery. It will enable them to sell through “painting a picture” of the offering tied to the specific customer’s need. Staff with clinical backgrounds may require more relationship-based sales training, while marketing and sales staff may require clinical/product training. Build in an evaluation process through observation in the field, debriefing with internal management and customer comments.

Script Brand Messages
 
One of the most successful ways to ensure your brand is through messages. Beyond the marketing messages used in ads and brochures, the sales and service staff should be trained in scripted brand messages for their daily work with prospects and customers.

What kind of messages?
The Relationship Sales staff should be provided with scripted messages that help them open a conversation with a physician or employer. They should have key questions to open a dialogue that generates information about the customer, their practice or business issues and desires from your organization as a provider. 

Examples might include:

• “Can you share with me your number-one concern in running a practice today?” and 

• “Beyond a focus on your health and safety issues, what is your business’s strategic focus?” 

Rather than pitching a product or service like other vendors, your team will present themselves professionally prepared to learn about the customer. Then, be certain that you’re vigilant about delivering on those service promises. Failure to do so will cause greater harm because you have now made a promise that you didn’t keep!

Service messages are important to ensure that you’ve delivered on the promise and that you’re managing issues in a professional meaningful way that is valued by the customer. Most of us know where our warts are—so prepare scripted messages about your scheduling, billing or length of time to appointment with a key specialist and train all operations, clinical and sales/service staff to use them. 

Change messages are important if you are building, doing a campaign or changing alliances with health plans or practices. Just like developing an ad or brand message, ensure that your staff have training in those messages, that they know how to use them with targeted customers, and plan for the staff to share those messages in person long before they show up in a print ad.

Above all, walk the talk. Make sure your staff lives, behaves, acts, speaks and fulfills the promised brand message that your organization has committed to.

Checklist for Sales/Brand Alignment

• Is everyone aware of the brand, image and overall value/positioning message your hospital is offering to the target customer? 

• Can they articulate it?

• Do they have key messages and stories to demonstrate the brand to a prospect or customer?

• Do they have a planned approach for having a dialogue with the prospect/customer that allows them to match the brand and organizational solution to meet the customer’s identified needs?

• Do these staff members represent your brand in terms of professionalism, preparedness and commonality with the target customers?

• Have you selected the right staff? Have you defined a structured process and criteria for their selection?

• Do you have a scripting/message development meeting set aside to allow staff a learning opportunity?

• Have you provided staff with orientation and training to the organization’s brand, products/services and messages to key customers?How will you measure staff’s ability to “walk the talk?

Carolyn Merriman is president of Corporate Health Group, a national healthcare consulting firm and is based in Rhode Island. For additional information, please call 1-888-334-2500 or contact us via the Web.

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