How to Shorten Selling Electronic Medical Record Sales Pitch Cycles

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As you know, the Electronic Health Records (EHR) sales cycle isn’t an overnight process. Potential clients may take weeks, months, or even years before making a buying decision. Having worked with many sales professionals in this industry, we are often told that it takes about eight months to close a deal. A recent study from Demand Gen found that buying cycles have become longer because the number of decision-makers in the B2B buying process has increased. But that’s only part of it. Decision makers are now taking more time to research the organizations’ challenges and potential solutions.

The great news is that there are proven steps you can take to improve your EHR selling electronic medical record sales pitch:

Align your information and content with the Buyer’s Journey

Not all of you prospects are at the same stage of the Buyer’s Journey. So, you must make sure your sales content is targeted to their specific stages in this journey. This allows you to be more relevant and timely with the content you provide, help them navigate the journey more quickly, and ultimately converts them into happy customers.

• Awareness stage – At this point in the journey, your prospects have no idea as to what solution they need. In the ‘awareness stage’ of the buyer’s journey, they are hoping to identify obstacles to their goals. At this time, the appropriate thing to do is provide them valuable information that speaks to their unique situation. You might point them toward content that already exists on your website – blog posts, infographics, or premium content like eBooks or white papers. As you help them through this stage, you are presented with opportunities to learn more about your prospects and whether or not your EHR solutions are right for their needs. This will help you prioritize so that you can narrow your efforts to assisting qualified leads rather than passive visitors.
• Consideration stage – In this stage, your prospects have identified the challenge and are committed to solving it. They are looking for possible solutions, and your job is to give them the content they need, highlighting possible fixes for their problems. This will help to establish you as an authority in your industry. Ideal content for the consideration stage would be white papers, webinars, case studies, and expert guides that strengthen your positioning with the prospect, giving you an advantage over your competitors. But here’s the important thing! – your content should make no mention of your EHR company’s solutions just yet. Instead, focus on informing the prospect and equipping them to solve the problem. For an example of stellar content appropriate to this stage, take a look at Buzz Sumo’s expert webinar series.
• Decision stage – Finally, your prospects have made a decision about the kind of solution they desire. Their next move will be the buying decision, and they are currently weighing the pros and cons of various offers from EHR companies. Take advantage of this stage by providing them with demo videos, comparison charts, trial offers, and product descriptions. An incredibly powerful piece of content for this stage is the case study. Proving that you have been able to help others with similar problems is pure gold and helps your prospect to realize the ROI of your solution.

Leverage email automation platforms to educate prospects

Salesforce State of Marketing report (2017) found that 67% of marketing and sales leaders use automation software. The report also claims that another 21% of these leaders will begin implementing automation over the next 24 months. Obviously, there are good reasons for these numbers. Automation works. And you can accelerate your sales cycle by doing the same. In other words, stop publishing social media posts manually, and especially Lead Nurturing Emails. Automation software takes care of it for you while reducing your involvement time to a mere fraction. Your automated content – such as emails and social media posts – nurtures your prospects and prepares them for a much easier conversion. Not to mention, automation tremendously decreases your cost-per-lead. The time saved will also allow you to focus your energies where they belong.

Offer ways to request pricing, then demonstrate specific value

We all know your prospect’s burning question is the price: “How much is this solution going to cost me?” If your EHR company already enjoys good brand awareness and competitive pricing, you can keep things simple with a “Request a Quote” button on your website. And what better way to get the conversation rolling with your prospect going than by answering their request for a price quote? You will be positioned to ask the necessary questions to learn as much about their problem as possible before delivering the “price.” You already know that the prospect who requests a quote is in the decision stage of the Buyer’s Journey and that doing this right could mean a much quicker conversion.

Follow your content with constant phone calls to help prospects

While blog posts, social media posts, white papers, case studies, and special reports are all indispensable for connecting with and guiding prospects through your sales cycles, there’s one key element content is missing. The human element. If you really want to accelerate your sales cycle, pick up the phone and giver your prospects a call. You could build trusting relationships with your prospects that even the best content cannot achieve. Don’t think you have the time for phone calls? Maybe you should think again. A report by The Marketing Donut reveals that 80% of sales require five follow up calls after meeting the prospect. Make the most of these opportunities by informing your prospects of your offer’s value.

The major takeaways

As we’ve been saying, EHR sales cycles aren’t quick. Success depends on shortening those cycles for every prospect in your funnel. You can do this with the Inbound Sales Methodology, which is the strategy using many of the points we’ve discussed here. Inbound puts the focus on your prospect’s position in the Buyer’s Journey, and allows you to tailor your content and approach accordingly, greatly reducing sales cycle times, and increase your odds of converting more prospects into satisfied customers. We here at Responsify know that implementing Inbound into your existing sales processes can appear more than a little daunting. That’s why we partner with EHR sales and marketing professionals to develop strategy, offer support, and provide the help you need to implement Inbound. Collaborating with us, we will help your marketing and salespeople strategically attract the right visitors to your website, convert them to qualified leads and accelerate the closing process. Reserve your free strategy session now and we will help you evaluate your assets, deliver free insights, and provide actionable suggestions to shorten your sales cycle!