By John Lavey | Hammock President and COO

Research shows that selling to healthcare providers typically involves long sales cycles and a growing number of decision-makers. For some companies, the weak link in their marketing message comes at the very beginning of the potential sales cycle, right where they need to make the strongest impression—when delivering presentation decks. That’s when you need to provide content that grabs your prospect’s attention and keeps the sale alive over a period of months.

Companies that have the most successful pitches do not think of presentations as a one-time event. Rather, they view the process as launching a relationship, not making a sales presentation.

They have created a process that ties together good storytelling content with a good process of deploying content for sellers. These companies typically have better cooperation between marketing and sales, and they are more likely to succeed in selling to today’s healthcare providers. Here are a few of their secrets for successful pitches.

1. Create a message that builds intrigue and helps set appointments.
2. Don’t think of your slide deck as a presentation—what you say is the presentation. The deck just gives support.
3. Never require the audience to read information while the seller is talking to them. This forces them to choose between reading or listening, causing them to do neither well.
4. Before describing your solution, focus on the core challenges providers face. Then focus on how much better your solution is than the alternatives.
5. Maintain consistency with your brand and message, while allowing appropriate customization for your sales team.
6. Don’t pass out copies of your slide deck at the end of the presentation. It won’t provide the context necessary to articulate your proposal to anyone in the pass-along audience. Have a pass-along version of your presentation that works on its own.

For this and other insights into creating marketing content to aid your sales efforts, download Hammock Healthcare Media’s Ebook, Using Content to Support Sales to Healthcare Providers, by clicking here.

Image Credit | iStock

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