January 26th, 2012 by Mike Ranson
Over the years we have been contacted by numerous entities who are interested in contracting for limited business development projects. We are happy to consider these projects and we have been quite successful with most.
These entities have included; on site vascular labs, medical billing, mobile ultrasound, PET centers, wound care centers, A-V Access centers, etc.
Recently we signed an agreement with a long established ambulatory surgery center, (ASC), in Philadelphia in an effort to bring in more participating surgeons. This 12 year old center had three equity providers leave in the past 18 months due to various causes such as retirement and they were eager to attract younger growth practices to drive procedure volume. We were charged to drive procedure volume without the benefit of equity involvement. After analyzing their benefits we were able to go to market for just 5 days per month where we focused on the podiatry market. Within nine months we were able to bring in two established practices and three solo providers!
Our strength is in professional sales and marketing to the medical community and our business model allows us to make this available to multiple entities on a part time, affordable, contract basis. We normally charge on a per call or per hour basis but we are open to performance based plans for the right opportunity, especially after we’ve established a benchmark of performance.
If your firm needs entre into the medical community you should consider Practice-Reps for your per diem sales and marketing needs. All of our reps come from Fortune 500 medical firms and they are managed daily by an experienced and seasoned team of sales and marketing managers. Give us a call at 610-323-4793
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November 1st, 2011 by Mike Ranson
I met with a prospective client in a GI/endoscopy practice last week who asked how we get into see busy decision makers. I wish I had one pat answer in return. All I can say is that we are trained to do this.
The whole foundation of our firm is that we supply you with former medical sales reps who are trained in professional sales. We took the concept of a traditional physician Liaison and took it up a few notches. Normally this position was staffed by former nurses or administrative folks who had virtually no training in professional selling or territory management. Instead, we supply you with a professional medical rep from Fortune 200 companies who have been trained in uncovering the needs of the client while demonstrating the benefits of your services.
Years ago I was in field management for companies such as Bard and Cordis where we spent thousands of dollars and weekly man-hours in training and reinforcing the skills needed to get in front of decision makers whom we could serve in a professional capacity. Ten years ago it cost a company like Bard $250 for every sales call we made based on the reps salary, training, and expenses.
Some years later I worked with Huthwaite, the founders of SPIN selling, where I trained sales teams from Medtronic, St.Jude, and Bard, in professional selling skills. SPIN was a ground breaking social sciences study funded by Xerox which studied the behavioral process required to conduct successful sales presentations. They attended and followed 35,000 sales meetings in an effort to define the right questioning and discussion process required to lead to closing a sale in a successful win-win format. SPIN is still recognized as the leading sales training program for Fortune 500 companies around the world today.
Today our reps come to you with training from SPIN, Xerox, and others and we go on to train them in applying these skills to the marketing of a medical practice. We continue to reinforce their skills while we coach them in the nuances of medical practice management and the referral process in particular. No other company in our industry can match our credentials, experience, and training when it comes to direct field marketing of a medical practice!
So, how do we get in front of important decision makers? We do this by uncovering the needs of the client while providing value to the referral source. We ask the right questions….and serve their needs before ours. In short, we earn our way in.
Would you like to grow new, preferred referral sources? Give us a call at 610-323-4793.
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October 3rd, 2011 by Mike Ranson
Cost Crunch of ancillary services
MGMA e-source released an interesting analysis of The MGMA Cost Survey for Single Specialty Practices: 2011 Report Based on 2010 Data entitled “Cost Crunch: Ancillary services can soften the impact of declining revenue and profits in some cases but not all”. This study serves as two compelling reasons to consider marketing for the specialty practice in 2011.
Matthew Vuletich, Senior writer/editor for MGMA reports that total medical revenue declined from 2009 to 2010 for most medical specialists except surgeons without ancillary services. His findings which compare practices with and without ancillary services were as follows:
PCP and Family practice physicians:
- Those without ancillary service showed a decline in total medical revenue after costs, dropping from $167,114 to $96,421.
Non-surgical specialists:
- Those without ancillary services saw profits plunge by $77,379
- Those with ancillary services saw total medical revenue drop by $102,246
Surgical specialists:
- Those without ancillary services increased revenue by $12,000 and profits by $45,834
- Those with ancillary services saw a decline in both revenue and profits.
Multi-specialty groups:
- Those without ancillary services increased medical revenue by $50, 000 but this added just $8,000 in revenue after costs.
Now keep in mind that this study compares 2009 versus 2010. We’re now another 2 years into this recession which has impacted patients and practices alike and it’s reasonable to expect that these numbers could be worse. This may in part account for the significant changes in revenue for cardiology which are forcing many practices to sell to their local hospital.
In today’s environment very few practices can warrant the cost of ancillary services based exclusively on internal referrals. Most are dependent on external referrals to drive the utilization and ultimately the resulting profit from such services. But how many practices actively market the capabilities of their service? Very few I’m afraid.
We recently marketed a neurology based sleep practice here in the Mid-Atlantic States. On our first venture out into the community to meet with referral sources we stopped off at a large Cardiology practice right next door to the sleep center. Every day the employees of this practice drove past our client’s office where he had a large sign identifying his sleep center. Again, every day the cardiologists and staff drove right past our sign. When we introduced ourselves to the doctors and staff everyone acknowledged the neurology practice next door but virtually nobody knew that there was an adjoining sleep lab associated with the practice! This lab and sign had been in place for four years.
Physicians in today’s market should not ignore what surveys like are telling them; If you’re going to add ancillary services make sure you fully market them to gain external referrals needed to drive volume and profits in the early days before cuts in reimbursement. If you are debating the addition of certain ancillary services perhaps you would be better served to take that money and market your core skills and training to the referral community.
To learn more about Practice-Reps Marketing visit our FAQ page on-line at:
www.practice-reps.com/faqs.html or call us at 610-323-4793.
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May 31st, 2011 by Mike Ranson
I’ve been hearing from a lot of practices these days who tell me “The hospital markets our practice”. When I ask “what does that mean?” nobody ever seems to have an answer. It’s as though practices are being lulled into compliance by the alliance with some local institution [...] Continue Reading…
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April 11th, 2011 by Mike Ranson
Sometimes I hear this from prospective clients who feel they don’t need our services because they already meet with their referral sources. To them I say “great”! They clearly recognize the need to create personal relationships between their professional peers for the good of their practice.
When I dig deeper [...] Continue Reading…
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April 7th, 2011 by Mike Ranson
As you plan to market your practice to the referring community market intelligence can be key to an effective plan, one that saves you considerable dollars while you focus your efforts in the appropriate areas at just the right time. This intelligence can most easily be gained by having [...] Continue Reading…
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March 25th, 2011 by Mike Ranson
We find that when we market vein centers a big part of our message is education based. Primary care physicians, by and large, are not looking for venous disease. We need to coach them to routinely look at the patient’s legs. It’s our job to remind them and reinforce [...] Continue Reading…
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March 24th, 2011 by Mike Ranson
The U.S. Small Business Administration recently released data from a poll showing what tools small businesses use most often in marketing to their customers:
92% cited their website
88% use email marketing
64% utilize in-person “communication”
51% said event marketing
44% said online advertising like Google ad words, etc
41% cited direct hard copy mailings
40% [...] Continue Reading…
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March 31st, 2010 by Mike Ranson
A multi Hospital System here in Pennsylvania recently polled 816 patients asking; “How did you find our specialists?” The results were not surprising to us.
84% responded “My primary care doctor sent me here.”
12% responded “Friends and family suggested this doctor to me”
4% responded “Media”, meaning TV, Radio, print [...] Continue Reading…
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March 28th, 2010 by Mike Ranson
March was a busy month for us at Practice-Reps with multiple new clients signing on here in the Mid-Atlantic as well as South East.
Practice-Reps Atlanta has hired additional staff in response to their recent signing with GI Specialists of Georgia, a 22 provider GI group with multiple endoscopy centers. [...] Continue Reading…
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