The Healthcare Intelligence Hub E-Newsletter
Data / Empowering High Performance

Porter Research

Know Before You Go

Cynthia Porter, President
June 20, 2010

Print this page Print


As Porter Research and sister company Billian's HealthDATA prepared for the HFMA ANI 2010 Healthcare Finance Conference taking place this week in Las Vegas, prospects were of course top of mind. Prospects in this industry are busy people, and will be even more so in a trade show atmosphere. Therefore, it is essential to be thoroughly educated about them, their role within their organization, what their needs might be (even if they themselves might not be aware of them), and how the products they might be interested in can fit seamlessly into their organization. Time is a valuable commodity these days, and it's in everyone's best interests not to waste it with an uneducated sales conversation.

Gaining an audience with a busy healthcare executive at a trade show like HFMA, or the Healthcare IT Summit (at which Porter Research will be participating this November) is a valuable opportunity to present your product. The environment will be hyper-competitive, so prospect research must become a fundamental sales tool.

There are a number of research resources that can be tapped into. The Billian's HealthDATA Portal is definitely one of them. It is a comprehensive healthcare business information portal that defines healthcare facilities' relationships, key personnel members, financials, statistical information and quality business information - all of which can make the job of selling your product to a healthcare executive that much easier. They don't want to spend their valuable time teaching vendors about what they do and what their needs are. Do your homework on the Portal before engaging in any sort of sales pitch. The executive will be impressed that you've done your research, and you might just walk away with a new business relationship.

Other resources include networking sites like LinkedIn, as well as trade associations and alumni groups. Check out a prospect's profile on LinkedIn and see what you have in common. Are you alumni of the same university? Members of the same LinkedIn groups? Do you have connections in common?

Using basic research tools like networking sites, and more in-depth, niche resources like the Portal will help to evolve your approach to prospecting to healthcare executives.







Print this page Print




Porter Research