Compared to other medical specialties, Occupational Medicine is unique. Instead of marketing directly to patients or focusing on referrals, your primary market consists of businesses, municipalities, and other organizations that employ workers. But most employers already have a provider, and although they may be unhappy with the service, wait times, or communication coming from their current provider, the easy thing for most people to do is take the path of least resistance as they stay the course.
Since your prospects are unlikely to be actively looking to make a change, you need to find ways to reach out to them. Outreach can take many forms – from in-person activities like attending networking events or personally visiting area businesses, to digital tools such as online advertising or targeted email campaigns. And of course, there will be times when you’ll be reaching out to prospects by telephone.
The typical business owner or HR manager isn’t sitting around waiting for a random call from a new occ med provider. It may take several calls – over months or even years in some cases – to get that great prospect on the phone. So, when a prospective client picks up the phone, you need to take advantage of the small window of opportunity you’re given. An effective, well-organized script might be the difference between a lucrative new client and a quick click on the other line.
What Should the Script Accomplish?
A powerful telephone script should achieve three major goals:
- Determine who the primary decision maker is at the prospective company.
It is important to be strategic about who you speak with when approaching your prospect. Don’t waste your time going into extensive detail on your offerings if the individual does not have power over hiring decisions. Instead, your script should help you learn about the company’s decision-making process and its financial chain of command. To do this, utilize a series of gently probing questions: How are decisions made about occupational medicine? How often is the issue revisited? Should we include another person on this call? Keep in mind that this process can take multiple calls, but once you get to the top of the totem pole–to the person who makes the final decision–you can take full control of the message they are hearing, and your ultimate job will become a lot easier.
2. Establish dissatisfaction with their current provider.
Once again, a clever list of questions can subtly introduce an element of doubt in your prospect’s mind about their current occupational medicine provider. What kind of medical services do you require? Are onsite injuries a major concern? Do you have a drug-testing program in place? How important are pre-employment physicals? Once you get them thinking hard about their current quality of service, you can hit them with the big ones: Tell me what is most important to you in your company’s relationship with your medical provider. How would you rate your provider on a scale of 1-10? What would it take to bring them to a 10? A delicate balance of open-ended and closed questions will help create a well-rounded portrait of the client’s priorities. Closed questions require a simple response and revolve around basic facts that will help you learn more about the company without seeming too forward.
Best Practices for Using a Script
A script is intended as a guide, containing talking points and questions that you can use in the course of your conversation with a prospect. We can all tell when someone is reading from a script – it can be almost painful to listen to. However, sounding jumbled, disorganized, and unsure is no better. A script, when properly used, can keep your pitch on track, providing a basic framework that allows you to maintain focus, be succinct, and stay grounded.
In addition, your script should include a list of specific questions to ask your prospects, so that you can extract as much valuable information as possible and tactfully introduce the idea of changing occupational medicine providers. These questions should determine their business’ priorities and gauge their satisfaction with their current provider. What does your current provider do well? Where do they come up short?
Your script should also include sample voicemails you can use to leave prospects a message. The key is to know ahead of time exactly what you want to say, and then get right to the point. Keep your tone professional, include industry terminology or other insight to demonstrate your expertise in the field, and consider closing with a question. Let the prospect know that you are very interested in their business and how you can help it to succeed. Remember – if you wait for the beep to figure out what to say, you probably won’t leave a great message.
