Building Competitive Immunity-A Strategic Approach to Sales Success in the Healthcare Marketplace - Softcover

Dustin Grainger; Tom Stovall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0977774503 ISBN 13: 9780977774500

Publisher: Kirby Lithographic, 2008

Synopsis

Failure to understand healthcare issues from a broad perspective. In surveys we ve done over the past ten years, customers consistently identify this as the main weakness of sales and marketing professionals.
Not only do customers want sales professionals to be expert in their area of clinical focus, they want them to understand relevant issues at a higher level. So what is this higher level something? Strategy. Strategy is that something you rely on to meet your objectives and achieve your goals. Technological advances and especially the Internet allow both the clinician and non-clinical influencer easy access to product features, benefits, core messages and technical performance information. E-Details and Key Opinion Leader testimonials are routinely included on company and product-specific websites. This is the new reality in it customers are looking for something more from the sales call, something they cannot get anywhere else: expertise and guidance that only the sales professional can provide.
Personal interaction with customers is changing dramatically and sales professionals need to know how to change with it. Customers want to interact with professionals who demonstrate a larger understanding of their world and who can apply this perspective to topics relevant to their customer. In today s marketplace, sales and marketing professionals must become more relevant resources for their customers. Doing so will gain them greater access to both current customers and to higher levels of influence in their accounts. This in turn will allow them to build immunity against their competition.
How does all this happen? By being willing to stop using a purely tactical approach in sales and embrace strategy instead. How do you get there? The goal of this book is to show you this larger understanding always offers more opportunities for building a robust strategy. Chapters One through Five illustrate our approach to Building Competitive Immunity and teach you what the strategic process is and how to begin to use it. The remaining chapters introduce and apply the teachings of Sun Tzu s The Art of War. Understanding this classic and revered text on strategy will move you to an advanced level of positioning products and services strategically in the healthcare marketplace. Our intent is to be provocative in our more strategic, customer-relevant approach while also giving you ways to use it.

About this title

About the Author

Tom Stovall is a founder and President of Stovall Grainger & Modleski, Inc. He spent 20 years in the Pharmaceutical Industry working in retail pharmacy, and in field sales, hospital specialty sales, as a district sales manager, and Director of Sales Training with Hoechst Pharmaceuticals (now, Sanofi Aventis). For the past 20 years, Tom has focused on training and consulting in the area of Strategic Positioning.
Tom has developed and written extensively in the area of strategy. His consulting and speaking assignments include work with the US Air Force at the Air Staff Command College, the War College, and with the Space Command Group. Tom was also invited to participate at the National Security Forum (NSF). The purpose of the NSF is to expose influential American civilians to the United States Armed Forces in order to gain an appreciation for each other's perspectives. The primary objective of the NSF is a frank and candid exchange of views on national security matters among our invited guests, Air War College students, and senior military and civilian leaders. The week is devoted to exploring the many issues that affect the current and future security of our country.
Tom has also worked outside of the healthcare arena with American Express Global Corporate Accounts, PSE&G Energy, General Electric, Xerox, Pepsi-Cola, Kodak, and has spoken at Auburn University. Tom s area of expertise reflected in his work with several healthcare provider organizations, as well as pharmaceutical, medical and diagnostic equipment, and biotech companies. His key areas of focus are in sales and marketing strategic positioning, and strategic leadership development.
Tom has written and published numerous articles on the evolution of the sales process to more of a strategic and consultative approach.
Dustin Grainger: Co-founder and Vice President of Stovall Grainger & Modleski, Inc., Dusty works and consults collaboratively on executive, general management, marketing, sales, and professional development initiatives for clients.
Dusty s experience in the healthcare sales and marketing arena is extensive. He has 25 years of leadership and accomplishment including 13 years with one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. Dusty s experience includes retail and institutional sales, retail and institutional sales management, corporate training and development as well as Managed Care marketing.
The Managed Care, Legislative and Regulatory arenas currently drive much of the massive changes in healthcare sales and marketing. Dusty rounds out his experience with leadership positions in these important areas.
Dusty is also an alumnus of the National Security Forum at the Air War College in Montgomery. This is a one-time honor that is given to approximately 130 guests from leadership positions in the fields of business, the clergy, education, government, the law, media, and medicine.
Dusty believes strongly that resolute marketing efforts as well as the individual salesperson will continue to be vital links to the success of even the largest, most powerful companies in the marketplace. However, Dusty knows that professionals who clearly understand their customer s Critical Success Factors will achieve greater competitive advantage. With this in mind, Dusty is committed to providing consultation and developmental programs that transcend traditional, relationship based clinical features and benefits marketing and selling.

Review

Building Competitive Immunity is a must read for all senior leaders of an organization if not by all sales and marketing leaders, which carefully orchestrates a profound understanding and application of the ancient philosophy of the Art of War in today s competitive and global marketplace to gain a competitive edge.
Knowing low price strategy is not a sustainable one, this book offers a methodical approach of identifying a unique organizational winnable position and subsequently, deployable supporting actions for achievable results.
Khosrow Shotorbani Senior Vice President, Director of Sales ARUP Laboratories Member of the Top 100 Companies to Work For --Khosrow Shotorbani --CEO, National Diagnostics Organization

As a regional manager in the largest diagnostics company in the world I knew that our success as a team was dependent on solving our customer s most important issues. As a fighter pilot and trainer in the United States Air Force, I knew our team s success was based on tireless memorization of our capabilities as well as the capabilities of our competition. I also knew that the fight would be won by leveraging our unique strength against the vulnerable position of our competitor. It wasn t until I sat through Building Competitive Immunity that I put the pieces together and it all made sense. After that BCI® session, I had the structure and template for use in developing Phase III salespeople. Most important of all, I now knew how to hire strategists.
In today s healthcare environment, access to accounts will continue to decline for sales professionals who cannot affect their accounts organizational strategy, or align their solutions to the critical success factors of the customer. If you re wondering how to learn that information at the account level, read this book, then hire Stovall-Grainger Inc. and you will not be disappointed.
As a retired fighter pilot and a former member of the Air Force Thunderbirds, I would have been unable to clearly articulate the Department of Defense s strategy for success when I left the service. Through the application of BCI and studying strategy as Stovall Grainger presents it, I can comfortably say the DOD s strategy has been a lethal mix of innovation and training. That combination continues to field the most potent fighting force on earth, however, against today s asymmetric threat of terrorism, it is a strategy that needs to be revisited.
How clearly can your sales and marketing teams see strategic advantage? How often do you hold war games to determine your winnable positions? Is your sales force messaging or positioning your product with its unique strength aligned to the customer s most pressing needs? Consistently owning innovation in any category of business should always be a winning strategy, but what if your pipeline of innovation dries up? What if new demands for profit produce an R & D lapse, can you afford not to have strategists on your sales and marketing teams?
Just imagine if your pipeline of innovation remains viable, how much you ll be able to outperform the competition with a Phase III approach by your sales force.
When I mentioned innovation as a key strategy in the DOD, I also mentioned training. I believe both are winnable positions for the US Armed Forces, but I also believe superior training is an insurance policy for a competitive surprise in innovation. You should look at your sales and marketing teams the same way. Regardless of where your business is in its cycle, adding strategists to your organization at every level is an insurance policy for your business. Whether you are launching a new product or defending hard earned market share, you won t find a better approach than Building Competitive Immunity. --Matt Modleski

Tom Stovall and Dustin Grainger clearly understand all facets of the sales equation. In Building Competitive Immunity, they ve written a smart, well-researched and personable sales-and-marketing manual that is both strategic and pragmatic and highly relevant to today s rapidly changing healthcare landscape. The old rules just don t apply. For any healthcare organization competing for customer share, this book articulates the who-what-and-how to succeed in our increasingly competitive marketplace. --CEO, National Diagnostics Organization

Edition details

• Publisher: Kirby Lithographic
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0977774503
• ISBN 13: 9780977774500
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 186
• Editor: Karen Nelson, Laurie Stahl