Posts tagged "selling"

A few weeks ago we were delightfully asked to present our credentials to a prospective client. A meeting was set up, but soon we received another call. Instead of presenting creds, could we help contribute to solving a problem? Would we immediately take a brief and instead present our thoughts on the issue? Absolutely! we cried in unison, excited at the prospect of adding value from our very first meeting.

After receiving the brief, we formulated our plan, reviewed our existing knowledge, spoke to contacts in this category, defined areas where we had gaps, gathered 2 (Qual) groups of healthcare professionals, confirmed/chucked out some stuff, structured our argument and wrote the presentation. Last Friday, we got on the train, rehearsed, arrived and presented.

Once it was over, we began to think about this slightly off-centre approach. Why do we stick with generic credentials presentations that often serve up a beauty parade of materials but don’t get to grips with our team, approach and hunger? Getting instantly into a project with a challenge is a better test of our strength. We’re here to solve problems, not self promote. It struck us was how much better it feels to be serving a purpose. Rather than demonstrating the past, we worked with the present to directly benefit the team we were with.

The agency world insists on its clients understanding its audience. We strive for brands to have meaningful conversations with people, not self-obsessed monologues. It’s great to be afforded the same with the agency brand and its potential client team. I guess for us the learning is always to ask whether there is something we can help with, rather than taking the easy option of the off-the-shelf slide deck.

Healthcare is a complex world to work in, whether we sell products or services. On top of our day to day business, we’re struck by reams of science, mode of actions, molecular specs, and more.

The result is that in healthcare, we are surrounded by distractions. When we’re asked to explain what it is we do, we get immediately sidetracked into describing stuff that is really besides the point. To be fair, there are times when we have to pass the time; fill in gaps in conversation. Perhaps this is why this kind of pointless talk has been described as “elevator speech”, or the more stylish “martini monologue”.

But sometimes it invades boardrooms, too. We lose sight of our brand as “the moral of our story” when we plan our communications. Or maybe we understand our brand in our own heads, but fail to produce a short, consistent description when asked. We prepare in the wrong ways, getting tangled in details when it’s really not necessary.

How do we get to that core of what it is we do? By asking yourself one question: why it is that we (or our service) can meet customer’s needs better than anyone else. If you can find a way to verbalise this to a stranger in a lift or a brand director over lunch, you’re practising engagement. That brand story will find its way into communications materials too - the places that you build on with key messages, that complicated MOA diagram, and so on.

Martini anyone?

It seemed to be going so smoothly, getting our offices up and running in just a month.

The key word is ‘seemed’. We are wiser now. We have seen the gap between promise and delivery. We know how it affects users attitude and behaviour.

It’s nice to be sweet talked at times; it’s fun visualising how great things will be. It’s less thrilling to hang around waiting for non-existent goods to turn up. That’s when you feel disappointed and want to kick your bright, flawless, newly painted walls down.

Customer service is something everyone gushes about. “We are competitively priced, but our premium is justified by our outstanding commitment to…” You’ve heard it. Why is it companies and brands still haven’t got it? Buying a service is about the delivery, not the promise.

Things that should have happened naturally were eclipsed by a tortuous string of phone calls and frustration: Transferring phone accounts: O2 say ‘1 day’, our panel say, Att-Ahhhh 2 months of chasing, cajoling and being let down. In the end we gave up and went to Vodafone, finding out that it’s easier to change provider than stay with the same one… hello? Putting landlines in. Our provider says cat 6 will be fine, so that’s what we do. Our panel said Att-Ahhhh, I meant cat 5, not cat 6 cable - 2 days wasted.

I could go on but I’m starting to tremble.

Brands must contain a promise, but more importantly they must fulfil it. One company that would never let that happen is First Direct. Their brand promise (or should I call it brand truth?) rings loud and clear from their call centre upwards, for them it feels that delivering the brand is actually more important than communicating it.

Something always comes good from bad as my Grandmother used to say. It got us thinking. Do we in the pharmaceutical industry focus so much on selling to HCPs that we fail to properly consider the impact on end users? The token patient programme, the leaflet, the poster. Not being able to talk to consumers is no excuse, we can talk to patients. Even if we can’t hear their complaints, the rest of the world will.