The Sales Success series of the Every Ancillary Podcast is focused on helping reps review best practice sales techniques and sharing of success strategies and stories. Yes. This podcast is going to focus more on sales skills and also sales success stories. We’ve got a number of people that are gaining traction in this space and some people with some pretty extensive sales experience. We thought we’d invite Dave Rominski onto the show, so that he could share some of his sales expertise with us. So welcome Dave.

Hi Guys. Thanks for your time.

Dave’s a straight shooter, very experienced in not only the medical industry, but also knows the different nuances of sales. He’s had a lot of sales success. I thought Dave would be a good first guest for us to bring on here.

Dave, there was something that we were speaking about in particular that is really key to sales success  – it starts with listening to prospects. I wanted to start off with that, because the portfolio that we put together has a particular vision in mind. Really, we have no chance of selling anything to prospects without listening. Listening is very important in doing what we’re trying to accomplish here. I’ll let you start from the top here, Dave. What does listening to a prospect mean to you?

Anytime we’re in sales, we have numerous different opportunities. You’ve created a great platform there that has all kinds of possible solutions for doctors. A lot of times as salespeople, when we’re in an office, we’re all excited about maybe some of the latest and greatest things that came out there or something that you can’t wait to talk to this practice about. What happens is, when you have that drive and that direction, you really want to listen to what the practice has to say first, or what’s going on with them and what their experience is going to be. By truly listening and evaluating what is going on with that practice, that’s how you’re going to give yourself an opportunity, not only to provide a solution to that practice, but to be able to win that business.

We see all the time that, you’re all excited about something new that comes out or a new objective. In any type of sales, if you are the one doing most of the talking in the presentation, I’ve learned you’re not going to win that sale. There’s always that old slogan out there, we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. You should be listening twice as much as you’re talking. I really think for many people in sales, you do too much talking instead of listening and asking good questions to truly let providers tell you what they’re looking for. Most offices, most providers love nothing more than talking about themselves and their practice. Give them that opportunity, ask correct questions, make sure you’re giving them a direction as far as where you want them to go. Truly give them opportunity and listen to what they have to say.Often when you are in front of a physician, you often feel like you don’t have a lot of time with them. What’s one or two of the key leading questions that you use to get their attention right off the bat, so that you can open it up with a question?

Good question. One of my basics, is say, listen Doc, we’re here to help you, help you be more successful, and help you with the quality of your patients. Are you looking to get busier, you want better quality cases, more efficiency? What is it you’re truly looking for? Listen to what they have to say. Because I think that if you start with that question, of what they want to get out of this, you have a much better shot of moving forward. If there’s different goals that they have or objectives that they have, you can also help them as far as some of the revenue generation. Sometimes they have goals and objectives that are – they want money in 60 or 90 days.

There’s some services out there that are going to take you longer to do that. Even though they may be interested in that particular service that’s there, it might not be a good fit for what their goals are. I truly like to make sure that we start with that question, of truly what they’re looking for.

Then, what is it that has been an issue for them. What have they tried in the past or what are their struggles because they’ve all had it. They’ve had things that they’ve tried to do or that they’ve tried to implement and for some reason, it wasn’t successful. I really think by listening where they want to go and what their objectives are going to be, I think it’ll really help with what you want to be able to do as far as leading those questions moving forward.

I remember going with my mom to buy a car when I was younger. I remember the car salesperson started talking about some things and my mom was asking questions like, does this come in silver? Can you get silver with the gray leather interior or whatever. Meanwhile, the sales guy’s like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we can do that. Let me tell you about the new transmission in the 2010 models. You see with the new transmission, they did here, it has less … He starts going on about all sorts of technical things, when if he just said, yeah, it comes in the color you want, my mom is ready to sign. That’s like a key, that’s an illustration there, Dave, of a salesperson that I realized before I was even a salesperson, this guy isn’t listening to what the buyer is asking for. In your experience, how does this weave into your close and how does this improve your success at closing deals?

That’s the question, Mike. I think a lot of times salespeople will try to close that deal on the first visit they’re there. I’m a big fan, we go, we assess what might be the options for that doctor, depending on your relationship. If you’ve known this person very well, well then maybe that close or what you’re looking for can become a little bit quicker. A lot of times, if it’s a newer doctor you’ve been to or, maybe it’s someone that you know is aware of what you do but may know you for a different space. I like to do that evaluation to find out more about that practice and assess what they’ve done first. Then maybe set up a follow up and say, doc, this is a ton of information, what I’d like to be able to do is assess where you’re at right now and come back and give you some options that might be a best fit for your implementation of what the goals and what you’re looking for.

I think a lot of times by doing and setting up that follow up call, with actually the assessment and what the implementation looks like as far as what solutions you’d have for them, can truly gain a lot of value with that doctor in respect, versus just having a salesman who’s trying to throw something down their throat. Something that you can listen to what they’re doing, listen to what their struggles are going to be and come back with them with what solutions might be the best fit.

We’ve seen that work extremely well, not only to help with a number of closes that you’re going to get, but the speed of those closes. A lot of times if you tried to get them to close the first time you’re there, they may not be on board. Instead, hey, this is what we’re assessing right now, we have numerous options. Listen to what you have, give me another 15 minutes. Maybe next week, some time, let’s talk about what solutions we have for you and what that implementation may look like for the issues that you have. We’d like to be able to go and use that.

It comes back down to the usual sales cycle thing, where too many people give up after the first or second visit. But, it actually takes typically five to 12 visits before you can close someone. That speaks to really building that relationship over those visits as well. Plus, it helps to make you more memorable. If you’re new to the space or the doctors in new call point for you, then they might not remember you from one week to the next. I have an advantage because I’ve got the accent that tends to stick in people’s minds, but a lot of people don’t have that. You blend in with the scenery when you’re one rep coming in for the first time. Definitely following up and continuing on those conversations over several weeks. Dave, what would you recommend to people, how often should they go back? Like once a week. Once every couple of days. Once every three or four weeks. Do you have a formula for that?

I do actually. I’m a big fan of, if you follow up with them on Monday, I recommend there’s some type of follow up that’s done with that provider that week. Whether it is, if there’s some information you need to follow up with them that you need to send them by email or if there’s something to be scheduled. Really for us, most of our closes, we try to get them all within an 18 day period of time. From the time we talked to that doctor initially, to the time that contract is signed. It’s not an exact science, but from what we’ve seen in the past, you got to make sure you create enough top of mind awareness with them, to make sure that you’re going to stay in front of them to get that deal closed.

We all know doctors – if you’re not on top of them or being consistent, as far as your follow up goes, as you’d mentioned, that you’re not going to win that deal. We know that the vast majority of salespeople stop after that fifth contact. A lot of those deals that are being closed, will have on that follow up, being consistent as far as the opportunities that we have talked about. The other thing is going to be evaluating that practice, if there’s three or four things that you have in your toolkit, so to speak, that this doctor can utilize, you’re never going to get all three or four of them to close, during that time period. I really think that, if you’re starting, whatever that initial visit is and you’ve had a conversation with them, don’t be afraid, which a lot of our services that we utilize, will have qualification sheets for those offices.

We may send them an email that says, hey listen, this is the information we obtained. Here are some more things that we need from you or from the office. Just to keep them integrated, as far as the process goes, and making sure we have something scheduled or a touchpoint before we had that next face to face or that next meeting with them. The other thing is going to be when you talk about numerous services, pick what’s going to be the best one. That you think is going to be the best utilization for the doctor, get the most impact at that time. You can let them know, hey listen, there’s three or four things are going to be here. What I recommend is, it’s a tiered approach. We start with this first and then we’ll follow up with this and, so you truly have a plan of that direction.

They may have heard about what you’re talking about, but you let them know, hey listen, we don’t want to try to do everything at one time because you in the back of your mind, know the doctor’s never going to follow through with all of those, at that time. By picking and choosing and helping to give them the direction and truly utilizing you as a resource, for these offices, is truly how not only you can create more value for them, but also help yourself on the back end. To make sure that these services you’re bringing to them are truly getting followed through on and implemented in those offices. For us that’s it, it’s really something important for our team to be able to utilize.

Dave, I want to thank you for this awesome information. If you guys are listening and you want to work with Dave, Dave has two services I should say, on our platform. Dave’s a great guy to work with. You can trust him. He’s going to do right by your clients. That’s under Physician Referrals and, as well as, Retail Pharmacy. Retail pharmacy, if you guys are not aware, that is really nice residual income for a sales rep. It’s only for larger practices. If you have those large practices, who are looking for a profit center and create better patient convenience and compliance, retail pharmacies is a real winner. Thanks, Dave, for getting on.