Running on Empty?

The economy has forced us to refocus, rethink and redesign our sales efforts. We need to become more aware of our time, our schedule and our productivity.

Sales calls are expensive. There have been a number of research studies attempting to determine the cost of a sales call in the health care industry, and all of the research results have a call listed at almost $150 per appointment. Including the cost of a salary, taxes, cell phones, benefits, insurance, car allowance, etc., that price tag may be right.

What the high cost of a sales call tells us is that we need to concentrate on the bottom line — not what products sell for, but what it costs to get those products to the customer. Part of that effort means increasing productivity for salespeople. The following suggestions can help:

• Verify all appointments

  Consider calling all scheduled appointments the day before to make sure you are on the calendar. Verify that the referral source has not had to cancel your meeting or inadvertently scheduled your meeting when they had already planned a vacation.

  Do not expect the referral source to call you. You need to be assertive and call for yourself. You need the customer, but the customer may not have checked his or her calendar for tomorrow before leaving for the day.

• Verify the location of the meeting or conference

  Too frequently I have been with salespeople who are looking for the right office, searching for the hospital conference room or even deciding if the meeting is in the main hospital or an ancillary facility up the street.

• Show up on time

  Being late to an appointment can be a costly mistake and a serious detriment to your image. If you arrive late, the customer may think you had forgotten them or failed to show respect for their time.

• Maintain the car

  Car trouble will certainly stop the sales process. Salespeople are notorious for operating a car in poor condition. Make sure you periodically check the tires, change the oil and keep the gas tank three-fourths full. A flat tire on the way to an appointment can be a costly stop you cannot afford. You and your car are a team, and like the customer with a walk aid; without it you may be immobile.

  You never know when you might need to make that long drive to a client on the other side of town or be asked to go to a meeting you had not planned on attending. When your car is out of service, so are you.