Buyer's Score Card
How do you think a
buyer prepares for your sales call? Some do more than you know. One
buyer's work on rating suppliers' sales calls gives us insight into how
other buyers are scrutinizing our selling. It can also teach us how to be
effective salespeople.
A hospital
that makes selling better. Ms. Vicki Perfect is the former Director of Employment and Education at
Greenville Hospital System in Greenville, South Carolina. She led the
project to develop criteria to evaluate vendors and the products and
services they sell. The hospital needed to evaluate for a variety of
reasons. They needed to better understand the diversity of their needs and
to establish a shared vision for the expected outcomes of the product or
service. Buyers from different departments were purchasing similar
products for different application needs. This was impacting the bottom
line of the hospital.
They also wanted to
create a shared understanding of the relationship between cost benefits
and customer satisfaction. With the hospital industry undergoing
significant cost constraints it was easy to select from the lowest bid.
However, ultimately that selection of the product or service had an impact
on the hospital's ability to deliver quality care. By creating standard
selection criteria the hospital was able to evaluate financial impact as
well as the service impact of its purchase.
The
checkup. Hospital management brought staff from different departments and different
disciplines together in cross-functional focus groups. Their assignment
was to identify and prioritize their product and customer satisfaction
needs. They then developed specific evaluation criteria. These criteria
were to address the hospital's operational needs; impact on patient care;
product or service presentation/quality; and provide references from other
companies. Cost was also a factor. Each vendor was rated on a 10 point
scale for each item. Then each item's weighted priority was factored into
the results.
The
operation was a success. The hospital found that the evaluation criteria resulted in
decreasing the time it took to purchase the products/services and deploy
them throughout the hospital. The members of the cross-functional teams
became champions for the products/services that were actually selected and
used the selection criteria as a mini-education tool to implement the
product or service in their department. An added plus for the hospital was
that this effort developed intelligent buyers so that the hospital, rather
than salespeople, determined what they wanted and
needed.
So the next time you
prepare for your sales call, remember that your customers may be doing
their own preparation as well. Ask your customers about their purchasing
criteria. If you're going to be evaluated for your selling, you might as
well know what your customer is looking for. It's one way to deliver just
what the doctor ordered.
Maura Schreier-Fleming is president of
Best@Selling (http://www.bestatselling.com/).
She works with business and sales professionals at company and trade
association meetings to make selling easier and more productive. She is
the author of the book Real-World
Selling for Out-of-this-World Results. She can be reached at 972
380 0200 or info@BestatSelling.com. |
