How can you truly stand out from the crowd in the competitive landscape of medical device sales? How can you do things so differently that you’ll leave others in your wake?
If you’ve been asking these questions, then this is the article for you.
As every medical device sales leader knows, your sales team is a crucial component of your company’s success, so it’s critical they’re equipped with the right tools and skills to achieve trailblazing results. This is where the customer-focused content comes into play.
In this article, we’ll explore how a strong content strategy can supercharge both your marketing and sales teams and streamline the whole buyer’s journey. Certainly a different way of thinking!
Why does customer-centric content matter?
In today’s vast digital landscape, customers are continually searching for answers and are more inclined to engage with brands that offer clear, informative, and trustworthy information.
By converting these questions into honest and educational content, your business can establish itself as a reliable source and industry expert, particularly in the medical device and healthcare sectors.
Studies suggest that roughly 80% of a customer’s decision-making (range 70 – 90% depending on the sector) takes place before they even get in touch. By addressing these queries and concerns ahead of time, you can positively shape the adoption journey and streamline the sales cycle. We’ll delve deeper into this as we progress through the article.
If you’re keen to understand the significance of quality content, you might find our detailed analysis of the ‘They Ask, You Answer‘ marketing philosophy insightful. For a more thorough grasp, Marcus Sheridan’s ‘They Ask, You Answer‘ is a recommended read.
What is truly customer-centric content and how it benefits your sales team?
Truly customer-centric content, whether articles or videos, is content that answers the actual questions your buyers are asking during the sales process.
These questions may be uncomfortable to answer, but in order to be truly effective you need to talk about things in a way others aren’t willing to talk about, show things in a way others are not willing to show and sell things in a way others are not willing to sell. But, what are the benefits of this?:
Increasing qualified leads
By presenting candid and clear content on your website (or in materials sent upfront), you’ll empower your audience to self-assess their fit. This ensures your sales team dedicates their efforts to truly engaged prospects, guiding them effectively through their decision-making process.
Just think about it – how often does your sales team find themselves on calls far from home, navigating the same questions, only to find one is a total dealbreaker. How much time and money does that cost your company?
By transparently answering the questions your audience is asking (on your website on in materials), you’ll ensure that when they agree to a meeting or engage with your company via another channel they’re doing so because they already know you’re the right company for them.
Shortening the sales cycle and increasing conversion rates
Now you have only good fits accepting meetings, your sales team will have different conversations with prospects. With 80% of the prospects decision already made through your content, your sales team can focus their energy on the crucial final 20% of the journey, ensuring a smooth and quick conversion.
Instead of your normal sales cycle taking 5 visits with a 60% conversion rate, it could become 1 or 2 visits with a 75% conversion rate. Just think what else your sales team can now do with that saved time and the impact this will have on your business growth.
How can sales teams help with customer-centric content?
While a content strategy like this can undoubtedly change your company’s outlook, the question is how can it practically be delivered?
The vital role of sales teams in creating customer-centric content
When embracing a customer-centric content strategy, the significance of your sales team cannot be understated.
Why? Because they have unrivalled knowledge about your audience’s issues, concerns, and fears when it comes to your technology, as they’re speaking with them every day. This makes them INDESPENSIBLE! Sure, they likely can’t write the content in a compelling, unbiased and education way with perfect syntax and beautiful readability, but that’s where marketing comes in.
Without this crucial and continuous feedback loop (between sales and marketing), there’s a real danger your content will veer off course and fail to engage your intended audience all together.
Running a workshop
When adopting a customer-centric strategy, initiating a workshop is paramount and non-negotiable. One of the most common barriers to success companies face is a lack of alignment between their sales and marketing teams.
Hosting a workshop that brings both sales, marketing and key members of senior leadership together allows you to showcase the transformative potential of good content and brainstorm the 80% of questions that are wasting your sales teams time.
After the workshop your marketing team can start creating the articles that will make the biggest impact on your sales process. A great bench mark is if an article is not going to be used ‘tomorrow’ by the sales team (really tomorrow!), then why are you wasting time creating it? Only create things that will make an immediate impact.
Involving subject matter experts (SMEs)
When it comes to creating content, you’ll need to involve team members from different parts of your company. They’re the ones who have the expertise on the topics you’re writing about and are therefore well-placed to guide the information to be included in the article.
Sales representatives often make perfect SME’s. Their daily interactions with your audience equip them with a deep understanding of the questions they’re asking.
SME’s can however be other people in your organisation depending on the topic your audience is asking. As long as they are the expert then they are the right person for this role.
Setting up a revenue team
So, you have your content plan (from your workshop) and you’ve written your first articles with the support of one of your SMEs. Now it’s time to measure the effect and continue to drive engagement and new content ideas from your team.
A great way to do this is setting up a revenue team (after all we’re all striving for the same thing, revenue growth) that meets fortnightly to discuss content performance and plan upcoming content based on the new questions being asked to the sales team.
This team should ideally include key people from sales and marketing, along with the odd visit from senior leadership.
As the revenue group become more established it will continue to drive the content strategy ensuring all new questions being asked by your audience during the sales process are captured and then addressed in content.
Key takeaways: the impact of customer-centric content on your sales team
The idea that marketing and sales sit in silos is totally disrupted by this strategy. Instead, these teams will work closer than ever, both striving towards the same goal of revenue growth.
The key is to elevate your sales team’s efficacy is by providing them with educational and unbiased content that helps your audience to quickly move through their buyer’s journey, before they even get in contact with you or your team.
But the sales team isn’t merely an adjunct to this strategy; they’re its heartbeat. Their active participation and integration of this approach into their daily operations is paramount.
For a deeper understanding of this content strategy, you can explore these related articles on our learning hub:
Transform your business with content driven by ‘They Ask, You Answer’?
The digital landscape is changing, and your business strategy must evolve to thrive too. At Podymos, we’re not just observers of this transformation; we’re certified coaches for ‘They Ask, You Answer’.
Whether you’re a start-up seeking to carve out a place in the market or an established multinational company aiming to strengthen your online authority, we have the experience and tools to guide you. We’ve partnered with Marcus Sheridan, creator of ‘They Ask, You Answer’ and his team at Impact, to become experts in helping businesses rapidly adopt this powerful strategy throughout their organisation.
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How can you truly stand out from the crowd in the competitive landscape of medical device sales? How can you do things so differently that you’ll leave others in your wake?
