Political
analysts generally call the art of shaking hands and kissing babies
"grassroots campaigning" because of the personal nature of getting to
one voter at a time on their local level. These grassroots campaigns have
traditionally taken place inside schools, union halls, and church
basements; and they have traditionally been both extremely effective
and relatively inexpensive to conduct. Working with local
educational facilities is one way that you can apply their effective
campaign tactics to your business.
Grassroots Marketing. Getting your company and
medical software in front of trade schools, community colleges,
adult educational facilities, and universities may not be high on
your list of marketing efforts right now, but consider this -
Today's Students are Tomorrow's Medical Office Staff. This
kind of grassroots marketing push is all about reaching the future
doctors and potential office staff before they need your
product.
Educational Programs. Most vendors should have
an educational program (if yours doesn't, tell them to
e-mail me).
This vendor-based program generally provides educational facilities
and/or students with medical office software at a considerable
discount, if not free. As a reseller, you should be able to
enter an educational facility that uses your software and act as
front line software support and training, as well as help on both
curriculum development and software deployment. This type of
marketing, if done correctly, ensures that the future office staff
in your geographic area know exactly who you are and understand the
value of your product before they even graduate.
Step
1 - Getting Started. Discovering which institutions
offer a medical billing course and/or other medical training is a matter
of simply making phone calls and browsing school websites.
Begin by telephoning all of the local
institutions of learning and introducing yourself. By asking
the appropriate departmental staff a few simple questions, you can quickly determine if
that specific institution is a
possible client and/or marketing opportunity for you:
-
Do you currently have a medical billing and/or
medical coding course at your school? Do you have
any other healthcare related programs there?
-
Who is the head of the faculty in charge of that
department? How would I get a hold of them?
-
What software are you currently using to train your
students? Is the staff happy with it?
Step 2 - Analyzing the School's Wants. Once you
have discovered that you've found an institution that is willing to consider switching
software, then it becomes a matter of arranging a time for an analysis
with the faculty. Ask the staff detailed questions in order to discover
what the limitations of their current office
software are, and then take some time to show them how your free educational
medical software package will meet their wants and needs in a variety
of ways.
Step 3 - Sell Yourself. Don't only sell the
institution on using your software, but also on the idea of working
closely with your organization. Sell yourself to the
faculty by developing a relationship with those who are in
charge of the classes. Let them know that you are available to
assist them with the curriculum, with student placement, and with
maintenance and faculty training on the software. Ideally make
sure that you have the opportunity to come and present to the
students at least twice a semester where you will hand out
business cards, flyers, and any helpful tips before they graduate.
Don't Forget EMR. One other marketing avenue to consider is the clinical
side of institutions - nursing schools, medical institutions, and
physician assistant programs. Alert local Medical Schools that
you are helping them follow the governments initiative by assisting
them in teaching their charting courses with your EMR. By getting your
Electronic Medical Records Software endorsed and used by the school,
the physicians graduating will already know, understand, and
(ideally) love your product. While this can be less effective, on a local level, than medical billing courses - since physicians often move out of
your region after graduation and during residency - this is another
opportunity to work with schools that is sometimes overlooked.
Potential Roadblocks. One issue or roadblock you
may find in working with schools is the lack of a textbook that
covers medical billing/charting with your specific software.
The staff may dislike their current software, however, the existence
of a textbook for that software may be the reason they have stuck
with it for so long. This problem simply becomes an opportunity,
however, if you are willing to spend the time to create a textbook
that you can sell to schools. Additionally, you may find by
contacting your vendor that an educational textbook is
something they may be developing as well.
A
Hard Habit to Break. Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD), the great
Roman Poet, once wrote: "Nothing is stronger than habit."
Getting your software in front of medical billing students and other
scholars, makes your software a habit they'll develop long
before they enter the workplace. Such a strong habit will
result in software sales, as the new office staff demands to switch to your system,
because of familiarity. This type
of grassroots marketing campaign is an effective investment today,
for the future of
your business tomorrow.
-- Kevin Burdick,
InvestMedLLC.com
March 2006, TOP STORY:
What's in an EMR?
January 2006, TOP STORY:
Show Less, Sell More
