For the salesperson selling their product into the IT department or into a different hospital department that requires IT approval, the following questions will need to be addressed early and often when communicating with IT. To the degree the salesperson is able to successfully answer these questions means all the difference in garnering IT support in purchasing your product.

• Why are you calling on me?
• What is the problem I am having that your product is designed to resolve?
• Why is my current solution insufficient to resolve this problem?
• Will our Nurses/clinicians demand and use of this product?
• Does it conform to my current standardized technology (Dell, HP, Wyse, etc) platform?
• Can I substitute different technology (computer/radio/display, etc) platforms to fit my standardization needs?
• How expensive is it?
• Safety ratings? (Example: UL-60601.1)
• Who else is using this product?
• Who do I call in case something fails and how long before I can expect resolution?
• How easy is it to get access to the parts on the product or code within the product so that I can provide my own fix with one of our staff?
• Can I have a demo unit do some internal testing?

The best way to reach IT decision makers includes the following:

• Daily sales activity. IT will now become part of the salesman’s call routine when visiting their hospital customers.
• SEO/PPC
• Healthcare IT shows (HIMSS and healthcare software user conferences)
  • Booth design is important for best first impression.
• Marketing PR, calls to action, email and snail mail pushes.

Calling on the IT department will be new and in the early stages it will be a little frightening. But as it is for all things new, all journeys begin with the first step. After those first couple steps it won’t be new anymore and everything else will be swimming in sales upside!

Happy Hunting!

Dan