Stop Sending This Type of Email in Healthcare Sales

In healthcare sales, the challenge of connecting with decision-makers can be tricky. Especially if your target market includes private healthcare practice owners, actually getting a conversation on the calendar seems like an insurmountable hurdle. How can you get meetings if you can’t connect with the prospect? Usually, to combat this challenge, many business development & healthcare sales people tend to focus on the volume of communication attempts with prospects, with very little concern for quality of those contacts. This email that I review in the video below, exemplifies the pitfalls of falling back to a “spray and pray” approach to healthcare marketing & sales. Avoid sending these types of emails in healthcare sales.

If you send outreach emails like this, you’re wasting your time and most likely actively repelling your prospects. Especially, if your prospect if a busy healthcare clinic owner or clinic administrator.

Every now and then, I pop into the group email inbox for the clinic that I own to get a document or respond to a vendor. And every single time, I find gems like this email. Let’s break down why this email is ineffective at best and damaging at worst.

Understanding the Prospect

First off, here’s the environment in which most clinic owners operate. They’re spinning a lot of plates; trying to deliver patient care, manage staff & clinical team members, oversee operational & financial metrics, and do it all profitably in an environment where downward pricing pressure keeps squeezing margins.

Every time they check their email, voicemail, or see notes & messages from their admin staff, 9 out of 10 messages is someone pitching them on something they’re going to have to spend money on. At least, that’s what goes through their minds. They’re not thinking about return on investment. They’re thinking in terms of, “What’s the catch/cost?”

Why is this outreach email bad?

1. It’s clear this is a bulk, copy-paste message that was never preceded by some sort of contact or outreach. In fact, the sender didn’t even bother modifying the template they probably downloaded from some marketing website. It’s essentially spam.

2. It doesn’t lead with any value. It dives right into a pitch. The message doesn’t indicate that this company took any time to understand this clinic’s situation and whether it even makes sense to “pitch” this service.

3. They state a bland and weak positioning or specialization. Sure, they mention some specialization or positioning (generic RCM “services”), and differentiate the offer on price. Since it’s a copy-paste email template, it’s highly unlikely that this vendor is carefully selecting prospective clinics to reach out to. They’re spraying & praying.

How will the Email be Received?

Here are the most likely outcomes or responses to this email, in no particular oder:

1. The prospect clicks “delete” without a second thought. It’s just one message in a sea of noise.

2. The prospect clicks “block/report spam”, in which case future email deliverability becomes an issue; and you never hear from them

3. (Highly unlikely) The prospect replies with a polite “no thank you”.

4. (EVEN MORE UNLIKELY) The prospect responds with “can you send over some more information?”

If the goal is to generate sales conversations, the outreach approach needs to be more thoughtful and intentional than spraying a poorly put together, vanilla email template across the inter webs hoping for responses.

Crafting a Healthcare Sales Outreach Email that Works

Here are the basic things to keep in mind when crafting any marketing email, but especially on outreach emails:

✔ Craft a Strong Positioning

✔ Lead with Value

✔ Start by trying to understand the prospect’s needs & situation

✔ Provide opportunities for the prospect to say “no”

In my mind, the entire business development process starts with identifying a solid positioning strategy. Your positioning drives all the other business development decisions, including outreach and prospecting. For starters, your selected positioning should dictate the prospective organizations that you target with your outreach messages. The point: positioning will make you more selective.

Second, you want to lead with value in the communication. Instead of peppering the prospect with features, possible benefits, or an offer; lead with a clearly defined value proposition. That value proposition should show that you understand that prospect’s need & situation (maybe not in specific, but that you have a solid understanding of that type of client). This may be as simple as discussing how you work with clients like them. It could be a quick case study of how you helped similar clients overcome that challenge or problem.

After that, you then want to give the prospect the opportunity to say “yes” or “no”. Permission-based call to actions, especially in more complex B2B sales (like healthcare sales), tend to yield more definitive next steps. Either the response is “no”, in which case, it’s good you got to that answer quickly. If the answer is, “yes, tell me more”, then you’re able to move along the exploration (sales) process.

NOTE: I tend to lean on in-person or “live” (in-clinic at best, phone if you’re limited by geography) interactions before sending an email, especially in the beginning, when you are starting to build your healthcare sales engine. There’s simply no better learning opportunity than having a real conversation with real people. But, if you want to take an email-forward approach to business development, try to keep these things in mind.

An Example of an Effective Outreach Email

Ok, if you’ve decided to send an outreach email to a prospect, here’s a formula that’s worked for me over the years. It can be modified to include info from a previous call or interaction (see note above); and you’ll probably receive more responses if you have some prior history or contact with the prospect. But, here’s the format I have used for years:

[SUBJECT] Question about {insert problem or solution}

[BODY]

Hey [insert name] My name is [insert your name] and I work with [insert company]. We [insert value proposition/positioning].

We’ve helped companies like yours [insert outcome].

Feel free to say no if you don’t think there’s a fit or if the timing’s off, but would you open to having a conversation about how we can help you [insert desired outcome]?

Looking forward to hearing from you,

[insert your name]

You can use whatever hook you want in the subject, but I tend to keep it simple. If I’ve had some kind of interaction with the prospect previously, I’ll reference that in the subject line.

Now, obviously, there’s a lot of fill-in-the-blanks there. I’m a fan of frameworks rather than scrips and plug-and-play templates. The goal is to drive valuable conversations, rather than “close sales”.

BONUS: A REAL HEALTHCARE SALES EMAIL EXAMPLE

Here’s a copy of an exact email that I used when I was consulting almost exclusively with healthcare organizations on patient engagement strategy:

SUBJECT: Are Cancellations & No-Shows Hurting ABC Clinic’s Profitability?

BODY:

Hey [Name],

My name is Rafi from Rehab U Practice Solutions. I help private practices improve patient engagement and retention, so they can increase revenue & profitability without spending any money on ads.

I spoke with [insert name] at your office and they mentioned that your clinic has been experiencing a high cancellation rate over the past few months. I actually just got done working with a clinic about the same size as ABC Clinic and we were able to cut their cancellations from 35% to 12% in 8 weeks.

Feel free to say no if the timing isn’t right, or if you just don’t think there’s a fit here…but would you be open to having a conversation about what you’ve got going on at ABC Clinic and how I may be able to help?

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Rafi

As you can see, this email starts with a brief intro and positioning/value prop. I then reference the fact that I spoke with someone in their organization, took time to try and understand their issue, and provided a little context about what I’d like to talk with them about (how I may be able to help them reduce cancellation rates in the clinic). I reference a quick “case study” or example, and then make the offer to have a conversation—not of a sale or “demo”. I also give the prospect the opportunity to say “no”. In fact, I lead with you can totally say no if you want.

This email template generated hundreds of calls for me between the years of 2017-2020 for a consulting offering I called the Ultimate Patient Experience Blueprint. Hundreds of calls led to tens of proposals and projects. And those projects kept the business running until I began focusing more on the healthcare positioning strategy work I do now. And, I still work with healthcare organizations and tech companies, and use similar emails to drive conversations.

Summary

Instead of desperately throwing value darts at the preverbal wall, hoping that one of them lands near the center for the prospect, you lead with a clearly defined value proposition. And then follow-up with a question. That question leads to another question, and then another, and another. The goal of the call or communication stops being “get them to say yes we’ll take another meeting to learn more”, and shifts to “let’s understand whether or not they’re a good fit for our product or service”. You want to see if it’s even worth having another meeting or call.

And this type of sales conversation is better for everyone. If the answer is “no”, you generally get to that realization faster when you first take time to understand the prospect’s business situation, the problems they’re facing, and whether your service or solution is a good fit. That saves the prospect time. It saves your sales team time. And it means that the customers that do say “yes” end up being better fits for you, so you’re able to deliver high-value.

All of this starts with dialing in your positioning strategy. That positioning strategy (should) drive all of the subsequent business development decisions:

• the prospects you target

• the methods of lead generation & outreach

• the structure of those initial conversations

• the future development of the product or service

You want to become less of a “vendor” and more of a discerning professional looking for customers who you can best help, not just a customer that will sign up. And that all starts with crafting your healthcare positioning strategy.