“Sales reps cause bottlenecks because they don’t know what they don’t know about your value analysis program. Why not educate them?”
Sales reps are very necessary to healthcare organizations, especially when it comes to value analysis as you need to source their companies’ products to meet your customers’ requirements in order to meet your everyday care demands. But reps are also looked at as the source of lots of issues due to not providing all the right information, pricing, contracting, evidence materials, FDA approval letters, etc., for the products and/or services being reviewed by your value analysis and strategic sourcing teams. Basically, the sales reps cause bottlenecks because they don’t know what they don’t know about your value analysis program and your workflow. Why not educate them?
Every Value Analysis Program is Similar but Very Different
Every VA program has many similarities in what is required to perform a value analysis review, but every organization has a different way of doing business as well as the level of detail they require up front from sales representatives. You may think that value analysis knowledge is universal to sales representatives because they work with a good number of VA teams in their region, but think again.
Just like you have your hands full handling all of your new product requests, recalls, product conversions, and alike, sales reps in turn have full plates dealing with new products, existing contracting and sourcing, ordering, issues, recalls, and in many cases, also covering surgical cases. Let’s just assume that everyone has a full plate, but you need the sales reps to be on point to get all the information and support you need for your value analysis and sourcing efforts which will greatly benefit them as well. The easiest way to make sure everyone is on the same page and eliminate all bottlenecks and issues is to educate your sales reps on how you do business.
Create a Value Analysis Vendor Education About Your VA Program and Workflow
Lay Out Your Requirements for New Product Requests (Checklist) – If your VA team is missing any piece of vital information, it then creates an unwanted email/phone tag scenario to obtain this valuable information. If you let them know exactly what they need up front, you can avoid the time consuming back and forth communications and speed up the review. The alternative is to keep chewing up valuable time all while the clinicians who request new products blame the VA teams for slowing down their requests.
Educate the Reps on Your Workflow – Sales representatives work with the product champions who submit the new product requests to the VA team but that is about all they know. They can easily cause issues by not knowing what to expect timeline wise. This could upset the clinicians who requested the new product or worse, the rep could forget that this request was made.
Keep Reps in the Loop When Possible – Many value analysis programs tend to go dark communication wise once they receive a new product request and all the necessary information from the sales representative. We do realize that VA has to do their thing and it is tough enough with all of the internal evaluations and discussions that have to go on, but you do need these sales representatives if this product is approved. They have lots of sales going on and if other organizations keep them in the loop more than you, you may fall by the wayside. A little communication goes a long way, even if it is just a simple new product request portal. Make sure to include good explanations though. Do not leave them guessing by only saying “approved” or “not approved.”
Sales representatives are a vital part of the VA process in healthcare. It is good to proactively take steps to keep your sales representatives who call on your health system educated in how you do business with value analysis. You could create your own checklist, methodology, or webinar to add this important educational component to your value analysis program, but the key here is that you have it and keep it updated moving forward. It will be well worth the small effort but will save a lot of time and headaches!
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