healthcare demand generation report - leadjen...out the sales pipeline, the company embarked on a...

Healthcare Demand Generation Report

Selling to Healthcare OrganizationsHealthcare organizations are investing heavily in information technology solutions to comply with new healthcare policies and mandates from the U.S. federal government.

This creates both opportunities and challenges for sales and marketing managers at healthcare IT vendors who want a piece of the billions that healthcare organizations plan to spend.

*IDC Health Insights LeadJen reviewed campaign records for healthcare companies from 2010-2012. These records included a quarter million call and email attempts, and more than 30,000 conversations with healthcare professionals. These calls resulted in more than 2,000 qualified appointments, $30 million in sales pipeline and more than $10 million in revenue.

LeadJen 1311 W. 96th Street, Suite 250, Indianapolis, IN 46260 leadjen.com

Projected healthcare information technology systems market by 2015*

MON

12

6

111

210

39

48

57

TUE WED THU FRI

Vendor interactions show healthcare IT buyers are looking for solutions

20122010 2012

77%More sales appointments

accepted by healthcare buyers in 2012

94%Lead qualification

rate

22%20%

22%18% 18%

28%Appointments set

during the first phone call

24%Appointments set

from a returned phone call or email

20%Appointments set

from referrals

Lead generation by hourLead generation by day

Best strategies to reach healthcare IT buyers 11%16%

13%

5%2%

13 %

16%13

%

7%

LeadJen Healthcare White Paper: Selling to Healthcare Organizations

Selling to Healthcare OrganizationsA study of lead generation best practices for healthcare information technology vendors

The U.S. federal government’s impact on the healthcare industry has never

been greater, and healthcare organizations are responding by spending valuable

resources to comply with sweeping healthcare reform and policy mandates.

Initiatives such as the Health Information Technology

for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) and

the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

(PPACA) have challenged healthcare organizations to

enhance their IT capabilities like never before.

According to a 2012 HIMSS Leadership Survey,

organizations are making substantial investments in

two major federal initiatives: meeting Stage One of

Meaningful Use and successfully converting from ICD-

9 to ICD-10. Both have looming deadlines in 2014.

Other important initiatives requiring action by

healthcare organizations include:

• Computerized practitioner order entry (CPOE)

• Electronic health records (EHRs)

• E-prescribing

• Patient billing systems

All this is creating both opportunities and challenges

for healthcare technology vendors. With mandate

deadlines approaching, healthcare providers are

spending millions of dollars to comply. At the same

time, competition for those dollars is fierce.

Best Practices StudyHow healthcare technology vendors approach sales

can make a big difference in their success. To identify

best practices, LeadJen reviewed campaign records

for healthcare companies from 2010-2012. These

records included a quarter million call and email

attempts, and more than 30,000 conversations with

healthcare professionals. These calls resulted in more

than 2,000 qualified appointments, $30 million in

sales pipeline and more than $10 million in revenue.

The key findings of the study provide a number

of insights and best practices that can be used

by marketing and sales managers of healthcare

technology vendors to improve lead generation.

#1 Healthcare buyers are hungry for solutionsRegulations in the healthcare industry are driving

technology decisions, and healthcare providers

are hungry to talk with vendors who can help them

achieve compliance. This is reflected in two important

metrics: appointments per lead and appointments per

account. While an average benchmark is 2 percent for


appointments per lead and 4 percent appointments

per account, healthcare technology vendors can

expect far better results.

In healthcare, we found that 3.53 percent of leads

converted to an appointment; and a stunning 5.97

percent of accounts converted to appointments, 49

percent higher than in other industries. In addition,

these metrics are growing by about 9 percent a year. The

overall lead qualification rate in 2012 was 94 percent.

At the same time, qualified appointments are

increasing. From 2010-2012, qualified appointments

set increased 19 percent.

There are a couple explanations for these metrics:

• Healthcare messages tend to be very targeted and focused on the challenges, dynamics and regulations impacting the industry.

• Healthcare regulations are mandating action. Federal and state incentives are requiring healthcare organizations to make technology purchases in order to stay in compliance.

Best practice takeaway:

Customize messages to make

them relevant. Test to ensure the

messages are resonating.

Case Study: PatientKeeper® Inc.

Before embarking on a lead generation program,

PatientKeeper® Inc., the leading provider of

healthcare applications for physicians, conducted

market research that helped them better understand

their prospects. This enabled the company to

fine-tune the messaging used for appointment

setting. Despite a sales cycle of nine to 12 months,

the company’s sharp messaging and strategic

outbound calling delivered 45 appointments and 10

opportunities, and the company is close to closing its

first sale in just five months.

#2: Healthcare targets are more difficult to reachOn average, healthcare executives are more difficult

to reach than executives in other industries. This is

because healthcare executives field a lot of calls from

technology vendors as well as vendors representing

other concerns such a medical equipment,

pharmaceuticals, etc. Also, since many technology

decisions roll up to the parent organization, a large

number of sales calls funnel into the same place.

3.5% 6%Healthcare

2%All Industries

4%All Industries

Healthcare

Appointments

per lead

Appointments

per account


This doesn’t mean that sales reps shouldn’t bother

or should give up easily. On the contrary, our study

shows that while the majority of appointments are

set with the first call, implementing a cadence that is

professionally persistent with multiple touches can

pay big dividends.

In our study, 6 percent of step 6 calls resulted in an

appointment and the conversion rate increased over a

percentage point from calls 4 and 5 to call 6.

Email and voice mail also play an important

role in lead generation, with nearly a quarter of

appointments coming from inbound responses

to these messages. Inbound responses have been

increasing yearly and are up 48 percent over the

last three years. It is especially fruitful to implement

an Email + Call cadence on the first day. This gives

the caller an email to refer to either during a live

conversation or in a voice mail message.

Finally, give sales reps a way to capture non-cadence

activity, such as referrals and people requesting

future call-backs. These activities require the calling

rep to log the contact and begin a new cadence. Our

study showed that these non-cadence events result in

almost 20 percent of appointments set.

Best practice takeaways:

Develop a lead generation

cadence that includes a mix of

email and calling, and give the

cadence long enough to work.

Make email and voice mail an

important part of your mix, and

have a mechanism for recording

and responding to these

messages.

Consider adding an email mid-

cadence to give prospects another

opportunity to respond.

Have a system for logging and

following up on referrals and

requests by prospects for a future

follow up date.

Case Study: First DataBank Health

FDB Health, a drug information data provider for

health IT companies, achieved an average 4-to-1

return on investment (ROI) for its lead generation

program through a cadence that combined email with

follow up phone calls. The company achieved a 13

28%Appointments set

phone call

24%Appointments set

from a returned phone call or email

20%Appointments set

from referrals

Best strategies to reach healthcare IT buyersBest strategies to reach healthcare IT buyers


percent average conversion rate (prospects scheduled

a meeting) and nearly 16 percent of prospects who

scheduled a meeting became customers. Since FDB

has high customer retention rates, they anticipate the

lead generation program will achieve a 20-to-1 ROI

over time.

#3 Most appointments are set on MondaySales reps should plan their time so they are calling at

the beginning of the week and leaving administrative

work and meetings for Fridays. According to our

study, Monday is the best day for appointment

setting, with Tuesday and Wednesday also being

strong days for calling.

On the other hand, appointment setting fell off about

20 percent from Monday’s high on both Thursday

and Friday. This may be indicative of when healthcare

executives schedule their meetings or time off, so they

are not in the office.


Schedule calling early in the

week and leave administrative

work and and meetings for

Thursday and Friday.

#4 Executives are most accessible mid-dayThe best opportunity to connect with a healthcare

executive is at lunchtime, when administrative staff

may not be screening calls. According to our study,

the two strongest time slots for appointment setting

are 11 am-noon and 2 pm-3 pm Eastern, which

correspond with lunch hours across the country.

Appointment setting falls off sharply before 10 am

Eastern, and again from 4 pm-5 pm.

12

6

111

210

39

48

57

11%16%

13%

5%2%

13 %

16%13

%

7%

Lead generation by day

Lead generation by hour

22%20%

22%18% 18%



Schedule calls during mid-day

and avoid early morning/late

afternoon calling.

Case StudyAn award-winning identity and access management

technology provider for healthcare organizations

found that their sales reps would close about five

strategic accounts a year and would then find their

pipelines empty after the latest sales win. To balance

out the sales pipeline, the company embarked on a

lead generation campaign targeting prospects that

hadn’t been contacted in six or more months. First,

contact data was refreshed, then a strategic and

persistent lead generation program began. After the

first year, nearly 30 percent of all sales came from

outsourced lead generation program. The following

year, this figure rose to 72 percent.

Summary:

The healthcare technology market is

benefiting from federal regulations

that encourage the implementation

of technology solutions that make

healthcare organizations more efficient.

While healthcare executives can be

challenging to reach, developing a strong

message and a persistent cadence can

improve appointment setting efforts for

sales and marketing managers. Further

refining calling programs to optimize

the day and time executives are most

accessible will drive even better results

and greater efficiency.

Contact LeadJen 1311 West 96th Street

Suite 250

Indianapolis, IN 46260

Phone: (877) LeadJen

LeadJen.com

Across the globe, LeadJen has developed partnerships

and supplied services that increase sales growth through

database building, marketing campaigns and appointment

setting. These advances enable any company in any industry

to improve marketing campaigns and grow sales revenue.

LeadJen is consistently blazing past phenomenal benchmarks

of appointment generation and pipeline growth.

Selling to healthcare executives: 2014 updateHealthcare executives are investing heavily in information technology solutions to comply with new healthcare policies and mandates from the U.S. federal government.

This creates both opportunities and challenges for sales and marketing managers at healthcare IT vendors who want a piece of the billions that healthcare organizations plan to spend.

LeadJen reviewed campaign records for healthcare companies from 2010-2014. These records include almost 365,000 call and email attempts, and more than 46,000 conversations with healthcare professionals. These calls resulted in nearly 3,500 qualified appointments, $47 million in sales pipeline and more than $13.5 million in revenue.1 Research and Markets’ North American Healthcare IT Market Report 2013-2017.

LeadJen 1311 W. 96th Street, Suite 250, Indianapolis, IN 46260 leadjen.com

Expected annual growth rate in NA healthcare information technology market.1

30%Appointments set

during the first phone call

30%Appointments set

from a returned phone call or email 16%

Appointments set from referrals

Best strategies to reach healthcare IT buyers

Appointments set with clinical

decision makers MON TUE WED THU FRI

21%22%

19%20%

17%

Lead generation by day

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Lead generation by month

10% 11 11%10%

8% 8%7%

6% 7% 8%7%

6%

Lead generation by hour

12-1 PM

13 %11-12PM

15%

10-11AM

10%

9-10

AM

4%BE

FORE

9AM

<2%

1-2 PM15 %

2-3PM

14%

3-4PM

13%

4-5PM

9%AFTER 5PM

<5%

12

6

111

210

39

48

57

Lead generation by level

Coordinator7%

Director27%

Pres/VP/Exec16%

Manager16%

Analyst/Consult4%

Other30%

Lead generation by function

IT/Tech34%

Nursing/Patient Care/Education11%Pharmacy/

Labs11%

CXO/Strategy9%

Finance/Ops/HR8%

Compliance/Quality/Risk6%

CMO/Clinicians5%

Sales/Marketing/Consulting3%

Other13%

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