Sales Culture Transformation For A Healthcare Major

Case Study Abstract

Our client was a part of the growing healthcare industry in the sub sector of Dental Health with a growth potential of around 250% over a period of 5 years. Armed with a wide range of products that would be used by dental professionals, the company had been in business for over 25 years. The core business of the company was to bring to the market products that were innovative, and made the life of a dental practioner easy and helped him create value in the minds of the clients. Its principal dental product categories were centered around consumable, laboratory and dental specialty products.

The reach to market was achieved through distribution channels through third-party distributors. The company realized that, India as a market offered a distinct opportunity for growth in terms of its specialized product range that were highly technical and required the “pull through approach” instead of the channel driven “push forward approach”.

It was this realization that led the company to begin a process of taking a relook at the way their business was conducted, and also accepted the fact that “A pull through” culture had to set in the entire company to ensure a different brand perception in the minds of its users. The company had till then prided itself on its capacity to churn out innovative products by virtue of it’s cutting edge technologies and the spirit of innovation, however not much of focus was paid towards influencing its key influencers, who came with their usage patterns of competitive products based on what they were comfortable in using during their individual practices.

The challenge was to create that “bond” between the “brand” and the “user” so that “ Win-Win” situations could be created for both. The results of the project showed a distinct change in the following aspects:

• Increase in the “in chamber time”. The time spent with dental practioners by salespeople grew by 18 %.
• Net sales grew by 12% over 4 quarters minus the growth obtained from addition of new products.
• A “pull through” strategy showed an increase of effectiveness by 38% of salesforce.
• Dental professionals that engaged in self-generated enquiries and subsequent purchase increased by 21%. This was achieved without significant investment in marketing campaigns.