Building Competitive Immunity-A Strategic Approach to Sales Success in the Healthcare Marketplace
Building Competitive Immunity is a must read for all senior leaders of an organization if not by all sales and marketing leaders, which carefully orchestrates a profound understanding and application of the ancient philosophy of the Art of War in today s competitive and global marketplace to gain a competitive edge.Knowing low price strategy is not a sustainable one, this book offers a methodical approach of identifying a unique organizational winnable position and subsequently, deployable supporting actions for achievable results.Khosrow Shotorbani Senior Vice President, Director of Sales ARUP Laboratories Member of the Top 100 Companies to Work For --Khosrow Shotorbani --CEO, National Diagnostics OrganizationAs a regional manager in the largest diagnostics company in the world I knew that our success as a team was dependent on solving our customer s most important issues. As a fighter pilot and trainer in the United States Air Force, I knew our team s success was based on tireless memorization of our capabilities as well as the capabilities of our competition. I also knew that the fight would be won by leveraging our unique strength against the vulnerable position of our competitor. It wasn t until I sat through Building Competitive Immunity that I put the pieces together and it all made sense. After that BCI® session, I had the structure and template for use in developing Phase III salespeople. Most important of all, I now knew how to hire strategists.In today s healthcare environment, access to accounts will continue to decline for sales professionals who cannot affect their accounts organizational strategy, or align their solutions to the critical success factors of the customer. If you re wondering how to learn that information at the account level, read this book, then hire Stovall-Grainger Inc. and you will not be disappointed.As a retired fighter pilot and a former member of the Air Force Thunderbirds, I would have been unable to clearly articulate the Department of Defense s strategy for success when I left the service. Through the application of BCI and studying strategy as Stovall Grainger presents it, I can comfortably say the DOD s strategy has been a lethal mix of innovation and training. That combination continues to field the most potent fighting force on earth, however, against today s asymmetric threat of terrorism, it is a strategy that needs to be revisited.How clearly can your sales and marketing teams see strategic advantage? How often do you hold war games to determine your winnable positions? Is your sales force messaging or positioning your product with its unique strength aligned to the customer s most pressing needs? Consistently owning innovation in any category of business should always be a winning strategy, but what if your pipeline of innovation dries up? What if new demands for profit produce an R & D lapse, can you afford not to have strategists on your sales and marketing teams?Just imagine if your pipeline of innovation remains viable, how much you ll be able to outperform the competition with a Phase III approach by your sales force.When I mentioned innovation as a key strategy in the DOD, I also mentioned training. I believe both are winnable positions for the US Armed Forces, but I also believe superior training is an insurance policy for a competitive surprise in innovation. You should look at your sales and marketing teams the same way. Regardless of where your business is in its cycle, adding strategists to your organization at every level is an insurance policy for your business. Whether you are launching a new product or defending hard earned market share, you won t find a better approach than Building Competitive Immunity. --Matt ModleskiTom Stovall and Dustin Grainger clearly understand all facets of the sales equation. In Building Competitive Immunity, they ve written a smart, well-researched and personable sales-and-marketing manual that is both strategic and pragmatic and highly relevant to today s rapidly changing healthcare landscape. The old rules just don t apply. For any healthcare organization competing for customer share, this book articulates the who-what-and-how to succeed in our increasingly competitive marketplace. --CEO, National Diagnostics Organization