Sales Reps - Enhance Legitimacy Through Openess

Neil and Meena state that when it comes to sales reps walking through their doors, they want to see the pros and cons of what they are offering. "The worst is when they can't tell you the downside."

"We want transparency. If sales can smell a sale, they are quick to try and close, but the biggest disappointment is when they are not so quick to respond to after sales responses through their service lines or maintenance care, and believe me this happens."

"We also look for cutting edge sales pitches due to the huge competition we face in the private sector and our budget."

It is indeed true that expenditure has increased for hearing aids from medical device companies, but HCP’s evermore discuss that representatives present only favourable information about their brand in their detailing calls and pitches on new products.

“This only reduces my willingness of hospitals and physicians to see salespeople at all, let alone listen to them. I want to know everything, yes including all the unfavourable aspects otherwise the credibility diminishes”

On Sales Reps & Marketing - Consider Me and my Patients!

Neil questions what companies are really doing in their marketing efforts to help him “If a company advertise a device through a support group, I always question whether they are helping patients to take professional advice and comply with it, or are they causing unnecessary and expensive medical requests from patients to their doctor.”

“Equally outcomes for physicians are ignored. Some have forgotten that marketing too needs an active ingredient: something with the customer that actually helps solve their problems and goes one step further than just providing the obvious solution. Otherwise why would the customer want to engage?

“Talk to physicians about their day and they will probably mention throughput rates or frustrations with patients. This is not aligned with marketing campaigns who’s objective is usually not to listen, but to bombard.

As You Advance As An Audiologist You Spend Less Time With Your Patients

As head audiologist at Portland hospital, Neil is concerned with all departments within the clinic, cochlear implants, hearing aids etc and regrets that as his career advanced, he in turn got to spend less time with his patients.

"In terms of my day, there is alot of figuring out numbers, evaluating my workforce, planning, research and maps. As I also start earlier than the rest of my team, my first half an hour could include managing the telephones and booking in appointments. I then see reps, do budget checks, work on ongoing projects and work on patient care pathways."

"I wish I could spend more time with my patients vs being involved in admin, but in this industry there is alot of red-tape that I have to work around, which is probably the one thing I hate the most about it."

Don't Bribe Me!

"Big players know that we value quality moreover, which is exactly what they all are offering, especially when it comes to Starkey, Oticon or Phonak.

They all understand that especially when it comes to private sector, we receive such pressure from administration, as they are the ones controlling the purse strings. Everyone thinks that, because we are private we of course have more budget. Actually we don't and we have to justify everything more."

Meena and Neil have to work together at the Portland hospital when it comes to providing their cases to the administration. "We work together as an allied healthcare profession and have to provide a fair case and respect budget."

"Brands of course want us to carry and push their product so throw huge discounts at us together with crappy calenders and clocks, but how about initiatives to actually make our lives better - like an easy way to pitch to the hospital directors why they should carry this product?"

Being an Audiologist - - Being Valued as Someone Who's Worth Something

"Definitely not on the NHS where you just need to deal with patient backlog! however in the private sector there is a more private and personal relationship with your patients. We have capacity to take spontaneous appointments rather than just hand our patients a ticket and ask them to stand in line for the next 6 months. Meena.

In the private sector, as an audiologist you are not part of a basic machine which tries to process patients quickly.

You are part of a team and not in competition against each other therefore cagey with knowledge.

"At the end of the day, it is never just being an audiologist. You are involved with the medical and legal side, it's not just about testing and fitting.

Audiology - A People's Business at the Portland Hospital

Vanessa from South Africa decided to become an audiologist after attending an audiology open day at her university and she describes the rest as history. "There was no convincing me about the benefits I would reap from this profession, and if your a peoples person, then this is one of the most enviable places to be."

Vanessa states she would never go back to working for the NHS even if they tripled her salary and gave her better working hours. "There's no time for patients, they are just a number to you there and there is too much pigeon-holing.

I Don't Have to Go Online!

How do we learn about new products? Sarah states that audiologists are well aware of seasonal launches and that sales reps tend to come in around these times more than other points of the year.

"We are sometimes flown to manufacturing headquarters where we will attend trainings, but there will always be a product training looped in their somewhere vs brands offering trainings purely for us to recap and learn about different kinds of hearing devices. These are however more rare, and to attend sessions not run by manufacturers, we don't always have budget to go, especially in the private sector where we have to justify more to the administration."

Audiologists go online less to look for information, "I think we moreover have brands approach us. However, sometimes I see room to set up discussions, not to discuss any product in particular, but to understand what their take on something is i.e build up of ear wax in device and how to avoid etc. Nothing like that exists though, and I need this of course to better educate my patient!" Neil