Chain of Ophthalmology hospitals sees conversion rate at consultations increase by 126% after personal sales training

Background

A chain of hospitals situated around the UK wanted to increase the percentage of people booking treatments as a result of first consultations.

Problem

Consultations are often more challenging sales situations than phone calls because they are longer in duration and also involve the active and cooperative participation of every team member. Often, people hired into clinical positions are not commercially aware and resist the idea of selling, even in a private setting. Processes often differ across hospitals, as different managers must cope with different limitations, often imposed by facilities, schedules, or historical preferences. Furthermore, it can be very challenging to get team members to find the time to attend training without shutting down facilities for an entire 2 days.

Solution

After sitting in several consultations across every hospital, we mapped the consultation process and agreed on a process that would represent the ideal way. This approach was approved and accepted by the hospital administrators. We then mapped our training to fit this process and developed a customised approach to deliver across the organisation. Because different roles had to be trained on different skills, we held training days for each role, and always tied it together with what the other roles were doing. Overall, the training took a total of 6 days.

Result

Monitoring progress for 3 months post training, conversion rates climbed from 31% to 70%. Importantly, these results were calculated on the basis of real consultation counts (sales conversations) leading to real deposits taken for surgery. Assuming everything else being equal, the sales team improved by their conversion rates by 126% and the client realised a return on investment of 33. We estimated their incremental gain from training was £807,300 over three months immediately following training.