Healthcare Marketing - Budgeting

The large investments made by the private players in Healthcare Infrastructure makes it imperative for them to go out and reach the patients – instead of waiting for the patients to drop by at their facility; this is where the importance of Hospital /Healthcare Marketing steps in .

Broadly speaking Hospital Marketing can be broadly classified as :

•Referral Marketing

•Corporate Marketing

•PSU/Govt Agencies

•Community Marketing

•International Marketing

The role of the Insurance Companies / TPAs has gradually developed over the years and has helped the market to grow – all healthcare facilities are now a days having associations with TPAs and offer cashless services, subject to conditions.

Referral Marketing – this involves reaching out to the primary and secondary care physicians to refer their complicated cases to the tertiary centres which are better equipped to handle such cases.

Corporate Marketing – this involves reaching out to the industries and corporates, forging tie-ups with them and offering certain unique and additional services to seek their patronage.

PSU/Govt. Agencies – entering into tie-ups with Govt. agencies like CGHS (Central Govt Health Scheme), ECHS (Ex-Sercivemen Contributory Health Scheme) and other such bodies.

Community Marketing – this goes a long way in fulfilling the social responsibility of the Healthcare Facility, whereby free or discounted healthcare services are offered to the underprivileged sections of the society. (Free Healthcheck up camps, free medicines etc)

International Marketing – the huge difference in healthcare delivery costs in India and the wes have made India a favourable destination for a new kind of travel – Medical Tourism – wherein people from the west come to India to avail of the quality healthcare services at almost one-tenth the cost in the west. This has made hospitals to market themselves as attractive destinations for quality healthcare services and healthcare delivery – Indian hospitals are extensively marketing themselves over the internet.

Budgeting - Cost-Effective Return on Investment

As a rule of thumb, calculate roughly two to three times the revenue you need to justify what the salesperson will cost you. So, if you spend Rs 75,000 per year to bring on that person, expect over time a Rs.150,000 to Rs. 200,000 increase in sales per year.”

Following rough monthly figures for reckoning the average outlay of hiring:

Salary: 20,000 to 40,000

Incentive Bonus: 5000

Benefits:2,000

Selling Costs: 3,000

Sales Collateral,Premiums, etc.: 5,000

To determine whether or not your sales staff is performing as expected, create an annual sales plan month by month. Set specific goals by modality by month, as well as overall 30-, 60-, and 90-day targets. And if you’re going to use an incentive plan, be sure to design one that accounts for what you can easily and readily measure.

Revisit your sales goals and incentive plan at least annually, but review your salesperson’s performance more often.

For instance, if they didn’t make their call quota this quarter, find out why not. And ask them what they are going to do about it. Professional sales people expect that.

” For example, Marketing executives are expected to make 10 calls per day, completing their entire roster roughly every month by calling on “A-list” doctors at least once every four weeks and on “B-list” practices approximately once every five to six weeks. Sales managers also call on the practices themselves to check on the reps’ rotation. If after four to five months you’re not seeing referrals and revenues trending upward, take action.