Covid-19 Marketing Protocols

It's time to take some smart preventative action to help ease the Covid-19 virus. It's certainly not time to panic, but to take good common sense measures to help slow the spread of the virus.

Today, the World Health Organization declared the virus a pandemic, which means we are in the midst of a global spread of a new disease, that people do not have an immunity to.

So, since our marketing teams are frequent travelers in and out of facilities that have at risk patients, we need to become part of the solution, not part of the problem. Just today I had 3 conversations with 3 clients on how to manage their marketing and sales efforts during this time.

Here is what we at Power Shot Training are recommending you put in place immediately.

1. Call Ahead - Use the telephone before you visit any referral source to see if they have any restrictions on marketers entering their building. If they do, honor it. Stay in touch weekly to see when the restrictions are lifted.

2. Use the phone when necessary - While you know we recommend never selling over the phone, it is the best, safest tool we have right now to communicate about referrals, discharges, and patient updates. While I always stress getting face to face with referral sources, this is not the time to put others at risk.

3. Limit field selling to absolutely necessary accounts - If you are summoned to a building, go. If you can achieve your goal via email, text, phone, or social media....do that at least for now. Inform your contacts that you plan on staying away until you and they feel it is safe to return.

4. Don't be a carrier - While the risk of serious complications for younger (under 60) healthy people appears low, the virus can be carried for up to 10 days without symptoms. We've seen that 10 nursing homes in Washington now have confirmed cases, and these residents are those with the highest risk of death. Don't be the person that introduces the virus into one of your facilities. Use smart hygiene such as washing hands frequently, using sanitizer wherever available, and avoid touching your face (or anyone else's). Many of you are "huggers" and while there seems to be little risk in hugging as long as hands don't touch faces, it might be time to take a more hands off approach to be cautious.

I've seen some social media posts from reps in the industry joking about still going out to get referrals, usually with some sort of hazmat suit on. While I understand the underlying intent is to be humorous, death isn't funny. Don't buck the trend and be the person walking into facility after facility just because your competition is thoughtfully staying away. That doesn't make you a sales maverick, it makes you dangerous. Please, respect the very population of patients that we all are here to care for.

The latest projections show that we may be existing with this viral outbreak through the Summer and into early Fall. That means there will be a new reality for sales and marketing people during that time. Please, share these tips with your co-workers, competitors, and other healthcare marketers.

We can play a small but important part in limiting the damage caused by this virus....and for that, I thank you.

Good (and safe) Selling!

Michael Giudicissi