How to Build Strong Relationships with Healthcare
People don't care about corporations. They care about the people behind the corporations. This is particularly true between healthcare organisations and healthtech companies.
Healthcare is an industry that is traditionally slow-moving and risk-averse. In this field, trust is not just important; it’s everything. And therefore, the success of implementing technology in healthcare is heavily dependent on the relationship between the people who are part of the healthcare organisation and the people who are part of the tech company.
This relationship is not merely a transaction; it needs to develop into a partnership. And a partnership is not something that can be formed overnight or through a simple business deal. It is something that can only be formed through consistent and meaningful relationship-building between the two parties involved.
So how do you build strong relationships that lead to partnerships?
1. Begin before the door opens
This relationship-building process begins before you even have your foot in the door.
Prior to any initial meeting, you need to have an understanding of who your potential new clients are. You need to understand their goals, their values, and why they need or want your technology.
This knowledge will shape how you start to cultivate your relationship with them.
2. Remember the human element
You have to remember that, like you, they are humans.
While you should always maintain some professionalism, don't forget to also factor in the personal side of the relationship. You can create much stronger connections by simply understanding and empathising with their personal challenges, which then helps create more effective communication.
Your primary focus should not be on the selling part, but on helping them reach their goals and aspirations and becoming a part of their success story.
3. Get to know everyone
More often than not, it's a multi-stakeholder situation. And this multi-stakeholder situation in healthcare makes the relationship-building process even more important because you need to understand everyone’s needs, wants, and concerns. Understanding each person on an individual level ensures that everyone feels heard and understood.
4. The relationship continues
The relationship with your client doesn’t end after the sale of your tech product; it extends throughout the entire journey, including product delivery, project management, implementation, and post-project support. If you have a strong relationship from the outset, it makes it easier and smoother to introduce new individuals into the ongoing process. And if managed well, this relationship can evolve into more opportunities.
As you continue to build and strengthen your relationship, you can become more than just a vendor; you can become a trusted advisor—a trusted partner. And that is the goal: you want to be a partner in their transformation journey.
So by continuously providing support and input and by creating a strong relationship with the healthcare organisation, you can establish credibility and trust, which develop into a partnership. The partnership can lead to a much more profound impact on both your business and the healthcare organisation, reinforcing the importance of the relationship well beyond the initial transaction.
To be successful in this industry, you must be obsessed with customer satisfaction. Treat each client as if they were your only client.
Relationships are the foundation on which trust is built and the driving force behind project success, future progress, and innovative advancements. So make sure you are investing enough time and effort in your client relationships to extract the maximum value from projects.
