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Sales and marketing professionals should develop relationships with HIM directors, so that when there's a problem to be solved, they'll turn to companies they know and trust.

In yesterday’s post, Diann Brown shared her thoughts on the biggest challenges facing Health Information Management. In today’s post, I’ll share a few impressions that this HIM director and AHIMA board member has about vendor sales and marketing.

HIM directors seem to look favorably on companies that view her problems as their own. Diann told me about an experience she had where two of vendors worked together to help her solve an issue with her department’s workflow.

“Both  vendors were very focused on the needs of our organization and how their product could best meet those needs,” Diann said. “They didn’t pull out a heavy sales pitch or anything, or promise this or that. But they asked questions like, ‘What is your business problem, and this is how we can address that.’ ”

I also asked her to share with me some example of a marketing piece–whether an ad, an email, a website or a mailer—that was particularly memorable. Not surprisingly, nothing came to mind. She said she doesn’t consciously pay attention to marketing. But she did say that when she’s interested in something, she’ll do her reading all at one time. To me, that means that marketers need to focus their attention on their websites, optimizing them for search engine traffic. We should also consider keyword advertising so we can strike while the iron is hot.

But perhaps most importantly, sales and marketing professionals should develop relationships with HIM directors, so that when there’s a problem to be solved, they’ll turn to companies they know and trust.

Photo credit: Vaguely Artistic, (cc)

Read More: http://healthb2bmarketing.com/2010/09/interview-with-an-him-director-part-4-vendor-relationships/