In the last tip, we saw how having a viable competitive alternative is proven way to strengthen your position when negotiating for capital equipment. But sometimes, your own hospital can make it tough for you to use that strategy.
Hospital end users often develop a seemingly blind loyalty to a specific product for any number of reasons (a proprietary feature, system/brand familiarity, a convincing demo, etc.). For those colleagues, it can seem like the mere suggestion of an alternative will be met with overwhelming resistance. You’re at an impasse: you need a viable second option, but your users only want one. What do you do?
Get user buy-in by helping them understand the broader product considerations. If you have a truly viable alternative, it should offer several relative advantages over the preferred system—so frame it in terms of potential benefit to users. Would overall hospital workflow improve? Would reimbursements change? Would savings offered by the alternative system allow the department to redirect their budget toward other priorities? Help users understand how another product would still meet their clinical needs by sharing product literature or connecting them with users at other hospitals, because it’s entirely possible that they just aren’t aware of the feature similarities in another system. It might take some extra time and effort, but it’s worth it. Working with users early in the contracting process makes it easier to secure buy-in (even if begrudgingly), letting you negotiate with as much leverage as possible.
Recently, a Miga hospital client discovered the value of user buy-in while upgrading a group of cardiac ultrasounds systems. At the time, there were as many as 18 different models from multiple different OEMs in use. After working to understand the users’ most pressing needs, the client identified two viable replacement options and convinced users that either one would suitably meet their needs. By taking advantage of a promotion from the alternative system’s supplier, the hospital was able to realize $357,000 in incremental savings. Better still: after an initial learning period, many of the users found that they actually liked the new systems MORE than their previous preference.
But what if you really can’t get agreement on anything but “the one”? There’s a final strategy you can use to level the playing field with a competitive alternative. But that’s next month’s tip!