Health Care Provider Remedies Lead Gen Through Partnership

According to Angela Bailey, Vice President of Marketing Operations for Ingenix, the company decided to hire on an outsourced lead management firm and was looking for a partner with highly trained sales and marketing associates to work as a seamless extension of its field sales team.

Following an evaluation of several outsourced sales lead management firms, the company signed on with PointClear in late 2006. “We were vehemently opposed to the typical dial for dollars telemarketing groups with high turnover rates and barely trained personnel,” says Bailey. “We operate in a complex business and market, and we needed a niche player and partner that would be able to manage real business conversations and represent Ingenix appropriately.”

The specific goals Ingenix gave to PointClear included the ability to identify decision-makers within the prospective customer organization, navigating internal channels as necessary. In addition, PointClear’s associates were expected to establish communication that builds rapport while effectively educating and “warming” potential buyers to Ingenix solutions.

By offloading sales lead qualification and nurturing practices to experts, Bailey says Ingenix sales representatives were able to leads comprised of bona fide buyers ready to be engaged in the sales process.

PointClear began with database-cleansing activities designed to help Ingenix refine its contact lists and prioritize prospects. In the spring of 2007, PointClear and Ingenix kicked off an extended campaign in support of Ingenix’s new MedPoint for Hospitals technology.

Multiple Touches

Ingenix MedPoint for Hospitals is a web-based tool that provides an individual’s detailed prescription history in real-time. Hospitals can use MedPoint to improve communication between administrative staff, providers, and patients to mitigate drug interaction events at all transition points within the facility. PointClear associates were tasked with reaching appropriate decision-makers, initiating discussion and communicating the MedPoint value proposition to chief medical officers and directors of pharmacy and nursing in hospitals of varying sizes.

Like senior-level executives in any organization, hospital administrators are busy and typically hard to reach. PointClear associates employed an integrated multi-touch strategy that coordinated a mix of media – phone calls, voice messages, emails, direct mailers and even handwritten notes – to build familiarity with key messaging until live contact occurred.   

“When PointClear gets someone to agree to the next step in our process, it’s a big win for us – whether it occurs through a multi-touch approach or on the very first call,” says Bailey. “Hospital executives are busy people and getting them to commit to a meeting with our sales rep indicates a level of interest and time investment.”

She adds that PointClear’s thorough qualification of prospects ensures Ingenix sales reps are spending time on the best candidates. “PointClear associates have already done the screening, so we know when we hand off a lead that it’s a viable prospect in need of our solution. The lead quality has been exceptional.”

Over an approximate seven-month time frame, PointClear associates delivered 422 qualified sales leads for the MedPoint for Hospitals solution. “Of the 422 leads delivered to us by PointClear to date, only nine have been determined invalid which is very impressive,” said Bailey. “The rest of the leads have become customers, or they are still open opportunities so we are looking forward to even greater results from this campaign.”