Medical sales professionals encounter objections and perceived obstacles from prospects on regular basis. While the occasional surprise objection may crop 
up, for the most part reps will hear the same few concerns voiced again and again. Marketing has an opportunity to address those objections before they're raised, adding efficiency to the sales process and facilitating the way today's buyers make their purchasing decisions. A few of the key advantages of tackling common objections up front include:
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- Saving your sales team the time, effort and frustration of addressing the same few issues again and again;
- Volunteering information rather than responding from a defensive position once a prospect has raised an objection;
- Making it clear to your prospects that you've thoroughly considered the issue and aren't just formulating a quick answer to placate them; and
- Controlling the way the issue is framed.
In addition, when you address common concerns through content marketing, you cut off those objections earlier in the process. Since many prospects will have invested considerable time and research in the decision-making process before ever making contact with your medical device sales team, they'll have had plenty of time to worry over potential obstacles and give them greater weight. Unless, that is, you've anticipated their objections and addressed them in the materials they'll find during their independent research phase.
Working With Sales to Answer Common Objections
Sales and marketing alignment is never more important than when addressing frequently asked questions or preparing materials to overcome common objections. Your medical device sales team has first-hand experience with the obstacles raised by physicians and purchasers, and also knows which responses have proven most effective in overcoming those objections.
Covering the Bases with Content Marketing
You've already done the foundation work to determine what type of content is most effective for the different personas in your target market, and you know that prospects are interested in different types of content at different points along the sales funnel.
Use the profiles you've built in combination with the information you gather from your sales team to create a variety of content that addresses common objections in varying degrees of depth.
Some of the most useful types of content for this purpose will include:
- Blog posts;
- Case studies;
- Clinical data in varying degrees of depth;
- Short videos; and
- Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) pages.
In addition to preparing a variety of content for different groups of prospects at different stages of the sales cycle, you'll want to make the content available through several different channels. For example:
- Share the content in social media;
- Optimize the pages to draw visitors who are asking the relevant question;
- Address the issues in your newsletter;
- Send brief introductions and links to the content you've created via email to your prospect list;
- Educate your sales reps on the latest content you have published and how best to use it.
And, in the event that these questions still arise, your sales team will have these materials on hand to respond to prospect concerns and make it clear that you've done your homework.
Make the most of your sales team's experience in preparing medical device marketing materials to combat common objections. In addition to saving time and repetition, having these materials readily available builds confidence in your prospects.
An Example of Using Content Marketing to Answer Common Objections
In my job, I speak with many medical device marketers about how best to increase sales and acquire new customers. Our discussions typically include an evaluation of inbound marketing and why it presents such a great opportunity to educate potential customers and positively affect sales.
One objection I commonly get is, "Inbound marketing takes too long to work."
In response to this I created an article titled, "How Long Does it Take Inbound Marketing to Work?" I use this article throughout discussions with potential new clients, sending it along in a follow-up email, for example.
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