O CC U PAT I O N A L M E D I C I N E Leveraging Existing Relationships to Generate More Business ■ FRANK H. LEONE, MBA, MPH U rgent care clinic operators tend to think of increasing employer-generated volume primarily in terms of new prospects; that is, they tend to believe that growth is attained primarily by expanding their client base. But in many cases, there is as much—if not more—oppor- tunity inherent in selling additional services to existing clients. And “cross selling” to existing clients is just one of many potential advantages that your clinic can accrue by leveraging the positive relationships that you are likely to have with many existing employer clients. Before trying to figure out what else you can sell those clients, though, you must first ask: Are they happy with the relationship and with the services we are already providing? It is risky business to assume that a given employer client is happy with your clinic’s services simply because you have not heard anything to the contrary. Accordingly, you should seek multiple opportunities to continuously assess client satisfaction. For example, you can place quarterly “check-in” calls to high- volume clients or send an annual questionnaire to all employ- er clients. The long-run viability of incorporating occupational health services into an urgent care clinic’s service mix lays in its abili- ty to expand the scope of services for employer clients. If the clin- ic focuses entirely on injury management, then the occupation- al health component of the business is likely to perish, over time. Thus, developing and marketing additional services to your existing customer base becomes a central survival strategy. You have several advantages in dealing with an existing client, compared with the challenge of landing a new one: Frank Leone is president and CEO of RYAN Associates and executive director of the National Association of Occupational Health Professionals. Mr. Leone is the author of numerous sales and marketing texts and periodicals, and has considerable experience training medical profes- sionals on sales and marketing techniques. E-mail him at fleone@naohp.com. 36 Ⅲ You (and/or your clinic) know the client and—presum- ably—have generated a foundation of trust. Since attain- ing trust and credibility is never an easy task, a large hur- dle has already been successfully navigated. Ⅲ The client is a previous buyer/user of your clinic’s serv- ices. They have used you in the past; they know that, and so do you. Ⅲ Presumably, you know the client’s business and are well positioned to understand how a proposed new service will fit into the larger picture. Building on these positives, you now need to leverage these relationships by emphasizing the inherent merit of an integrated approach to each employer client’s healthcare needs. Consider the following: “Our foremost goal is to make the greatest possible impact— both health status-wise and cost management-wise—at each client’s workplaces. We recognize that the best way to make such an impact is through carefully integrated delivery of services. To date, we have provided [specific service(s)] to your company. Now that we know your company better, we realize that by also offering [specific new services], the impact to your workplace health status, and to your bottom line, would be even more dra- matic.” Generating Leverage on the Marketing Side Building on existing relationships does not end on the sales side. Let’s look at some examples on the broader marketing side: Ⅲ Employers as references Three hard rules apply: – Find a mechanism by which to ask every employer client to serve as a reference and build up as long a list as possible. – Overwhelm reference readers with volume. If 100 employers are willing to serve as a reference for your clin- ic, list them all; it provides exceptional credibility. – Provide as much information about each reference as JUCM T h e J o u r n a l o f U r g e n t C a r e M e d i c i n e | Fe b r u a r y 2 0 0 7 w w w. j u c m . c o m