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In remarks at the Council Capital Healthcare Breakfast on September 30, 2011, Dr. Bill Bates, Chairman of the board of digiChart, drew on years of experience as a physician, 10 years of experience as CEO at digiChart, as well as his experience as Dean of Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, SC.  digiChart is a Nashville-based provider of electronic health record (EHR) solutions for 450 OB-GYN practices around the country.

Bates stressed both the challenge and opportunity of selling digiChart’s services to physicians with the statistic that today only 35 percent of practices are using EMRs.  A key to success is understanding the mindset of physicians:

• Their first priority is patient care. 
• They are averse to cold calls.
• There is no one decision maker in the practice.
• They won’t tolerate long presentations or slick sales people.
• They are more receptive to products and programs that create value and produce income; products or services that serve a compliance purpose are seen as an expense.

A good strategy is to engage a peer physician to help deliver the message to the target physicians. Presentations should be short, simple and focus on the product and its economic and lifestyle value.  It’s important to get to the pricing model quickly and then set firm timelines to get decisions.

Bates also advised short contracts – “the more pages, the more attorneys it takes to approve!”