The best phone system for healthcare and medical device companies
Your contacts are reachable for twenty minutes a day: be there for exactly that window.
Hundreds of companies use 
to make every call pay off
The situation
What holds you back today
Clinicians reachable in very short windows
Practice reception screening every call
Every exchange has to be traceable
The answer
What Skipcall changes
Specific to your industry
Who to call, and in what order, in the NHS and in the community
In healthcare, the person who uses is not the person who buys, and the person who buys does not use. The same device can be asked for by a clinical service, assessed by clinical engineering and ordered through a national framework, each on its own calendar. Calling out of order costs months.
In a hospital: the clinical service, then clinical engineering, then procurement
The service states the need, clinical engineering or medical physics assesses it technically and for safety, and the procurement team runs the process. For sterile and implantable devices, theatre management and pharmacy come into the loop as well, and the trust's medical device safety officer may be consulted. Only call procurement once the need is written down: a sales call that reaches them first rarely comes back out.
The framework, not only the trust
Many trusts buy through NHS Supply Chain or through a regional framework, and more and more decisions sit at integrated care system level. Check before you call whether your product has to be on a framework first. Without that, an enthusiastic yes from a consultant never turns into a purchase order.
In general practice: reception keeps a diary, it is not a wall
Say in one sentence what the call is about and which clinician it concerns, then ask when they take that kind of call. In most practices the practice manager handles equipment and supplier questions instead of the GPs, and in a primary care network one practice often leads on buying for the others. Call back at the time you were given, quoting the person who gave it to you.
In community pharmacy: the owner signs, the team knows
In an independent, the owner or superintendent pharmacist decides; in a multiple, the terms sit at head office and the branch applies them. The dispenser is the one who knows the current shortages, the ordering habits and the wholesaler. Call away from counter peaks, early morning or right at the start of the afternoon, and never on a Saturday. A question about a supply problem opens more conversations than a range presentation.
Two things specific to the sector shape what you can say. Hospitality and anything of value offered to NHS staff is tightly constrained by trust policy, declarations of interest and the industry codes of practice. And a device placed on the Great Britain market is registered with the MHRA and follows UK rules, so an approval obtained elsewhere is not the answer to a question about this market. Add to that telling your contact when the call is recorded.
The script
The script for a call in the community and in a hospital
Your contacts give you a few minutes between patients or between cases. So the script has to earn a window and then use it. In the community, the goal of the first call is a call-back time given by reception. In a hospital, it is the names of the two people who will keep the file alive once the clinical service has said yes.
The opener with reception
“Hello, [first name last name], from [company], we supply [type of device]. I am not going to take the doctor's time now: when in the week do they take that kind of call?”
Saying up front that you are not asking to speak now gets you a window instead of a refusal. Note the name of whoever gives it to you and use it when you call back.
Opening with the clinician
“You gave me ten minutes and I will keep to them. Today, for [procedure or indication], what are you using?”
Starting from what is already in use, rather than from the product you sell, is what separates a professional call from a sales call.
If they ask for documentation
“I will send it tonight. One question first, so I only send what applies to you: are you mostly on [indication A] or on [indication B]? And I will call you on [day] to hear what you think of it.”
When the clinical service is on board
“Your view covers the clinical side for me. What I am missing is two names: whoever in clinical engineering will assess this, and the person in procurement who handles this category. Can you give me those?”
A yes from a clinical service that never reaches clinical engineering or procurement never becomes an order, and nobody will tell you the file has stopped.
If they say they buy through a framework
“That is exactly why I am calling now rather than later. Is the product already available to you on that framework, or do I need to start that process at my end before we go any further?”
If they ask for a favour or a gift
“I can arrange a device for evaluation, under a written agreement. What I cannot do is offer you anything personally: what may be given to NHS staff is tightly limited, and both of us would have to declare it.”
Saying it yourself, calmly, is better than discovering it halfway through a process. It also reassures a contact who is used to the subject being left vague.
At Skipcall, every call is recorded, transcribed and summarised, so the script gets corrected against what your reps actually say rather than what we imagine they say.
Avoid this
Three mistakes this industry makes on the phone
The mistake
Saying on the phone that a device is funded.
Do this instead
Do not commit verbally on funding. Check how the product is actually paid for, through a framework, a tariff or a local arrangement, and answer in writing: a mistake on that point follows you to the end of the process.
The mistake
Leaving a voicemail on a practice line that names the product and the indication.
Do this instead
That voicemail is played back in a room patients walk through. Leave a name, a company and a number, nothing else, and call back in the window reception gave you.
The mistake
Calling a ward during handover or during the operating list.
Do this instead
Ask the ward manager when the team can be reached. A call during theatre or at a shift change is neither taken nor returned, and it costs you the availability you would have had next time.
Frequently asked questions, Healthcare & medical devices
Other industries that prospect by phone
See all 25 industries →Pharma & laboratories
Add systematic phone coverage of your territory to the visits you already make.
Franchising & network development
Recruiting a franchisee takes dozens of calls: automate everything except the conversation.
Charities & fundraising
Every pound of budget has to produce as many conversations as possible.
See what it does on your own lists
A demo runs on your own contacts, not on a sample data set.
Personalized demonstration