We
all know what our mental and social IQ means, but how
about your sales IQ? Or, how good a sales person are
you?
If I
had to list the top three skills required for success as
a supply chain professional, I would rate selling skills
as the #1 aptitude that supply chain
professionals must master, before any other skill
set.
Why?
If you can’t sell your “big” ideas to your
management and customers, it’s not important how good
you are at the other important skill sets (i.e.,
leadership and time management, etc.), because you won’t
be able to employ them effectively if you can’t sell
your “key strategies and concepts” in the first
place.
So if
you want to have your “big” ideas approved and
implemented at your hospital, system or IDN without the
hassles you are facing now, you better start reading
some good sales books (i.e., Spin Selling, Sells
Bible and Magnetic Selling) and apply what you learn
from them to improve your sales IQ today.
Your Partner in Supply Chain Savings,
Robert T. Yokl, President and CEO
P.S. “In
God We Trust, but all others bring good data to back up our
assumptions!” I always remember this saying an old CFO
boss of mine was very fond of and used to say to me when we
had our budget meetings back in my Director of Materials
Management days.
Why Do You Need A Strategic
Value Analysis™ Plan More Than Every Before?
“If
You Are Looking For “Breakthrough” Improvement In Your Non-Salary
Expense Reduction Efforts, You Need New Strategies, Tactics, And
A Rock Solid Plan To Do So.”
Thomas Carlyle once said that “Nothing is more terrible than activity
without insight” which is how most healthcare organizations launch
their value analysis programs with a lot of activity, but
little or no vision, mission, values, perspective, objectives,
measurement, baseline, targets, strategies, tactics or timelines for
success.
This fatal flaw in lack of planning is the reason why most value
analysis programs just happen in an unplanned and disorganized
manner. To increase your probability of success, you need to
conscientiously develop a road map to be followed over the next
three to five years by your value teams(s) to establish, renew or
reinvent your value analysis program.
The term “strategic
planning” is not a new term in management’s lexicon it is derived
from military usage and the need for on-going assessment and
self-appraisal of an organization’s strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats. Strategic planning is a systematic
and defined planning process leading ultimately to the appropriate
strategy, tactics and solutions that are necessary to enable any
business (profit or non-profit) to adapt to change in an
ever-changing marketplace. The end result of such a planning
process is a clear vision of where your organization should focus
its energies and resources in the short, intermediate and long term to
meet their stated mission and objectives. Updating an organization’s
strategic plan on an annual basis enables an organization to react
quickly to changes in their environment, thereby, making mid-course
corrections as required.
What Is
A Strategic Value Analysis™ Plan
A “Strategic Value
Analysis™ Plan” has many similarities to the strategic long-range
planning process in that it is a systematic and defined planning
process. This plan enables a healthcare organization to identify the
GAPS with a GAP Analysis in its non-salary cost management
strategies and tactics and devise new strategies and tactics for
reducing and controlling your non-salary expense costs by employing the
techniques and tools of value analysis. It begins with defining our
vision, mission, values, perspective, objectives, measurement, baseline,
targets, strategies, tactics and timelines for success for your
value analysis program in terms of what our aspirations are one, two and
five years out. It includes answering the following questions: What
savings and quality goals are real and achievable? What policies
and procedures are required to align them with your new, renewed or
reinvented value analysis program? What steps need to be taken to
develop value teams that will be creative enough to meet the
challenges of your value analysis program? What problems or hurdles
can we anticipate that would threaten the success of our value analysis
program? And finally where do we get started? This type of
planning process positions your value analysis program to be successful,
as opposed to just letting it happen in an unplanned and disorganized
manner. If developed properly, it will provide you with a road map for
your value analysis program and give you a defined direction to follow
over the next three to five years.
Activity Without Insight Is A Terrible Thing!
Of
all of the false steps that I have observed when hospitals and
systems are establishing, renewing or reinventing their value analysis
programs, the most egregious mistake has been the absence of a
“Strategic Value Analysis™ Planning process” when they are preparing to
launch their value analysis program.
Consistently, one common denominator that I have found in value analysis
programs that fail miserably
is
that they always seem to start with a great amount of activity on
their road to non-salary savings. Yet, because of the lack of insight
and planning they generate meager savings and along the way
frustrate participants that are involved in their value analysis
program because they aren’t organized, prepared and structured to save.
Don’t make this
same misstep!
By developing a “Strategic Value Analysis™ Plan" first, prior to
launching your new, renewed or reinvented value analysis program, you
will discover the most advantageous means and methods available to you
to insure the success of your program
|
WHY AUDIT YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN?
If You Were Missing Big Savings--How
Would You Know?
Start Saving Now with Our Free
Supply Scorecard
You Have Everything to Gain and Nothing to Lose!
Click Here to
Learn More |
Subscribe
to our FREE weekly email
newsletter--"Savings Beyond PriceTM" (over 4,000 subscribers nation-wide)