Health & Medical
At your service
How Scott Seidelmann markets new and existing services at Franklin & Seidelmann Subspecialty Radiology LLC
By Brian Horn
Smart Business Cleveland | June 2007
While it’s not a slam dunk, selling new services to an existing
client could be a pretty easy task if you’ve maintained a
good relationship.
Scott P. Seidelmann, president and COO of Franklin &
Seidelmann Subspecialty Radiology LLC, says that when his company — a provider of teleradiology interpretation — is developing
a new service, it’s because a client asked for it. And that is a result
of good communication, which is key to any successful aspect of
business.
“It is just listening,” he says. “I’m not sure we are being too entrepreneurial in investing or building a new service that we aren’t sure
if they would accept it. We have a good test market right there. It’s
very easy to get a phone call that says, ‘Do you offer this?’ or for us
to call a few others and say, ‘If we did that, would that be something you would like us to do?’”
The challenge is in deciding if a new request is worth the investment.
“There are times we hear about things that sound crazy,”
Seidelmann says. “We chew on that for a while and, if we ever
deem it worthwhile, we will assign someone to go do some homework, see what it will take and put a plan together. Or call 20 more
clients and find out if this is something they have interest in. That’s
the best part about having an existing client. We have the test market right there and can call and ask how they are doing and how
they would react to a new service.
“We have a call center, and it’s easy to ask our call center, ‘Hey,
when you are chatting with clients about the more mundane dayto-day things, ask them a question about it, or are they interested
in that.’”
And even if the company declines to pursue an idea now, that
doesn’t mean it is dead. For example, Seidelmann said there was a
request the company researched a couple of years ago and then
declined to try, but earlier this year, it revisited the idea and decided to pursue it.
He says that at the time, he and his team declined the idea
because it took the company in a direction they didn’t want it
to go, and they needed to focus on other aspects of the business. But Seidelmann says they knew they would try it eventually.
“It was definitely the demand and that competition had started to offer this service,” he says. “I don’t think it’s a differentiator. I don’t think someone else is going to go to a competitor
because of this service.”
Seidelmann says it’s important to watch what the competition is doing, but you shouldn’t add a service only because your
competition is providing it.
“What’s important is keeping an eye on why you are different
than your competitors,” he says.
Seidelmann says you should acknowledge how you are different from your competitors and continue to invest in accentuating those differences.
“Focus a lot of resources there,” he says. “I’ve got to weigh
the fact that I have X resources to invest and I can invest it in
the things that are making me different or invest it in the other
thing the competition did. It’s still going to make sense for me
to invest in what I am doing and not make an investment in
something else that will make me just like a competitor.
“You do your homework and create your charts and do your
analysis, and at the end of the day, I think there is a significant portion of a judgment call you have to make.”
HOW TO REACH: Franklin & Seidelmann Subspecialty Radiology LLC, (216) 255-5700 or www.franklin-seidelmann.com
Use your sales staff effectively
When trying to sell existing or new services to clients, it’s vital to
have the right number of people on each job.
Scott Seidelmann, president and COO of Franklin & Seidelmann
Subspecialty, says at F&S, it takes four employees chasing new
clients to garner the same results as one person offering new services to existing clients.
“Our sales group is literally focused on new clients, he says.
“Now, they are integrally involved in product management, which
is essentially, ‘Prospective client X is asking for Y, etc.’ and they
provide that feedback. But, we have a totally separate group
responsible for maintaining the relationships with existing clients
and delivering and selling these new services.”
Seidelmann says it’s easier and cheaper to sell a new service to
an existing client than it is to sell a new service to a new client.
“Launching a new service to an existing client means you have
fully tested that service and have a good sense they are going to
buy it.
“If you have a great product, I’d rather develop one product and
keep selling it to more and more customers than I would to sell
one product to the customers and then have to come up with
another product to sell to the existing 10 and hopefully an 11th.”
