Knowledge and Insight to Beat the Competition

Challenge

GHX is the leading healthcare technology company providing cloud based supply chain management solutions to nearly 6,000 healthcare providers and 1,000 suppliers, i.e. manufacturers and distributors around the world.

GHX was facing increasing threats to its market leadership position from both well-established competitors and other technology companies looking to enter the healthcare field.

Further, the company did not have a clear understanding of why it would win or lose deals and what strategies would be most effective to improve their win rate

Solution

Ascension developed a two-phase solution for GHX.

First, Ascension designed, built, and managed Silver Bullets, an online competitive intelligence platform providing real time tracking and insights about key competitors. A team of Ascension consultants collected information from multiple sources including primary industry research, online resources, and GHX’s own sales force. The team then translated this information into a series of online documents that profiled each GHX competitor in depth and provided strategies and tactics for winning against them.

Second, conducted a win/loss analysis of past GHX proposals to determine the key sales behaviors and related factors that led to the company winning or losing a deal opportunity. Advanced data analytics revealed which behaviors/factors were most critical to success and the potential improvement to be realized if they were performed on a consistent basis. The insights from the study informed GHX sales training and new business development protocols.

Impact

80%+ of the GHX sales force uses Silver Bullets on a regular basis. It has been credited with contributing to multiple new business wins for the company.

The insights from the win/loss research informed GHX’s sales training curriculum and the practices are now incorporated into its new business development processes.