How to Influence Practice Managers, Veterinarians, Technicians, and CSRs

The sole decision maker is nearly extinct. Our team performed recent market research that revealed that just 1% of corporate veterinarians report making purchasing decisions alone, and only 15% of private practice research respondents report independently making buying decisions.

In the same research study, 54% of veterinarians view technicians as influencers, compared to 34% of veterinary technicians identifying themselves as influencers.

What does this mean for B2B veterinary marketers?

• More people are involved in decision-making.
• Buying processes can take longer because of consensus-building.
• There are more team members researching products.
• Product adoption and utilization hinge on the whole team.
• Different roles drive different objections.
• The entire team needs to understand how products bring value to their role.
• Veterinary technicians have more influence than they even know.

In this article, you’ll get tips to help you influence all key stakeholders in veterinary practice to drive product adoption.

Understanding the Members of the Buying Committee and Their Needs

There are some nuances between buying processes in corporate vs. private practices. Corporate practices may require additional approval levels, depending on the type of purchase or dollar amount. Still, regardless of the kind of practice, the key stakeholders at the clinic level are often the same.

Veterinarians, Owners

When a private practice does have a sole decision maker, it’s usually the practice-owning veterinarian. Historically, these have been the highest-value leads. This role remains critically important in making purchase decisions.

Practice-owning veterinarians have diverse priorities that make them essential in the decision-making process. They often care about product efficacy, quality of patient care, workflow integration, and the business implications of new product adoption.

Activate this influencer group with clinical education, then influence sales with case studies, testimonials, ROI reports, and product implementation support.

Veterinarians, Associates

Associate veterinarians play a critical role in clinical decision-making. While they may be less focused on a purchase's financial aspects, they care about how a product impacts patient outcomes and client conversations. If your product requires an upcharge, associates need clear guidance on communicating its value to pet owners. Their confidence is essential—without trust in the outcomes or comfort in recommending the service, adoption will stall. Pay close attention to the needs of this group during product implementation since they are the keystone to adoption success.

Research and clinical education can attract this group's attention. They are most interested in products that improve clinical outcomes. They are also responsive to case studies and testimonials from their peers.

Practice Managers

Practice managers wear many hats in the clinic, often picking up responsibilities that fall outside the clinical team. They thrive in fast-paced environments and focus on improving efficiency, supporting staff, and maintaining client satisfaction. This group wants to know that products clinically work, but that’s definitely not their primary focus.

To grab their attention, emphasize workflow efficiency, ROI, impact on team dynamics, client compliance, pet owner satisfaction, time savings, and overall clinic growth. Business case studies work well with this group, but remember, they’re swamped. So capture their attention quickly and make it easy to take the next steps.

Technicians

Technicians are the hands-on heartbeat of the veterinary clinic. The clinic has a diverse set of touchpoints, including everyone on the veterinary team, patients, clients, and clinical responsibilities. They care about how new products will impact their workload, how easy they are to use, and how they will impact patient care. Technicians are often sent to find and research new products for the clinic, so don’t underestimate their influence on the veterinary team. Remember from the intro? Even they underestimate their own powers of persuasion.

Speak their language by demonstrating how your product simplifies their day-to-day responsibilities, streamlines workflow, and brings value to patient care.

Customer Service Reps (CSRs)

CSRs are the face of the veterinary practice, interacting with clients to schedule appointments and check in and out. This group cares most about tools that can impact communication (and get that phone to stop ringing!), ease scheduling, or level up client satisfaction.

As you can see, the veterinary team has diverse needs. But one thing they all need to know is about your product. That’s right. In today’s environment, it’s not enough to educate the practice-owning veterinarian.

Collect the Data You Need for Segmentation

Effectively reaching the entire care team starts with knowing who they are. That’s right. Data. Use these tips to ensure you can appropriately target each persona on the veterinary team to deliver the right message, at the right buying stage:

• Collect Job Role Data
  If you’re not already collecting job roles, start immediately. Use a dropdown field to segment the data easily.
  
  
• Nurture Sequences by Job Role
  Create email warm-up sequences for each job role. Since each role has a different set of interests, we should treat their introduction to your brand according to that role.
  
  
• Send veterinarians clinical studies, CE opportunities, and research.
• Share workflow case studies, testimonials, and ROI calculators with practice managers
• Demonstrate how “a day in the life of a veterinary technician” can be improved.
  
  
• Qualifying Information by Job Role
  Each buyer persona has different buying indicators. Make sure you ask different sets of qualifying questions for each group. This will enable you to uncover potential buyers before they raise their hand.
  
  
• Channel Strategy
  Each buyer persona tends to spend their time in different places. For example, you may find that veterinary technicians are much more socially active on Facebook and Instagram, while associate veterinarians are easier to reach via email, and practice managers might be more responsive to SMS. Include this in your nurturing plans to ensure you communicate where each group is most comfortable.

Tips for Educating the Entire Team

The team that learns together buys into new products and services together. Use these tips to provide well-rounded education to the entire care team to accelerate buying cycles:

• Know Your Audience when Partnering with Media
  When promoting content through paid media channels like Clinician’s Brief, ensure your content is aligned with the right audience. Our team can narrowly target the persona that your content is most appropriate for. Clinician’s Brief also has a Clinical Suite content program that gives veterinary teams a roadmap for addressing clinical challenges around a specific topic. This is a great way to showcase the real-world value of a team-based approach to education, communication, and effective treatment protocols.
  
  
• Create Team-Based Content
  Develop webinars or downloads that address every team member's role in solving a clinical problem. Include downloadables or companion assets for each key stakeholder on the team.
  
  
• Equip Your Sales Team
  Generate leave-behind handouts, case studies, explainer videos, and other sales assets tailored to each stakeholder on the decision-making team. The more information that you can proactively provide to overcome objections from each member of the buying team, the faster your buying cycle will be

Do’s and Don’ts of Team-Based Communications

Getting Started Marketing to The Veterinary Buying Committee

Use this step-by-step guide to get started taking a tailored approach to nurturing all influencers and decision makers on the veterinary team:

1. Identify who the buying committee is for your product.
2. Create a persona for each job role, outlining what they care about.
3. Develop top of funnel, middle of funnel, and bottom of funnel assets for each persona.
4. Set up automated nurture campaigns based on job role.
5. Evaluate the success of your nurture program and tweak.

If you need help winning over the entire decision-making committee, contact the Clinician’s Brief team. We can help develop campaigns that activate segments of or the entire care team to drive smoother sales cycles and stronger adoption.