When you look at the job of a hospital CIO, I think their number one job is as a salesperson. A hospital CIO’s day is full of sales meetings. I’m sure that many won’t like to see it that way, but it’s true.
Think about the hospital CIO budget. The hospital CIO’s job is to sale the budget to the other hospital executives. If they don’t do a good job selling the budget to the executives, then you might not get the budget you need and then you’ve got other issues. In fact, the biggest issue you have to face is how you’re going to sell the smaller budget to the people who work for you.
Another important job of a hospital CIO is to set the vision for the organization. Making sure everyone in the organization is proverbially “paddling in the same direction” is fundamental to leadership in general and particularly to a hospital IT organization. How do you make sure that your vision is understood and executed by your organization? That’s right, you have to sell it to them.
Hiring the right people is also crucial to the success of a hospital CIO. Convincing the best people to come and work for you instead of someone else is a sales job of the highest degree. Ok, you get the point. A hospital CIO is a salesperson.
If you haven’t brushed up on your sales skills lately, you might want to expand your reading and consider some reading focused on selling techniques. The dynamics of what a hospital CIO sells are different and maybe no money changes hands in the transaction. However, you can be sure that every successful CIO is a good salesperson.