Blog

03Dec 2022 by cesare ferrari

The importance of Upselling and Cross Selling in medical sales (Part2)

This is the second post about upselling and cross selling where I’ll be talking about how to effectively implement these two often misunderstood tactics. You can check part 1 here to understand the basics. How to effectively upsell and cross sell 1. Keep customer focus Active listening is one of the most important skills of an effective sales rep. By listening actively, the sales rep can anticipate the customer’s aspects, such as the available budget, main needs, what are the customer’s problems, what is not working with the current solution, what other products the customer is considering, and when the customer will need the solution, etc. Moreover, by listening and observing the customer, the sales rep will be able to adapt the communication to the customer’s personality type and adjust…

19Nov 2022 by cesare ferrari

The importance of Upselling and Cross Selling in medical sales (Part1)

Downstream marketing, Sales

As a marketer with a solid sales experience and strong customer focus, I must confess that I’ve been thinking for years that upselling and cross selling had a negative connotation in general, especially in the medical business. Sharing the customer perspective, I thought these practices were unethical sales tricks where pushy sales reps tried to sell additional products or services. Unfortunately, sometimes that is exactly what happens. However, upselling, and cross selling can bring you closer to your customers increasing customer satisfaction while bringing in more revenues and a better retention rate. Let’s explore this controversial and often misunderstood topic. The role of a medical sales rep The job of a sales rep is to understand the customer's needs and investigate if and how additional, available products or services could…

06Nov 2022 by cesare ferrari

Identifying The Early Adopters Of Your MedTech Product

Downstream marketing, Sales

This article was originally published on Meddeviceonline on September 19, 2022. Every medtech company aims to build a successful product and have a seamless launch. But for this to happen, you must first identify early adopters of your new medical product. Let's explore this concept in some detail. Who Are Early Adopters? The media often define early adopters as a customer segment of young, well-off, and tolerant to risk individuals keen to try new technologies. Think of the long lines for each new iteration of the iPhone. Sometimes, a similar description is used in the medtech business. However, early adopters are not necessarily pioneers or groundbreakers. Geoffrey Moore1 and, before him, Everett M. Rogers,2 famously identified five segments of customers to explain product adoption. They are: innovators early adopters early majority …

23Oct 2022 by cesare ferrari

Is customer orientation a priority for your entire company?

Downstream marketing, Upstream marketing

Today any company, big and small, active in the medical business declares openly that it is customer oriented. I would say that being or stating to be customer oriented or customer centric is both fashionable and necessary. However, as you can imagine there are different levels of being customer oriented, a big difference between saying and doing. And inside the companies, it is possible to have different departments with variable levels of customer orientation. Why Customer Orientation? The essence of customer orientation is focusing on the customer and potential customer, identifying customer needs (current and future), and satisfying those needs. Customer orientation is an important driver of a company’s performance as described here and companies that “truly” follow this “religion” with its behaviors, practices, and commandments are examples of success…

08Oct 2022 by cesare ferrari

What can a MedTech product manager learn from 2 great product flops?

Downstream marketing, Upstream marketing

There are several examples of product flops and I think the best thing to do with these examples is to learn from other people’s mistakes, understand what went wrong and what we can do to avoid repeating the same mistakes. Let’s look closely at a couple of examples in other industries with very detailed stories. New coke On April 23, 1985, Coca-Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta launched the new coke, and only 79 days after its introduction Coca-Cola announced the return of the original formula. Eventually, the new coke was discontinued in 2002. What went wrong? According to Wikipedia: The sweeter cola overwhelmingly beat both regular Coke and Pepsi in taste tests, surveys, and focus groups. About 10–12 percent of testers felt angry and alienated at the thought and said they…

25Sep 2022 by cesare ferrari

Who are your competitors?

Downstream marketing, Sales

The common question I ask frequently, and often get asked too, is “who are your competitors?” Although there is nothing wrong with thinking about competitors, sometimes the question is less relevant. You should not always think about your competition, because competitors are not always who you are truly competing with. Instead, you should think about alternatives. In fact, most products are competing with alternatives or substitutes. Basically, alternatives and substitutes are what your target customers are using today to solve their problems. The competitive environment According to Michael Porter, a guru on competitive strategy, a group of competitors that provide similar products or services form an industry. Porter developed the fundamental framework called the five forces model helping organizations understand their current competitors as well as organizations that could become…

12Sep 2022 by cesare ferrari

The importance of a strong brand in MedTech

Downstream marketing

In the MedTech business as I have already mentioned here the good old times are gone. This doesn’t necessarily mean that our sector is becoming less interesting and attractive. It is simply evolving like the rest of the world and this evolution will bring challenges and opportunities. Is having a strong brand important in Medtech? We all know it is extremely important in consumer marketing where the brand can be the real differentiator. In MedTech, branding was traditionally considered less important, since the purchasing mechanism is well structured and involves different stakeholders concerned only by clinical value, performance, safety, and cost. However, I think the medical device market is evolving towards an environment where the importance of the brand is increased. This belief is supported by an article published in…

26Aug 2022 by cesare ferrari

Why Are R&D Engineers Not Spending Time With Their Future Customers?

Upstream marketing

I'm deeply convinced that it's essential for R&D engineers and medical device customers like surgeons, nurses, and other HCPs to interact closely. If you'd like to know how I arrived at this conclusion, you'll only need to continue reading; perhaps you too will see reasons with me. I realized that today it is almost impossible to find someone who insists that close contact between medical device users and R&D staff is unnecessary. However, I've often wondered, "why then are R&D engineers not spending time with their future customers?" Although I still don't know the answer to this question, I will try to explain why R&D staff should visit customers in today's post. And what they should know beforehand. A MedTech Anecdote When I joined Medtronic, a colleague told me…

18Jul 2022 by cesare ferrari

4 Posts About MedTech Sales for Your Summer Holidays

Sales

It’s time for summer holidays, a chance to take some much-needed time on the beach or on the mountain with family and friends. This is the last post before my usual annual summer break, and I wanted to share four posts on MedTech sales that I consider relevant for every MedTech professionals. I will return to your inbox in August. Until then, enjoy this content. 4 Essential MedTech Sales Posts In my professional life, I found out that Marketing and Sales conflicts, are more the norms than the exception. Some tension between the 2 departments is normal but poor alignment between Marketing and Sales is deleterious and reduces the company’s performance. This post explores this hot topic and provides practical advice to increase integration between marketing and sales. Defining a…

28Jun 2022 by cesare ferrari

The Customer Is NOT Always Right!

Other, Sales

"The customer is NOT always right;" does that surprise you? The "customer is king" and "the customer is always right" are two well known sentences that are frequently used in the business community and not only. Although I have maximum respect for customers and advocate for customer centricity, customer focus, etc., I do not believe that the customer is always right and should always be treated like a king. Many think that the customer is, or should be the king and that the customer is always right in the business relationship. Some people in the medical device business consider surgeons as GOD, not just the KING. In the next paragraphs, I'll explain where these ideas come from and how they influence our business relationships. Furthermore, I'll touch on the risks…