Blog

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…

17Jun 2022 by cesare ferrari

6 Ways To Keep Your Medical Device Distributor Engaged And Selling For You

Sales

As mentioned in this post, I think medical device distributors are not commodities; on the contrary, they are key assets on which a company's profitability is built, and this is the essence of medical device distributor management. For a medical device manufacturer, finding a valuable partner could be a challenge; it requires a rigorous process and a bit of luck. However, once you've found the right partner to sell your products in the assigned market, the job has just started; your next concern is how to keep the distributor engaged and selling your products. Well, that's the topic of this post. Below I've listed 6 ways to keep your distributor engaged and selling for you. #1 Focus on your most valuable distributors Develop a classification of your distributors based on…

03Jun 2022 by cesare ferrari

How To Qualify Sales Leads Pt2

Sales

Welcome back!!! If you have read my previous post, by now, you should have clear ideas about what a qualified sales lead is and the different tools available for sales lead qualification. In this second part, I will describe sales lead qualification (using BANT as a framework), and the sales rep's activities to qualify or disqualify the leads. Qualifying questions For proper sales leads qualification, you need to have a well-developed list of qualifying questions. These questions should help to obtain useful information to move the lead to the next stage of the sales funnel. I'd like to clarify that I'm not a fan of scoring systems where the sales rep has to rate, for example, from 0 to 5 the answer obtained. In my opinion, it is often too…

22May 2022 by cesare ferrari

How To Qualify Sales Leads Pt1

Sales

Suppose you want to grow your business as a medical device distributor or as a sales rep; you need to have a predictable sales pipeline. Likewise, if you are working in marketing or sales for a medical device company, one of your goals is to help your sales force build a strong pipeline. In my years in Medtech, I found out that Sales Lead Qualification is a vital process companies should use to determine which prospects are the best sales targets and is a critical part of a well-constructed sales strategy. Unfortunately, not everyone who expresses interest in your product or service is ready to purchase or will eventually purchase your product. In my opinion, lead qualification is a step that many sales organizations fail to perform effectively in the…