Blog

11Nov 2021 by cesare ferrari

7 Practical Advice To Align Marketing And Sales

Sales

In my first post, I already said that I’ve spent an important part of my career in sales, both in Pharma and Medical Device. Hence, I strongly believe that sales experience is critical, and it is a kind of “boot camp” for a marketing professional. In my years of experience, I found out that Marketing and Sales conflicts, especially in large medtech organizations, are more the norms than the exception. Although the tension between the 2 departments is normal, poor alignment between Marketing and Sales will always produce low performances and wasted resources. What Are The Symptoms Of A Conflict Between Marketing And Sales? Some notable symptoms of Marketing and Sales conflicts I saw more than once are: The way the 2 teams describe the other is negative.The members of…

05Nov 2021 by cesare ferrari

Key Factors To Consider In Business Development For MedTech Companies

Other, Sales

Business development for Medtech companies as for other businesses is the creation of long-term value for an organization from customers, markets, and relationships. In defining it, two key points are of utmost importance, which are long-term and value. Furthermore, business development for Medtech is a long-term activity, which means that a new business does not necessarily have to produce value in the short term but of necessity, it should produce value in the long term. In case you're wondering, "What does long term mean in this context?” Well, that is another story(which I'll still address), but it is not the focal point of this discussion. That said, it's worth noting that to leverage business development, your company must give adequate attention to creating value for all the stakeholders (i.e. company,…

23Oct 2021 by cesare ferrari

Who Is The “Customer” In Medical Device Marketing?

Downstream marketing, Sales, Upstream marketing

Keep in mind that the short answer to this is that...it depends. Luckily, as you read on you'll understand the reason for this conclusion on the role of the customer in medical device marketing. To begin with, the medical devices category is very diversified and assorted, but that's not only from the regulatory point of view.   Part of the category of medical devices include: basic medical supplies like sutures, tongue depressors, syringes, surgical instruments, and more complex devices like implants, pacemakers. It also includes big capital equipment such as CT and robots.  For the different categories of medical devices, the number of individuals and organizations that could influence the purchase decision might possibly be significant and different. In this article, I consider the “customer” of medical device marketing, all the stakeholders. And not only the…

15Oct 2021 by cesare ferrari

How To Deal With Customer Suggestions About New Products

Upstream marketing

As a marketer, there are several opportunities in your day-to-day activities where you can collect feedback or customer's suggestions about a product or service of the company. Customer feedback is a vital and valuable input and should be treated with the utmost attention. It can really bring a lot of value to the organization, and that’s the reason for having several tools like surveys, feedback forms, etc… to gather it. Today I will focus on only a specific sort of input, which is the customer's suggestions regarding a new product or service. And the risks that are associated with it. Customer Suggestions On New Products When collecting the VOC (voice of the customer) as detailed in this previous post and more specifically when interviewing customers as described in these two…

08Oct 2021 by cesare ferrari

How Marketing Can Bring Value And Better Long-term Perspective To Medical Device Companies

Downstream marketing, Upstream marketing

If you have been working in the medical device marketing for a few years; Then you've probably noticed that it is far more complicated to achieve growth in the current environment.  The good old times are gone. Incremental innovation at a premium price, product launches that almost always deliver the expectations. And rapid development projects with easy registration are becoming rare.  In the past, medical device companies could rely on incremental innovations, easy market access, fewer price constraints, and sales force relationships with the clinicians to deliver good results.  Today, the market is far more complex and competitive. To remain profitable, companies will need to leverage better, stronger, and effective medical device marketing. What Is Marketing And Why Is It Important In Medical Device According to Prof. Philip Kotler, the father of modern…

26Sep 2021 by cesare ferrari

7 Practical Actions To Promote Integration Between Marketing And R&D

Upstream marketing

After publishing a recent post that you can read here. I received feedback regarding the content, where one of the readers pointed out that the post was a bit academic. And not providing practical and actionable suggestions to increase integration and reduce the inter-functional conflict between marketing and R&D. I’ve decided to revisit the topic and provide some implementable tools to promote integration and reduce the risk of functional or dysfunctional conflicts. Highlighted below are some of the detailed points. 1. Alignment Any formal and informal opportunity should be used to make sure that the cross-functional team agrees on the fact that a successful product depends equally on the customer’s needs satisfaction, as on technological capabilities. 2. Team building Team building activities are available in a vast range to address specific limits…

11Sep 2021 by cesare ferrari

Why The Number One Reason For Product Failure Lies In NOT Satisfying Customer Needs

Upstream marketing

In 2007, the pharmaceutical giant; Pfizer withdrew from the market only a year after launching the first inhalable insulin, making Exubera one of the biggest flops in pharma and the whole healthcare business. I would like to use this example to support the thesis of using a proper VOC to identify customer needs and develop products to solve customer problems. To make the point clear right from the beginning, I know that in hindsight, it is easy to find the weak points that were not identified or not fully considered during the development process. Again, the aim of this example is not to criticize. But to bring attention to customer needs and discuss these critical elements in medical device development once more. Brief Story Of Exubera Pfizer Exubera, the first…

04Sep 2021 by cesare ferrari

How To Reduce Marketing And R&D Conflicts And Develop Better Medical Device

Upstream marketing

Have you ever seen new products that arrive too late on the market, costs of development that overrun and new products that do not offer real value to the customer? Well, one of the root causes are the conflicts between marketing and R&D. I think everybody agrees that effective coordination between various groups in the organization, such as R&D, marketing, and engineering plays an important role in the process of developing a medical device. However, the reality is that an effective and harmonious relationship is the exception rather than the rule. Problems related to poor inter-functional cooperation, communication, lack of clarity of goal and inadequate definition of project responsibilities, are frequent in any kind of organization. And you do not need to be a brilliant manager to know that poor…

29Aug 2021 by cesare ferrari

Are You Over Underestimating The Power Of The Sales Force Training?

Sales

Investing resources in the sales force (direct or indirect) is almost always paying a good interest rate. The best part of it all is that you can invest in your sales force in different ways; however, I think one of the key investments is Training. As you already know I started my professional career in sales, and I still strongly believe that spending a few years in sales is one of the best things you can do to develop a deep understanding of the market’s needs. Surprisingly, one of the market’s needs often not totally understood is a well-trained sales force. And for a prospect or customer, there is nothing more frustrating than interacting with a salesperson who does not have sufficient knowledge about their product. The Basics Of Sales…

22Aug 2021 by cesare ferrari

Ethnography: The (not so) Secret Ingredient Of Your VOC- Voice Of The Customer

Upstream marketing

Introduction Since you've been following my blog content closely, by now you already know that I'm an advocate of the VOC (Voice of the customer), as it's a source of innovation for medical device companies. More so, I have already treated the interviews extensively as a method to collect input from customers. Today, I will provide you an analysis of customers’ observations known also as ethnography, as a complementary tool to collect customer needs and wants. What Is Ethnography? The term “ethnography” is an academic and more polished way to refer to observations. Ethnography is a research methodology used by anthropologists, and it implies the observation of people in their natural environment with the goal of understanding how people live their lives. Furthermore, Ethnographic research involves collecting data in real…