Downstream marketing Archives - Page 3 of 4

17Dec 2022 by cesare ferrari

4 Posts You Should Have Read in 2022

This is my last post before my usual Christmas break from writing and publishing. I will return to my blog, my LinkedIn page and your inbox on January 9th. Looking back at 2022, I wanted to share some reflections on my focus areas and four of the most interesting posts I published. About 2022 In 2022 one of my objectives was to create more pragmatic and useful medical sales and marketing content. Today, looking back at what I published, I’m happy about the posts and the comments. What makes me even more satisfied are the conversations I had with some of you regarding the content. During these exchanges I always received an extremely positive feedback. I’m very excited about continuing to produce meaningful and practical content about Medical Sales and…

03Dec 2022 by cesare ferrari

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

Downstream marketing, Sales

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…

22Apr 2022 by cesare ferrari

How To Increase Customer Centricity In A Medical Device Organization And Increase Profitability

Downstream marketing

This post is the third about customer centricity. I've already introduced the topic here and analyzed the issues and challenges here- you may want to refer to them shortly. In this article, I'll explore the critical steps necessary to become a customer-centric organization or at least to increase customer centricity. I'll also answer the question; "how to increase customer centricity." I acknowledge that the plan and changes necessary for achieving customer centricity will vary from company to company based on the unique challenges of the organization and its market. More so, a company needs to define why it wants to be more customer-centric, to what degree, and whether it requires an incremental or substantial change. Well, I believe the transformation to be successful MUST include the approaches below. Without further…

02Apr 2022 by cesare ferrari

Common Challenges To Adopting A Customer Centric Approach In A Medical Device Company

Downstream marketing, Upstream marketing

I have already examined and explained the meaning of customer centricity for medical device companies in this post. Here, I'll focus more on how to transition from existing product centricity and traditional structural models to new ones that deliver what customers want. Know that the first step toward a customer centric organization is understanding the difference between customer centricity & product centricity, and identifying issues & challenges. These topics will be discussed in-depth as you read on. Product Centricity Versus Customer Centricity In the table below, I’ve listed some distinctive characteristics of the product centric and customer centric strategies. Product centricityCustomer centricityBasic ideaWe sell product. Product push approach with little or no customer segmentation.We serve customer segments. Tailored product offering based on diverse customer segments. Customer insight supports the entire…

Category: Downstream marketing