Useful Advices - Business

The successful sales rep matches the steps of their selling process to the customer's buying process. In other words, for the customer's Need,

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

Requirements, Solution, and Deal, the sales rep;

helps the customer Explore their Need
; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in
ong>;
helps the customer Define their Requirements;
Proposes the Solution that best meets their requirem

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

ents;

and Closes the Deal.

The move from one step to the next depends on your ability to ask the questions that leads th

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

e customer to realise the need, build a set of requirements, and accept that your solution meets the requirements. It’s important to remember that you can’t rec

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

ommend a solution when they’re just starting on the buying process. Only when they’re looking to finalise the solution does it makes sense to offer one.

Let’s

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

start at the beginning and talk about exploring need.

The total of those you do business with is, by definition, 100%. Of that total, maybe 15% are buying at a

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

ny one time. That leaves 85% in the Need phase. Of the ones in the Need phase that you can reach, you’ll discover they divide into two categories. Some will hav

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

e a satisfied need and some will have an acknowledgement of need.

What’s the difference? Well, those with a satisfied need believe they have what they want. Th

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

ere’s nothing to do. They have a new car sitting on the driveway, for instance, and they’re happy with it. Those acknowledging a need, on the other hand, may re

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

alise that this car doesn’t quite live up to expectations but they’re not thinking of changing it just yet. With a few good questions you may be able to move sa

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

tisfied need at least as far as acknowledging need.

The unclear need stage is where selling begins. Selling here is about helping your customer to the next sta

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ge and getting them to commit to do something. How? By helping them identify their need and showing them the pain in doing nothing or the benefit in taking acti

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

on. Perhaps there’s a future opportunity they were unaware of or they were unsure how to find out about other options. Your job is to help them think through th

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

e process and move them from being satisfied to an acknowledgement that there are other possibilities.

And the best way to do this, of course, is through explo

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ration. Discover the state of their business and how things would change if they grasped some opportunities. Or, what would failure to grasp an opportunity look

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

like? Your sales skills will tell you which buttons to push to most effect: is your customer motivated by the benefits of success or the pain of failure?

You’

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

re not selling a product at this stage. It’s not even worth mentioning the name of a product. You may introduce the capabilities of your organisation, perhaps,

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

but you don’t know enough about your customer’s needs to be able to tell them there’s a product that can meet them.

Above all, this is a great time to begin to

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

shape your customer’s future request for proposal (RFP) by helping to steer needs towards areas where your organization scores more highly than your competitor

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Useful Advices - The Buying Process - Helping Your Customer Discover Their Unsatisfied Need

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