Useful Advices - Business

It is always interesting when you sit with a group of sales people and the subject turns to sports. No matter what the sport, there is the inevitable talk of the leaders and their potential accomplishments over the course of the season. When it comes to individual athletes, t

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

he talk turns to their numbers, total goals, batting average, number of at bats, plus/minus averages, number of times striking out with men at second, short handed or power play goals, home average vs. road average, and so on. The athlete’s numbers are dissected and analyzed

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

from all angles, usually in connection with a pool or a wager.

Yet often when you ask the same sales professional what their numbers are, they usually tell you their goal, where they are vis-?-vis their goal, perhaps how many sales they have that month, how many accounts the

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

y currently have, but usually not much more.

But like athletes, sales professionals need to track much more if they want to consistently outperform. How many at bats? Or better yet how many appointments did you have this year, and how is that versus last year? Is that number

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

of appointments adequate to get you to your goal? To properly answer that, it is necessary to break down your goals to understand the level of activity needed to achieve it. Somewhat like working on your batting average and number of hits. To accomplish this you need to tr

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

Combination pro

ack a number of things, and then work backwards from your goal.

Three things are a must:

- The average length of your sales cycle
- The average size a sale
- The number of meetings (appointments if you will) during that sales cycle to close the sale.

Very few peo

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

ple can tell you what their average sales cycle is for a given product (understanding that some folks sell a variety of products, and each may have a different cycle), key here being average. When we ask about the length of the sales cycle for a product we often get a wide ra

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

ge of answers. Recently we had a manager tell us that the normal cycle was between 10 to 12 weeks. When we put the question to his team of 8 reps, the shortest was 6 to 9 months; the longest was a year to 15 months, quite a range.

Now it goes without saying that if you looke

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

d at the last 100 sales for a given product, a pattern will emerge. After you take skills and other factors into account, you will see a discernable curve. Leave out the anomalies and you’ll find that some 80% will fall in to a tight range. That is your sales cycle. Doing thi

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

s takes effort and cooperation between rep and company, but it is a worthwhile exercise that helps everyone set benchmarks; and hey, leverage the investment in that CRM. This same process will give you the average size of each sale.

This done you can then focus on the averag

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

e number of meetings to close a deal. This is much more an individual exercise, but there is benefit in knowing the organization’s average. But unless you know how many meetings you will need to close a deal, how will you manage your diary. With tools available today this is

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

Following aspects would a

an easy thing to discover and track going forward. Now you can easily know how many sales you’ll need to make your year, or better yet, how many you’ll need to beat your goal, how many meetings you’ll need to schedule and properly manage your time.

This can also be the base

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

for further improving you’re activities to deliver success. For one, you need to know how many “new prospects” you need to engage to reach your goal. Allowing for the fact that a certain part of you goal will come from existing clients, it is also important to know how many

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

new prospects you need to identify, find, engage and close to make your number.

For example, if the first exercise showed that your cycle is a month, you need 60 sales a year (or 5 per month), and it takes on average 4 meetings to close a deal. You know that you will have a

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

inimum 20 meetings per month. This assumes that you will close every new prospect you meet, but if you close (in the current cycle) only one out of every three new prospects you meet, then you can add ten more meetings. Now if half those go to a second meeting before you loos

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

e them as prospect, add another 5 meetings. That is 35 meetings for the month. If you loose two more after 3 meetings, you’re at 38 meetings a month or about 9 per week. And we haven’t even begun to allow for account management, admin, and most but not last: prospecting.

By

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

the way, the above works just as true (and well) if your average sale is $600,000, over a 12 month cycle involving 10 meetings.

What does it take to set 15 initial appointments it takes to secure five deals a month? How many people will you need to speak to, how many will yo

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

u need to reach out to, how much time will this take everyday?

You have to take the time at the start of the year to work backwards from your goals, using your specific stats (at bats, batting average, times called out on second after a walk to first…). You need to repeat th

.

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

is at least quarterly based on success YTD, or even monthly depending on product, market and cycle. In a slow year you need to increase activity and productivity according to results, and in good years you set to out perform or moderate pace and perhaps work on existing clien

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ts and penetration.

Now athletes and coaches go through this almost daily, not only looking at game stats, but reviewing tapes, and then adjusting accordingly. Sales professionals have to as well. Without working backwards from your goal, you have little chance to get ahead

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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Business incorporation is a form of legal arrangement open to any business. There are advantages and disadvantages to the corporate form of business which is why you need to consult with your lawyer and accountant to determine if incorporation is the form that you require.

Are you looking for a new job? You may want to be hired as quickly as possible. In this case, you should be prepared to answer properly, correctly, and intellectually all the questions that may be asked in the interview.

I worked in the film industry for almost 9 years for my ex-husband’s company. When we split, I had the dire task of figuring out just what else I was supposed to do, having worked in that industry for his company for the duration of our relationship, here I was, having to think about finding a job. A what? I was totally clueless. Where would I start?

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