Useful Advices - Business

What’s a Targeted Selection Process? As related to prospecting, it is a process or system of defining whom you want to call on and performing the due diligence of data procurement to understand who you are calling on and why you have chosen them. It can be as simple as choosing an industry, picking

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

a company name out of the yellow pages, understanding the appropriate level of contact to call on, and investigating a name that goes with the title. Or it can be as complex as an expensive CRM (customer relationship management) system for existing customers, defining market share of your product

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

Examples of combination products may in

ortfolio and routinely touching the existing base to broaden the revenue pond.

But here’s what’s important to understand. Your Targeted Selection Process is a separate component of your sales strategy. It stands by itself. But it is directly allied with your other Sales performance indicators. Th

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

e degree of success you’ll have in the business of sales is proportional to raising and maintaining these success indicators to a level more proficient than the industry norm. And the direction you decide to travel is strategic to the outcome. I call it the ‘Playing Field’. Because that’s where i

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

all starts… it’s where the game begins.

Here’s what I mean. There are basically (2) strategies in picking your ‘Playing Field’; a ‘Bottom-up’ approach or a ‘Top-down’ approach. The following is an example of a Bottom-up approach. A Telecommunications rep initiates a telephone call into a compan

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

Combination pro

y and asks the question “Who handles your telecommunications needs?” Guess where they are sent? If you said ‘office manager’ you guessed right. If you said ‘Head Janitor’ you weren’t far off.

Is there anything ‘wrong’ with that? Not really; it’s legal and a lot of folks out there do it. But le

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

’s think through this option as a ‘Business person’ would. Let’s study it as it relates to our sales process and individual Key Performance Indicators (KPI); Conversation-to-appointment ratio, 1st appointment to Proposal ratio, Closing ratio, sales cycle and average revenue per sale. Because these s

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

uccess indicators are gateways that directly affect the outcome of a sales process.

Do your KPI’s go up or down with a bottom-up approach? Historically, a bottom-up approach promotes a:

1.	1st appointment to Proposal ratio to decrease
 2.	Closing ratio to decrease
 3.	Sales cycle to increase

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

. Average revenue per sale to decrease

Bottom line, you’ll be leaving time and money on the table if you choose this Target strategy. We’ll revisit the Conversation-to-appointment KPI in a minute.

At the other end of the Target spectrum is the ‘Top-down’ strategy for securing a new Targeted b

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

usiness appointment. Let’s say that same telecommunications rep chose this approach in prospecting for new business. The first step in this process is ‘Homework’; some due diligence prior to picking up the telephone.

Activities like:

•	Gathering a list of appropriate industries
 •	Assigning t

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

e highest appropriate level of contact to each account; by company size and industry • Researching contact name for each appropriate title and account • Researching what each business does to exist and prosper

That sounds like a bit of work. But what historically happens with a ‘Top-down’ ap

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

Following aspects would a

proach in line with sales performance KPI’s?

1.	1st appointment to Proposal ratio increases
 2.	Closing ratio increases
 3.	Sales cycle decreases
 4.	Average revenue per sale increases

OK. We agree that’s a no-brainer. So it all comes down to the 1st and foremost sales performance indic

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

tor, your Conversation-to-appointment ratio. That’s simply how many times you conduct a conversation with a target prospect versus how many times you achieve one. And the national average on that KPI is between 4% and 18%; Top-down or Bottom up approach. So it takes 10, 12 or 20 conversations to

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

achieve 1 or 2 appointments. And that’s a lot of work. In fact, JDH Group studies show sales individuals spend an average of 50% of their time on prospecting activities, or about 22 hours per week.

That leads a sensible person to the conclusion that one needs to focus on efficiencies in Prospecting

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

And to secure those ‘Competencies’ one must develop a communication ‘system’ in line with your business solutions, your ‘Top-down’ Prospect perceptions and your competitive influences. Not from a product/service angle, that’s ‘selling’ over the telephone. But a communications methodology that le

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

nds itself to ‘Business acumen’; insight into what is strategic to your target prospect’s business objectives, what pains they are facing due to recent events or what changes are on the horizon that may effect their current status quo.

Next is figuring out how to communicate to your ‘Top-down’ target

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

the prospective benefits of your product/service in terms relevant to their financial Key Performance Indicators; line items like ROI, IRR and Payback Period. Those are success indicators that organizations rely on to measure progress toward their organizational goals. It’s their ‘Scorecard’.

So le

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

sson number one. When you’re addressing a target level that has Budget authority; a President/Owner of a small company or a CFO/Controller of a medium size one, you’d better be talking terms in line with what they need to accomplish, not in a ‘sales language’ creating a prospect perception that you’r

.

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

(1) don’t understand their business and (2) are simply trying to make a living. From a 10,000 foot altitude, understand and communicate what’s on your ‘Top-down’ target prospect’s ‘Front Burner’ business objectives…not clear over in the freezer!

You can choose not to accept the standard ‘sales 101

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

playing field’. Identify your individual performance components (KPI’s) that are essential to your success and develop or seek systems to raise your competency ratios and performance efficiencies. And start your process by picking a ‘Top-down Playing Field’ and educating yourself to their world

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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