Useful Advices - Business

Do you have blind faith that, if you can somehow convince a prospect to engage in a sales cycle, you will eventually make a sale? If you do, watch out! This belief can waste your time, effort, and company resources.

Unfortunately, time and resource investments do

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

not inevitably produce sales. How many of the opportunities in your pipeline have been stalled at the same step in the sales cycle for weeks…or months? In how many opportunities have you and your company invested enormous amounts of time, energy and resources (co

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

Examples of combination products may in

nducting product demonstrations, writing lengthy proposals, providing product evaluations, etc.), only to have the prospect decide they don't WANT to buy, or prove INCAPABLE of funding the purchase? Even when you make sales, how many turn out to be "nightmare" cus

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

tomers who are always dissatisfied and consume huge amounts of post-sale resources?

All Prospects Are NOT Created Equal

You DO need to help your prospects explore whether their business problems are substantial enough to justify investing time 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

a sales cycle. However, you also need to figure out whether each prospect is WORTHY of your time and resource investments! If a prospect is not a good fit, gracefully exit from the opportunity. (Why not refer them to a competitor and let the competitor burn some

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

Combination pro

cycles?)

How can you determine whether a prospect is worthy of your time and resource investments? Many sales skills training courses teach an acronym, M-A-N, that stands for Money, Authority, and Need. The basic idea is to determine whether:

The prosp

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

ect is willing to commit enough budget dollars (Money) to pay for the product or service

The key decision makers and influencers (Authority) have been identified; and

The prospect's pain (Need) is severe enough to justify investing in a solutio

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

Unfortunately, even when you do a good job of M-A-N qualification, you can be "blindsided" by issues that delay sales cycles or destroy opportunities outright. For example:

Some prospects prove incapable of securing financing. They may 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 budget, but they are not "credit worthy", so they can’t FUND the budget.

Some decision makers need to have specific information provided in a specific format before they can authorize a buying decision.

Sometimes you invest considerable tim

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

e and effort in troubleshooting complex problems and designing solutions, only to be informed that the prospect must take the proposed solution OUT TO BID. This can lead to the opportunity being lost to a low bidder or the profitability of the opportunity being pu

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

meled. To avoid these issues, add additional questions to the M-A-N qualification process. The acronym that I have assigned to this revised process is M-A-I-N BP, which stands for Money, Authority, Information, Need, and Buying Process. Here are sampl

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

Following aspects would a

e M-A-I-N BP questions:

MONEY

How will your prospect pay for the product or service?

Has a budget been established?

Are they credit worthy?

AUTHORITY

Who (in the prospect’s o

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

rganization) needs to approve an acquisition of this nature? INFORMATION

What information do the decision makers require before they can make a decision?

What format does this information need to be in?

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

> NEED

What are the prospect's business problems?

How compelling are they? In other words, can you quantify (associate dollars, percentages, and time frames with) the pain the prospect is feeling?

Are the quantified

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

business impacts substantial enough to warrant investment by the prospect's organization (and YOUR company) in identifying and fixing the problem(s)?

BUYING PROCESS

What is the prospect's buying (procurement) process?

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

What impact might this process have on the profitability of the transaction?

What competitive advantage will you receive if you invest your time and resources in designing a solution that goes out to bid?

If you decide to add M-A-I-N BP

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

qualification to your sales opportunity qualification process, here are some final thoughts to keep in mind:

If you don't know the answers to ALL of the M-A-I-N BP questions, it is highly likely you are wasting your time and resources!

Opport

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

nity qualification is NOT A ONE-TIME EVENT. As an opportunity advances through the sales cycle, you should frequently ask whether any of the answers to the qualification questions have changed. If an answer changes, it could impact the length of the sales cycle an

.

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

d even destroy the viability of the opportunity. At minimum, an answer change will probably require a change in focus and/or a reprioritization of planned activities.

Never feel bad about disqualifying an "opportunity". The amount of opportunity in most

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

sales territories is virtually unlimited. If you carefully qualify and re-qualify each opportunity, and only invest time and resources in qualified opportunities, you will maximize your return on time and resources invested.

Copyright 2005 -- Alan Rig

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

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.usefuladvices.org.ua/article/39935/usefuladvices-Sales-Process--How-to-Avoid-Wasting-Time-on-Prospects-Who-CANT-or-WONT-Buy.html">Sales Process - How to Avoid Wasting Time on Prospects Who CAN'T or WON'T Buy</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.usefuladvices.org.ua/article/39935/usefuladvices-Sales-Process--How-to-Avoid-Wasting-Time-on-Prospects-Who-CANT-or-WONT-Buy.html]Sales Process - How to Avoid Wasting Time on Prospects Who CAN'T or WON'T Buy[/url]

A new innovation in the insurance industry offers non-profit organizations the chance to raise millions through their senior supporters, without asking for a dime out of pocket. Everyone who qualifies wants to participate. Find out how it works and how your organization can benefit with this powerful and creative new program.

There is no other convenience like freelancing. Freelancing helps an individual to make himself a brand name in any industry. This is the most advantageous thing about freelancing. You can get your self recognized in the industry you are working, whether you get accolades or brick-bats depends on the way you have been working.

Tags

Links

Useful Advices - Sales Process - How to Avoid Wasting Time on Prospects Who CAN'T or WON'T Buy

Related Articles: