The challenges of the evolving selling process

Kirsti Harefallet comments on a new insight report on healthcare professionals, purchase involvement, and selling styles.

Changing routes to purchase

If you are involved in marketing and sales to healthcare professionals, you have most certainly experienced the increase in complexity of procurement.

“The days of simply manufacturing a device, and selling it to healthcare providers via distributors, have long gone.” So say KPMG in ‘Medical devices 2030, Making a power play to avoid the commodity trap’. They go on, “Value is the new byword for success, prevention the preferred clinical outcome, and intelligence the new competitive advantage.”

To succeed, medical device businesses need to reinvent traditional business and operating models by integrating intelligence, delivering services beyond the device, and investing in enabling technology. In addition, they should reposition for the future competitive landscape, to adapt to challenges presented by new entrants, new technologies and new markets. And last but not least, it will be crucial to reconfigure their position in the value chain of the future, by connecting directly with patients and consumers, vertically integrating and even consider transforming into one-stop-shops for care.

Using the selling experience to overcoming multiple barriers to success

Research shows that even after being published as a standard of care in practice guidelines, the average medical technology takes 10-15 years to be broadly adopted, with most faltering and/or failing long before then. So, how to get cut through in an increasingly competitive marketplace, where healthcare professionals’ time and availability is valued more than anything. It’s the eternal question, and to explore this topic we interviewed a range of experienced healthcare professionals around how they see the selling process – their buying experience – from their unique perspective.

Two messages that have come through loud and clear to us. Firstly, it’s not all about price. Cheaper copies of original devices or services are looked upon with suspicion, and the main assumption will be that corners have been cut. So, while procurement is consistently pushing for reduced costs, practitioners insist on evidence that the product still meets stringent standards.

Or as a surgeon states: “If any new or change of products hasn’t been validated with the clinical community we complain, and our complaints are always taken seriously. We have managed to get improved quality drapes, sutures and IV needles when the ones chosen were not up to scratch.”

Secondly, the days of the pushy sales rep are most definitely over. The interviews confirm that while brand, product and service are critically important and the price of entry into the consideration set, but still hard for most suppliers to use as differentiators. It seems the key driver for customer loyalty is driven by the sales experience.

Or as an experienced physiotherapist states: “The best salesperson has some insight into what I actually do, how I operate, and understands which decisions I can make, and in which I have to involve someone else. If they can also suggest solutions and how we approach this together, better still.”

Using insights in marketing and sales

Research confirms that to alter customers’ purchase direction, suppliers must teach them something new about their own business and plot a clear course of action. The question is, can this be used to build credibility and strengthen relationships?

According to a nursing director we spoke with: ‘‘The smart people will have insights about what’s going on in national policy or failure of care, and ensure they put their product or service in that context. Also, if they have references/advocates from other NHS/government facilities that I can speak with. I know they understand our quality requirements. Having amplified the learning and created advocates of other nursing directors really impresses me.”

Finally, the importance of assisting in throughout the process should not be underestimated. One respondent tells us “I am very specific in what I require, but there is so much red tape in the public sector, so I need someone to help me overcome the barriers, jump through the hoops, and understand just how much time it all takes and not to get impatient. If they have special knowledge in difficult fields like contracting, legal and IP, this is a huge bonus.”

An example of a company that has listened to the needs if the healthcare community and is adding value outside of a pure product sell is Smith & Nephew in the design of their WOUND COMPASS Clinical Support App. They had experienced how increasingly non-wound specialists were treating chronic wounds, combined with limited wound care education and experience resulting in a decline in confidence and inadequate adherence to formulary guidelines. To help reduce the variation in practice they worked closely with experienced wound care practitioner to create a framework and finally a digital tool that aids wound assessment and decision-making. The usefulness has been validated by 70 clinicians through 400 assessments.

The conclusion for the medtech sector: To overcome the multiple barriers to purchase, ensure you capture the insights used to design your product or service not just in the innovation phase, but throughout the selling process. And don’t just push on price. As KMPG conclude: The risk for companies failing to stake their claim in the evolving value chain is being caught in the middle and becoming commoditised.