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If you’re getting few customer referrals but are confident that your products and services are as good as or better than those of your competition, you shoul

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

d seriously examine the steps you’re taking to turn your customers into your most effective salespeople. Then, you should write a plan detailing how you will

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

Examples of combination products may in

increase your customer referrals.

Rule One: Ask your customers for referrals.

Oftentimes, the simplest techniques work the best. Back in my furniture days

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

when I had a good customer on the phone I would simply ask whether they knew a colleague who might be able to use our products. In one case, I got a referra

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

l that resulted in a $25,000 sale that would never have happened otherwise. First, without the referral, I never would have known that the person needed my p

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

Combination pro

oduct. Second, even if I knew about the person’s needs, I wouldn’t have closed the sale because I lacked the introduction from somebody my new customer knew

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

and trusted.

Rule Two: Written follow-up communication also works well in stimulating referrals.

For some business people, it’s challenging to ask directly

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

for referrals. The fear of asking for a referral should be quickly overcome since you’re really not selling but offering your customer the opportunity to re

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

er you, a qualified vendor who has proven ability, to solve the problem of a friend. Who wouldn’t want to help a friend solve a problem?

Fortunately, writte

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

n communication can also be a very effective tool for generating referrals. A custom cabinet manufacturer I knew left a detailed survey with a self-addressed

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

stamped envelope asking for detailed feedback on the just completed job and included a section where the customer could refer friends resulting in some excel

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

Following aspects would a

lent introductions that led to large sales.

Rule Three: Cultivate your key influencers.

Every business has a core group of customers who generate the large

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

st number of referrals. Yet, how many businesses have active programs to reward these key influencers? What are you doing to reward your key influencers?

Va

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

ious studies have shown that discounts or rebates to folks who send business your way oftentimes fail to provide motivation unless they offer truly significa

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

nt rewards. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to justify major referral awards for low dollar value or low margin products.

Happily, I found that the simplest

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

nd most cost-effective techniques worked best to motivate my key influencers. I developed a plan to stay in contact with my key influencers and kept them in

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

the loop with thank you notes, calls, and updates on the satisfaction of the referrals they sent my way. My customers were genuinely pleased to know that I w

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

as helping their friends.

Since few people really engage their past customers in a dialogue, you’ll stand out from your competitors much more than you imagi

.

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

e. The time and money you invest in a good contact management system to manage your key influencers effectively will pay for itself very quickly.

There real

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ly is no magic to generating customer referrals; however, those companies that succeed in this area all seem to have a plan for doing it and they stick to it

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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Did you ever wonder what goes into determining the cost of shipping a package via UPS? There are several factors that contribute to the cost of shipping.

Knowing the differences in managerial practices in different countries is interesting. There are, for example, great differences among mangers in the United States as opposed to other countries. With the increasing investment of foreign firms in the United States, the syllabus of business finance is giving more attention to the integration of managers and workers from other countries into American society. This need is highlighted in that the number of inters company transferees has more than tripled from the late 1970’s. The Japanese, for example, often find it difficult to be outspoken and direct in interactions with their colleagues and superiors. People from Arabian countries usually find American teaching methods too impersonal. One can learn various approaches used by the managers to reduce culture shock. These include special programs about corporate life in the US, as well as instruction in English, books and movies and tax advice for newcomers.

Our family’s hopes and expectations for us, while usually well-intended, become one of the “things” we take on that often prevent us from finding the right vocation. For example, not long after the September 11th tragedy, one of my clients, clearly upset, told me about a dream that at first glance appears to have a literal warning. Aaron (not his real name), a soft-spoken young man in his late twenties happened to be right in the midst of struggling with a major career decision. His dream appeared to be predicting a terrorist attack, but it actually changed his life.

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