Digg It - Business

Ask any small business owner to come up with ideas on how to market their business and they will say adverts, brochures, leaflets, direct mail etc. Whilst all these are great ways of promoting your business they all cost money! What if I could show you a better and more effective way of marketing your business? In this art

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

icle I am going to share with you some key strategies to get more business and ultimately increase your profits.

The biggest mistake businesses make is to focus all their marketing effort and budget on getting new customers. Research has shown that it costs up to 6 times more to get a new customer than to retain or sell t

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

Examples of combination products may in

o an existing one. And this is the key. Concentrate on selling more to your existing clients. Simple! Squeezing more profit out of your customer base is a cost-effective way of increasing your bottom line.

So, let’s look at the steps you can take to tease more profit from your client base.

Pareto’s Law

No doubt y

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

ou have heard of Pareto’s Law? You may know it better as the 80/20 rule. In a sales context if you examine your sales pattern, you may find that 80% of your profit comes from only 20% of your customers. While the percentages may vary slightly, as a principle it generally holds true. Yes, it may come as a bit of shock to fi

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

nd out that most of your profit comes from a handful of customers, but armed with this information you can now create a plan to earn more profit!

So, the first step to squeezing out more profit is to identify your top 20% profitable customers. Obviously, to do this you have to have a database, which keeps track of who ord

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

Combination pro

ers what and how much. What? You don’t? Keeping track of your customer’s dealings with you is essential. Get a database up and running … today! The effort in setting this up and keeping it up to date will be quickly paid back.

Get them buying more often

Having identified your top earners, the next step is to focus

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

on how you can get them to buy more frequently. Increasing their ordering frequency may sound a bit simplistic but that’s the beauty of it … it is! The trick works especially well if you are in the retail or supply business. The idea is to catch the customer in advance of them needing your product or service and offer it

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

either before they know they require it, or before they go to a competitor.

So how does this work? Let’s take your customer Bodgit Ltd. You go through their purchasing history (from the database you have now set up!) and you see that every 6 weeks or so, they re-order. But some months there are gaps, suggesting that they

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

may go to competitors on some occasions. Make a note in your diary for one week before you would expect them to order again. When the time comes, pick up the phone and say, “Mr Smith, I imagine you must be getting low on widgets? Would you like me to send your usual amount or do you need more?”

“Wow” thinks Mr Smith, “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 company is sharp!” Result? One happy customer; an order that may have gone to your competitor comes to you; one extra cheque to bank! Have a think about how you can apply this technique to your business. Try it out.

Increase the average order value

As well as getting your customer to buy more often, why not get

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

them to spend more? They may be buying one product from you, but a complimentary product, which you also supply, from a competitor. Be bold; ask him for a bigger share of the pie! Try to resist cutting your margins to secure a deal but instead, see if you can tailor the product to meet his needs. Can you change your delive

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

Following aspects would a

ry system? Can you provide better after-sales service. Explore all these avenues to see how you can get more business. If you do have to cut your margins, work out how much overall extra profit you will get if the average order value goes up.

If you have an extensive range of products, you may be surprised to find out tha

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

t some of your customers are not aware of the full extent of your range. Part of your strategy to squeeze out more profit should be to ensure your customer knows what you sell! When did you last call with your customer with the sole aim of chatting through your range of goods or services? You could be amazed by how little

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

they know!

Talk to them

Too often the only contact a business has with its clients is when they receive an order. The customer hears nothing until the next order is sent in. To get your profitable customers to do more business, find any excuse you can to talk to them. Make an effort to contact them on a regular ba

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

sis. Ask them what they want from you? What do you have to do to increase business with them? Would a new addition to your line fit in with what they want? Question, question, question! Even if nothing comes out of your conversations immediately, at least they know you are interested in them. This all builds loyalty to you

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

and your business.

Love them!

As well as taking the time to pick up the phone and ask for more business, why not just call to say hello? A call to check levels of service, and to see if everything is okay, can still reap benefits.

If you spot something in a magazine or newspaper linked to one of your customer’s

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

line of business, cut it out and write a note – “Saw this and thought it may be of interest to you.” A simple thing, yet it shows they are important to you.

Referrals

As well as aiming to get your existing customers to give you more business, why also ask them to introduce you to one of their business contacts? T

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

his way you leverage more profit out of them by tapping into another business – all without spending a penny on advertising! Referrals can be very powerful. They carry the stamp of approval for your business from the referrer. This is a great example of squeezing profit out of your customers.

Don’t ignore the others
.

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
>

By concentrating on the top 20% of your customer base you could be danger of losing a potential diamond hidden in the other 80%. Set some time aside to develop this part of your business. Go through your database and select a few customers who you think, with a bit of courting, could become a 20% business. Put a plan in
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip
place to woo them!

Squeezing more profit out of your customers can be done. It takes planning, effort and a little cheek! It’s about building and strengthening the relationship, so they enjoy doing business with you.

Don’t take them for granted and watch your profits grow!

© Robert Warlow Small Business Succes

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

Tags

Links

Digg It - How to Squeeze More Profit Out of Your Customers!

Related Articles: