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Speaking of discounts, I'm reminded of what I once heard from a great entrepreneur from my home state of Georgia, Ely Callaway. (Callaway passed away in 2001.)

Early in Ely's career, he was an up and coming management star at Burlington Industries, but the No. 1 position

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

in the company did not seem to be in the cards for him. So rather than remain content with his position in the company, he left Burlington Industries and founded a wine company, Callaway Wines, in a growing region in California not known for the greatest grapes. But Ely C

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

Examples of combination products may in

allaway knew wine.

Within four years of the founding of the winery, when the Queen of England toasted the United States on its bicentennial celebration, glasses all around were filled with Callaway Wine.

Then another opportunity beckoned, and Ely Callaway transformed one

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

ore passion into a well-run enterprise, Callaway Golf. When asked how he engendered such great success in three disparate industries, Ely Callaway offered this advice to other entrepreneurs:

"Produce a quality product, market it well and never, never discount it.”

I don'

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

t know about you, but I really enjoy getting a good price when I make a major purchase. Remember that I said a "major purchase." This doesn't mean that I negotiate with the checkout clerk in the grocery store, but if I'm buying a piece of furniture, a suit of clothes, an

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

Combination pro

utomobile or a lawn mower, I do my best to buy below the asking price.

The best way I've found to be successful at getting a salesperson to bend on price is to simply ask for a discount. There are all kinds of discounts in the retail world, and your customers have most li

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

kely learned how to ask for just about all of them.

WHO DO YOU BLAME

I blame either the company’s pricing policy or the salespeople themselves when customers become so accustomed to receiving a discount that they ask for discounts just about every time they make a purchas

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

e. The reason customers get into this very bad habit for the retailer -- but very lucrative habit for the customer -- is because we as salespeople have taught them so well. They’ve learned that if they ask, all the salesperson can do is say no, and quite often the salespe

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

son says, “Okay.”

ARE YOU A DEALER OR RETAILER?

DEALER: A popular definition of dealer is one who engages in trading or bargaining.

RETAILER: One involved in selling goods to ultimate customers.

So, is your business engaged in trading and bargaining or is it engaged i

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 selling? I believe most of the readers of this newsletter fall under the definition of a retailer, distributor or manufacturer as opposed to dealer. BUT, does your behavior make customers think of you more as a DEALER?

When I think of a dealer, I most often think of an

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

automobile dealer. Most of us dread buying a car because of the way automobile dealers approach selling their products. No matter how good a price you negotiate for an automobile, you can always find someone who paid less for the same make and model with the same accessor

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

Following aspects would a

ies. For many buyers, buying a new car is more painful than it needs to be because they never believe they can trust automobile salespeople to voluntarily give them the dealership’s lowest price. We have to attempt to wrangle it out of the salesperson.

Don’t misunderstan

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

d me, I teach negotiating, so it’s not that the negotiating process intimidates me. It’s just that it’s time consuming and should be unnecessary when doing business with a supplier partner. And those of us that do business with suppliers or vendors on a routine basis usua

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

ly prefer to have such a good relationship with our suppliers that we don’t have to beat them up to earn their “best” price.

Incidentally, Lexus, CarMax and others have over the past few years adopted a “no-haggle” price. And survey after survey shows that buyers love it.

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

My suggestion is this: Sit down with your boss and agree on the prices you believe are competitive. Tell your customers that based on extensive research, i.e., shopping the competition, studying multiple competitive quotes loyal customers have shared with you, analyzing

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

the market, etc., you believe the prices you are quoting to be competitive. When they ask for a discount, say, “I promise you that we have already discounted these prices as much as we possibly can. We believe that they accurately reflect what’s going on in our market.”

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

Cost vs. Price

Your customers must be made aware of the difference -- frequently major differences -- between cost and price. Here’s one group of words to accomplish this: “There’s a big difference between cost and price. Price is just one factor…the amount of money we

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

charge you for material on the face of the invoice. Cost is made up of much more…the price on the face of the invoice, PLUS you have to consider the quality of our products and services, the labor to install them, the services the salesperson personally performs, how fast

.

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

your projects move along when you do business with us, how promptly we issue credits, etc.

How much does it cost your customers when jobs are slowed down due to poor service from a supplier? If you don’t already know, you will benefit from asking them. Ask: “For each day

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

of delay, how much do you believe that day costs you in dollars and cents?”

Salespeople’s ability to successfully explain the difference between cost and price will often determine their ability to successfully defend the prices they quote AND avoid discounting altogether

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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How would your business operate if half your work force were out sick? Would your business continue to function if several of your top key employees died? How many employees are cross-trained in other positions?

You can build a big business brand with a small budget. You can create huge gains for your business by partnering with a non-profit to build a better brand. Think outside the box and see your brand succeed.

Author makes a bold promise that he can create in excess of $ 1,000,000 in money for his readers.This is without costing them a penny. Teaching the equivalent of modern day alchemy.

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