Digg It - Business

In my mind, small talk basically consists of 3 phases:

The ice breaker
Get to know you better
Graceful exit

So let’s go ahead and briefly touch on each phase and in tu

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

rn give you some concrete takeaway strategies that you can apply immediately for each.

Phase 1: The Ice Breaker
So you attend a networking event… you make eye contact with someone you want to mee

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

Examples of combination products may in

t, you approach them and introduce yourself… now what?

Well having a few powerful, open-ended ice breaker questions should certainly do the trick. For example:

A tried and true ice breaker is the p

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

roverbial, “So Jeff, what do you do?” In other words “Jeff, what business are you in? Now people love talking about themselves and their business so the idea here is to get them started talking. Most peopl

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

e also love to hear the sound of their own voice so the ice breaker question is critical and essentially sets the tone and potential for the conversation.

Another good ice breaker could be, “So Jeff

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

Combination pro

, what brings you here today?” Now notice on these sample ice breaker questions I’ve repeated the person’s name. First off by doing this it will help burn that person’s name into my head so I don’

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

t forget it. Secondly, people love the sound of their own name – so don’t be afraid to use it throughout your conversation.

Phase 2: Get To Know You Better
Depending on the results of the ice br

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

eaker questions you should by now be able to determine whether or not it makes sense to get to know this person better. If not, simply skip this phase and go into your graceful exit. But if you do see a syn

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

ergy here, by all means try some of these again open-ended, getting to know you better questions:

So Jeff, how did you get into that business?
What types of challenges keep you up at night?

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

Jeff, help me out here, draw me a mental picture, what does success look like for you and your business?

What’s new in your industry these days? Any events or trends that are shaping it?<

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

/li> Now you can use one, two, all of these questions, or more if the situation permits. However, be careful here not to dominate and monopolize someone’s time. If you’re at a networking event, there’

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

Following aspects would a

s a good chance that they’re there to network and meet other people as well, so it may make sense to go to the graceful exit phase and encourage that you two get together in the near future.

Phase 3: Grac

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

eful Exit
It’s vastly important how you leave a conversation – as this is the last impression you make on that person. We’re not looking to create any animosity here by rudely blowing someone off.

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

The key here is as this phase’s title states, is to exit gracefully.

A key difference between the types of questions or statements you make in this phase as opposed to the previous two phases is that now you

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

shift to using close-ended ones. For example:

Introduce the person to someone else that may be of interest to them and then politely excuse yourself. The dialogue can go something like this: “Hey

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

Cindy I’d like you to meet Jeff. Jeff’s in the xyz industry as well and I just felt that you two should meet.” Now they exchange pleasantries and you immediately exit the conversation by saying something li

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ke, “Well you two probably have a bunch to talk about. Cindy I’ll catch up with you later and Jeff, it was great meeting you.”

Another example of a graceful exit may be: I can certainly see some s

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

ynergy between what you and I do. Can I give you a call next week to set up some time to talk further?

Or, it’s been great meeting you, will I see you at future meetings?

And lastly, wow,

.

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

this is quite an event don’t you think? Well we should probably keep moving… it was great meeting you Jeff!

So now you're aware of and armed with some actual strategies for the 3 phases of smal

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

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.diggit.org.ua/article/31974/diggit-Networking-for-Success-The-3-Phases-of-Small-Talk.html">Networking for Success: The 3 Phases of Small Talk</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.diggit.org.ua/article/31974/diggit-Networking-for-Success-The-3-Phases-of-Small-Talk.html]Networking for Success: The 3 Phases of Small Talk[/url]

Bring in the cash doing something you love. There are many opportunities out there for people who love scrapbooking to earn money just by doing their favorite hobby.

You're boring. Get over it. No matter how dull you think you are, creative design can make you more interesting and drive the success of your organization.

Disciplining employees is so dreaded by so many supervisors that many look the other way when trouble develops, perhaps in the hope that the matter will correct itself. But most of the time it doesn’t – it tends to go from bad to worse. Learn coaching techniques to prevent a potential problem from becoming a real problem.

Tags

Links

Digg It - Networking for Success: The 3 Phases of Small Talk

Related Articles: