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No, You Don't Know What You Are Selling - Yet!

You know your product, its features and its benefits. You have a well-rounded presentation that explains a

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

ll of this, complete with visual aids. So why waste a prospect's time with chitchat? Shouldn't you launch straight into your presentation?

No, you shoul

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

Examples of combination products may in

dn't, and here's why. No matter how good it is, your generic presentation casts your product or service as a commodity, not as a solution to the particula

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

r customer. Customers don't care about your products; they care about their own problems and opportunities. They want to know that you understand their p

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

roblems before you start talking about how your wares can "solve" them.

You think you have a cool product presentation? So does every competitor you've go

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

Combination pro

.

When salespeople understand their customer's needs before presenting their products, the presentation can be tailored to hit specific hot buttons. This

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

also avoids many objections that commonly arise later in the sales cycle.

To find out "what to sell," you need to exercise good questioning skills and ga

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

ther information about the customer. The things you want to know fall into four categories:

Need: Ask open-ended questions to uncover problems and opport

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

unities likely to be addressed by your products and service. Examples: "What is the biggest problem with the current method you're using?" "What are the

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

consequences of not solving this problem?"

Company Issues: What is the customer's company or department trying to accomplish with this buying decision and

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

why is it important? "What goals has your company set regarding this?" "What will it mean to the company if you are successful?"

Personal Issues: What's

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

Following aspects would a

at stake for the customer himself/herself - professionally or personally? "What will it mean to you if these goals are achieved?"

Money Issues: Find out

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

about the budget that exists for the purchase or how the expenditure would be justified. "What kind of budget have you established for this project?" Or

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

, "What areas would you look at to justify a purchase like this?"

Once you know this, you are in a position to present your product as a solution, not jus

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

t one more alternative in a sea of commodities. Instead of a classic data dump, your presentation now can be aimed at specific needs that this customer ac

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

ually cares about.

In The Field:

Why do so many salespeople launch straight into their product presentations before investigating their customers' needs?

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

Usually it's because they're flying by the seat of their pants. They lack a strategic framework to follow throughout the entire sales cycle. Sadly, del

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

ivering a canned presentation is all they really know how to do.

An account executive with Delta Industrial in Minneapolis, MN, recently summed up the adv

.

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

antages of adopting a coherent, unified, step-by-step approach to the sales process. "The most important thing the Action Selling Sales Training has done

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

for me," he said, "is to really make me think and strategize about what I am trying to accomplish in every sales call in order to move the process forward.

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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Are your projects consistently missing estimated completion dates? Do project management stakeholders always seem to ask for and get more, more, more, while project sponsors won't change the project completion date?

Powerful relationships are the key to effective work environments, and goal attainment. Powerful, healthy relationships are the pulse behind any great endeavor and achievement. It must never be forgotten that every organizational structure, flow chart and arrangement ever conceived, merely represented the relationships which formed these structures.

Picture the scene. You're sitting in a doctor's waiting room, flicking through the pages of a magazine when you suddenly start reading an ad. Why? What drew your attention to that particular ad? An attention grabbing headline, that's what.

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