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If you are selling a service and you only have your personal time to sell, one hundred hours is one hundred hours—and the amount of discounts

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

you give to customers can make the difference between a profitable year, or not.

Unfortunately, discounting as a business practice is so entr

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

Examples of combination products may in

enched that I probably don't need to help you recreate the arguments that justify it.

The dictionary describes the effect well: 'to deduct fr

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

om the amount, cost; to disregard; to make less effective by anticipation.'

Before you succumb to the temptation to win new business by offer

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

ing a discount take a moment to consider these seven problems associated with discounting:

Negotiations over discounts, focuses atten

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

Combination pro

tion on price—as if that were all that matters. If your only competitive advantage is price, you are in trouble, because price can always be m

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

atched.

Discounting starts price wars. The company that usually wins is the one with the biggest balance sheet—the one who can afford

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

to hold out the longest.

Discounting can affect the customer perception of your service. The less they pay, quite likely the less the

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

y will value it.

Discounting will affect your profit margins. Consider what would happen if all your competitors met your discounted

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

price—do you think your customer is going to accept any less quality?

Discounting may affect the quality of your service. Yet, if you

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

compromise the quality of what you sell, you risk disappointing customers and you may lose repeat business, and lose credibility or gain a bad

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

Following aspects would a

reputation, or end up spending time fixing complaints. One way or another today's discounts could rob you of future business, and profits.

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

Discounting may lead to 'stockpiling' where customers purchase more than they need while the price is cheap. This will affect demand and

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

potential profits in the future.

Habitual discounting can become psychologically disempowering. A reduced price can be a short-sighte

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

d 'quick fix' that reduces business growth in the long run. Before you discount, stop and think: Is this the only way to give value?

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

Be mindful when you're offering a discount. Why are you doing it? Is it an investment, and will it net you a greater financial return in the f

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

uture? Or is it something you do all the time, a thinly disguised (yet noble!) excuse for not charging your worth?

Are you offering a discoun

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

t as the 'lazy way out'—instead of making the effort to explain or demonstrate your value? One of the basic rules of negotiating is that if yo

.

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

u are going to offer a discount, you offer a different product or service. Perhaps negotiate different terms, or a shorter guarantee, or longe

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

r lead times. Challenge your customer's proposition for a discount with: "If you want a better price, give me a better order.

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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When you’re starting a business, you might wish for a lot of things, like having more than enough customers or not having to do marketing. Wishes are future oriented. To run a business, you need to be intentional, focused and highly aware of the present for it is only from the present that you can make things happen. Action is key to getting what you want for your business. What are some of the weaknesses around wishing?

Terms like 'psychographics' drive me ballistic - they're just another way to pigeonhole people. But discover prospects' biggest worries, and you have the heart of a campaign on a silver platter. Survey data doesn't begin to tell the whole story. So how do you find out your technical prospect's problems, the ones they lose sleep over?

What motivates anyone to start a small business? You are usually alone, without a lot of start up cash (hardly ever enough), without the full range of skills to make the business work and most often without sufficient knowledge of the market you are about to enter. Despite all of these barriers to setting off in a small business we set sail, like a ship without adequate navigation, in search of something we want.

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