Advice You - Internet and Businesses Online

My neighbor – a lovely man I’ve known, and have had social contact with for years – is the COO of one of the world’s largest companies. He’s read my books, is familiar with my concepts, and is a fan. But we’ve not talked shop due to our social connection.

One day he called me and told me he wanted me to speak with his new national VP of sales – that he wanted my ideas and methods to be used in his compan

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

y. Wonderful. Especially since it all came from him.

The VP called me days later at my friend’s request, and we had a great phone contact: he said he was familiar with my concepts and was interested in a conversation, and he invited me to his office to spend some time. It was one of the only times in my life I flew to a client site for a face-to-face prospecting visit. In my mind, this was a very hot lea

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

Examples of combination products may in

indeed.

When I got there, it became apparent he was setting me up to show the COO that he didn’t need me, didn’t need my material, and was fine, thank you very much. He was curt, rude, and, frankly between us, rather stupid in his remarks.

When I spoke with my friend, he grumbled and hung up. Next week, he called me back with the name of the VP of training. The man called me, had a lively, exciting con

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

ersation with me, sent me a check for the next public training so that he could attend himself, and I never heard from him again.

IT’S NOT ABOUT WHO YOU KNOW I knew the right guy. It doesn’t get any better – COO of a Fortune 50 company, close friend. But in the end, it had nothing to do with what I was selling, or who I knew – it had to do with how the buyers were buying.

There is a whole burgeoning 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

ld of software that will help sellers find people who they know in a company. Then you can call that person, or have one of your friends call that person – all in hopes that this connection will give you a leg up. Let’s take a look at the presuppositions inherent in the concept of social networking:

1. that the person you know within a company has the clout to have some say within the company;

2. that t

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

Combination pro

e person you know is on a decision team (or knows someone on a decision team) that is ready to make a decision to bring in a new product or service;

3. that the person you know will know how to say what you need him/her to say to get you the exposure you seek;

4. that bringing you into the company – even if the person has the clout to get you into the company – will influence a decision;

5. that the co

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

pany is ready to make a change;

6. that the person bringing you in can help the company understand they need to change;

7. that the company will know how to line up it’s decision criteria just because you know the right person, and you can show up with your great product and presentation material.

Let’s take a look again at what’s happening at this point in history. Sales people are not needed to offer

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

information: buyers can get more information about a seller’s product than they have to offer, more about their product andthe competition, the good points and bad, the industry successes and failures, the price points – sellers are just not needed to push product any more.

Because this historic sales function has been superseded by a computer, sellers don’t know what their jobs are anymore. Sellers are

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

attempting to add new functions to their role so they can offer some value: they are making themselves ‘trusted advisors’; becoming ‘true consultants’; demonstrating some sort of ‘value add’- either through product or service or technology.

IMPEDITMENTS TO SALES But the problems with sales continue: the same problems that have existed within the sales function since its inception continue to be impedime

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

ts to sales. There remains a void in the sales process in that space between how sellers sell and how buyers buy.

Since its inception, the dichotomy between the product/seller/sale and the buyer’s environment/buyer/buying process has been met with fallacious assumptions, including:

* if you get in the door and have a face-to-face meeting, the buyer will know how to buy.

* if you pitch/present/promote/a

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

vertise your product effectively, the buyer will know how to buy.

* if you give clients great prices, they will choose your product;

* if you give clients great service, they will know how to choose you;

* if you are the brand leader…

* if you have the best product…

* if the buyer needs your product…

* if you have the best software…

* if you know someone…

A few years ago – about 5, I’m guessing –

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

Following aspects would a

e came to the realization that ‘sales’ wasn’t working. What did we do? Point our resources to the new-new thing – technology. Since then, we’ve attempted to try to use technology to overcome all of the inherent problems sales creates. We’ve tried SFA, CRM, and now Social Network Software. And all they do is continue to operate on the same beliefs that sales has always worked from: people will buy if they

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

ike/understand/need/recognize the product, or like the sales person. And that’s patently untrue. We’ve just not known what else to do. And the gulf between the sales end and the buyer’s end keeps widening.

In the December 2003 issue of Inc. Magazine, Michael Fitzgeral says in ‘Internet Icebreakers’, an article on Social Network Software:

‘It's not a slam dunk--the contact might not care that your brothe

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

's partner's wife just happens to be a member of his homeowners' association.’

THE SOLUTION

For those of you who have been reading my newsletters for years, you are going to have to hear me rant about this just one more time.

-Buyers live in an idiosyncratic buying environment.

-The buyer’s network of decision factors includes an interesting network of people, rules, collaborations, initiatives, budge

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

t issues, and human fallacies.

-The buyer’s environment is a complete system that they are comfortable with.

-Systems face chaos when something new gets added. -Buyer’s systems won’t add anything new until they understand how to manage any chaos to return to some form of stasis.

In other words, no matter how good your product is, how well you pitch/present/promote/propose it, or who you know, the buye

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

won’t make a purchasing decision until they line up all of their decision variables so they can manage the disruption a new purchase will create within their system.

If you are eager to use Social Network Software, at least use Buying Facilitation® as the front end: help this person navigate their internal variables so they can learn with you how to bring you in the most effective way.

Remember that Bu

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

ing Facilitation® uses the buyer’s decisioning sequence to: lead them through a good look at where they are at (all of their company’s norms, rules, values, initiatives, and subjective criteria); notice if anything is missing; understand how to fix it with familiar resources; address all of the internal systems they need to manage prior to bringing in a solution that will possibly create chaos.

The above

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

is the sequence buyers go through anyway, and that the time it takes them to do the above is the length of the sales cycle: they are going to do it with you, or without you. If you can use your new-found relationship to get you into a close range with the prospect, make sure you take the opportunity to lead them through this process and become a true Trusted Advisor.

Once you are ‘in’ and getting a chanc

.

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

to have your time in the sun, use Buying Facilitation® again to help them line up their decision factors. That will not only make you their true Trusted Advisor, it will also make the person you know look good. It will increase your sales over 200% (that’s right – there is not an extra zero there), reduce your sales cycle by 75%, and get you on the decision team.

Getting into the prospect’s space, knowi

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

g someone who can bring you in, or having a great product remain the outer edge – the selling edge - of sales. It’s time in our history to use the job of ‘sales’ to help buyers make their best buying decisions. Social Network Software can play a part: it’s just the front end, however. There’s still plenty of work to be done to help buyers buy.

My tag line remains: do you want to sell? Or have someone buy

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.adviceyou.org.ua/article/81010/adviceyou-Social-Network-Software.html">Social Network Software</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.adviceyou.org.ua/article/81010/adviceyou-Social-Network-Software.html]Social Network Software[/url]

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