June 2024 issue, BioElectRx Business Report
June 30, 2024 | As the market for bioelectronic medicine expands, vendors will face a growing need to develop a sales force and distribution channel that is best suited to the market each company has targeted. This is particularly important for manufacturers of implanted devices, who will be tasked with reaching out to clinicians from a number of clinical specialties.
Deploying a field sales force is very expensive and management-intensive. It is often a good strategy to “cross-sell” or otherwise maximize the value extracted from a given set of customers by expanding offerings. Medical device and pharmaceutical companies offer multiple lines of products catering to various specialties and therapeutic areas. Smaller entrants to the market may have a single offering and as such are challenged on several fronts.
Creating a strategic alliance with an established, larger partner is one way to reach a given market while allowing the smaller entity to conserve resources and maintain focus. As with any strategy, it is not without drawbacks, such as a perceived dilution of the representatives in the mindset of clinicians, margin impairment, etc.
Bioelectronic medicine vendors have much to learn by considering examples taken from the cardiac devices industry, such as the introduction of wearable defibrillators. When LifeCor first introduced their product many years ago, there was a tremendous amount of inertia in adoption. This despite the fact that clinical data showing the increased risk of sudden cardiac death post myocardial infarction and CMS guidelines requiring at least 30 days post event to determine if the patient’s ejection fraction had recovered to a level that indicated lower risk. The ability to bridge the patient to an active implantable cardiac device after 30 days seemed intuitive and compelling. Selling the product should have been relatively simple, yet LifeCor was having so much difficulty that this editor was able to obtain a contract for a vast section of Los Angeles county for a group of three independent reps.
Ultimately, the effort to sell LifeCor as a cardiac rhythm management rep was not successful. It was only after Zoll acquired LifeCor and invested substantial resources in rollout was the product widely adopted. Spending the scarce allotted time with a doctor on trying to push a complementary product proved too dilutive for the lucrative core business and needed to be abandoned.
Another concern any supplier will have is access to the facilities in which a device may be implanted. GPO, Dual Vendor and related agreements are meant to improve margins for established suppliers and the implanting facilities by restricting access. Technology carve-outs can be difficult to obtain even when supported by a reasonable amount of clinical evidence. The burden on local clinical staff to evaluate new products can cause a lot of delays at best, and often times will impede access altogether. In this particular front, the use of established sales representatives with long standing relationships can be helpful, but is not necessarily pivotal.
Further examples from the cardiology field apply. Representatives from CRM have been recruited for promoting new technology such as baro-receptor pacing and CCM therapy for heart failure. Even with the rep employed directly and exclusively to support the new technology, results have been mixed. Clinical challenges have certainly contributed to the lackluster results. When the technology is more incremental, adoption is often easier at the physician level, but obtaining facility access will raise the previously mentioned challenges.
Equipping a sales representative with comprehensive knowledge of an added product line can also be daunting. In-depth training on technical specifications, clinical applications, and competitor comparisons is crucial. Computer based trainings are useful in this regard.
In an upcoming issue of this newsletter, we’ll examine some specific strategies bioelectronic medicine vendors can use when building a sales force and distribution channel. These include lead prioritization, enhancing collaboration and teamwork, technological tools like customer-relationship management systems, and data visualization tools.
Navigating the challenges of a multi-line sales force in the medical products industry requires strategic planning, targeted training, and effective technology utilization. By prioritizing customer needs, fostering collaboration, and leveraging technological tools, vendors can unlock the full potential of their multi-line approach, building strong relationships with healthcare institutions and achieving sustainable growth.
