Drive Exceptional Adoption and Success by Embracing the Entire Channel in Your Medical Device Distribution Model / Blogs / Perficient

One key area that’s often overlooked with any branded manufacturer is the ability to service all personas and journeys within channels. Manufacturers have the unique job of needing to be just as close to their customers as they are to their distribution and retail partners. After all, they’re making the products that we as consumers use.

However, this is even more important within the medical device industry as the products have a direct correlation to our health.

Medical device manufacturers need to have viewpoints into the entire spectrum of what their customers (and in turn their customers’ customers) need, and this can be challenging. Here are three ways medical device organizations can drive sales across their entire medical device distribution model and ultimately appeal to end user consumers.

1. Conduct Extensive VOE/VOC
   I always talk about VOE and VOC, but for good reason. It’s so important to do this work to understand the ever-changing needs of your customer and the end user consumer. Within the med device space, focus needs to be split between the products and services consumers desire and how you can enable your sales team to provide the content and sales support that your partners will need to articulate the messaging. Look to focus first on talking to customers to best understand pain points and opportunities, then look to verify with your sales team. This will provide the foundational elements needed to guide you towards your North Star Commerce Strategy.
2. Develop The North Star Commerce Strategy
   The work done during the VOE and VOC sessions will produce key themes that can be aligned to build your north star commerce strategy. This strategy should be a goal that you look to achieve within your business, such as “Grow referral sales from dentist offices by 15% in 2023.” The key here is leveraging all the strategies, tactics, and plans to allow you to achieve this north star commerce strategy goal. Remember, there can be more than one goal but it should always be aligned to what your mission is as a brand.
3. Enable Outside Sales Teams
   However, taking it a step further requires a connected technology experience that allows the sales team to pivot persona journeys.
   Let’s say a pharmacist told your sales rep they are interested in selling a new product category that’s your product – the sales rep should flag this conversation. Once flagged, all the content that should be suggested to that pharmacist moving forward should support their ask. Next time that pharmacist visits your website, the content, banners, and product suggestions change to their ask. When they next receive an email from your brand, it should have products and content that supports their ask. The goal is to continuously evolve their journey based upon what the customer is interested in.

These three themes should give you a good foundation as you look to truly embrace the vast channel areas of opportunity within your medical device distribution model. Remember, always keep the end user customers’ health and wellness needs in mind, but look to leverage their needs backwards into your organization so that your brand can embrace technology to deliver upon your north star commerce strategy.