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How many salespeople reading this article allow the Paretto Principle to determine how you allocate your selling time? If you’re not sure, perhaps you know the Paretto Principle by

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

another name -- the 80/20 rule.

All customers deserve to be treated fairly and ethically, but all customers don’t merit the same amount of your time. So by categorizing them, it’

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

Examples of combination products may in

a lot easier to determine how and where to concentrate your selling time.

Let’s begin with listing your prospective customers as a target category. Not all customers in your trad

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

area are viable prospects. Some of them are not creditworthy. Some are simply too small to justify the time it takes to cultivate into full-blown customers. Some need to be prun

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

ed like deadwood.

Before the prospect makes an initial purchase, you’re on the outside looking in. Your goal at this point is to earn the right just to quote the prospect. Withou

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

Combination pro

the prospect’s trust and confidence, you are highly unlikely get an initial order, regardless of the competitiveness of your pricing.

But just as soon as you do earn your first or

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

er from a prospect, your strategies and tactics must change. Just don’t make the mistake of believing that your incredible sales skills have eliminated the competition. Just the o

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

pposite may be the case. The prospect may be merely using you as a vehicle to get your competitor’s attention.

However, once a prospect does make an initial purchase, he or she mu

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

t be moved into a different category -- the New Customer Development Group. While the New Customer Development Group is “on the books,” they most likely retain quite a bit of loyal

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

y to the competition. But you do have your foot in the door, which is an essential first step.

Consider the following sales tactics to move them to the next group:

1. Explain to

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

your shipping personnel that this is a new customer. Ask them to make sure that they goes the extra mile to ensure that there are no backorders and that they make certain that the

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

Following aspects would a

company lives up to its delivery commitments.

2. Coordinate with your dispatcher or operations personnel the timing of the initial delivery so you can arrange your schedule to arr

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

ve on site at the same time the driver makes the initial delivery. Wow! This is really impressive. It shows the new customer that you’re not taking lightly the opportunity he has

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

given you. I recall one salesperson that actually accompanied the driver to make the first delivery to let the customer know how much he appreciated the opportunity to serve him an

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

d how committed he was to excellence.

3. Especially during the first month or two of the new relationship, take time to personally go over each of your new customer’s invoices. Y

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

u might gain extra mileage if you attach a Post-It Note™ to the statement, communicating that you have reviewed all invoices for accuracy.

Once the customer begins to purchase from

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

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

you on a routine basis, it’s time to move him or her into a new category, that of Established Customer. These are the customers who have learned to trust not only you, but your com

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

pany, as well, to take care of their product and service needs. You have proven yourself, so now you are an “insider.”

This when the 80/20 rule comes into play. Among your list o

.

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

Established Customers you’ll find a group of Core Customers. This group will make up the majority of your sales and therefore deserve the lion’s share of your attention.

Customer

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

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

can earn Core Customer status only if they have first become Established Customers. So to get the most mileage out of your selling time, work customers according to their category

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 you considering the possibility of opening a dollar store? If so, then learn everything possible from your competitors. Spend a little time examining the competition before, during and after you conduct your grand opening event. Visit direct competitors as well as stores that will overlap with your store for customers.

This is the first in a series of short articles about understanding why customer focus is strategically important, what it means to be truly customer-focused and how to create or improve customer focus in your organization. This article presents a simple business case for the strategic importance of creating greater customer focus.

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