The story of Value Apps is the story of medical technology sales.
Around the 90s, the main differentiation factor among medical companies was their brand name because it meant their products had a higher quality.
At that time, entering a hospital or clinic and saying that you worked in Company XYZ was halfway to closing the deal. But then, the technological differences among companies started to shrink, making it increasingly harder to defend that your Company XYZ provided the highest quality products.
Consequently, in the 2000s, the Medical Technology industry created a new role with a very appealing title: the Key Opinion Leaders, or simply KOLs.
The KOLs were medical professionals, usually physicians but also nurses, that were supposed to advocate for medical products and convince purchasers, administrators, and even payers to buy them.
Never mind, these KOLs also treated patients and had their busy schedules. All Sales and Marketing needed to do was to partner with the KOLs and support them in defending the medical products. But in the 2010s, the message became clear. Healthcare systems would be unable to afford all medical technologies in the market. Some prioritization had to occur.
And that’s when professionals wearing suits and more familiar with Excel spreadsheets than with clinical articles became involved.
KOLs are essential, but not the only decision-makers
Since then, cost and return on investment have become deciding factors for adopting medical technologies. Patients remain the critical stakeholders, and KOLs will never lose their importance. It is just that clinical marketing messages alone are not sufficient anymore.
One size (message) does not fit all (stakeholders)
As we have described in previous articles (link to Jan 2023 newsletter), the role of a medical technology salesperson has evolved, but not all sales professionals have followed that. Besides chasing sales targets, developing relationships with KOLs, filling orders, providing reports, and understanding the latest products and marketing strategies, sales teams now have to answer this question every day…
‘Why should I pay for your product?’
And that triggers a myriad of answers, usually ranging from reinforcing product features (as we did in the 1990s) to asking for support from the KOLs (back to the 2010s). To answer this crucial question, Sales Teams must demonstrate how their products will impact their client’s business models, including hospitals, clinics, and payers. And product brochures or marketing collaterals cannot do this.
Welcome to Value Apps
Combining the methodology of a health economics approach with neurolinguistic design and layout, ValueConnected builds Value Apps to quantify and demonstrate the value of medical technologies under your client’s perspective in a very user-friendly manner.
But on top of all the calculations and estimated clinical and economic benefits of medical technology, the Value Apps establish a script that Sales Teams can follow and use during their engagements.
Instead of jumping into product features, Sales Teams that use the Value App guide their clients on their current pain points and burden, present the approach of using the specific medical technology under discussion and demonstrate what would impact efficiency, clinical quality, finances, and other factors.
And that’s when engagement becomes more robust, with payers or providers interacting with the Value App and assessing different scenarios that will help them decide.
As a Hospital Director in London, UK mentioned, ‘the Value Apps are doing our job for us‘.
Medical Technology Sales in 2023 and beyond
Higher competitiveness and technological advancement require a Sales Force that can deploy evidence and product claims to demonstrate medical technologies’ value. And that is automatically done through a Value App.
After all, so much investment in generating evidence, creating a network of contacts, and engaging clients won’t matter much unless translated into relevant and clear value messages to your clients.
We look forward to hearing about your commercial goals and discussing how Value Apps can bring your commercial plans to a different level.
