Communicating the value of specialty sales and marketing to the health device industry....

Compared to general-line distribution, specialty sales and marketing is little understood. That’s because specialty distributors and reps tend to be small local or regional companies, and the devices they bring to market are new and innovative, not “tonnage” supplies. IMDA recognizes that without education, the rest of the industry might remain unaware of the valuable services our members provide. That’s why we write articles that appear in industry trade journals, as well as our own informational pieces.

Industry Publications

• An Opportunity to Educate:  Manufacturers and specialty sales and marketing organizations have to work together to educate buyers about the cost -- and savings -- ramifications of new medical technologies.  MX: Business Strategies for Medical Technology Executives, July/August 2002.
• High Cost of Healing:  When it comes to new technology, purchase prices hides real cost - Repertoire Magazine
• Adding Value: Specialty Distribution Expands Options - Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry
• Technology Management for Home Care Providers - Home Health Care Dealer Magazine
  

IMDA Informational Pieces

• The dollars and sense behind...Bringing Innovative Medical Technology to Caregivers.  An easy-to-use worksheet that helps manufacturers compare the costs of going direct vs. using specialty distributors.
• Tomorrow’s Standard of Care: The costs and benefits of innovative medical technology
• Square Pegs, Round Holes: How do specialty distributors fit into your prime vendor program?
  

...and keeping our own members informed of best business practices.

Our monthly newsletter – IMDA Update -- has become the industry’s pre-eminent source of news and information for specialty sales and marketing companies. Sample some of our fare.

• Martab builds brand identity.  Ever get tired of being known only as “the guys who sell [fill in manufacturer’s name]?” Tony Marmo did. That’s why he’s making an all-out effort to build a brand identity for his company, Lincoln Park, NJ-based Martab Medical.
   
• Clinical specialists keep sales reps on the street. It’s pretty simple: If you want to grow sales, your salespeople have to make sales calls -- each day, every day. But, as IMDA members know, that’s not easy to do when you sell specialty medical devices. There are inservices to perform, surgical procedures to observe, CEU workshops to coordinate and host, and general hand-holding to do. That’s why IMDA member Vital/Med Systems in Castle Rock, CO, recently contracted with two RNs to serve as clinical specialists.
   
• When a manufacturer merges. Chances are, you have – or will – encounter this situation: After months of rumors, you get a phone call that a key manufacturer is being bought. Sometimes the phone call never even comes, and the first you learn of such a sale is from an article in the Wall Street Journal. Take steps now to protect yourself should this occur to you.
   
• GPO strives to open its doors to new technology. Novation wants manufacturers to know that it's taking new -- make that "better" -- technology seriously.  The Irving, TX-based purchasing group has taken a number of steps to make sure that it creates opportunities for manufacturers of new technologies, including posting a "Technology Forum" on its website and appointing a senior director of safety, technology assessment and QA/RA.

• Questions for prospective principals. Every specialty sales and marketing organization knows the importance of selecting one’s manufacturer partners with care. This list of questions may help guide you in building the foundation for a good relationship.
   
• Plain talk for better relations between manufacturers and specialty sales organizations.  The only way to plant the seeds of a solid relationship between manufacturer and specialty sales and marketing organizations is through plain talk.  And it has to begin before a contract is signed.
   
• GPO Code of Conduct.  Concerned that group purchasing contracts are inhibiting the flow of new technologies to hospitals and clinicians, IMDA submitted a proposed code of conduct for group purchasing organizations to U.S. Senator Herbert Kohl, chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition, and Business and Consumer Rights, and Senator Mike DeWine, ranking member.  The subcommittee conducted public hearings on group purchasing in April 2002, and instructed GPOs to submit their own proposed code of conduct within 90 days of those hearings.
     
• Interviews aren't enough. Standard interviewing processes are about as effective as a coin toss.  Most hiring decisions are made subconsciously within the first 4 to 20 seconds of meeting a candidate.  In fact, most hiring assumptions are made before the candidate even opens his or her mouth!  But there are ways to improve your odds of hiring an effective employee.
   
• What is your company capable of?  In industry after industry, front-runners are being outperformed by more dynamic, capabilities-based rivals.  Here's how you can help your company gain the advantage.

 
• The ideal rep.  Sales is the least understood, but perhaps the most important part of American Business today.  Companies need to examine their businesses, customers and product mix in order to maximize the productivity of their sales forces.
   
• Age Discrimination in Firing: The Pitfall to Avoid. Has one of your older salespeople reached his or her comfort zone?  Know someone younger who could tear up that territory?  Be careful.  Click on this story to find out why.
   
• You and your customer: Where money and patient care intersect. See how you can help your customers assess the clinical and financial impact of new technologies.
   


• Government blocks access to new technology: Lewin Group report. Medicare often takes between 15 months and 5 years -- and sometimes even longer -- to make innovative medical technologies and diagnostics fully available to beneficiaries.
   


• Laptops for better account management. For specialty distributor Walter Martin, failing to exploit the power of information technology is simply not an option.  That's why he invested thousands of dollars in software and hardware this year to automate his company's sales and customer service processes.
   


• 'Compensation for contribution' should be specialy rep's creed. It's no secret why most early-stage medical technology companies hire their own sales forces.  It's all about control.  But it's not necessarily the prudent move.
   


• Filter out the noise in your business. Is your company's information system like the roach motel - where the data goes in but doesn't come out?  If so, yours isn't the only one.