Sustaining crisis leadership for growth in your medtech business

As COVID-19 continues to morph into new variants, it’s impacting some of the earlier 2021 optimism that the pandemic was behind us. We hope the increase in COVID-19 cases due to these various strains will be short-lived. With that stated, it got us thinking about how important it is to continue to manage your business for future growth even when the future is uncertain.

When it comes to commercial execution, let’s think about (at a high level) what’s changing or has changed:

1. Sales channels are often restricted in their activities, making it difficult to get products to customers at their location
2. Trade shows are hybrid and on-line, making it harder to find your customers at these events
3. Marketing channels are more fragmented than ever
4. Media is more diverse now than at any time in history

How does a medtech company address these commercial challenges to ensure its future growth stays on track?

Remember the things that haven’t changed and that’ll help you on the path to creating a commercial execution plan for your business.

What has stayed the same in commercial execution:

1. The importance of getting into your customer’s shoes and understanding their journey.
2. The requisite to create a value proposition for your products/services that meet an unmet need for your customer.
3. The talent to deliver messaging around your value proposition for your customer.
4. The ability to find your customer where they live.

When you think about the Top 3 items listed for commercial execution, it really simplifies what’s necessary to be successful in your sales/marketing campaigns.

It’s topic #4 that’s often confusing the equation for many. Our suggestion is: Make your investments in marketing based on data (regarding where your customers live) and not based on your own biases (usually created by your own habits).

We suggest that you can successfully sustain your crisis leadership by breaking down what’s uncertain and revisiting the known truths for your business and your customers.

By doing so, you’ll create a commercial excellence capability through all dynamic times, including states of emergencies, new technologies, etc.

At the end of the day, the KISS (keep it simple Sam/Shirley) method remains the best way to create commercial execution that everyone in the organization can understand. Keeping everyone on the same page is still the best way to maintain the highest level of growth performance. By breaking down the complexities and re-focusing on the basic truths of your value proposition for your customers, you can re- validate that less is more. Don’t overthink it. Simply execute and dynamically adjust relative to new facts that arise.

By continuing to focus on the customer’s journey, you’ll have established a leadership style that will benefit you (and your organization) through all conditions (crisis or not).

MedWorld Advisors
https://medworldadvisors.com

About the authors: CEO Florence Joffroy-Black is a long-time MedTech M&A and marketing expert. She can be reached at florencejblack@medworldadvisors.com. Managing Director Dave Sheppard is a former medical OEM Fortune 500 executive and an experienced MedTech M&A professional. He can be reached at davesheppard@medworldadvisors.com.