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Trilogy Tidings July 2008
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In addition to opening a new office, over the last few months we assisted a client in developing new customers (and thereby increasing sales potential) within existing accounts. This got me thinking about the wonderful opportunities presented by this tactic: a great way to expand your business with greater ease than developing new accounts. If you're in the business of selling products to hospitals, my thoughts may remind you how to approach such an initiative. If you're not, you can skip this installment -- OR you just might find that the same principles apply to your business (although my examples will not be terribly relevant).
I provided our new postal address last month, but we now have a new landline phone number. Please check out our new Contact Information and update your records. And, if you have colleagues in the Research Triangle, please consider letting them know of a new local resource available for growing their business!
Regards,
Joe
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| A Few Examples
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To set the stage, consider two common situations, one dealing with clinical diagnostics and the other with medical devices. It is widely appreciated that in vitro diagnostics continues to migrate from the lab to the bedside, albeit with many fits and starts over the last two decades. What many in the IVD industry failed to appreciate early on were the vast differences between the needs of the laboratorian and the clinician. In large measure both user communities reside in hospitals, but they need different things from, and have different expectations of, a diagnostic test. But surely, and eventually, IVD suppliers have learned to exploit their lab strengths to penetrate point-of-care sites.
As a second example consider catheters of various kinds. A supplier can be focused on serving the needs of nurses, surgeons, interventionalists, cardiologists, intensivists or diagnostic radiologists initially. Yet many catheter makers have successfully leveraged their positions in one specialty to ultimately address many of these audiences by various means.
The reason to branch out is obvious: sales growth. The mechanisms for doing so are numerous, but a few basic principles are in play.
Thoughts to share? |
