Medical Device Link.

Originally Published MX November/December 2003

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES

Equipping the field sales team with mobile and wireless IT devices can boost their effectiveness and productivity.

David Kerr

With market share, revenue goals, and stock prices riding on the success of every new product launch, medical device companies invest substantially in equipping their field sales teams with the information, tools, and support systems they need to be productive. The past decade has seen them experiment with increasingly sophisticated technologies. The goal of these medtech firms is to back their sales professionals with all of the resources, technical knowledge, and credibility that the product development and marketing departments can bring to bear. However, the result is often an overwhelmed sales force.

Traditional sales tools include marketing brochures, product binders, technical specifications, physician reimbursement schedules, surgeon testimonials, video product demonstrations, CD-ROMs, and trunks full of inventory. In the fast-paced environment of field-force sales, reps simply find it infeasible to transport all these materials. They commonly do not use most of the material provided.

In addition to a vast amount of marketing material, medtech manufacturers equip their sales representatives with high-tech tools such as cell phones, pagers, and laptop computers so that they can gather information in the field and communicate easily from there. Customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions are also widely deployed in order to boost sales productivity. However useful such information technology (IT) devices and systems, those options prove too expensive, cumbersome, or complex for many sales teams.

Emerging as a solution that addresses these issues for field sales reps is mobile technology. The market for mobile and wireless products and services is expected to grow at a 36% annual rate through 2008, with 2004 and 2005 being the peak growth years.¹ Several leading-edge companies are developing new mobile technology systems and Web-based CRM packages that deliver a mix of usability and sales task automation to ease the burden of information and reporting overload. Few solutions specific to the needs of the medical device sales environment are appearing, however.

What the Field Force Needs

The trend in medical device sales is to shift away from the physical and toward the virtual. This includes product inventory as well as presentation media. With the increasing prevalence and power of mobile, handheld, and Web-based technologies, medtech companies are beginning to realize that their sales teams can be effectively prepared for selling a variety of product lines without either literally weighing them down or changing existing business processes.

The opportunity to capture a surgeon's attention and interest can last mere seconds. If the sales rep cannot convey the value proposition and immediately produce good information in response to questions, the chance to make the sale can evaporate.

Medical device sales reps rely on access to up-to-the-minute information in order to close sales, strengthen relationships, help customers, service equipment, or perform inspections. From nearly anyplace the job might take them, sales reps need easy access to all of the following.

• Product information.
• Order status information.
• Inventory levels and account pricing.
• Corporate databases for inventory tracking, order fulfillment, product alerts, event scheduling, case scheduling, and more.
• Contact lists for managing schedules, cases, and appointments.
• Technical specifications, marketing material, and sales collateral.
• Field communications from product and sales managers.

Medtech company managers should look at mobile solutions if their field reps need to collect data, would like to display video, refer to an extensive array of collateral materials and clinical studies, need to access technical information about products, carry trunk inventory, or are responsible for consignment inventory audits.

A mobile, Web-based solution can provide a company staffed with just five sales representatives with a competitive advantage over larger competitors. Small companies potentially can get the same or greater value from mobile IT solutions than can be realized from investing in laptops or costly CRM systems.

For their part, many larger companies have found that a mobile solution is a cost-effective way to exploit major CRM and ERP system investments. Mobile systems are designed for the applications to be used in real time during daily activities. They save sales reps the trouble of recording information in paper notebooks by day and transcribing it into the CRM system in the evening. Rep compliance with requirements of the latter type of system is very low, whereas user-friendly, medical device–focused mobile IT devices have proved to be well accepted and very effective.

Winnowing the Technology Options

Before choosing a mobile IT solution for the field force, sales executives should make sure the equipment vendor fully understands the medical sales environment. Medical sales professionals in the field face physical and technical challenges.

Consider the Users. Physicians and surgeons rarely have time to listen to a sales pitch in their offices; therefore, the sales meeting often occurs during the doctor's rounds, on a quick break, in the surgeons' lounge, or even in the operating room. Given the small window of opportunity available for gaining the doctor's attention and trust, the sales rep must have access to all the tools necessary to give the best presentation possible—without having to lug several awkward pieces of equipment and an armful of sales materials throughout the hospital.

Any technical device with which the rep might be supplied must satisfy hospital and medical center environmental regulations. Use of cellular technology within medical environments is generally banned for fear it might cause interference with electronic equipment or harm patients implanted with pacemakers. Therefore, any mobile technology solution an organization might choose to enhance sales effectiveness should be one that functions when wireless access is disabled.

Another thing to consider in determining which technology to introduce is the ability of the company's sales culture to embrace novelty. Decision makers should know what technology solutions have been tried out on the sales team in the past, including which worked and which did not. Perhaps certain technologies worked well only with a handful of individuals. It is important to analyze company sales trends in order to understand why certain reps adapt more successfully than others to new devices and technologies.

Consider Cost and Benefits.Prior to implementing a decision, company executives should develop their return-on-investment (ROI) equation. They should consider how current sales numbers fall short of an ideal. Next, they should determine how implementing new mobile technologies will help the sales team to reach reasonable sales goals.

Using mobile technology will save sales professionals a great deal of time. That should be quantified. How many extra sales calls or visits each rep can make once efficiency and productivity are boosted through technology, as well as how many more completed sales can be expected, are determinations needed for the ROI calculation.

In addition to potentially increasing sales, employing a mobile sales solution offers the additional economic advantage of saving money by substantially reducing the need for paper marketing materials. Analysts have estimated that 18% of corporate printed material becomes outdated within 30 days.² Mobile computer-based solutions minimize expenses related to reprints and other marketing materials. They also remove much of the need for hauling expensive medical inventory on the road. The important question in this regard is how much the mobile solution will cost to maintain and upgrade once it is implemented. Obviously, it should cost less than the price of additional paper materials and inventory.

Medtech companies also can realize substantial savings through improved inventory tracking. A bar code–enabled mobile IT system can streamline such tracking considerably. Rather than spending hours writing down part numbers and faxing the information to a data entry team, a sales rep needs only minutes to scan the numbers, which are automatically synchronized and reconciled with the corporate inventory system. Rep-to-rep transfers in the field become traceable; one rep can scan an item from her trunk inventory and another rep can then scan it into his own inventory. Short-dated products can be identified and sorted for use quickly and easily. Implementing all of these measures can save a company millions of dollars.

Consider Existing Company IT Systems.Any new mobile technology should be compatible with the existing legacy system or, if not, should operate independently of it. The device company's IT department should make sure that it can support new solutions and platforms that might be chosen, and that the vendor supplying them will be able to do the same. A few vendors offer hosted or subscription-based application service provider (ASP) solutions that place virtually no burden on the IT department. More and more companies are choosing this option because it eliminates the need to invest in hardware, help-desk support, and associated personnel to support the application and handheld deployment. All of these services are typically included in the package from the hosted-solution vendor.

Consider In-House Development. Some companies' IT departments choose to develop mobile sales information management solutions themselves. Several good development tools are available that make this possible, although the undertaking is not necessarily easy.

The objective is reliable, enterprise-tested software with stable synchronization, integration technology, and Web administration tools. To achieve this, it is advisable to compare the expense of internal development with established solutions. Companies should examine not only development costs versus acquisition or subscription costs, but also considerations of long-term support, upgrades, configuration issues, and enterprise-worthiness.

After determining which mobile solution will work best for the sales team, company executives need to determine whether that solution will deliver the ROI required. If adding new technology will probably not improve sales efficiency and service and increase sales volume, it is probably not worth implementing. A mobile IT solution with elements that effectively support an organization's sales effort, on the other hand, can boost profits dramatically.

Rolling Out Mobile Technology

Having selected the mobile technology solution they believe will best support the field sales force and enhance the reps' capabilities, company executives should structure the implementation so as to maximize its acceptance and minimize its disruptive potential. They can do several things.

Create a Culture That Embraces Mobile Technology. The successful introduction of mobile sales-support technology depends on obtaining buy-in from the sales professionals that will be using the new solution as well as the IT department that will be supporting it. To do this involves demonstrating the benefits that mobile technology will bring and articulating the organization's commitment to supporting it. A company vision statement describing how the mobile technology will benefit the sales team is a powerful means of demonstrating its link to overall sales productivity. If a sales rep has an economic incentive for using the new system, the benefits of its deployment will come sooner and be greater.³ A sales rep that sees no value in the solution most likely will not use it.

Phase in the Deployment to Ensure a Smooth Transition. Launching a trial deployment or pilot program with one sales unit allows a company to grow comfortable using and supporting a new solution set. Trial deployments enable companies to resolve any system issues that might arise prior to enterprisewide implementation and thus avoid placing new technology in the sales reps' hands too quickly.

With hosted mobile IT solutions, which require minimal integration, such trials run quickly and can easily prove the concept. Once senior managers have seen early results, their buy-in can pave the way for a smooth rollout to other parts of the organization.

Involving the IT department in defining the technologies to use and the way to implement them will ensure that existing technology platforms are effectively leveraged—or at least that additional technologies are not at odds with existing ones. Phasing deployment also allows for user feedback and system modifications.

Build Confidence in the New Technology through Training. Training helps make people comfortable with a new set of circumstances, generally and in this case. A mobile IT solution will be deployed successfully only if the sales team is comfortable using it and the IT department is well versed in the means to support it. Face-to-face training is usually the most efficient and effective sort. On the other hand, Web-based training can provide for more-individualized attention, in the sense that the medium accommodates differences in trainee aptitude for using the solution. Training should be thorough, but also flexible. Some individuals take to new technologies more quickly than others. While it is important to complete training soon after system introduction, it is also important that each rep learn at a comfortable pace.

Provide Ongoing Support. Whether periodic training, a help desk, or customer service, a system or systems should be available to support the sales team in exploiting the new technology. Reliable Level 1 support is crucial to field sales reps. It usually allows them to ask questions relating to the hardware and base operating system of the mobile IT solution, in addition to sales-specific functionality. Level 1 support helps reps to become comfortable with navigating and using the device, which increases their use of it and ultimately provides the expected ROI.

Company executives should determine whether the internal IT department can handle all support issues. If not, they should look for a system vendor with a strong support package. Nothing can impair the success of rollout more than inadequate support for reps just learning to use the new tool. Therefore, it is critical that the vendor chosen back its solution with a strong continuing support system that involves no hidden charges.

Solicit Feedback. Both qualitative and quantitative feedback from the sales team should be solicited and, crucially, tracked. How much time the sales force can spend pursuing additional selling opportunities, whether there are improvements in sales productivity and efficiency, and savings being realized by the company should all be measurable. Continuous compilation of this information will identify areas of successful implementation and areas that need adjustment.

Some mobile and Web-based IT tools have built-in reporting mechanisms that facilitate access to this information. They also can yield device-specific information such as memory usage, successful synchronizations, and other records of tool function.

What Can Happen

One medical device company with annual sales of $500 million performed a needs assessment that found its sales reps spent about 40% of their workday dealing with paperwork and calls associated with loaner inventory. This included 1 to 2 hours of calls to customer service daily to handle the loaner paperwork. Even after completing this process, reps still faced everyday busywork that hampered productivity and got in the way of sales.

These reps were also struggling to keep 15 binders full of company product information easily accessible while having little room to store materials pertaining to competitive product analysis. They felt that they were operating in a highly competitive arena, and wanted to get ahead of the competition. Laptops could hold all of the information they possessed, but were considered too bulky. Consequently, most of the reps would not carry them on appointments.

By integrating a handheld mobile solution into its IT system, this company was able to resolve most of its reps' issues. More than half of the salespeople already used some sort of handheld device and so were familiar with the technology; they were trained quickly. Sales activities subsequently became much easier to manage. With wireless synchronization, monthly cell phone fees could be greatly reduced, and calls to customer service were halved. Reps were able to reference needed material in the field quickly, so they could respond more effectively to physicians' questions.

Executives of another medical device company with yearly sales of $1 billion determined that the company was losing more than $10 million worth of inventory each year as a result of poor audit compliance and inventory becoming expired or misplaced. Another problem was that the sales reps were holding their replacement orders until month's end. Consequently, 80% of replacement orders were booked in the last week of the month. When these orders were booked, they were completed through a 40-person call center and entered into a complex ERP system.

After implementing a scanning and wireless-enabled mobile solution for the sales team to use, the company realized dramatic improvement in both inventory control and replacement orders. Order replenishment forms now are submitted daily because wireless communication makes it easy to do so. Inventory audits are also easy, and accurate. A trunk inventory and consignment audit takes minutes rather than hours, as data are automatically synchronized into the ERP system. Customer service and sales professionals no longer have to spend time on the phone trying to repair transcription errors and match reconciliation reports.

Conclusion

Many mobile options are available commercially. Some address specific functional needs while others offer a broad suite of capabilities. Medtech company decision makers should take care to select a vendor that understands the particular needs of the medical device industry and its sales processes. It is critical that any mobile technology option the company chooses to buy makes sense in the field so that it will actually help enhance efficiency, increase productivity, and drive revenue.

Any system chosen will entail investments of time and money. Thus, it is essential that the decision be made only after fully analyzing the needs of the sales team and the ability of the IT department to support the technology. The buy-in of these key players is critical to the success of any new program implementation, and to improving results of the sales effort.

References

1. "Wireless CRM Beckons," Line56 [on-line] (1 July 2002, [cited 11 August 2003]); available from Internet: www.line56.com/articles/default.asp?NewsID=3806.

2. G McGrath and A Schneider, "Measuring Intranet Return on Investment," Intranet Communicator 1, no. 8 (1997): 10–15.

3. J Berry, "How to Solve the ROI Puzzle," destinationFFA (1 August 1 2002 [cited 25 June 2003]); available from Internet: www.destinationffa.com/APCM/templates/strategy_template.asp?Articleid=32&Zoneid=15.

David Kerr is president and chief operating officer of NoInk Communications (Indianapolis), a provider of integrated handheld applications designed specifically for the medical device industry.

Copyright ©2003 MX