MedTech Sales Expert Explains the Customer Journey | Pressure Tested

Hi, I’m Marianne, and I’m the head of sales at Test Labs, and I’m here to be pressure tested because I’m passionate about making sure that our customers have the best journey.

So I’ll be answering 20 questions today on the most common questions that get asked through the sales process.

So where does friction occur in med tech sales?
So friction typically comes in when we have too many layers of customer service. This could be from understanding what the client needs, so the person that’s responsible for their technical inquiry just does not have the technical knowledge to answer those questions.
And then with an additional layer of business development, we find that the quotation just takes too long to get to the client.

How do we remove this friction?
So what we like to do is ensure that we get back to the client in the shortest possible time from the second that their inquiry comes in through to sending through their quotations, and this can be anything from a few minutes to a couple of hours from their inquiry coming through, and then quotations come through within 24 hours.

What slows buying decisions?
Well, typically this is the client not having a clear pathway to their market.
This could be not having a clear budget, not understanding the testing requirements that they have, or maybe they’ve just never been through this process before. So it’s really important that we guide them, we support them, and we help them get to the market quicker.

How can labs reduce complexity?
This one’s really straightforward.
It’s about talking to the client in a language that they understand.
It’s no use blinding them with science.
If you’re the most knowledgeable person in the room, that’s all very well, but the client needs to understand what you’re talking about.
It’s all about being clear and letting the client know all of the steps that they need to undertake to get their product to market.
It’s also really important that we don’t add additional complexity of services that the client doesn’t need.
It’s really important that we only outline what is essential and what the client has asked for.
Adding additional testing only introduces confusion and reduces the client’s confidence in us.

So what makes a proposal clear?
This is about outlining exactly what we’ve discussed in the client meeting, making sure that all of the standards are extremely clear for the client so that they can make sure that the market that they’re going into is all covered. Scheduling is also extremely important. Whilst our clients are desperate to get their products onto the market as quickly as possible, for us, outlining the scheduling and how long testing is going to take is vital. Clear pricing. Clients do not want confusion over pricing because this only leads to further delays.

What kills momentum?
This is easy to do. Whilst clients are sometimes just scoping out their testing, maybe they don’t have a clear roadmap yet, but what really kills momentum is time. Slowing the process down, waiting on additional quotes, which is why it’s so important that we quote quickly. A lack of follow-up also kills momentum, not just from our side, but also from the client. Keeping in regular contact to make sure that requirements haven’t changed keeps momentum going, lets the client know that we’re here
for them, and that we’re only on the other end of the phone.

What defines a smooth sales journey?
Being easy to work with. For us, making sure that our clients have an easy process, whether that’s be from the inquiry through to the conversation that they’re having with the lab team as well as our BD team, making sure that the client has all of the information that they need, that they can get hold of us, and that they have a clear pathway through this process. We generate this through our outline study plans and through our proposals.

How do you accelerate decision-making?
It’s so important that we’re speaking with the right person for the right outcome.
So very often we’re speaking with technical teams and R&D directors in the first instance, but we mustn’t forget that somebody is signing off this process. So it’s important that we also have regular contact with people in financial positions because they also need to make sure that they’re making the right decision for their business.

What does transparency look like?
This is all about being really clear with the client.
It’s not about telling them what they want to hear, but what they need to hear.
This could be challenges with their particular device.
This could be challenges with timescales.
But it’s all about being open. It’s also really important to be open about pricing.
What our clients don’t want to see is a price that they see on the quote and a price that then they end up paying.
So for us, it’s all about building confidence with the client and making sure that we’re open in all areas.

How do you handle pricing friction?
This is where we have to demonstrate our value.
Value is not always in currency. Our value goes deep beyond that. Our value comes in with our testing times, our easy-to-work-with attitude, and our knowledge. It’s all about understanding what is the main driver for the client, because that might not always be cost.
It’s all about understanding what is the driver for our customer. This could be getting their device to the market quicker. It might be that they have a deadline that they need to meet for their regulatory. So for us, it’s all about demonstrating where we can add value to our client. Sometimes it’s all about the value adds.

As I said, it’s not always about currency. However, for some of our small to medium-sized customers, it could be about cash flow. So working with finance directors to come up with a solution that suits our client, that can be the difference between choosing a provider.

What makes clients confident?
This is where we need to articulate our value to our clients. This is where we discuss our accreditations, our certifications, and this is where we educate our clients on the best approach. By working with our clients to thoroughly understand their needs, this is how we build confidence in our clients that we’re the best provider for them.

How do you spot unrealistic timelines?
This is very device dependent and it’s very client dependent. Typically, the timelines are not affected internally. This is something that we can’t always control. The client is probably being driven by a market requirement, or it could be a notified body requirement.
And it’s not that they’re being unrealistic with their timescales, it’s just that they might not have factored in how long some of the testing might take. This is where it’s really important that we work closely with our clients to fully understand where this driver is coming from. Once we can understand this, we can then put a full testing plan together to try and work with the client to get to that end goal.

What signals budget readiness?
This is a really interesting one actually, because a lot of clients come to us with no budget, and it might be that they do have a budget in mind, but they just don’t necessarily want to share it with us. This can introduce a couple of challenges. Where clients might have a large scope of work, we could work within a budget to say, “We might not be able to do all of these tests, but let’s come up with a bespoke plan that meets with the budget requirement.” So having a clear budget is very important.

Being budget ready is not just about understanding what that value is, it’s also understanding who has an impact on that.
Do they know who’ll be signing it off internally?
Are there additional steps that need to be taken in order for them to sign off on this project?

What makes sales feel consultative?
This is where we pride ourselves in our consultative approach to testing. It’s not just about speaking with the client, getting a shopping list of what they need, and sending them through a quote. There’s so much more to it than that. Typically, when our clients come to us, they might not have a full picture of what they need, and this is where we come in.

We don’t want to just add layers and layers of business development. It’s all about giving the client what they need in the shortest possible time. We bring in our expert team, and that could be from biocompatibility through to material sciences and our instructions for use validation, each person having their own expertise in that area. We speak with the client, we fully understand what their scope of work is, and we tailor their outline study plan to fit with their needs.

Our consultative approach is all about education. The client might come to us not fully understanding the process, and this is where we really give our value. We outline clearly and concisely the roadmap that it takes for them to have all of the testing needed to get their device onto the market. It’s about working with our clients collaboratively and having somebody on hand to answer their questions, even after the initial discussion.

Typically, once a client receives their quote, they will have questions, and this is where we come in. They’ll have an account manager that’s there to answer all of those difficult questions, outlining exactly what will happen in the next steps. Collaboration comes even after the report. It’s so important that the client feels confident when they’re working with their regulators to be able to fully explain why they’ve had that testing done and what the results mean.

What’s the biggest frustration clients have with testing labs?
Honest answer.
The honest answer is typically price and timelines, and there’s only so much that we can do about these frustrations.
Timelines, we can absolutely work with the client on this. Testing takes as long as it takes. We can’t always speed that up. But where we can speed it up is how quickly we get back to you, how quickly we get the quote out to you, and how easy it is to work with us.

What we hear time and time again is that labs just take too long to respond to the client. They’ll send in an inquiry, and it could be five working days before they even get a response from the lab. For us, it’s all about making sure that we get back to the clients quickly and with the answers that they need.

Timescales, that is a massive delay for clients. They get told that they’re going to sit in a queue waiting for their samples to be tested, and when you’ve got a notified body breathing down your neck, this just isn’t good enough. We often hear from our clients when we follow them up after we’ve sent them a quotation, “Sorry, I’m still waiting for the next quote to come through.” And this just adds an extra layer of friction. Exactly what we talked about earlier. Typically, they’re looking for a fast response, so it’s extremely important that we give that to our clients. I’ve worked in this industry a long time, and it’s the same question that comes up time and time again.

Why does it take so long to get a response from the lab?
This is where it’s so important to have a good relationship with your laboratory team. This is why we have account managers, and this is why we have study directors that are on hand to answer these questions for our clients as soon as they come up.

How do you create value for your clients?
Okay. Well, apart from the obvious of generating a report that you’re going to be able to send to your notified body or through to your regulators, where we really add value for our clients is all around our knowledge, our expertise, and our industry experience.

And the experience within the lab is so important that our clients feel like they want to come back to us time and time again. The only way we can do that is creating honest value and being on the other end of the phone to support our client in those difficult times, and at the end of the process when we’re all happy because they’ve got their lab reports.

What’s usually missing from an initial inquiry?
Well, quite a lot usually. We do get the odd one where the client knows exactly what they want and they’ve defined it really well, but typically it’s more of a scoping email. So we might get an email that comes in asking a couple of questions around a couple of different standards, maybe asking for biocompatibility testing, for example, which we will explain to the client has a lot more detail behind it. So, getting an early call in with the client and being able to outline exactly what they need means that we can fill those gaps quickly, get them out the quotation that they need so that we can move on to the next steps.

What should I prepare before contacting a lab?
This is actually a really good question. You don’t really need to prepare that much. If you’re speaking with a competent lab that’s experienced in the testing that you need, they should be able to answer all the questions for you. All you need to know is about your device. When do you need it testing? What market are you going into? And we can do the rest.

What does client success mean for you?
Okay, personal question. So for me, client success is does the client get the outcome that they wanted when they first made their inquiry?
Have we made the process easy? Would they want to come back and work with us again? And if the answer is yes to all of those questions, then we’ve done our jobs right.

Why do we need salespeople involved in the deal?
This is a great question actually, and I’m sure that if you asked a technical person, they’d give you a different answer. But for me, it’s so important that we have somebody who’s the voice of the client. They’re able to articulate what the scientists are saying and what the client is understanding. They’re that middle ground that’s there to ask commercial questions, get a better understanding of what the budgets are, what the real needs of the clients are. So it’s so important that we work in collaboration with our technical team so that we get the best of both worlds. You have all of the client questions answered, and you have all of the technical questions answered.

“Who is best to have the introduction meeting for a project?”
Well, there’s two sides to this. From the laboratory side, it’s so important that we have somebody from the business development team and we have somebody from the technical team. This gives you the best of both worlds. This allows you to ask all your commercial questions and get the answers that you need there and then, and also fully scope it out from a technical side. If we’re looking at the client side, it’s ideal if we have somebody from the R&D team and even somebody from the regs side.

The R&D side is able to give us all of the information around the device and all that technical information, and then somebody from their regs department is able to make sure that we’ve hit all of the brief for the particular market that they’re going into, whether that be MDR or FDA, as we know that there are different regulations needed for different markets.

I just need the price. Why do we need a meeting?
This does come up. So, the reason that we have a meeting is because sometimes the price just doesn’t give all of the information.
If you just want a price, sure, we can do that. But are you really understanding what that process is going to look like? Is that really giving you the value? When we just look at commercials and we only look at revenue, you might find that the lab that you choose doesn’t actually fill or answer all of those gaps.

If you can change one thing about med tech sales globally, what would it be?
Honestly, it would be communication. I think that we lack that massively, and I think that clients suffer from it ultimately. I think that the more that we can educate the market, and we do that through our outlook feature, then the better that the client’s outcomes will be in getting their devices to the market.

So that’s it. I definitely feel pressure tested, not sure if you can tell, but hopefully that that gives you a better overview of what the sales team go through before, during, and after the calls.