Latest / Clinician to CEO : Export Your Medical Device With Confidence By Overcoming Go To Market Roadblocks For Medtech Growth / #212 | Stop Marketing Your MedTech Product. Do This Instead. (For Clinicians)

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#212 | Stop Marketing Your MedTech Product. Do This Instead. (For Clinicians) · Clinician to CEO : Export Your Medical Device With Confidence By Overcoming Go To Market Roadblocks For Medtech Growth

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  In today's episode, you're gonna discover that whilst clinical evidence may be essential for credibility, unfortunately, credibility still isn't enough to create adoption Welcome to Clinician to CEO, the podcast helping clinicians simplify your go-to-market strategy so that you can
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  stop guessing and turn your working prototypes into international MedTech businesses.
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  I'm your host, Hakeem Aade.
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  Let's get started.
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  The three things that you're gonna discover in this episode is, number one, why the best product doesn't always win.
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  Number two, why changing minds is different from proving you're right.
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  And then number three, how to build demand before your product even ever reaches the market if you're a regular listener, you'll know that I finish every guest interview with a real commercial decision.
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  And if you're new, welcome.
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  We use that decision to understand how successful people think, then unpack the lessons that you can apply to your own business.
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  So let's get into today's scenario Imagine you're the marketing lead for a new med tech device that has, complete clinical trials, but faces skepticism from potential users.
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  You need to decide on your approach to launch and then get the product adopted.
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  So do you, A, launch the product widely with a traditional sales force focusing on product features and benefits?
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  B, hold educational workshops for clinicians to showcase clinical data and potential benefits before the launch.
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  C, develop partnerships with key opinion leaders to advocate for the product's adoption before entering the market, or D, delay the launch until a comprehensive market study validates the demand for your product.
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  So over to you, Holly you know I'm gonna not choose A, right?
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  Because launching a product and just basically focusing on the features is the surest way for your launch to fail.
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  I think the last one you mentioned, D, you said delay the launch until you have- Yeah a comprehensive study.
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  That's not going to be the magic bullet, right?
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  And so that leaves us with B and C.
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  B was holding workshops for clinicians to showcase the data and potential benefits.
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  Yeah.
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  And C was developing partnerships with key opinion leaders to advocate before entering the market.
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  Yeah.
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  So I think while I'm not negative towards B, C is really, I think, the pathway forward because of a few things.
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  One is if you can convince, as we said get people to emotionally buy into the problem you can solve, then they're going to become advocates, and they're going to basically carry your narrative into the market on your behalf,
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  essentially.
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  So you're going to They act as a force multiplier to what you're saying, correct?
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  Yeah.
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  But the other thing about option C that I love is that it's before entering the market.
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  Yeah.
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  And it's not promoting the product.
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  You're actually promoting the problem.
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  Yes.
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  So it's problem marketing, and that can be done with no problem.
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  And the and the idea is that you're teaching them what's wrong with the status quo.
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  You're helping them define the solution of the criteria, and which only your product can s- can solve.
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  And then three, they're really ready, they're primed, they're looking for your solution in advance of you coming to market.
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  So really, C is the clear winner, and it's the fastest and the cheapest, to your point, way to- Yeah accelerate adoption and accelerate your commercial growth and really category leadership.
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  So option C is the decision that Holly made.
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  What I want to do now is unpack it and share my own perspective, because I think Holly gets this absolutely right.
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  But the few things I'd add, because I think this decision highlights one of the biggest misconceptions in med tech.
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  So let's start with option A.
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  This is probably the most common approach that most med tech companies will take because you've spent years developing the product, you've generated the evidence, you've got regulatory approval.
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  So naturally, you want to hire a sales team and start telling people how good your product is.
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  The problem is that clinicians rarely wake up wanting another product.
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  I wish they did, but you know that's not the case.
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  They wake up trying to solve a problem, and if they don't believe the current way of doing things needs to change, the quality of your evidence almost becomes irrelevant.
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  A better product isn't enough if nobody feels the need to adopt it.
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  So that's option A.
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  Now, if we then look at option B, this one is a lot more tempting, I think, because education feels like the logical next step.
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  If they just understood the data, surely they're gonna adopt it.
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  But information alone rarely, unfortunately, changes behavior.
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  Education is always important.
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  Clinical evidence is important, but neither of those is usually enough to overcome habit, organizational inertia, competing priorities or perceived risk.
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  In other words, people don't really change unless there's some kind of burning platform.
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  People definitely don't change simply because they've seen another graph or another published paper.
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  So that then takes us on to option D.
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  This again sounds sensible.
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  More research always feels like the safer option, but at some point, more market research just delays learning.
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  Real commercial insights come from engaging with the market, not endlessly analyzing data and information from a distance.
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  So unless you identify the genuine gap in your understanding, delaying the launch usually only just delays progress.
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  Which then brings us on to option C.
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  Now, notice what Holly didn't say when she was describing this.
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  She didn't say, Find influential people to promote your product."
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  What she said was something significantly more important.
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  She said, Find influential people and help them understand the problem."
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  That's a completely different strategy because instead of marketing the product, you're marketing the problem.
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  You're helping people recognize why the status quo isn't, any longer good enough.
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  You're shaping how they think before they ever evaluate your solution.
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  So when your product finally arrives, you're not asking them to change their mind, you're offering the answer to a problem they already believe exists.
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  And that's why key opinion leaders become so powerful.
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  Not because they're famous or because everyone knows them, not because they influence purchasing decisions, although that's important, but because they accelerate belief.
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  They create trust, they create momentum, and perhaps most importantly, out of all of those things, they create advocates before your sales team even starts selling, and that's critical.
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  The other thing that I really loved about Holly's answer was about the timing that she discussed.
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  She kept emphasizing before launch.
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  That's a word many founders overlook.
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  Commercialization doesn't begin on your launch day.
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  It should begin months, sometimes years beforehand.
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  And if you look at the really big companies, they'll send out teams of people to do pre-marketing, and start building that key opinion leader, profile and that key opinion leader database and that advocacy well before the product comes
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  out.
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  So there's got to be a reason why those companies spend all that money before they launch what they consider is gonna be, a blockbuster.
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  The companies that build demand before launch almost always outperform those that start marketing after launch.
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  So finally, I want to come back to one sentence Holly said, because I think it's the biggest lesson from the entire, interview and the decision-making, scenario that we discussed.
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  Med tech companies fail because they believe the better product wins.
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  And that might be uncomfortable to hear because you're probably thinking, Well, yeah, it does.
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  The better product should win."
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  Now, maybe it should, but it doesn't always win because if you've listened to enough founders, investors, and commercial leaders on this podcast, you'll notice the same pattern.
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  The winners don't just build better products.
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  They build belief, and belief is what creates adoption.
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  So what should you take away from today's decision?
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  Firstly, clinical evidence is essential.
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  It builds credibility, but credibility and adoption are not the same thing.
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  Second, don't market your product first.
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  Market the problem.
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  If people don't believe that change is necessary, they'll never look for your solution.
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  And then third, commercialization starts long before launch.
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  The companies that educate the market, build advocates, and create demand before launch give themselves a significant advantage once they finally go to market.
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  So in closing, if this episode challenged the way that you think about commercialization, I would encourage you to go back and listen to my full conversation with Holly Miller because there's so much more in that discussion about behavioral
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  science, category design, and why adoption is ultimately a human problem, not just a clinical one
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  Hakeem: And if you're building a MedTech business and you're not sure whether your next move should be around evidence, market access, commercialization, distributor strategy.
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  Hakeem: Or adoption.
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  Hakeem: Do not guess.
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  Hakeem: Book a healthcare export accelerator diagnostic Call with me.
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  Hakeem: Use my link in the show notes.
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  Hakeem: And in that session I'll help you identify the specific constraints blocking your momentum and the commercial move most likely to unlock your progress.
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  Hakeem: Thanks for tuning in.
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  Hakeem: Until next time, thanks for listening.
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  Hakeem: Keep challenging your assumptions and keep growing.