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What's the biggest bottleneck in any business? Besides sales, this often overlooked feature of any business could be causing you lost sales and your long term success. Use these tips to reduce the

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

most costly (and annoying) bottleneck with businesses today.

Imagine for a moment that you have just spent a small fortune on marketing...you have a sale that you want to advertise and you have pr

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

duced full page ads in the local newspaper setting you back $20,000 a day, sent out thousands of flyers, produced signs, sent out press releases and you even went on TV.

The big day arrives and a

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

lood of people enter your store. You look at the people clawing at each other to buy your goods, while you eagerly wait to count your profits.

Then something bad happens...

A cashier decides to

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ake a break to talk to his girlfriend on his cell phone. She breaks up with him on the phone and he comes back 15 minutes later, right into the heat of the crowded store and decides he doesn’t car

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

about anything anymore. He starts being rude to the customers, taking his time and tells some off.

Disgusted, your customers leave the store, and the profits you were counting in your head have

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

anished into the smoke they came from.

So what happened?

What happened is what many believe is one of the biggest problems of any business today...the people that interface to your customers.

Us

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

ally they are the most underpaid, under trained people in your business. And they are relied upon to handle all customer inquiries, complaints, joys and questions and basically close the sales.

I

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

’s not just in retail either. Any business that has prospects phoning and asking questions or placing orders has this problem.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard a story from a disgruntled

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

ong-time customer of some business that was driven away because the customer service person couldn’t accommodate their request, I would have lots of nickels.

And you know, the people that represen

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

your business, the ones that interface with the customer everyday ARE your business to the customer. If they are mad because of some “7 dollar an hour can’t wait to get home to go drinking” custo

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

er service representative, they will lump you and your product right along into their mental state. If you receive a brick in the mail one day, you may be having this problem.

So how do you avoid

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

his bottleneck?

First, isolate who is having any contact whatsoever with your customers.

1. Who’s answering your phones?

2. Who’s on the floor greeting your customers?

3. Who’s answering the em

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

ils?

4. Who is responding to your white mail?

5. Who is placing the order?

6. Who is making the sales?

Second, you need to be constantly educating them and training them as to your specials, ne

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

products, etc. Make sure you have a networked computer system to take notes for telephone operators. There is nothing more frustrating then phoning one customer service person, only to have to re

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ell your problem to another one 10 minutes later after they mistakenly hang up on you.

Third, educate them on how to deal with people. Once they know why certain customers behave the way they do,

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

they might not be rude with them or they can adapt their behaviour to build rapport and guarantee the sale.

Fourth, give them a little negotiating power. Some customers will try to negotiate. Gi

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

e the person some room with that just to appease the customer’s desire to “get a good deal”. Often people will warm up when there is some negotiating room.

Lastly, perhaps give the people that de

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

l with customers a spiff, or small reward for their excellent people handling skills (in other words, closing the sale). It doesn’t have to be money. In fact, chances are it will be material thin

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

s, not money. Find out what your employees want the most. It can be an IPOD, or a trip, your own products, or something to encourage them that maybe they should make an effort with your customers

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Every successful office manager knows that the office, furniture or equipment is not necessarily the key to prosperity in the workplace, but the people working with them are more important.

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One of the great myths associated with the “American Dream” is that you need to have a four-year college degree to be successful. As the economy has shifted to the information age, with a greater rel...

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