Medical Device Sales Excellence: Value Selling Models, Sales Structure & Field Support Network

STUDY OVERVIEW

To meet the challenges posed by the consolidation and increasing leverage of provider networks, medical device sales professionals are adopting an approach that demonstrates value to a wide range of customers.

Best Practices, LLC undertook benchmarking research to help medical device companies improve field sales performance through the use of a “value selling” approach. In particular, this study benchmarks the sales models, strategies, span of control, sales structure, key support roles and KPIs that medical device companies are currently utilizing.

Sales leaders can use this study to understand how leading medical device and diagnostic companies deploy their sales representatives to maximize field call effectiveness and meet customer needs.

This study contains two segments: Large companies and small to mid-sized companies; and single-product sales forces vs. value-selling sales forces

KEY TOPICS

• Product vs. Value Selling
• Field Team Size and Span of Control

• Sales and Support Structure
• Key Support Roles and Rotations

KEY METRICS

• What percentage of field sales personnel operates in a "traditional sales model” vs. a "key account model"?
• What is the total number of both field sales representatives and front-line managers (district / regional managers) within the region or business unit?
• How much revenue does each sales representative and each front-line/district manager support?
• Please indicate where each support role reports within your organization
• What technologies or tools have proven to be highly effective for engaging customers on field calls?
• How effective are listed KPIs in measuring the success of overall sales organization?

SAMPLE KEY FINDINGS

Clinical specialists play key support role for value-selling field force:

• As reps seek to build relationships with multiple constituents and sell a wider swath of products, their clinical knowledge may become shallower (or, as one VP of Sales put it: “A mile wide and an inch deep”). Clinical specialists, which are used by 82% of companies, play a critical role in bridging this knowledge gap among certain customer call points. In fact, clinical specialists along with product specialist report directly into the sales organization at roughly 50% of companies.
• Other prominent support functions include marketing and customer service, who both play an important in anticipating and resolving customer needs. One executive also underscored the growing role of GPO/IDN teams, saying: “Consolidation of GPO/IDNs makes it important to engage at the corporate level. Buying decisions are increasingly being centralized, and health economics is becoming increasingly important.”

METHODOLOGY

Best Practices, LLC engaged 24 leaders from 20 medical device companies through a benchmarking survey. Almost half of participants work at the director level or above. Qualitative insights were also captured from 6 field interviews with sales executives.

If you purchase Best Practice Database document(s), you will have 30 days from the date of purchase to apply some or all of the cost of the document(s) toward the cost of a Full Access Individual, Pharma, Group or University Membership. Write us at DatabaseTeam@bestpracticesllc.com or call David Guinn at 919-767-9179 if you have any questions.