Just Other Articles

Have you ever felt strange about marketing your services for fear of people thinking you weren’t successful enough or good enough at what you do? I was reading a transcript of marketer Dan Kennedy’s Coaching

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

and Consulting Business Boot Camp this past week at the beach and I came across a section about the fine line between the need for marketing and not wanting to look like you NEED business.

It struck a cord with

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

Examples of combination products may in

e because I remember being stumped a few years ago, when a photographer I met at a networking function asked me, “So, if you’re such a marketing expert and you help people attract all the clients they need, what

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

are you doing here at a networking group each week?” I didn’t know what to say at first. Never had it been posed to me that way.

But then I started thinking about it all and I realized that I always have clients

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

because I’m always marketing. I feel comfortable knowing that marketing is part of my business, a large part of it. It doesn’t matter what you DO for a living, your primary job is marketing and your “skill” is

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

Combination pro

whatever else you do to get paid by clients.

So, if you’re a consultant, you’re not really a consultant, you’re a marketer who consults. If you’re an interior designer, you’re not really an interior designer

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

you’re a marketer who happens to help clients decorate their homes. And so on and so forth.

Until a client of mine really GETS that, they always put marketing on the back burner, and as a result of not maki

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

g marketing a priority in the past, they’ve gotten lackluster, mediocre results. But when they realize that their MAIN job is marketing, then they just accept that that’s what you do and start to do it well. Alterna

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

ively, they can just go back to the corporate world and get a paycheck again while having someone else breathe down their neck. (Ouch!)

But I think the fine line we talked about between looking successful enough

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

not to market and needing to market is really about CHASING clients. It’s like anything in life: if someone is TOO eager about something, you start questioning their motives. Here’s the line I read in that semi

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

ar transcript:

The Ultimate Incongruity: “If you’re so good, why are you so available?...let alone chasing business???”

The first key is that you never CHASE business. It’s just too cheesy and it doe

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

Following aspects would a

n’t make people want to work with you. If you seem like you need them more than they need you, then you’re in trouble.

However, if you follow the Client Attraction System™ or are a client of mine, you know that

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

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

t’s about creating value, trust, believability, and credibility over the long haul. It’s about establishing yourself as a problem solver to your ideal clients and their biggest problems. It’s about creating a RE

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

LATIONSHIP so that clients naturally come to YOU and no one else, WHEN they’re ready. It’s never about chasing clients or strong-arming them to sign up with you. Here’s the formula:

Value plus Trust over Time.
tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen
>

(As a side note, that photographer who almost stumped me with her question ended up being one of my favorite clients of all time, a RAVING fan and a consistent referral source of new clients to my practice. She’s
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
also become one of the best and most diligent marketers I’ve seen, and she markets consistently, not just when she needs clients. She GOT it.)

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

So, now that we’ve gotten away from any semb
ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
ance of you chasing business and looking too eager, what would you say if someone asked YOU that Ultimate Incongruity question?

Here’s what I say:

“I market consistently because I know that if you don’
y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products
t market consistently, you don’t always have clients. Even when I have a waiting list of people waiting to work with me, I still don’t stop marketing. I’d be foolish to do that.”
“Two clients recently gra
.

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
uated, so I have openings for just two new clients.”
“I have decided to take on more clients because…(tell the truth).”

Oh and by the way, always tell the truth. That’s what authentic m
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip
rketing is about. That’s how being a marketer with integrity makes you stand out in the marketplace. Anything else would be sleazy and that’s not Client Attractive.

© 2006 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved

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

Tags

Links

Just Other Articles - To Market or Not To Market: The Double-Edged Sword of Self-Promotion

Related Articles: