Episode 269

Early Stage Territory Planning for Medical Device Companies

Do your field teams still rely on map, spreadsheet, and note apps? How medical device companies have historically generated sales is no longer adequate for selling medical devices in today's market...and there's a new revenue intelligence tool to help you bridge the gap.

In this episode of the Global Medical Device Podcast, Etienne Nichols talks to Skylar Talley and Mark Mescher from MedScout, a territory prioritization and sales enablement platform.

Skylar and Mark discuss early stage territory planning to get more medical device sales, different aspects of go-to-market strategies, and building and demonstrating meaningful value by understanding pain points.

Some of the highlights of this episode include:

Tools have evolved and MedScout’s platform is a huge step forward. Basically, it brings an Excel spreadsheet to life, maximizes territory data, and is very intuitive and useful for sales reps to understand.
Skylar has observed an evolution from frameworks/methodologies on the market based on geographic coverage to put numbers, early sales, and clinical proof-points out as fast as possible and leverage an early budgeted staff.
Companies should start thinking about territory planning early on during the fundraising phase to benefit the commercialization and purchase processes.
Skylar describes the 3-stage early commercialization roadmap strategy as getting the product into market, developing case studies and understanding where to take them, and knowing the distribution or rep model to execute.
Relationships are vital early on with the development and commercialization of a medical device company. Physicians educate and innovate, just like engineers.
Skylar and Mark agree that it’s worth being thoughtful when evaluating available solutions to make sure they are not adding time to your managers and reps.
Marketers find and generate leads through interesting means, so there’s much better coexistence and co-creation between sales and marketing teams today.

Memorable quotes from this episode:

“Sales reps aren’t always the best at Excel spreadsheets. Most of them don’t have any idea what a pivot table is.” Mark Mescher

“I don’t hear from a lot of reps out there in the field that they’re just over the moon with how they have to use Salesforce on a day-to-day basis and if they use it on a day-to-day basis.” Mark Mescher

“No two health systems are created equal when it comes to product approval.” Mark Mescher

“Marketing teams are really at the forefront of being very creative in finding and generating leads through really interesting means that weren’t necessarily accessible previously.” Mark Mescher

“Anytime you’re in an early stage environment, or doing something entrepreneurial, go talk to 20 to 30 people that you’re going to be trying to create an impact for.” Skylar Talley