MedTech Opinion Leader: Marco Baiguini talks Omnichannel strategy, Customer Centric Approach, Collaborative Teams and Future MedTech trends.

Stan: How can you develop and implement a strategy to transition from traditional sales rep-centric sales to an omnichannel approach?

Marco: It is crucial to align on the definition of “Omnichannel” as “an organization’s go-to-market model” that goes beyond just marketing and digitalization. Omnichannel encompasses the entire customer journey and involves multiple functions such as Marketing, Sales, Commercial Excellence, IT, Supply Chain, and possibly more. Embracing this broad perspective offers a great opportunity to think about the organization’s operating mechanisms and reflect on what could be different, what needs to be created new, developed or simply better interconnected to operationalize such approach. Putting the customer at the center and ensuring an integration of all your channels are two fundamental pillars of embracing Omnichannel. Here's a structured approach to developing and implementing this strategy:

1. Vision:

It is critical to recognize that innovation in MedTech cannot be about new products & services only, it must be also about customer engagement models, considering all the different stakeholders that are directly involved or can influence the purchasing decision, and how they can be better served. This means reimagining the entire commercial approach, leveraging technology and data to create personalized, valuable interactions that would set you apart and allow you to focus your resources where it matters the most. Frame a clear vision statement that defines why you're undertaking this transformation, how your organization will be different after the change and will stand out from competition, what business objectives the organization will achieve with the transformation.

2. Build on solid data through Market Research & Trends:

Most of the industry is likely experiencing customers are increasingly time-constrained and value efficiency in their interactions with vendors. There is a growing preference for self-service options and digital channels for routine inquiries and orders, and remote interactions have become a norm. Customers seek personalized support for complex decision-making. Different products or customer segments & behaviors might require different sales channels, content and recommendations level.

At the same time companies are seeking for more efficient ways to serve different types of customers, or commercialize different types of products and operationalize complex sales processes. Understand your specific challenges & opportunities through customer interviews and market analysis. Use data analytics to identify customer preferences and behaviours across different channels and focus on those that you can control & influence directly.

3. Development:

Identify key capabilities needed to operationalize your vision. This may include advanced CRM systems, AI for personalization, content management for multiple channels, e-commerce platforms and a remote sales force. Make it a business-led decision, rather than a technology implementation, and focus on what best fits your market and organization. Form a cross-functional project team with a clear mandate and governance to drive the program. Make sure everyone understands what these new capabilities are, and how they will interact and deliver on the vision you set in the beginning. Use a clear and simple narrative, adopt an agile methodology, and test as soon as possible, making sure your capabilities are not just stories but functional prototypes that can be used and experienced.

4. Embrace Predictive Analytics and AI:

Integrate advanced predictive analytics and AI into your omnichannel strategy. These technologies can anticipate customer needs, optimize channel selection in real-time, and personalize interactions at scale. For instance, AI-powered chatbots can handle initial customer inquiries, freeing up sales reps for more complex interactions. Predictive models can identify which customers are most likely to benefit from which products, allowing for more targeted and efficient sales efforts.

5. Implementation:

One of the success factors is to involve the broader team as early as possible in the process, making sure people that are going to be impacted and will eventually use and manage the solutions are well informed and trained, giving them opportunities to contribute in the design. By providing solid guidelines centrally you can allow flexibility to adapt the model to more local needs as well. Ensure a robust technology infrastructure and standardized business processes. Change management is crucial, communicate extensively about the benefits of the new approach and implement a comprehensive training program, providing ongoing support to help teams transition.

6. Measuring Results and Improving:

In order to assess the impact of the new capabilities, establish relevant KPIs such as lead generation & conversion rates, customer engagement rates, and sales efficiency metrics. Regularly review these metrics to refine your solutions and overall model continuously.

You should be aware that these transitions will not be without challenges. You'll likely face initial resistance, for example from some sales reps who might fear being replaced by digital channels. However, by demonstrating how the omnichannel approach actually enhances their role – allowing them to focus on high-value interactions while digital channels handle routine tasks – you will be able to gain their buy-in and leverage their expertise in shaping the new model.

While the initial investment may be significant, the long-term ROI of an omnichannel approach can be substantial. Expect to see increased customer satisfaction, improved sales efficiency, and growth in market share. Additionally, you'll have positioned yourselves as an innovative partner in the customers' success, and engaged your team in a growth journey, fostering creativity and hopefully having some fun!

Stan: How do you identify and understand the specific needs and challenges of your customers to offer tailored solutions?

Marco: Identifying and understanding customers' specific needs and challenges involves a multi-faceted approach:

1. Customer Interviews and Voice of Customers (VoC) programs:

Conduct in-depth interviews to gain firsthand insights into their needs and challenges. These conversations allow to understand their perspectives directly and uncover pain points that may not be immediately obvious. Implementing systematic VoC programs to regularly capture and analyze customer feedback across all touchpoints can be also a great opportunity to keep this dialogue on-going.

2. Internal Expertise and Competitive Analysis:

Tap into the wealth of knowledge and experience of your team. This involves reflecting on the data points you’ve accumulated and synthesizing the insights from various team members who interact with customers in different capacities. Regularly assess competitors' offerings to identify gaps in the market and unmet customer needs. To support your analysis, you can leverage big data and advanced analytics to uncover patterns in customer behavior and preferences. This can complement the human-centric approaches and provide quantitative insights.

3. Prototyping, testing and collecting feedback:

Build and deploy Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) to gather authentic feedback and insights, then continually refine your prototypes based on those. These prototypes don’t need to be perfect but functional enough to be deployed for real-world use, allowing to gather authentic user experience and customer reactions, and a good mix of insights.

4. Iterative Improvement:

Continually refine your prototypes based on feedback and observations. This iterative process allows to rapidly improve your solutions, ensuring they evolve to meet customer needs more effectively. The ongoing nature of this process ensures that you stay closely aligned with all stakeholders’ evolving needs and challenges, as well as your progressive learning and understanding of the different, and often unknown, details and sub components of your solution.

Stan: How do you ensure seamless collaboration between different departments (e.g., sales, marketing, IT, etc.) to deliver cohesive solutions to customers?

Marco: Ensuring seamless collaboration between departments is crucial for delivering cohesive solutions:

1. Leverage a powerful vision to help team members understand how their collaborative efforts contribute to overall goals. Coach and address resistance, providing guidance on effective cross-departmental work.

2. Establish a formal program with clear management and governance structures. Involve senior management and secure sponsorship to prioritize collaborative efforts. Form cross-functional teams with members from different departments based on specific knowledge and areas of responsibility.

3. Implement Collaborative Tools and Processes. You can utilize project management practice and communication tools that facilitate cross-functional information sharing and collaboration. Leverage testimonials from peers who have successfully collaborated, appointing peer ambassadors to champion collaborative efforts, and also regularly sharing success stories to demonstrate the tangible benefits of teamwork.

4. Establish Shared KPIs. Develop performance metrics that encourage collaboration rather than departmental silos. Proactively identify and address challenges such as conflicting priorities, communication barriers, or resource constraints By implementing these strategies, you create an environment where collaboration is not just encouraged but expected and enabled.

Stan: What future trends do you foresee in the MedTech sales landscape, and how do you plan to stay ahead of these changes while continuing to focus?

Marco: Some of the most significant trends shaping the MedTech sales landscape in the coming years are in my opinion:

A continued increase in sales complexity.

This will be driven by the introduction of more sophisticated, integrated service offerings and a growing number of stakeholders involved in purchasing decisions. Demand for personalization will continue to grow accordingly, with professionals needing tailored, high-value content delivered efficiently through appropriate channels. A growing expectation for Value-Based Healthcare will drive a shift towards outcomes-based reimbursement models requiring sales teams to articulate the value proposition of products in terms of patient outcomes and cost-effectiveness.

Technology Integration.

From Leveraging data collection and integration to generate actionable insights, to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning that will revolutionize MedTech sales. From predictive analytics to automated customer interactions and personalized product recommendations. Remote Selling and Virtual Engagement are also becoming more common. Digital sales tools and virtual product demonstrations will become permanent fixtures in the sales landscape. It will be important to also consider evolving regulations, particularly around data privacy, as they will likely impact sales & marketing strategies, data collections and analytics.

Finally, from an organizational perspective, the industry will likely continue to face pressure to optimize costs and increase efficiency.

This will require to be smarter about where to focus efforts, prioritizing high-potential opportunities and improving conversion rates. It will be key to find ways to reach more potential customers, create new opportunities, and work more efficiently on real priorities.

Staying ahead of these changes while maintaining an omnichannel focus will require a commitment to continuous learning and adaptation, developing robust data analysis capabilities to inform strategy, upskilling the commercial team to effectively use new technologies and insights and implementing an Agile Sales Approach to allow for quick pivots in response to market changes.

Companies might also need to prioritize Customer Success and Shifting focus from purely sales-driven metrics to long-term customer value and outcomes.

By focusing on these areas, MedTech companies can position themselves to thrive in an increasingly complex and technology-driven sales landscape. I am personally confident it will be a tremendous opportunity for those that are curious and embrace a growth mindset, and am looking forward with enthusiasm and energy to the possibility of shaping MedTech and making a positive impact for all stakeholders.

Marco: Thank you very much for this opportunity to share my experience. I will be extremely happy to engage in further discussion with anyone that is interested to continue the exchange and want to dive deeper into Sales and Marketing practices in the MedTech industry.

Stan Kalinin draws on an extensive track record of more than 14 years of search and executive team-building expertise. He is the host of MedTech Opinion Leader supporting growth of MedTech industry and creating insightful stories with key market executives forging alternative narrative about the sector current and future trends.