4 Types of Digital Content to Boost Medical Device Sales

Medical device companies continue to transition their sales aids from paper brochures to virtual tools, but reps need to embrace these tools to make them effective in the new business reality. Buying decisions are being taken out of the hands of surgeons and increasingly, hospital administrators and health systems’ group purchasing organizations (GPOs) are the ones making purchase decisions. While this is a big evolution for the sales process, it works in favor of medical device companies who are prepared with digital content to meet these new buyers.

These GPOs’ or executives’ purchase decisions are being influenced by what they find in online research, and they will most often ask for meetings only after completing this research, according to “The Doctor Will See You Now: How Hospital Administrators Make Purchase Decisions,” a 2013 research paper by Google Think Insights. 51 percent of executives surveyed use online resources to research equipment and vendors. The online searches of GPOs provide key insights when creating digital content strategy for reps to use in face-to-face meetings.

Here are four types of digital content – some that you may already have, and some that you need to create – to boost medical device sales:

1. Videos on company sites.

Video from medical device company websites is used during information gathering, purchase decisions, and post sale. Hospital administrators and other executives with purchasing power say they want to see more videos that show how a product works and how to use that product correctly. To support this, reps should be able to have videos available in mobile library with offline access, as well in approved rep-triggered email templates to send the videos immediately upon request, rather than having to hunt for them on the company website.

2. Interactive digital learning modules.

Already approved HCP educational modules can be recreated for iPads and other tablets, allow use valuable, three-dimensional renderings of how the product works and provide the HCP a hands-on experience. As fewer meetings are taking place in the surgical suite, mobile interactive digital learning modules allow for a richer experience when reps need to address a specific product question from the surgeon or HCP.

3. Product and Competitive Data.

Remember that the customer has already done their research before meeting with you, to establish the veracity of your company’s claims. Much of the information and data to support these claims are locked away in systems sales cannot access. Having a mobile-accessible library with use data, cost data, and other factors allows reps to immediately respond to customer questions about the value/benefit of your products.

4. Digital talks, demos, and case studies by KOLs, instead of live events.

Since many GPO executives and hospital administrators are too busy to attend live events such as conferences and trade shows, they are missing the talks, demos, case studies, and other information presented at these events. Are you recording all of these presentations and the valuable data they contain? You should be. As digital content, the talks, demos, and case studies can be shared by the reps in rep-triggered e-mails before a meeting, or afterwards as a follow-up. And by putting these presentations in mobile-accessible content libraries, reps will not have to wait until they get back to a desktop or laptop computer to share content.

All of this content and information is only useful if reps can find, show, and share it. Prolifiq has several tools that allow for the easier sharing of digital assets and information. SEND allows reps to create compliant e-mails using approved content. VIEW provides a single mobile library with the latest approved, promotional content. CONNECT allows reps to instantly connect physicians and hospital administrators with company experts to answer questions within minutes, rather than days or weeks.