12 Signs that Your Business Needs a Reality Check

12 Signs that Your Business Needs a Reality Check from Brian Bamberger

Estimated reading time: 3 mins

“Surviving a failure gives you more self–confidence. Failures are great learning tools… but they must be kept to a minimum.” – Jeffrey Immelt

If you have your own business, chances are you consider its continuing viability from time to time.  Things like competitors, fluctuating markets, and the general state of the economy all affect your ability to do business and do it profitably.  However, it’s important to keep tabs on internal indicators that your business may need help.  Here are 12 signs to help you assess whether your business needs a reality check.

1. You cannot easily express your company’s vision

Write one sentence that explains what you do. If you can’t easily and clearly articulate what your company does and its vision, how can you expect potential customers to understand your business?

“Without a vision, a business is like a ship without a rudder and is in danger of drifting aimlessly.” - John Walters, 121 Business Consulting

2. Your income doesn’t exceed your expenses

This one may be obvious, but roughly half the small businesses that fail do so because of a lack of profitability.  If you’re dipping into your own personal resources to sustain your business, can’t pay your bills on time, have an excess of business debt, or even just one particular aspect of your business is a financial drain, it’s time for a serious reevaluation of your business goals and practices.

3. You can’t keep up with project and client needs

This may seem like a good thing--you have so much business that you can’t keep up with it!  The reality is that having too much business can be as problematic as too little business if you don’t have a system in place for dealing with it.  Why?  The inability to please current customers may result in their leaving your business for greener pastures.  Compound this problem by trying to please new customers, and your business will suffer as a result.

4. You routinely fail to deliver on time

Being unable to deliver on time is similar to number 3.  If you fail to meet a deadline for a client, you breed mistrust and dissatisfaction, which ultimately will negatively impact your reputation and stymie business you might have earned from referrals.   

5. You spend little or no time marketing your business

If you’re waiting for the customers to find you, you’ll likely be waiting a long time.  Without devoting the appropriate amount of time and resources to making people aware of your business, you’re on the track to being out of business.

6. You don’t solicit customer feedback

Are your customers satisfied with your work?  If you don’t know the answer to this question definitively, you are missing out on an opportunity to improve your business and gain referrals. 

“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates

7. You don’t have new customers

New customers are the lifeblood of a thriving business.  If you are not regularly acquiring new customers through your referrals, marketing endeavors, and other means, you will miss out on vital opportunities for infusing your company with the business it needs to thrive.

8. Your website hasn’t been updated recently

Your website is often your business’ chance to make a first impression on a potential customer.  Do you remember the last time you updated your website?  If you don’t, it’s likely been awhile.  If your website was created circa 2005 and hasn’t been updated since, you might as well advertise that your business is outmoded.  

9. You are overly diversified

Do you offer your customers too many services?  If you find that you’re routinely behind on certain aspects of what you offer to customers, maybe it’s time to reduce your products or services in favor of focusing on what is particularly profitable or what you are particularly good at.

10. You don’t outsource tasks

One surefire way to get burned out when running your own business is to try to be a jack-of-all-trades and handle every aspect of your business.  This includes taxes, updating your website, social media, creating branding and marketing materials, accounting, personnel management, building maintenance, IT, customer support, and more.  In the end, it’s easier and usually cost-effective to outsource these tasks to experts.

11. You no longer enjoy what you are doing

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to enjoy every aspect of running your business all the time, but if you’ve stopped deriving even a modicum of joy from your business, maybe it’s time to reevaluate your business (and personal) goals.  Clients know when you are passionate about your work and when you are phoning it in.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” – Simon Sinek

12. You have never gotten outside insight into your business

Have you ever had an outside resource evaluate your business?  If not, you are missing a valuable resource that you can utilize to improve your services, increase revenues, and gain more clients.  

If your pharmaceutical company needs a reality check, Brian Bamberger can help.  He has decades of high-level pharmaceutical experience, ready-made business development solutions, and a vast network of inside contacts to help your business succeed.

Six Ways to Identify a Gap in the Market

Six Ways to Identify a Market Gap from Brian Bamberger

Estimated reading time: 2 mins

When developing a new product or service, it is critical to assess what need it will fill and what your competitors are offering.  This so called gap in the market could be the difference between an astounding product launch or an equally impressive product flop.  Here are six ways you can identify a gap in your market:

1. Monitor Trends in Your Area of Expertise

If you have your finger on the pulse of current trends, consider what is missing.  Are there products that you yourself would use but that are not on the market?  Have you heard of any desired services from your network of colleagues?  Keeping in touch with those in your industry is a great way to monitor current trends and take advantage of opportunities when they arise.

Do you have a systematic method to trap items and ideas?

2. Elicit Feedback from Customers (and Listen to it!)

Do you routinely get feedback from your current and former customers? If not, you may be missing a golden opportunity to offer something new (and profitable) to a group of individuals who already value your work.  Maintaining regular contact with your customers has the added benefits of keeping your company fresh in their minds as well as creating a natural pool of potential charter clients for anything new you launch.  But sometimes clients are telling you what you want to hear.  Using a third party for some client interviews offers a different set of ears.

3. Evaluate Competitors’ Offerings and Differentiate Yourself

Hopefully you know who your major competitors are and what they are offering.  How do you distinguish yourself from them?  Are you offering products or services that provide more (value, service, convenience, etc) to your customers?  Making sure that you not only know your competition but also how you differ from them will help you gain better control of your corner of the market and identify any potential gaps.

Again outside perspectives and interviews with clients and prospects can help.

4. Think Globally

Sometimes the best idea has already been developed into a successful product in another corner of the world. A German startup incubator, Rocket Internet, consistently generates billions of dollars per year by identifying successful international companies and legally imitating their business model.  Perhaps an international company holds the key to helping you identify a gap in your own market.

5. Adapt an Existing Product or Service

You might already have an existing product or service that, with some changes, could be made into an even more profitable asset.  Take Netflix, the entertainment giant who successfully identified a market gap that its competitors were not filling.  Instead of wading through the aisles of a brick-and-mortar video rental store, Netflix customers could browse its impressive array of DVDs online and receive them via mail.  But, they didn’t stop there.  They expanded their offerings to include streaming services and, more recently, producing blockbuster tv shows (like House of Cards) based upon their own customer viewing data.

Do you have a current product or service that can be adapted to better fit the market?  Or, do you have a competitor whose product or service you can do better?  

6. Hire Outside Resources to do the Legwork for You

If you’re having trouble identifying and taking advantage of a market gap, it might be time to call a professional.  Outside resources can help you by performing market research, identifying potential customers, obtaining feedback on product ideas, providing unbiased input on your current direction, and utilizing a specialized network on your behalf.

If you need help evaluating a gap in the pharmaceutical market, contact Pharma Acumen today to learn more about how we can assist you.

Six Questions to Ask Before Ditching an Idea

“One cannot resist an idea whose time has come.”

— Victor Hugo

Estimated reading time: 3 mins

The famous French poet Victor Hugo once said, “One cannot resist an idea whose time has come.”  This principle certainly holds true for companies like Apple and Facebook whose ideas not only generated massive profits but changed the course of modern culture.  However, the downside of this maxim is that anyone can resist an idea whose time has not (or maybe never will) come.  Or, put differently, sometimes you have to ditch an idea because it will not pan out.  Here are six questions we suggest you ask yourself before pulling the plug on your idea:

1. Are your revenue-producing products/services suffering as a result of this idea?

If you’ve been turning down new clients to accommodate your idea or don’t have the resources to keep your current business afloat while developing a new product, perhaps it’s time to take a step back and evaluate whether a new product or service will benefit your company.  

One way to do this is to get help from an outside resource, such as a trusted advisor or a consulting company who can provide honest feedback regarding the viability of your idea.

2. Does your market research support your idea or is it based on emotion?

If you have scads of research identifying your customer base and supporting the need for your product/service and trends suggest a continuing need for what you’re supplying, your idea is likely on the right track.  However, if you are basing your idea’s success on a gut feeling or some other intangible emotion, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Don’t have the research to back up your idea?  Consider hiring someone to do the legwork for you.  Not only does this free you up to focus on your business, but it puts industry experts at your disposal so you are well-informed regarding your idea’s chances of success.  We are happy to help and have ready-made, cost effective processes in place.

3. Have you met your milestones and other measurable goals?

If you don’t have milestones in place, that is a good indicator that your idea may not be practical. If you do have milestones, are they appropriate to the type of product or service you’re developing?  For instance, if you are selling data, have you secured charter clients that are willing to provide input throughout the development process?  If you are creating content, do you have enough views or comments or subscriptions?

Need help setting critical yet realistic milestones? Hire a third party who has experience taking a product from the idea stage to the launch (and beyond).

4. How much time, energy, manpower, money and other resources will it take to turn a profit?

To calculate this, consider both the resources you have already invested as well as what you expect to invest.  But, beware of pursuing a losing idea just because you’ve already devoted substantial resources to it.  

You may need to devote additional resources for your idea to be successful.  Investing in a consulting firm, for example, to shoulder the burden of product development will likely end up saving you money in the long run while also giving your idea the best chance of becoming a revenue-producing asset.  

5. Do you have a realistic marketing plan and budget?

Your marketing plan should be front and center during your product development because, after all, if no knows about your idea, how will they be able to purchase it?  If you’ve devoted all of your resources to product development and none to marketing, your product will likely fail before it’s even been launched.

However, hiring a company with experience launching new products can help you create and execute a marketing plan that not only targets the right customers but also educates them about what you’re offering.

6. What do your trusted advisors say about your idea?

If you haven’t gotten unbiased feedback from a qualified outside party, chances are your idea will join the ranks of 95% of other new products that will fail this year.  Outside experts can help you:

- See past emotional attachments you may have to your idea

- Provide unbiased feedback on your idea and its progress

- Develop a plan going forward

- Better utilize your resources and team

- Tell you when it’s time to pull the plug

If you’ve got a great idea but aren’t sure if it will generate a profit, contact Pharma Acumen.  We have helped successfully launch nearly two dozen pharmaceutical products and services.  For more information, contact Brian Bamberger at 215-885-1029.

The Value of Outside Help for Innovation and Product Development

Estimated reading time: 2 mins

A successful business requires, among other things, innovation and the development of new services.  However, ideas, particularly ones that lead to new and better services, can often get lost in a quagmire of emails and other less-critical communication.

The Downside of Email

Here’s a look at some data on email communications:

• A typical worker spends 28% of his work time time managing email, receives roughly 304 emails a week, and checks his email 36 times an hour.  

• Once sidelined from a task, it takes about 15-20 minutes to regain focus.

• We lose as many as 10 IQ points when distracted by email and other seemingly harmless interruptions.

In his recent article on Harvard Business Review, Cal Newport argues that email has become a “disastrous development for the knowledge work sector” that should be eliminated from an organization’s workflow. Frequent use of email throughout the day requires workers to stop focusing on a specific task in order to respond to impromptu, but pressing, messages.  As a result, new and potentially profitable ideas fall by the wayside because nobody has time to focus on their development.

These email exchanges are frequently beyond the recipient’s role and add extra responsibility to someone’s day-to-day activities.  This type of distraction not only lessens employee productivity, it also adds unnecessary stress by creating additional work and diminishing the amount of time employees have to spend on other tasks.

How Outside Help Can Speed Product Development

“Outside help can move the product development process out of endless email exchanges into the creation stage. ”

One way to remedy this problem is to bring in outside help.  An outside individual or team has the advantage of being being unbiased toward an idea, unprejudiced by criticism of a new idea, and unencumbered by the volume of communication regarding the idea.  Outside help can move the product development process out of endless email exchanges into the creation stage.

You can put your current team to work overcoming obstacles instead of using email to carry on micro conversations.  Some outside facilitation and project assistance can boost productivity so an idea can escape the conceptual phase and become a revenue producing asset.

Using outside resources has other benefits as well.  Somebody external to your organization can view an idea with fresh eyes and serve as a sounding board, coach, or extra pair of hands to get the ball rolling on development. Someone brought in to help also has access to different resources and network, allowing him or her to gain unbiased feedback regarding a concept and its viability.

If your latest idea is stuck in an email black hole, Pharma Acumen can help. We have experience working with clients to develop new products and services without wasting time and effort wading through hundreds of useless emails. For more information, contact Brian Bamberger at 215-885-1029.

Increasing Sales Using Market Research

Estimated reading time: 2 mins

Some pharmaceutical companies have a history of using market research in a variety of ways that are not necessarily the intended purpose of research. Adopting market research as a tactic can be a valuable tool in selling into the pharmaceutical industry, with both direct and indirect benefits.

As sellers of services to pharmaceutical companies we have used market research to get the following direct benefits:

• Gaining open and unbiased feedback on a new idea and sizing the market

• Learning hot-button issues and key language to describe a new capability by segment (e.g. company type, function in company)

• Generating new competitive intelligence at a critical moment for a service

• Assessing current customer service levels and likelihood of switching

Indirect benefits of market research projects are a bit more difficult to measure but just as valuable:

• Developing awareness of a new business problem in the prospects' minds

• Creating a new category of services in the prospects' minds to address existing business problems

Quick-turnaround projects can be done in as little as a couple of weeks. Our experienced team can use our own pharmaceutical contacts, your current customer contacts, or a blending of the two. Our contacts are high-level buyers who are very willing to share their perspectives on current and future services. We can gain valuable insight without "naming names,"  as we follow market research standards on the confidentiality of responses.  

Call Brian Bamberger at 215-885-1029 to find out more about how we can help you use market research to increase your sales.

Stuck in a Paradigm

Estimated reading time: 2 mins

It is amazing to me how pharmaceutical companies can get stuck in a paradigm. While constantly trying a million new things, none are significant enough to change the business.  Is it the regulatory environment?  How about the incentive programs, or what it takes to get promoted?

Here are some stuck paradigms I have experienced over the last 25 years in the industry:

• "More reps are better - reach and frequency is king"

• "Managed markets is separate and can’t be integrated into the business"

• "Formulary compliance is high because customers tell us it is"

• "Medicare Part D isn’t going to change our business" (held until 3 months before the program started)

• "Keep reps messaged on the product benefits only"

The newest paradigm about to be shattered is, “Reps don’t need to know about Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), Electronic Heath Record (EHRs) or ePrescribing.”  Once again, this can’t be more wrong.  Medicine today is practiced on computers—computers many physicians don’t understand as well as they should. Keeping reps in the dark about these systems only forces them to learn from the doctors who are leaders in the market place.  Hardly a way to impress a customer.

Pharmaceutical companies need to realize that EMR/EHR systems will help create new patients and increase compliance (as Surescripts has already shown with a 10% increase in patients picking up prescriptions).

What is the antidote to this paradigm rut?  Longer-term planning, longer-term brand staffing (to focus on the long term), and dropping the fear that the reps who are in the force are not able to handle discussing EMRs/EHRs. (Surprise! The good ones already are!)  

Now is the time to implement changes to take advantage of EMRs/EHRs.