Leveraging Professional Organizations and Conferences for Business Growth

Estimated reading time: 5 mins

This post is the latest installment in our series on developing and funding a new product for pharmaceutical companies.  (Click to read earlier posts that evaluate bootstrapping versus investor funding.)

Once you’ve developed a product and secured funding for it, whether by bootstrapping or relying on investor funding, you’ll need to get the word out about your product.  The first place to start is your network. Beyond that, one of the best (and often overlooked) ways to both promote your product and expand your network is to attend association meetings and conferences.  

Benefits of Attending

“There is no substitute for attending live, face-to-face professional development conferences relevant to your business/career goals and needs. When you make the investment of time and money you return to the workplace with a renewed sense of purpose, armed with new knowledge and tools as well as valuable new contacts that can turn into long-term relationships. These benefits will help you grow personally and more importantly professionally.” Heidi Richards Mooney

The first benefit of attending a professional conference is that you can expand your network of colleagues and like-minded professionals.  “Today, probably even more than ever before, networks are a key form of social capital for achieving goals in both your professional and personal lives,” says Dorie Clark, via Harvard Business Review.  Meeting other professionals who have similar passions and goals not only benefits your network but also gives you access to the thought processes on individuals who face the same types of problems that you do.

Another networking aspect of attending professional conferences is that you’re likely to run into people you already know.  This helps to revitalize and solidify your relationship with these individuals.  In fact, it’s often worth the effort beforehand to find out if anyone you know is going so that you can touch base with them during the conference.

When you attend a conference also frequented by field experts and thought leaders, you have the opportunity to compare notes with them, bounce ideas off of them, and possibly even harness their network by asking them to put you in touch with prospective clients.  You might also be able to extend the relationship beyond the conference and obtain a new mentor or business partner.

If you are looking for collegial recognition as an expert in your own right, frequently attending and participating in conferences is a necessity.  “One of the biggest benefits my career has experienced from attending conferences is how much they have raised the visibility of my company among my peers. Consistently going to events, meeting more people, and publicizing the trips has enabled me to become somewhat well known in my industry. Doing this will enable you to leverage that visibility into even more publicity – most of it for free,” notes Wendy Piersall at monster.com.  Not only will you meet people face-to-face, but you’ll be able to share what you’ve learned with those who couldn’t attend the conference.

Conferences have benefits aside from networking.  One of the biggest is finding resources such as vendors, technology, and other tools that could benefit your business.  “Most professional conferences include vendors whose reason for being is to connect with you and educate you on their latest and greatest products and services. You may find new tools you were unaware of, tools that could provide a solution to problems your company, or your customers, are facing.” Allen Mireles, cision.com.  

Along the same vein, attending conferences enables you to keep abreast of industry trends and market trajectories.  This knowledge could be especially valuable when you make business decisions.  You’ll also have a better grasp of your own product’s positioning within the industry.

When you are surrounded by individuals within your area of expertise, you also have the opportunity to get technical.  You may learn new ways of solving existing problems or discover revolutionary tools still in development.  This type of camaraderie among peers may even lead to a renewed passion for your business.

How to Participate

“When you are active in your industry, you can develop a reputation as an expert to your peers and your clients.  Those who are engaged over the long term are often asked to speak at the events and to write articles for their industry publications.  Like it or not, others like to associate with the experts in any industry.  Clients feel good about doing business with those that are celebrated by their peers. If your strategy is to be the best-kept secret in your business community, you will be missing a valuable opportunity.” Thom Singer, MasterCard Biz.

Once you’ve found the conferences you’re interested in attending, there are several ways to participate in them.  The first is to volunteer for a leadership position.  This might include helping run the conference, find speakers, and organize events.  You can also usually volunteer as support staff, which assist with setup and teardown, registrations, etc.  This is a great way to meet insiders and perhaps even get enhanced access to guest speakers and other influential attendees.

Another way to participate is to become a speaker.  If you have expertise in an area that overlaps with the conference’s agenda, you may be a welcome addition to the other experts coming to offer their insights.  Speaking at a conference gives you excellent exposure to potential clients as well as increasing your opportunities for networking.  

You can help maintain your post-conference network by keeping in touch with members after the conference has ended.  This not only allows you to keep them within your network, but it offers the possibility of collaboration on mutually-faced challenges.  The conference may also have a local chapter that you can join.

Carving Out Time to Participate

If you’re like most professionals, particularly those who own their own businesses, work doesn’t stop merely because you go away to a conference.  Making conference activities a priority while managing other demands can be tricky and will require advanced planning and a fair measure of determination.  Here are some ways to to balance conference participation with business as usual.

The first is to allot dedicated time to just conference activities.  Mark it on your calendar, let your staff know, and turn off devices that can reach you while you’re participating at the conference.  Another way to get the most out of your time at a conference is to carve out time to work on office matters offsite.  This will enable you to focus better and reduce office and conference bottlenecks.  Keep in mind that it might not be possible to delegate conference activities to staff who don’t share your drive or may be looking to leverage a conference building their own personal networks.  

As we’ve seen, investing the resources to attend and participate in conferences can be well worth it, especially if you need to broaden your network.  The few days away from your office can also help to rejuvenate you professionally and expose you to new tools and solutions.  My own personal experience attending and participating in HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) and other conferences and organization meetings for more than 25 years has been invaluable for all of the reasons outlined above.

What benefits have you gained from professional conferences and memberships? How have you juggled career responsibilities with conference participation?

Start-Up Funding: The Pros & Cons of Outside Investors

Estimated reading time: 3 mins

In our last post, we introduced bootstrap funding as a way to launch a product using only your own resources.  While bootstrapping may be a good way to begin building a business, sometimes your business may benefit from investor funding.  Often called angel investors, individuals who help fund start-ups provide not only necessary capital but often invaluable insight and infrastructure.   “Most entrepreneurs initially finance their firms using their own savings but an investment by an angel investor who puts his or her own money directly into a startup, if done at the right time, makes a critical difference to the success of the firm,” writes Jonathan Ortsman at Kauffman.org.

Investor funding generally enables you to get to market faster because you have the resources to pour into market research, beta-testing, development and marketing.  You’re also more likely to keep your competitive advantage because you can stay abreast of market trends and match or exceed competitors’ timelines and budgets.  

Investor funding can provide you with the infrastructure and staffing to take on a larger number of customers.  Instead of wearing dozens of different hats, you can focus on your area of expertise and hire people to take care of the rest.  You’ll also have more cash on hand for investment and other growth as well as to take advantage of time-sensitive offers or deals.

Having investor backing also gives you access to a wider network of potential clients and advisors.  As Christina Comben of business.com notes, “Angel investors come from a variety of backgrounds and may invest in startups for personal reasons, or because they’re passionate about a particular sector. Startups can gain a lot more than a simple cash injection from the right angel investor, including industry expertise, inside knowledge of customers and competitors, personal network contacts and potential partnerships.” Because their ROI depends on your success, investors are usually more than willing to connect you with the people you need to succeed.  If your investor is well-known within your industry, having him or her on board will also significantly boost your credibility.

Angel investors can be particularly useful for a business in the early stages of a start-up or one that has an inexperienced team.  As Ortsman writes, “By serving as mentors and advisors and taking an ‘active’ role in growing a company, angels are life-savers when startups pass through the aptly named ‘Valley of Death,’ the critical point when success or failure hangs in the balance.”

(Based on graphic by Jonathan Ortmans located here)

While obtaining outside investments is beneficial for many reasons, it is not without its drawbacks. One of the largest challenges of investor funding is actually finding an investor willing to work with you.  Guy Kawasaki says in his article The Art of Bootstrapping, “Someone once told me that the probability of an entrepreneur getting venture capital is the same as getting struck by lightning while standing at the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day. This may be too optimistic.” In order to land an investor, you’ll need to do a lot of legwork upfront, like creating a detailed business plan, identifying obstacles and how to overcome them, and divulging personal financial information.  

Another challenge of investor funding is giving up much of the control you have over your product’s development.  Your goals for growth may not align with your investor’s goals, which will require adjustment.  You’ll also have increased pressure to deliver.  You may be happy accepting a smaller ROI than your investor, which will require you to put in additional time and energy.

Aaron Skonnard of inc.com cautions businesses about accepting investor funding which “brings peer validation, industry kudos, and much-needed cash flow to a young business. But taken too early, it can also dilute ownership, reduce autonomy, and weaken focus and resourcefulness, so the timing needs to be right.”

Investor funding also requires extensive legal agreements (and accompanying legal fees) to address governance, the timeline for your investor’s departure, and what happens if business doesn’t develop as anticipated.  

And, when all’s said and done, you might pour your heart and soul into your business only to find yourself ousted by the very investors you bought on board in the first place.  An article at Entrepreneur.com notes that obtaining angel investors carries with it “the risk that your investors will decide that you are the business' greatest obstacle to success, and you could get fired from the company you created.”

Pharmaceutical Industry Considerations

Our specialty at Pharma Acumen is companies that sell their services to large and small biopharmaceutical companies.  If you’re developing a new product for the pharmaceutical industry, your decision to seek investor funding requires some additional consideration.  

Perhaps the most important consideration is your advisory team.  To succeed in offering services to pharmaceutical companies, it’s essential to have trustworthy advisors who can assist with decision-making, provide a sounding board, and share feedback on important aspects of your business.  Investors have an intrinsic desire to see your business succeed and are usually more than willing to perform advisory functions.

Have you ever partnered or considered working with an outside investor? What were the plusses and minuses?

Bootstrap or Investor Funding? Part I

Estimated reading time: 4 mins

When it comes to launching a new product, one of the most important decisions you’ll have to make involves financing. How will you get the capital required to develop and launch your product?  The choice boils down to two different options: bootstrapping or investor funding.  Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages, so the decision should be based on what best fits your company and its needs.  

In this post, we focus on bootstrap funding and its pros and cons.  In our next post we will evaluate investor funding.

Bootstrap Funding

Bootstrap funding refers to foregoing outside startup investment and, instead, self-funding.  According to Kelly Hoey of Inc.com, “Bootstrapping means the founders hustled sales and used their own funds - and in the process, made their companies profitable - without external funding, reaping rewards beyond financial, that are, more often than not, exclusive to bootstrapped companies.”  

Bootstrapping offers several advantages over investor-funding.  First, bootstrapping affords the most control over product development.  If you’re footing the bill, you call the shots.  This is particularly beneficial for smaller companies that have the flexibility to maneuver along with the market without waiting for approval from various committees or locking horns with reluctant investors.

When you self-fund, you can allow your product to grow organically without the external influence of investors pushing for rapid growth and higher profits.  Left to develop on a more slow and steady course, your product may evolve into a robust resource that produces revenue for years to come.  Nick Woodman, who spent 10 years slowly building his business GoPro into a giant success, has to say about bootstrapping,“I think a challenge is obviously that you don't have all the resources that you would have if you went out and got an investment. Maybe you can't grow as quickly as you'd like to, but an advantage is that you only have yourself to answer to. You can style your business and your approach exactly the way you want to. You don't have the pressure of outside investors that you're beholden to who want to weigh in on how you're building your business. I think that's really important and beneficial to a business in its early stages.  Bootstrapping allows you total creative freedom. For example, if you decide to approach your business in a certain way that makes it a two or three year process to get to your first product, you can do that, versus being rushed into it by investors.”

Bootstrap funding also forces you to be more creative, both in terms of monetary and time restrictions.  If you have a shoestring budget, you’ll have to carefully determine where to invest your money and what can wait until you’re more profitable.  Likewise, with a smaller team, you’ll need to manage your time well in order to accomplish everything your product requires. As Zach Cutler notes at Entrepreneur.com,  “Not having funds to throw at problems forces you to come up with cost-effective, creative ways to solve them. It makes you a better problem-solver. It makes you look for less conventional answers to conventional problems.”

Self-funding doesn’t preclude later investment funding.  If you’ve developed an impressive product array already, you are a more attractive candidate for investors because they know you have what it takes to succeed.  You may decide later down the road that your company needs investor funding and/or expertise to expand.  Woodman continues, “Because we bootstrapped it, GoPro has been profitable since the beginning—modestly, at first, but now it’s a very healthy business. We didn’t need the money. We decided that what we needed was more experience. We wanted to bring more experienced people into the company and build out a more experienced board of directors that could help the company network and help us with strategy. We realized that one of the best ways to do that was to bring on some investors that have terrific networks and experience and could help us scale the business. Because we didn’t need the investment money we were able to go raise the money from people that we wanted to work with and with favorable terms versus being under the gun to raise money and maybe forced to take money from people that wouldn’t be as good of a fit for the business. That was a strategic decision that’s worked extremely well for GoPro because we love our investors and they’ve been very helpful to us.”

However, bootstrap funding is not without its share of challenges.  For starters, your initial growth is limited by your ability to meet customer needs.  If you experience wild interest in your product but can’t keep up, you may lose prospective customers.  You also might not have the resources needed to take advantage of time-sensitive opportunities that could contribute to your growth.  

On the other hand, if your product outpaces interest in it or just doesn’t sell well, you may be stuck with an unprofitable product that has tapped you of your available resources.

Any initial revenues your business earns will usually have to be reinvested, meaning it may be a long time before your business produces enough revenue for you to live on.  If your product needs more investment than you have available, you may be put into a financially-untenable position.  While it may be tempting to bring investors on board this point, they will take advantage of their upper hand position, which could stymie future growth.

Pharmaceutical Industry Considerations

At Pharma Acumen, our focus is on the pharmaceutical industry and businesses that sell their services to large and small biopharmaceutical companies.  Before you decide to bootstrap your next product launch for the pharmaceutical industry, several factors must be taken into consideration.  

The first is cash flow. Pharmaceutical companies typically take 60-90 days after receiving an invoice to pay.  If your company is strapped for cash or relies on a short sales cycle to make ends meet, investor capital may be a better option for you.  

Similarly, if you’ve reached an agreement with someone at a pharmaceutical company, the approval process may take so long that he or she has forgotten or loses enthusiasm for your product.  Or, even worse, your contact may have gotten a new job somewhere else.  Any time or resources you’ve put into readying your product for that particular client will be lost.  If you don’t have investors to keep you afloat when this happens, you may have cash flow difficulties.

It’s also important to keep in mind the considerable legal and professional costs associated with doing business in the pharmaceutical industry.  To cover your bases, you’ll need to have reliable legal help to review the terms and agreements you reach with prospective clients.  Finding the right attorney and drawing up solid documents can get pricey quickly.   

Do you have experience bootstrapping a business?  What is your advice to those just starting out?

Stay tuned: Our next post will evaluate investor funding as a revenue source for new products.  

Gauging Market Viability: A Case Study

Estimated reading time: 2 mins

Recently we discussed ways to identify a market gap.  Today, our focus shifts from finding an unmet need to determining if the market will sustain your product.  The story of the Cell Zone, a product launched by Salemi Industries in 2006, helpfully illustrates the potential consequences of misreading market viability.

Ten years ago, when cell phone use was skyrocketing, Anthony Ferranti saw a need for cell users to be able to have private conversations in public places.  To meet that need, he developed the Cell Zone, a phone-booth-like pod that allowed people to use their cell phones at places like restaurants and libraries without having to hunt for privacy.

The Cell Zone received national attention, including an appearance on the Today Show and a USA today front-page story.  Yet, despite a promising launch, the company ended up losing $650,000 and selling only 300 units.  Where did Ferranti go wrong? And, more importantly, how can you avoid his mistakes?

The biggest reason that the Cell Zone failed is that Ferranti and his team misread market viability, particularly in terms of market research.  Initially, the research seemed to be encouraging.  According to Joan Schneider and Julie Hall, authors of the Harvard Business Review article Why Most Product Launches Fail and the marketing consultants hired to promote the Cell Zone, restaurateurs and nightclub owners in particular liked the idea of offering patrons a place to have private phone calls.  “The calls just came in and people were just so excited about the Cell Zone and wanted to buy it,” says Hall.

Yet, while it generated a lot of buzz, the Cell Zone was pricey ($3,500 a pop) and took up valuable square footage. Perhaps the biggest issue, though, was the fact that the company failed to take into account the potential popularity of texting, which hadn’t quite become mainstream yet.  Instead of considering wider trends, the Cell Zone team focused exclusively on their target clientele.  Schneider notes, “If they had been looking at the kids, they would realize that no teenager ever picks up the phone.  So the audience that was coming up, they were really into texting.  So it’s always important to stay close to what’s happening in the market.  You can’t just look at your market, you have to look at everything that’s going on.”

To his credit, Ferranti did an admirable job trying to salvage his product’s profitability by attempting to sell advertising space on the pods; his effort there failed too.  The silver lining of this story, according to Hall, is that the Cell Zone did find a very small niche market in college libraries and government agencies where phone calls trump text messaging.  

However, the Cell Zone saga is, overall, one of a failure to gauge market viability and the losses incurred as a result.

Are you about to launch the next Cell Zone?  If you need help determining the market viability of a product or service for the pharmaceutical industry, Pharma Acumen can help.  We have successfully launched dozens of products for businesses who sell to pharmaceutical companies and have solutions in place to help you analyze the market and respond accordingly.

In addition, we are launching a new feedback tool to allow companies to gain insights into the pharmaceutical industry landscape from the experts themselves, your potential customers.  If you’d like more information about working with us, contact Brian Bamberger today.

7 Unexpected Benefits of Crafting Quality Content

Estimated reading time: 3 mins

“If you do it right, content marketing will help your brand succeed in building strong engagement with your target customer.”

Keimmy Xu, Content Collision

In our last post, we mentioned creating content as a way to educate customers about your business.  This technique is also called content marketing and has become a very popular and effective method for business promotion.  "When content marketing works, it’s an incredible way to build relationships and share knowledge without pitching your services or products." Brian Hughes, The Huffington Post

Customer education is one advantage of creating quality content but there are many more ways your business can benefit from consistent content marketing.  Content includes blog posts as well as other ways of sharing information such as infographics, whitepapers, slideshare presentations, videos, podcasts, case studies, ebooks, and more.

1. Improve Search Engine Rankings

Routinely creating useful content improves your business’s visibility and reputation, allowing your website to appear more frequently and prominently in search engine results.  "Every time you write a blog post, it's one more indexed page on your website, which means it's one more opportunity for you to show up in search engines and drive traffic to your website in organic search."  Brian Hughes, The Huffington Post 

2. Showcase Expertise

Content that is useful and resonates with your audience helps to establish you as an authority in your field.  “When clients, partners and potential clients can see that you know your stuff, they will more likely have more confidence and trust in you and your service.” Peach Robb, Digital Doughnut, This trust translates into more traffic and opportunities to convert visitors into clients.

3. Demonstrate Communication Skills

Sometimes creating content allows you to demonstrate your skills using the very tools you sell to clients.  For instance, if you are a graphic designer, creating infographics allows you to showcase your skills in a unique and tangible way.  Even if your field does not fall within the realm of content creation, the ability to communicate clearly adds value to your online presence and conveys professionalism to potential clients. “In order to innovate, it’s not enough to just come up with big ideas, you also need to work hard to communicate them clearly.” Greg Satell, Forbes

4. Build a Library of Valuable Content

When you have produced enough content, your business will have an impressive library of content.  This not only underscores your expertise but also supports the perception that your business is an authority within your industry.  Hubspot calls this compounding.  When done well, “[the] effort you put in yesterday can turn into hundreds of thousands of views and leads in the future.” Corey Wainwright, Hubspot

5. Gain Influence

If your content creation gains a wide enough audience, you can become the go-to source for advice and knowledge in your field.  This can lead to additional opportunities for brand exposure and business such as guest blogging, conference talks, and consulting gigs. "Content is naturally a long-term investment, but if you manage it patiently, and in the right way, it will not only give you a great return-on-investment, but also endow your brand with priceless authority at the end of the day." Keimmy Xu, Content Collision

6. Remain Abreast of Industry Trends

Regular content creation requires research to support your reputation.  One advantage of this research is that you will remain abreast of industry trends.  This is useful not only for providing advice to your clients, but also in navigating the current landscape for your own business.  "[It's] important to stay on top of industry news and trends – you'll build your expertise, you'll command the respect of your team, and you'll be better placed to identify and exploit opportunities." Mind Tools

7. Network

One often overlooked benefit of content creation is its role in networking.  When you produce content that others find valuable, you open a potential line of dialogue through commenting, social media, and requests for advice.  “[Thoughtful] content marketing, combined with generosity and outreach, can help expand your professional network while simultaneously enhancing your online reputation.” Brian Honigman, Honigman Media 

Need Outside Help?

If you don’t have the time or resources necessary for creating quality content on a consistent basis, hiring outside help may be the best option.  Outside help can not only assist you with creating expert content, but can also help you convert traffic into clients.  We have ready-made solutions for pharmaceutical industry content marketing or we can create a customized plan to improve your business’s growth.

Contact Brian Bamberger today to learn how we can help you develop a winning content marketing plan.

7 Unexpected Benefits of Crafting Quality Content from Brian Bamberger

8 Valuable Ways to Better Educate Customers

Estimated reading time: 3 mins

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." - Nelson Mandela

In today’s knowledge-fueled society, education is a critical aspect of a successful marketing campaign because it both explains your product’s features while convincing customers to choose your product over a competitor’s. Without investing the time and effort into making a case for why customers need your product and how they will benefit from it, your marketing efforts may fall flat.  Here are 8 tips for educating potential customers.

1. Convert Current Customers into Product Evangelists

If you have an existing customer base, one of the best ways you can educate other customers is by letting your loyal customers do the convincing for you.  Author Alex Goldfayn calls this approach to customer education “evangelist marketing.”  He writes in a blog post on Mashable, “It’s not difficult to create evangelists — you simply have to do the work that most businesses do not do.”  This includes building lasting relationships with customers and soliciting feedback when appropriate.

2. Utilize Beta Testing

Testing your nearly-finished product prior to its official launch offers two substantial benefits.  The first is that beta testing allows you to identify and fix any problems with your product.  The second, lesser known benefit of beta testing is that you put your product in the hands of potential customers while at the same time getting their feedback.  Input from your beta testers can be invaluable both in refining your overall customer education campaign and selling your product to the very end users themselves.  It might even make sense to charge beta testers a discounted rate for your product to ensure that you get serious input and that your product is marketable.  “In exchange for their feedback, beta testers get early access to the product, a dramatically reduced price, and the ability to help shape the final version,” says New York Times best-selling author Ramit Sethi.

3. Show Instead of Tell

If you have a product that is best appreciated when seen in action, consider setting up a demonstration for prospective customers.  This could entail providing a preview of your product, displaying an interactive sample product on your website, or offering demonstrations of your product’s features either in-person or online.  According to Greg Kirsch of Intouch Solutions, “When it comes to establishing credibility, nothing beats a product demonstration.”

4. Let the Numbers do the Talking

If you have access to data illustrating how your product has helped past clients, consider creating case studies so that prospective customers can see first-hand the benefits of working with you.   As Siobhán McGinty of HubSpot explains, “Case studies are an invaluable asset when it comes to establishing proof that what you're offering is valuable and of good quality.” The best case studies will include tangible information on how your product benefitted a client such as before and after results, statistics highlight improvement, etc.

5. Speak their Language

One way to successfully educate prospective customers is to keep them coming back for more.  This involves creating useful content such as blog posts, slideshares, e-books, newsletters, and more. According to Nick Scheidies, “Having a blog is the single most important thing a business, cause, or person can do to advance online.” Not only will you get the chance to highlight your communication skills, you’ll also build a reputation as an expert in your field while promoting your business.

6. Dig into the Nitty Gritty

In the pharmaceutical industry, crafting white papers about the problems you address can go a long way to boost your reputation while providing much-needed information to prospective customers.  White papers are unique in that they go beyond a broad overview of your product’s benefits and features by including research and other detailed information that showcases your particular expertise and experience.  As B2B publisher and content marketer Jeremy Knight notes, “The combination of learning followed by persuasion makes [white papers] one of the most powerful marketing tools available.”

7. Harness the Power of Feedback

When planning your customer education campaign, feedback from current or former customers is perhaps the most useful information you can acquire.  This feedback can enable you to get a clearer picture of who your prospective customers are, what they need, and what they need to know to make purchasing decisions. According to Susan E. Wyse, “feedback and opportunities to use that feedback helps to improve and enhance...and that information can be used to make better informed decisions.” Used well, this feedback enables you to couch your message in language that will resonate with your prospective customers.

8. Hire the Pros

If you don’t have the time or resources necessary for customer education, hiring outside help may be the best option.  Outside help can assist you with acquiring feedback from current customers, creating content geared toward your target audience, and developing evangelists who will loyally support your company.  

Do you have a successful customer education program in place? We develop customer education programs for those selling to the pharmaceutical industry.  In addition, we are launching an exciting new feedback tool for companies who need expert insights into the pharmaceutical business landscape.  Follow us for more information or contact Brian Bamberger today.

8 Valuable Ways to Better Educate Customers from Brian Bamberger

Seven Benefits of Outsourcing

“If you deprive yourself of outsourcing and your competitors do not, you’re putting yourself out of business.”

— Lee Kuan Yew

Seven Benefits of Outsourcing from Brian Bamberger

Estimated reading time: 3 mins

Outsourcing, at its core, is simply contracting somebody else to perform an essential function for your business that, for whatever reason, you and your team don’t do on your own.  Unfortunately, outsourcing has gotten a bad rap because it conjures up images of offshoring American jobs to laborers in third-world countries who work at discounted rates. While this is certainly one aspect of outsourcing, a much fuller picture includes the millions of freelancers in the United States who are hired by companies on a contract basis to perform essential functions.

Why should you consider outsourcing? In addition to obvious financial advantages, which are discussed below, there are other lesser-known benefits of outsourcing that could help you grow your business and make it more profitable.

1. Save Money

Perhaps the number one reason to outsource is to save money.  Contracting freelance help allows you to benefit from expertise on your own terms without the cost and hassle of hiring personnel.  This is especially true in today’s digital age, where freelances are just a click away.  

When you outsource, you can hire experienced talent for a short period of them, then remove the cost when the work is completed. This allows you to access the experience you need but only for the time period in which you need it.

2. Boost Efficiency

When you hand off a task outside of your realm of expertise you free yourself up to spend more time on your business’ core activities.  For example, if you are a graphic designer, you can outsource services like accounting, website operation, and IT, to name a few, allowing you to save time and energy performing mundane tasks.

3. Better Focus

Another benefit of outsourcing is that it allows you to focus on what you’re good at and leave the rest to the experts.  You can avoid the distractions of learning new skills that don’t interest you, training new personnel, and other mundane activities. This increased focus not only enables you to accomplish more, but it enables you to earn more too since you’ll be able to increase your output.

Outsourcing also allows you to prioritize your tasks so that you can determine which ones will help you grow your business and which ones are necessary but not essential.  Tasks that are necessary to your business but which you do not enjoy doing can become a priority if you put them off.  Outsourcing can take away the stress of having to update your website, write new complicated proposals, or create graphics for a report.

4. Increase Competitiveness

If you run a small business, chances are you’re in competition with other, larger companies who have in-house staff to perform every aspect of their business.  When you outsource, you essentially have the same staff at your disposal, but on terms that meet your fiscal and time needs.  

You also have access to the infrastructure that larger companies enjoy.  For instance, if you outsource your IT functions, you don’t need to worry about purchasing and maintaining the necessary computer equipment but your business will benefit from having access to them through your outsourcing partner.

5. Better Risk Management

Outsourcing certain aspects of your business may help you reduce your risk.  For starters, you’re overall investment in acquiring outsourcing services is much lower than hiring comparable staff.  Your outsourcing partner may shoulder the responsibility of work you’ve assigned to them, further reducing your risk.  

6. Faster Product Development

Outsourcing allows you to develop new products faster because you can work with someone who has the necessary expertise and is already prepared to begin.  This saves you the hassle of hiring the right staff, training them, and slogging through other personnel issues.  It also affords you the time necessary to focus on your business without getting bogged down by peripheral issues.

7. Staff Development

Having someone learn a new skill on the job is not efficient. Whether it is a new piece of software or a new business skill (like planning new services), having an outside resource to help get the process started can speed the process and increase efficiency.  A good outside resource should be helping your staff ‘learn to fish’ instead of feeding them fish.

How to get started:

Is your business achieving the goals and growth you need to stave off competition or capitalize on all of your opportunities?  If you need outside help in developing your business whether it is a startup or $10m in revenue, call or email Brian Bamberger today. We have an expert team in place to help you on your path to your goals and to transfer skills to your staff.  Our team includes talented writers, graphic designers, project managers and most importantly, experts in pharmaceutical industry to help you develop new services for pharmaceutical companies.

Nine Obstacles to a Successful Product Launch

Estimated reading time: 3 mins

We’ve all seen it.  A new product that claims to be better than sliced bread.  Something that can wash your dishes and take the dog for a walk while negotiating peace in the Middle East.  But, shortly after its launch, this miracle product seems to have gone the way of the eight track.  What went wrong? And, more importantly, how can you avoid making the same mistakes at your next launch?  

Here are nine obstacles to avoid when gearing up for your next launch.

1. Lack of Planning

If you’ve decided on a whim that now’s the time to launch your latest product or service and haven’t spent much time planning your launch, you may be in for an unpleasant surprise.  You only have one chance to make a first impression on potential customers.  Failure to capture the “product voice” often results from a lack of planning.  And, without the right voice, your product won’t speak to the right market.  

2. Poor Resource Allocation

If you’ve spent your entire project budget on development and saved nothing for market research, consumer education, and promotion, you may find yourself with a fantastic new product or service that no one either knows or cares about.  Make sure to reserve adequate funding for the pre-launch activities that will help sell your product.

3. Emotional Attachment

Your “gut” might be screaming at you to go one way, but if that direction conflicts with facts like market research and expert insight, your product may be extremely appealing...to only you. Emotions shouldn’t be completely overlooked when decision-making, but they also shouldn’t be the deciding factor in business planning, especially at the exclusion of due diligence.

4. Inadequate Consumer Education

Your product may have the potential to change the world as we know it, but if no one understands how it works or why it’s valuable, chances are good that it will flop.  Your product launch should educate consumers so that people understand why they need your product, not just that they need it.  

5. Meager Marketing Budget

Just like consumer education, marketing is a large part of your launch’s success or failure. In fact, these two are often intertwined.  If no one is aware that your product or service exists, there will be no market for it.

6. Insufficient Market Research

Your market research should give you insights into what need your product fills, who is likely to purchase it, what price point you should target, etc.  Successful market research includes acquiring feedback from beta-users, polling existing customers, and obtaining competitive intelligence regarding your competitors.  If you don’t have quality market research, expect your launch to backfire.

It’s important to note that not all market research is necessarily quantitative and statistically significant.  In our work with companies selling to pharmaceutical companies, the number of targets is not large enough for a statistical result, but the quality of our market research enables our customers to meet or exceed their selling goals.

7. Bad Timing

Sometimes timing can be chalked up to bad luck, but timing can also be a symptom of poor planning.  If you launch your product the same week half of your prospective clients are at a national conference, for example, you run the risk of being overshadowed.  Your market research, as well as trusted advisers, should shed insights on the best time to launch.

8. Pricing Faux Pas

Pricing problems are a double-edged sword.  If you price your product too high, you may exclude a large number of customers who aren’t able or willing to fork out the dough for what you’re offering.  If you price too low, you may not be able to cover your expenses or you may foster the notion that your product is low-quality.  Use caution when pricing to avoid both extremes.  Frequently a trade-off analysis will give needed feedback.

9. Failure to Seek Outside Input

Seeking outside input allows you to get expert, unbiased feedback on the best way to launch your product or service while avoiding common pitfalls.  An experienced adviser can help you perform quality market research, get a handle on launch timing, and help educate your prospective clients.  Hiring expert help can help you avoid costly mistakes while boosting your revenues.

If you think you’re ready to launch your latest product or service to the pharmaceutical industry, but need some outside help, contact Brian Bamberger, Managing Partner of Pharma Acumen.  We have the experience and contacts needed to evaluate your launch, obtain market research and potential client feedback, and assist you with education customers and pricing.

Nine Obstacles to a Success Product Launch from Brian Bamberger