24.7.13

How to initiate and successfully drive a pricing initiative in the Med-Tech industry

Practitioner Point of View:


Marc Konieczny has 13+ years of experience in Health Care, microbiology and biochemistry by background. He started his sales and marketing career in medical supply industry after his PhD (Natural Sciences) in 2000. Until 2003, he was product manager at Becton Dickinson (BD), Diagnostic Systems for Eastern Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMA). Until 2008 he took over increasing responsibilities in Marketing and Sales in EMA and Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH), respectively. In February 2008, he decided to leave BD for B.Braun Melsungen for development challenges in Marketing and Sales for Hospital Care (HC) division. Until 06/2013 he was acting as a Global Pricing Manager within HC Global Marketing and Sales working out of the B.Braun headquarter in Melsungen. Today, he is leading a management team for Abbott Medical Optics (AMO) focussing on Cataract Business in Germany.

Below, he shares with us the first in a series of posts from him on how to initiate and successfully drive a pricing initiative in Med-Tech industry.

Cuts in healthcare budgets, low-price competitors and increasing power of purchasing organizations increased the pressure of many medical device suppliers on their prices and margins. After having gone through a number of cost reduction measures, many companies become aware that pricing is a by far more effective lever for sustainable profitable growth.

In this series of five blog posts I like to highlight five important rules that should be considered when leading a corporate and/or local pricing initiative(s) and working towards the desired increase in profit.

RULE NO. 1/5: BECOME AN "INSIDER" AND TALK THE BUSINESS UNIT'S/THE COUNTRY'S "LANGUAGE"


A high identification with the strategy and the market(s) is essential to get the necessary internal credibility. If the strategy, the products, the application or the business environment is new for you take all (!) opportunities to get to know them. You will become „one of the team“, get an insight about the real situation besides all „political-correctness“ and identify possible conflicting projects/goals that might implicate a risk for your future project success.

Analyses of existing data and structured interviews with different levels of employees might be appropriate first steps in going forward. This might be aligned by sending out self-assessment questionnaires to get a first idea of the current status in pricing and thus increases the overall awareness of the topic. Finally, you give space to self-discover issues resulting in an increased buy-in. In addition, these self-evaluations might provide a concrete basis for developing specific business relevant focus topics.

The self-evaluations might address different pricing areas, e.g.

  • Pricing Strategy: Is a clear pricing strategy defined for the defined segments and targets?
  • Pricing Structures: Are clear pricing policies and guidelines defined? Are decision processes clearly defined? Is a consistent discount structure in place?
  • Pricing Execution: Are customized argumentations for the different types of buyers in place? Are there value-based argumentations for the focus products available?

Finally, adapt your communication style according to the stakeholder, e.g. prepare specific business cases and figures for high level management and more specific day-to-day relevant content for sales managers and reps. By doing so, you should also establish new pricing specific standards for analyses or reporting, e.g. product profitability „Top-Flop“- lists, the price waterfall concept or pricing specific dashboards. This will result in inceasing awareness of the new initiative and finally establishes it in the day-to-day business practices and routines.

Dr. Marc Konieczny is a speaker at the 2nd Annual DACH Chapter Workshop to be held in Düsseldorf on 19 September.  The language of this workshop is German.  Register before 15 August to benefit from the early bird rate of 290 Euro instead of 490 Euro.





2.7.13

Life Sciences industry’s pricing and profit optimisation professionals discuss and look for innovative solutions to real-life challenges

European Pricing Platform and its forum partner, Model N look back on a successful 3rd edition of the EPP Life Sciences Forum sponsored by Deloitte and HighPoint Solutions.


Montreux, Switzerland, June 5th & 6th 2013: For many of the +100 attending professionals, it has become an annual appointment: meeting up with their fellow senior pricing practitioners and experts to discuss the recent evolution within the pricing & profit optimisation scene of Life Sciences industry.

During these two days, We had over 18 industry leading speakers including Boston Scientific, Gilead Sciences, Corning Life Sciences, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi Aventis, Siemens Healthcare and many others from all over the world gathered to discuss and look for opportunities and chances to get out of their challenging situation.

The forum focused on the industry's need to optimise price, profit and revenue lifecycle processes ranging from strategy to planning and execution. “All pricing professionals need to realise they are not alone in their situation and a lot of companies have already tackled challenges, they are going through now. The main idea of this EPP Forum is for companies to inspire each other,” says Pol Vanaerde, Founder of the European Pricing Platform.

To ensure maximum relevance for everyone, several “sector track sessions ” were installed. These are sessions, specific for Med-Tech or Pharma-Biotech professionals and their pricing and profit optimisation challenges. “At the European Pricing Platform, we do not believe in a general plan of solutions, but a concrete, ready-to-use action plan for everyone!”

Nevertheless, keeping productivity in mind, participants get sufficient changes to network and relax outside the meeting room. Next to the sociable coffee and lunch break with breath taking view on the lake of Geneva and its surrounding mountains from the terraces of Grand hotel Suisse Majéstic, there is the opportunity to attend an evening/networking event.

This year, the famous Casino Barrière was the choice of venue, where participants enjoyed a delicious 4-course menu at Restaurant ‘Le Récital’ with plenty of network opportunities and got to chase their fortune at one of the slots of the casino!
On the second day, everyone was welcomed again at the meeting room for new full day of captivating pricing related cases. How do you comply with the present challenging environment of Life Sciences pricing was the main focus during this day. A challenge which, without doubt, every company has, but has no simple solution.
The Forum closed with a summing-up of the most important topics and learning points participants had gathered during their two days of intensive pricing and what they will do differently in their daily job with the gathered information. The input came – as always – from the people attending forum, which makes this a great opportunity to gather a general overview AND a summary all at once!

Some first impressions:

"I enjoyed the topics of the EPP and the opportunity to network with like-minded individuals. The size of the event means that you can interact easily and have meaningful conversations...”
"The interactive format combined with the real-life case studies was very interesting to benchmark our pricing strategies.”

"Great event in its 3rd year!"

European Pricing Platform would like to thank Model N, Deloitte and HighPoint Solutions for their support in order to help make a success of the 3rd EPP Life Sciences Forum.

We are already looking forward to the 4th EPP Life Sciences Forum, which will take place in Spring 2014 at, yet again, an astonishing and inspiring location.

Press contact: Britt Dejager - Project Manager - EPP                         
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About The European Pricing Platform (EPP) - Connecting Pricing and Profit Optimisation Management in Europe:

EPP is a ‘Not-for-Profit’ knowledge sharing place focused to support business management, pricing and profit optimisation professionals and CxO-level executives in Europe over a variety of industries and sectors. Our target is to update the pricing and Profit Optimisation know-how of the business manager. Our mission is to be the on- and offline pricing media for international decision makers in a wide range of industries. The interactive sharing, collecting and development of pricing and profit optimisation knowledge are the key elements of our platform.