How to Successfully Introduce Your New Product with a Soft Launch
Soft launches are an important tool when introducing any new product to the market. In this episode Pat discusses why you do a soft launch, what you are trying to learn, some key issues related to the types of customers who buy in the early phases, and setting expectations. He shares why Key Performance Indicators are important to establish up front, best practices for conducting a successful soft launch, and how what you learn in this phase prepares you for a successful full launch of your product.
Mastering Medical Device:
Episode Transcript
This transcript was generated using an automated transcription service and is minimally edited. Please forgive the mistakes contained within it.
Patrick Kothe 00:31
Welcome. In the past several episodes, I've talked a little bit about soft launches. And several of you reached out to me and asked me to explain a little bit more about what a soft launch is, and what some of the best practices are for doing a successful soft launch. So that's what we're going to talk about today. So to start off, you know, just kind of describing what a soft launch is, is, it's a gradual release of your product. And it's a time where you're going to confirm pre market assumptions. And you're really going to learn about what your product is doing when it's out there in the wild, not in a controlled environment when it's out there in the wild. And it's time where you can make product or promotional corrections, or educational, correct corrections. So most importantly, what we're trying to do is we're trying to see firsthand what the benefits are that people are deriving when they're using your product, not what you thought they were going to get, but what they're actually getting. So it's really understanding what those benefits are. And then you get that feedback. And and you learn, you have a lot of learning that takes place, and you feed that back into your promotional program. So if you're weren't quite dialed in on exact benefit that you're providing to your customers, it's an opportunity to be able to feed that back into your promotional materials and making sure that you're nailing that when you're doing doing promotion. So what what it's not, is it's not beta testing, we're already past that. So during the development phase, and you did beta testing with this, it's not, you know, hey, I'm I want to make sure that the product is exactly the way we want it. And it's another spin of the product, know, you've already committed to this product, now it's a matter of doing a soft launch to validate, if you use it as a beta test, you're going to end up with another spin of your product. And that's just going to be time and that's gonna really delay your your product, your general product release. So this is not beta testing, this is soft launching. And this is a little bit different than other industries and medical devices, we know you have testing and regulatory clearances. And once your products, that product is out there to make a modification to your product. It's it can be problematic, it can mean that you're going to delay or do another spin of your product may mean more regulatory submission or more testing, expensive testing that needs to be performed to the product. If it is a minor change to it, then yes, you know, it's not going to affect that that timeline is greatly. But that's why we don't do beta testing when we're doing doing soft launches. And like I said, it's different than, say a software product, a software product, where you're releasing a product in stages, you may have the base product built and you want to add a couple of features to it. As time goes on. Or you want to change the graphical user interface. And those changes in the software world, you have to do the validation of the of the changes to make sure it doesn't crater, your product. But it's not a new product. from a regulatory standpoint where you got to you've got to go in and do your testing and submission all over again. So that's why we're a little bit different. Where we're a little bit similar is that you may not be changing the hardware of your device. But remember, our products are more than the hardware. Our products are the total offering. And that total offering is sometimes greater than just a physical embodiment of the product. It can include the educational material along with it, how you're positioning the product, how, what services you're providing along with that product. So our product is not just the physical portion of it, but it's the total offering that you're that you're providing. So there is there are some similar And there are some things that are easily modified with a medical device, but not always the physical embodiment. So let's talk a little bit more about what the advantages are to a soft launch. So if you if you know that you're not going to take it out worldwide, or you're not going to take it out in all markets in the US, or or all territories in the US, why would we do this? Well, we do it because we want to iterate on what the product is, again, the total product, not necessarily physical embodiment, also gives you an opportunity to iterate on the training. So you may enter in with a training program, and it may or may not hit the mark. So you have the opportunity to make modifications before you do full training of not only your staff, but also the clinicians, so that it gives you an opportunity to get real, real world feedback on what type of training program you've initially set out and what you're going to need. Where's that gap? And how do you fill that fill that gap? Same thing with promotional materials, we think we may know what is necessary to promote the product. But maybe we don't, maybe we are saying the wrong things or saying it the wrong way, or have them ordered in the wrong order. So this gives us an opportunity to look at that promotional material again, and really fine. fine tune it. And it also allows us to really understand whether you are cost effective in your product or not. A lot of clinicians will tell you before you get to the market, they'll say oh yeah, why don't you get to the market, I'll I'll be there for you out, I'll start buying this product. But when the dollars and cents start to start to be put out there, then the decisions start to get a little bit different. It may be different at the clinician level or at the facility level. So really, the cost effectiveness of your product is one of those other things that you're going to be able to determine within that that soft launch. And again, when you're soft launching, it's a limited number of people that you're dealing with. So you have the ability to control what the messaging is, and control what the expectations are of your customers in those initial initial products. And really what we're trying to do is we're really trying to nail the product market fit, make sure that we have it correctly. Because until you get into the marketplace and understand all of the aspects of the product and the buying process, you're not really going to know for sure whether the product market fit has been achieved. And that's where we really need to get to in order to be able to scale this, this market launch. So one of the key things that you look at when you're launching a product is you're managing the product lifecycle. So we're at the at the very beginning phase, so the product life lifecycle is actually divided into into four parts. It's the introduction, growth, maturity, and then decline of your product. So for today's discussion, we're just talking about that introductory phase. And in that introductory phase, a couple of things that kind of characterize that phases, it's slow, you don't have momentum, you're starting from scratch. So it is a slower phase. And it's also more expensive. Because if you don't have a lot of the word of mouth or a reputation out there, it's you need to do that on an individual to individual basis. So let's a little bit more expensive to be able to get messaging out to to individuals. And also one of the things that we're trying to do in this introductory phase is search for the optimal messaging. We think we know what the optimal messaging is when we start this. But as you start to have real conversations with real clinicians and real purchasers, that's when the optimal messaging is really going to kind of come to the fore, because there's going to be a lot of learning of what people's objectives or objections are, and a lot of false starts that we have where we think we know what what is necessary, and we think we're saying the right things, but we really are getting a feedback that we're really not hitting the mark. So really, we're searching in this introductory phase. And finally, in this introductory phase, what you're also trying to do is establish a base of customers, and the right type of customers. So we'll talk about that in a second. But it really allows you to Get in there and be with us a certain base of customers that are going to be resilient to the changes that you're going to make are going to be understanding that you that you don't have it exactly dialed in yet, but they're going to help you to grow. So these customers are really important customers, because they're, they're your base customers. And they should be one of your most important customers short term, and certainly long term as well, because you're helping them, but they're helping you at the same time. So to kind of start off this introductory phase, one of the first things we need to do is we need to understand the importance of who you are, who we are not in our eyes, but in the eyes of the customer. Because that's the only thing that matters at that point. So you think about this, and we're coming in and, and we're coming in with it with a completely new product, customer may know nothing about it. So they've got some apprehension about anything new. So just remember what what you're providing, you're providing a new product. And generally within the medical device field, it has limited clinical evidence. So you may have your regulatory approval and the proof sources that that you had to get the get that regulatory clearance or approval, and you've got clinical studies to back that up. But those are just the first clinical studies. So and there's going to be apprehension about anything that has one clinical study or two clinical studies. So remember that you're bringing in something even though it looks great from the clinical studies, it's one, it's an N of one, and clinicians are very skeptical. And with anything new, so you know that you've got limited clinical evidence. And the other thing is you've got limited or no peer usage. And that's one of the other things that people really gravitate towards when they're making a purchase is Who else is using it have I heard other people talk about have I heard other people that have talked about it from the from the podium. So kind of understanding what you're bringing into the marketplace. And what it looks like to your customer is really important to really get real to say, here's what here's where I stand in this introductory phase. In this introductory phase, we're also dealing with some different buyers. So when you think about the types of buyers, early on, we've all heard about different buyer types, but the buyer types that we're dealing with are innovators. And let's just talk about innovators for a second, inner innovators represent about two and a half percent of the buyers that are out there. And what an innovator is, is an innovator is the first individual to adopt in innovation. So these are the true first innovators, and some general things about innovators. Again, these are generalities, but the general things about an innovator is they take risks they are they are the risk takers, they're generally younger, they generally have a high social class. And they also generally have a lot of interaction with other innovators. Not everybody else. But innovators talk to innovators. And they're very risk tolerant, they tolerate risk very well. So those are typically a lot of times the people that you have evolved in your clinical studies, those are the true innovators. And if we just focus on the innovators will all we're going to be able to capture is at two and a half percent. So it's very, very important that we understand who we're talking to early on in this introductory phase, you may get innovators to jump in with your product, but you're not going to be able to bridge that gap to the next group. And the next group is called early adopters. So you have to make sure that you have messaging that's appropriate for each of these groups. So the early adopters, that's only about 13 and a half percent of the total market. So if you think about the introductory phase of your product, you're really only talking to about 16% of the total customer base, that's who's going to buy early on and that those early adopters are just you know the second group to to adopt after those after the innovators and a couple of generalities associated with early adopters are there they have the highest degree of opinion leadership among all the other adopter types. Really important. Let me say that again. They have the highest degree of opinion Leadership among all the other adopter types. So these are the people that you really need to have on your side, because those are the ones who have influence over the other buyer buyers. So make sure that we can target who these these people are understand who they are, and what the messaging is in getting them involved early on. So they're generally younger, also, high social status, high education, they're a little bit more socially active. So they're, they're active within within the community. But here's something else that's really interesting. They're more discreet in their adoption choices than the innovators. So the innovators may, may innovate and talk to everybody and tell everybody what they're doing. The early adopters may adopt the technology, but not necessarily communicate that to everyone or freely communicate that to everyone. So it a little bit different, different personality type. Now that we've kind of defined what a soft launch is, and where it stands, and some things about the people that are involved in the soft launch, let's talk about some of the best practices for for a soft launch. Well, the first thing is setting expectations, because typically, when you get approval or clearance of a device, the expectations are, hey, we're going to go out and sell it, or we're releasing it, everyone's going to do it. And the sales numbers are going to follow quickly thereafter. Well, what we need to do is we need to make sure that we're setting expectations and primarily in in a couple of directions. First of all, management management needs to understand what a soft, soft launch is, and why you're doing it what and what you're trying to accomplish with it. And if you're early stage company, investors as well. And speaking from experience there, it is very important that you keep your investors apprised of what's going on because they hear the word launch. And after, after they heard hear that word, month one, they start coming up, how are our sales coming? What what's going on with sales. So making sure that we set expectations appropriately for everyone is really important. So what are we trying to do in this soft launch phase where we're trying to validate some things, we're trying to validate what the buying process is, we think we know what the buying process is beforehand. But as we start to get into it, that's when we're really going to find out who's involved in is is is it just the physician? Is that the entry point? Is the entry point purchasing is the entry point, the clinical team, your what is the entry point that you need to get to? And then where do you go from there is do you have to go top down from the depending on your product? Is it from the IDN? Or the buying group down to the hospital? Or is it the other way up? So finding what that buying process is is is really important? And then the message what is the messaging and messaging is different? It's not just one monolithic message that you give to everybody. But what's the message for each one of your buyers? Because the messaging to the clinician is gonna be different than the VAC committee, then the buying group, then the nurses, then the supply chain people, everyone has a slightly different message that they need, in order to see that that your product is bringing benefit to them personally, yes to everyone else, but how are they personally going to benefit? What's in it? What's in it for them? And we also have to validate that the materials that we started off with, are those correct? Do you have the right brochures or, or digital media, or training aids? Or any any other types of materials that you're going to have to be able to sell the VAC presentation, the pricing sheets, you know, all of these different things? Are they all correct? Are those materials correct. And then we're also going to validate whether the education is appropriate. And again, education for your reps, but also education for your customers, we have to really make sure that our reps are grasping everything, that they're able to, to understand it and that they can communicate to their customers, what the benefits are of adopting this new tech, new technology. And then from a customer standpoint, every change in behavior means that you need to educate them on your product, but also what the benefits are, what the downsides are, what to look out for. So do you have a way that you're training your clinicians that is appropriate and that is fun, and that is something that they can grasp quickly. So this That that is a really critical part part of this, of the soft launch. So that those are the things that you're really trying trying to validate, in addition to whether your pricing is appropriate as well. So there's a lot of validation that goes in there. So let's talk about planning. So what? How do you plan one of these soft launches? Well, a lot of the things that you need to do is you need to have an understanding with everyone on your team. And the understanding is, which, which customer categories? Are you going to be targeting? Are you going to just be targeting those those innovators? Are you going to go into the early adopters, you're gonna no doubt go even go down a little bit further. My suggestion would just be those target that 16%? Because that's in the in the introductory phase, those are the people that are going to be most most important to you, but really understanding who who's being targeted? And then how many? How many? And where you're going to do it in one territory? Are you going to do it near the home office? Are you going to spread it throughout the country with with 10 accounts? Why? How are you going to be rolling this out in the soft, soft launch? And then what's the budget for doing it? Are you going to have people flying different places? Are you going to do zoom meetings? Are you going to provide greater training materials for early people? Are you going to be close by to them? So what's your budget for this? And then what supports support materials are needed? We talked about the training side of things and the promotional side of things. But what do you really need? Do you need everything for this soft launch? I don't think you do, you need to have certain things that you firmly believe in. And then you can use the time to develop the supplemental pieces. Because if you if you bring out all of your pieces, you know, you're going to be making changes and modifications to them. It just makes it more expensive to be able to hit your hit any changes to your main piece and then supplemental pieces. So I would stick with you know, understanding what main pieces you need to get into this into this segment. And then have time in there to be able to iterate which messaging and develop other supplemental materials as well. So and then how long is how long should this last? Is this two months, three months, six weeks? What is it every product is can be a little bit different, every opportunity to get usage of your product is going to be different? Because we've got different things like buying groups and IDs that may prevent us from getting in there quickly to learn some of the clinical things. And then are you going to be dealing with just your friends, just people that you know, are you going to try and get to people that you don't know, an important important thing to to understand something else is in this phase. sales volume is not what we're really trying to get sales volume is always great. But that's not the main thing we're doing here. We're trying to validate assumptions, and validate processes and validate that materials and training and everything else is appropriate, the sales volume will come. But unless you've got all of these other things lined up, we know sales volume is not going to come. So really, we've got a different objective in this soft launch period, then high sales volumes. And the last thing from a planning standpoint is how are you going to keep the team informed of all of the information that's coming back in what is your process to be able to feed back to the team, what you're learning, because that's important for everyone to understand. Because as you take it from the soft launch into a hard launch, most of those same people are going to be involved. So some of the other things that are interesting in here are, typically, you're going to sign up some things we call lighthouse customers or early adopter customers or however you define that. These are the people that you're going to be relying on to give you this feedback. And typically, as I mentioned earlier, these are people that you're going to treat like an insider. And they really are insiders, these are people that are going to give you the feedback that you need. And when you set them up. That's one of the things that you talk about, I'd like you to be one of our lighthouse customers. As part of this. I'm going to ask you for a lot of feedback on what we're doing right? And what we're doing wrong, how we can modify what we're doing, to make it a great experience for everybody else. If you set that up. appropriately, that's where that's how you're going to get that learning. If you don't, if you just start selling to them and start going around trying to gather that information, you're never going to be able to do it correctly, you have to set it up up front, bring them into your team, bring them onto your team, and say, I need that feedback, I need you to help me to develop a great program for everyone else, that's, that's going to going to be using this product. So this also allows you to train them more deeply so that they truly understand what what, what the procedure is all about. And then they'll be able to help you to say that part of the training is not the not as important as part of training, he's a beef to be beefed up. But really, digging into that training is really important. And the other thing that you do when you set set them up is you set the expectations. Tell him eight, you expect a few hiccups here, you know, we're trying to learn a couple of things. And if he's if you tell them upfront, hey, there may be a few hiccups when they do occur, and they will, they're going to have have forgiveness for you. And they'll help you help you along along that. There's also with these lighthouse customers, there's some PR opportunity. So not everyone does things altruistically. So if you're if you're allowing somebody to be the first implant or of your product, first user in a pediatric space, first user in the West Coast, there's a PR opportunity for the physician as well as the facility. So make sure that when you're setting these things up, that you take advantage of that PR opportunity, or they take advantage of the PR opportunity that you're providing to them. So So having some press materials, ready for them. Something else that that you could do for them, they're doing something for you, you can do something for for them. So as we build and plan and do all this and start getting getting involved, one of the most important thing that's things that you're going to be doing is you're going to be building key performance indicators. And these KPIs are really important. Because they will allow you to have greater visibility on how you're going to scale to the rest of your market. It's what is important, how fast it's going to happen, how much it's going to cost? How do you invest to be able to scale to build your product? So some of the things that you're going to develop these KPIs that you're going to develop are going to be around? What is the buyers journey? What is the optimal buyers journey? As we talked about? Is it is it the doctor to the purchasing people to vac to IDN? Or is it go a little bit different? Not only within an account, but with a with a clinician? What is a clinicians buyers journey? How do they hear about it? Where do they hear about it? What do they do once they hear about it? How do they get trained? When are they making a decision to to utilize a product? When is a product on the shelf? And how are they going to use it the first time? And who's going to be there and not be there? And what's the follow up? That's going to be so what is that you know, really defining what that buyers journey is it's really important performance indicator is going to be what's the time to get it on the shelf, from the time that you start talking to somebody, what is the time to get on the shelf? That's, that's really important. And then what's the time to get it pulled off the shelf and used. So it's it's the time to get on the shelf, it's how much time to from the from you get getting on a shelf? To get it used? How much time is it going to take train? How much time does it gonna take to train one physician or the account? And then what is the adoption rate by an account? What's the adoption rate by by a clinician? Are they going to use on every case? Or what's the adoption rate? Also, by the account? How long? How many? How much does it take to train all physicians in order them for them to adopt adopt your technology. So you're also going to do KPIs for what your success rate is and your failure rate. And your failure rate has to be divided up by physicians also by hospital because you may get through the physician side of things, and then it may fall at the VAC value analysis committee or at the group purchasing area. And understanding what your hit ratio is and what your what your success ratio is in these areas is is really important. And then finally, retention rate once you convert, are you able to retain or are you know you're gonna get five cases and then you don't Going further. So understanding all of these, these KPIs are really important too. So the soft launch is really important. It's important because it allows you to validate all of the key assumptions that we talked about. But it also will allow you to have confidence when you enter into a general product introduction, that you understand how much time it's going to take how much money it's going to take, how much effort it's going to take, to be able to hit your sales numbers, and will also give you a higher confidence that you are going to hit the numbers that you're going to sign up for, and that you're going to communicate, communicate to management and investors. These are the numbers that we believe in. And here's the proof, why we believe in those numbers. Thank you for listening. Make sure you get episodes downloaded to your device automatically by liking or subscribing to the mastering medical device, podcast and Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Also, please spread the word and tell a friend or two to listen to the mastering medical device podcast. As interviews like today's can help you become a more effective medical device leader. Work hard. Be kind
