March 4, 2019
Dear Kinamed Agents & Reps,
“Innovative”. “Unique.” “Different from Brand X.”
Buyers, purchasing agents, and OR directors hear these words a lot. So much so that they are tuning them out.
“Yeah, yeah,” they say. “Every product is unique. What’s the price so I can compare it to a product we already buy?”
And nowadays, we’re hearing more and more of this when trying to get approval for SuperCable: “Yeah, yeah. We already use a product that does that job, AND if we don’t use it we’ll be in violation of our agreement with (Stryker, Synthes, or Zimmer,etc) to use their product in 80% (or 90%) of those cases.”
Good news for us: This is simply not true! Don’t let contract compliance issues shut down your sales of SuperCable because no one has a polymer iso-elastic cable and this is your end-around run.
Steps you can take to avoid being locked out due to contract compliance:
1) Be Proactive: From the beginning of the sales process, emphasize, and hammer on the fact that SuperCable is the ONLY Polymer Iso-Elastic Cable, which means it is the only available product that provides all of these features and benefits:
- Can be used in patients with metal allergies
- Is a sharps-safe device
- Does not generate metal debris
- Provides iso-elastic compression of bone fragments
- Can be easily re-tightened during surgery
- And so on…Visit our SuperCable Quick Reference Guide on the sales Portal here for a comprehensive list.
2) Be Specific: Speak their language and address their concerns. Tell them you understand their contractual obligations, and assure them that they can use SuperCable. Yes, you can guarantee their contract does not include a cable that provides the benefits listed above.
3) Be Analytical: Accept that the price for a single SuperCable is more than a single Metal Cable, but…that isn’t the whole story. Walk them through the long list of reasons they can actually SAVE MONEY by switching to SuperCable. Our SuperCable value analysis letter and White Paper on Cost spell this out clearly. For more information on this topic, please check out this blog post on our sales portal: Translating the SuperCable Story into the Language of Value Analysis Committees
4) Be Tactile: let them examine our Metal vs. SuperCable demo tool so they can see and feel the difference.
5) Be Helpful: Suggest they review the “Exceptions” clause that all of these contracts have, which describes the types of products that can be used without counting against their compliance ratio. These clauses generally describe products that are “revolutionary” or provide “clinically significant advantages” over the option offered in the contract catalog. Our experience has shown that – even when comparing two functionally similar products – the product with the best/ most clinical data will often win out. Stryker or Synthes can claim to offer an alternative to SuperCable, but they can’t provide the clinical evidence we can.
Finally, remind them what really matters – the MDs requested to use SuperCable because their training and understanding of these types of surgeries has led them to conclude that it is the best product for their patients.
For more information, see an earlier blog post that describes our new Metal vs. SuperCable demo tool, the concept of “Cablosis”, and a success story in which this “exception clause” saved an Agent’s cable business (the account is still going on strong, by the way), visit our Sales Portal. Direct Link Here: https://www.kinamedportal.com/wp/blog/metallosis-trunnionosis-and-now-cablosis/
Feel free to contact me with any questions.
Patrick Miller
Sales & Marketing Manager
Kinamed, Inc.
tel: 1-805-384-2748 x 207
fax: 1-805-384-2792
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