When medical devices are commercialized, field representatives usually travel to hospitals and other institutions to introduce the product, train the staff, and integrate with existing systems. Many companies spend BILLIONS on this inefficient practice - an expense which sometimes reaches four to five times the cost of R&D. These inefficiencies are made worse by the cost sensitivity of hospitals and patients, consolidation of hospital industry (more buyer power), and sales reps’ limited access to clinics.
As the “internet of things” becomes a reality, we’d like to take information from our representatives and customers to dramatically improve the sales process and reduce our reliance on the traditional sales interaction.
Consider the actual “Point of Sale” (hospital, surgeon, or buyer purchasing the product) and think about all the variables at play (timing of interaction, finding the decision-maker, location of organization and salesperson, method of communication, extent of relationship, etc).
1) What are the first three (3) steps you would take to more intelligently go about the “Point of Sale”?
2) What data would you collect and analyze to support or inform your suggested processes?
3) Describe the potential cost and/or time savings that would result
Criteria:
Top ideas will be cost-effective, data-driven, and feasible within existing medical institutions. Preference will go to novel ideas that utilize new technologies.
TIP -- we suggest you don't make assumptions or guesses about timing, decision makers, etc. We'd like to understand how you would collect and use data to make informed decisions.
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Submissions will be graded on the following criteria:
- Meets Deliverables
- Creativity
- Clarity
will receive $150 each
will receive $50 each
| $150.00 |
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Nick Uberti Florida State University | |
| $150.00 |
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Rebekah Christens Persaud Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences | |
| $150.00 |
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Raul Moya University of California at Davis | |
| $150.00 |
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Michael Fearer The Ohio State University | |
| $150.00 |
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Sarah Libring Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey | |
| $50.00 |
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Dylan Kojola University of Florida | |
| $50.00 |
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Pranjal Mittal Oregon State University | |
| $50.00 |
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Andrew Tetzlaff University of Rhode Island | |
| $50.00 |
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Clark Conner North Carolina State University | |
| $50.00 |
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Timothy Staat University of Missouri - Columbia |