An informative weekly newsletter that shares insights into building a medical device business in women’s health.

It also explores new innovations in the field, how these products were developed, and the inventors behind them.

In this week’s newsletter, I share some of my personal sales experience, after leaving my investment banking career to help build a medical device start up in women’s health.

It was an unusual transition - from selling investment ideas to selling a medical device used during childbirth. Surprisingly, there would be some overlap.

I would quickly learn the intricacies of bringing a medical device to the market and convincing clinicians to adopt a new innovative technology in their practice.

Over several years building our business, sales skills would be relevant in many aspects - notably one of these being our company sale in March 2021.

I reflect on a few reasons I believe we were successful as a business, where sales was a driving factor in our success. I hope you take something away that both educates and inspires you.

The Art of Medical Device Sales

In this week's newsletter, I'll share a few important points from our journey in bringing a medical device to the market, where the art of sales would be critical to our success.

Our device had potential to make a huge impact on women’s health, by reducing the risk of harm to mothers and their babies during second stage cesarean sections.

This by no means meant it was an easy sell - we still had to convince clinicians and hospital systems to change their practice and consider using an innovative new technology.

The UK was our first market and I spent several years selling our device directly to NHS hospitals. It was a challenging but hugely valuable experience, with many lessons learnt. I believe this prepared us well for the US market.

When our device was approved by the FDA, the large, diverse and complex US market became our focus - many of the same lessons would apply but we would need to navigate a completely new geography and healthcare system.

I worked with many major hospital systems across the country to introduce our device, and worked through several complex sales cycles. Below are a few areas worth considering when bringing your device to market.

Articulate the potential benefit to both patient and clinician - gain clinical buy-in

Your device was created with the intention to benefit the patient, but never assume that the clinician understands these benefits in depth.

Assume they are learning about your product for the first time - take them through the clinical case that led to the idea, why this device might have improved outcomes in that case, but also why the device might make the clinician’s life easier (perhaps less strain on the clinician physically, perhaps it is a reduction in procedure time, reduced complications, or maybe a reduced risk of litigation if things were to go wrong).

Keep things simple, always. We would start by talking through the case the led to the idea behind Fetal Pillow (see sharing your story below), the complications that occurred, and how these might have been avoided if a simple device had been available at the time.

The device would not only benefit the patient - by making the clinician’s life easier, we brought something of value to the market. Demonstrate this throughout your discussions early on, even before physically showing them the product (an important point we made when training the national sales teams that would be selling the device post acquisition).

Share the story behind your device in every conversation

We always opened with the clinical case behind why our product was developed. Articulating this background story immediately resonated with clinicians, who had likely been in similar situations previously. This was crucial in capturing their attention at the start of every conversation. Make this a priority. If there isn’t a specific case to discuss, share the reason behind developing your product and the problem you’ve been passionately trying to solve.

Getting in front of the right people is critical - the OB department decision makers in our case. Once you have the opportunity to present your case, nothing is more important than the message and how you communicate it. For us this meant articulating the story behind our product, its clinical value (supported by data), the financial value (cost savings for the hospital), and ultimately why they should consider using it. If we were able to effectively communicate all of this in a concise and impactful way, it would certainly help us move through the sales cycle.

Ensure a deep understanding of the clinical data, but keep it simple

It’s obvious how important clinical evidence is in the commercialisation of your medical device. Every sales professional should have a deep understanding of the clinical data. You should have confidence explaining how the study was designed, the key parameters, the clinical endpoints being studied, and the significant outcomes identified.

With a deep understanding of the clinical evidence, this should only add to the confidence behind your device and during discussions with clinicians. Numerous clinical studies demonstrated the efficacy of our device and showed significantly improved outcomes for the mother.

Undoubtedly, during the journey in bringing your product to market, or when trying to expand adoption, clinicians will challenge the available data. If you’re able to overcome their objections and engage in a productive discussion, you will be well positioned to gain their support and approval.

You will likely also find that many clinicians and hospital systems are interested in collecting their own data. Engage with hospitals early on to discuss interest in research - are there new endpoints that can be studied to generate cutting edge research on your medical device?

Appeal to the Purchasing Department - develop a cost-benefit analysis

With clinical data available on our device, we were able to build a cost-benefit analysis (resource costs for the hospital could be linked with study outcomes) which demonstrated potential savings, each time a device was used. In our case, the reduction in maternal complications could lead to a significant financial benefit.

Following clinical buy-in, you often will then need to work through a Value Analysis Committee - the clinical evidence and cost-benefit analysis form an integral part of this review. Any guidelines for use or hospital protocols that support the expected utilisation will also be of interest. The committee will often be interested in the expected cost of ongoing use, notably in the case of systems with multiple hospitals.

Being able to articulate the financial as well as clinical value behind your device forms an important part of the sales journey.

Accept there will be setbacks and challenges along the way

As a sales professional, setbacks are inevitable. For instance, when we initially launched into the UK market, we would face resistance from NHS hospitals at every stage of the sales cycle.

Budget constraints, pushback on the clinical data, resistance to innovation and change were all common themes when selling into the NHS. We had to convince each individual trust of the value behind our device (getting in front of them itself could be a challenge). Some took months, some took years, and some still need convincing. It’s been a great lesson in resilience that we would apply to other markets and the business as a whole as we scaled our operations internationally.

Building resilience is therefore an important skill. It would take several years before we reached an inflexion point in the UK - one in which hospitals would eventually start approaching us (instead of us approaching them) because there were already several locals users of the device. Junior doctors rotating to a new hospital would ask about the Fetal Pillow and why it was not available.

Build an impactful sales presentation

Your greatest opportunity to introduce your device might be a department wide presentation - perhaps 15 minutes to share your story. You need to build an impactful presentation that encapsulates the above points.

As an example - in our case with Fetal Pillow, we structured our presentation as follows:

1. An overview of the case that led to Fetal Pillow being developed.

2. A brief timeline of product adoption globally

3. The clinical problem being addressed/ solved with our device

4. Macro level data on the problem described above

5. The product itself (including the product animation)

6. Peer Reviewed Clinical Data (including a summary of key findings from the most important publications)

7. Other literature (in our case, an Editorial published in OBG Management)

8. Cost-Benefit Analysis

9. A conclusion - why the need for change (and why our device should be adopted)

10. Q&A (there will always be questions)

A brief note on the author - Nish Varma

After several years working in finance, I partnered with my father, an obstetrician who invented a medical device (Fetal Pillow) to solve an important clinical problem in his field (detailed in issue one).

After initially launching into the UK market in 2011, several years later, Fetal Pillow was cleared by the FDA in 2017. We then focused our efforts on bringing Fetal Pillow to the US market.

I spent the next few years building our US business and in early 2021, our company (Safe Obstetric Systems) was acquired by CooperSurgical, a leading global player in Women’s Health. I spent one year post completion working for the company during an earnout period to support the national launch strategy.

It was a 10 year journey to commercialise and bring the product to market - we were able to prove our business model in the US and that garnered interest from some of the key industry players.

Since the company sale, my father and I have started developing a new obstetric product and hope to bring this to market in the near future. I also consult for early stage medical device companies looking to expand their operations internationally.

This newsletter is a passion project to share some of our journey with others who might be on a similar path.

I appreciate you taking the time to read this week’s newsletter. Any questions, comments or feedback, please feel free to email me.

If you would like support with your business development activities, let’s set up a call to discuss how I can help.

Have a great weekend!

Nish Varma

[email protected]

Consulting Services - OBG Access

Co-Founder - OBSolve