A major medical-device manufacturer with a “me-too” product facing diminishing sales needed a solution to retain market share and capture their customers’ attention.

Here’s how they faced the issue head on.

The Problem: 

A well-known medical device manufacturer was seeing decreased sales for one of its more complicated devices. Not only was it harder to learn than the primary competitor’s offering, but it also lacked a clear differential advantage.

As a further complication, this B2B organization had grown reliant on their reps’ in-person drop-ins and lunch-and-learns with healthcare professionals (HCPs) in order to sell their products, which came to a sudden halt with the onset of the pandemic.

The client’s sales reps were extremely capable people and the product was expertly crafted, yet the team was having trouble demonstrating why the product was superior and how to help healthcare professionals incorporate it into their lives with as little friction as possible. 

The Solution:

In order to drive sales, the client needed a strategic plan to get critical audiences to adopt new behaviors, and address customers’ unique learning needs and styles. 

To achieve this, Xcelerate replaced the client’s ineffective, one-size-fits-all customer training approach with a robust Customer Learning Strategy – a multi-channel plan that catalyzes sales, satisfies customers and supports business objectives by changing behaviors that create adoption. 

For the medical-device manufacturer, the Learning Strategy addressed a few core truths:

1. Everyone learns in a different way. The educational materials offered to healthcare professionals to help them integrate this new product into their lives didn’t account for their different learning styles. By using ineffective tools, the client failed to capture attention from a group with precious little time to give. The Learning Strategy identified preferred ways that users wanted to learn and created a diverse toolkit of formats to help support learning and drive adoption. 

2. Product users across roles need to gain proficiency in different product features. Everyone from doctors to RNs and technicians could benefit from different features of the client’s device, but a one-size-fits-all presentation or pamphlet about the product was an information overload for all parties present. Why teach everyone everything when each role only needed to learn a few specialized features? The Learning Strategy would hone in on the fundamental behaviors and topics that were going to create the easiest path to adoption for the learner/role, making learning relevant, focused and engaging

3. Products without a clear competitive advantage are an extremely hard sell. The medical-device manufacturer’s competition offered a product that was easier to use. Simply saying, “ours is better for your patients” wasn’t compelling enough to overcome that obstacle. The Learning Strategy would create a differentiator without changing the product, and establish a stronger connection between the marketing materials and the training methods to reinforce those points.

The Approach & Outcomes:

To create a competitive edge, cater to different learning styles, and present only pertinent and valuable information to each learner, the Learning Strategy included:

• A learner-centric approach that offered many ways to learn, including webinars, e-learning, in-person teaching, workshops, etc. This allowed HCPs to choose their own learning paths based on personal preferences, availability, etc. (and no longer forced sales reps to compete for their time or work around limited availability for in-person meetings). The approach took the teaching responsibility off of the sales team and reduced the amount of time/steps required to convert

• Role-specific content curated based on their role in the practice, allowing different types of HCPs to access only the most pertinent information necessary to use the product successfully in their job. By identifying the information each audience needed to master to perform their role, HCPs could skip information that wasn’t relevant. To bring this to life, Xcelerate partnered with the SMEs in the org to map out a curriculum path that took into account the different learning objectives of each professional, and the kinds of courses and content required to satisfy their needs

• A compelling differentiator where there previously was none. By making learning the differentiator and developing learning tools and customized content for each type of HCP, the client demonstrated their ability to “get” healthcare professionals’ needs and understand their world. Customers could take comfort in knowing that the experience was built exactly for them, and come to expect seamless learning options with future products

• A plan for both short-term and long-term advancement of the platform, content, and delivery, as well as a method for gathering and providing evidence that the system was working (including a system for getting feedback from healthcare professionals to identify additional opportunities to add value through education)

Approaching adoption with the learner in mind is critical to success, and not just in the implementation of a new product, but in reaching broader cross-departmental and business goals. Being able to differentiate through the experience it delivers to its customers enabled the client to create value that was above and beyond the product itself. 

The medical-device manufacturer is implementing this plan and currently in the process of developing learner-specific content for its constituents to help support adoption and retention, and to reinforce their competitive edge.

Because it’s not just about conversion – it’s about teaching.

It’s not just about being different – it’s about building preference.  

It’s not just about awareness – it’s about adoption.

It’s not just about selling a product – it’s about revenue.