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CMR case study: understanding payers' needs to maximise sales potential

Understanding payers' needs and translating the benefits into tangible ROI is a key part of a go-to-market strategy. Our client had a great product - yet sales uptake was slow. CMR's work gave our client a clear insight into the requirements of payers and ensured that the product - a patient warming device - met its full potential.

Initial research identified a challenge around acceptance amongst payers. Unable to grasp the benefits, payers were reluctant to sign-off purchases, leaving our client with a great medical device but low sales.

Bringing CMR in to help, our client asked us to come up with a way of understanding how to ensure the product met its sales potential.

Results for this project

CMR’s work gave our client a clear insight into the requirements of payers. They went away understanding exactly how the perceived benefits in the eyes of clinicians needed to be conveyed to payers in order to gain their buy-in (no pun intended!). With an awareness of the barriers raised by payers and advice from the payers themselves as to how these could be overcome, our client was able to reformulate its strategy. Having generated health economic data and messages aimed at highlighting the ROI, our client is now reaping the benefits with increased sales.

We came up with a methodology that mixed clinicians with payers to create an environment for debate. We used focus groups, splitting them in two. For the first hour the clinicians were tasked with defining the key benefits of the device and the arguments they would put forward to payers. Introducing the payers in the second hour, CMR encouraged clinicians to present their arguments in their own words. The moderator invited feedback from the payers and teased out the main barriers. Collectively the participants were urged to discuss exactly how payer objections could be overcome and what kinds of information would ensure they really understood the benefits to the clinicians and their patients.
Alper Hulusi - Research Director