Buyer decision-making and sales solutions at PDI

Buying Behavior and the Buying Process

Interviews, company website, company brochure, press releases

Buyers use a variety of factors in selecting a company to provide them with a product or service, including the value proposition, reputation, pricing, and benefits.

Start by identifying a company that markets a common, higher-involvement product offered to other businesses.

The company that will be discussed in this paper is PDI. PDI has been in operation since 1987 and was originally formed as a division of a medical advertising agency, DF Communications. In early 1990, the founder traded his equity position in DF Communications for full ownership of PDI and created an entrepreneurial company focused on developing innovative solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. Over the years, PDI successfully provided sales and marketing solutions for 19 of the top 20 pharmaceutical manufacturers and implemented many "firsts" that revolutionized the way prescription drugs were sold and marketed.

Today, PDI is a commercialization partner providing innovative sales and marketing solutions to the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device and diagnostics industries. The company offers sales and marketing solutions to the healthcare products industry, particularly in the form of contract sales representatives. The company holds the number one spot in the industry for providing this service, coupled with additional solutions.

PDI offers four innovative solutions that are designed to meet sales and marketing objectives for products in any phase of the lifecycle.

PDI Contract Sales - provides dedicated or shared sales teams aligned to a client's sales and marketing objectives, enabling clients to flexibly resource their sales force needs

PDI Copromotion - provides performance-driven sales and marketing initiatives, enabling clients to customize deal structures to meet their budgetary needs

PDI Lifecycle Extension - provides total sales, marketing, and brand management services for promotionally responsive maturing brands, enabling clients to reallocate internal resources to meet their overall portfolio needs

PDI Product Commercialization - provides turn-key commercialization services for companies in the pre-launch and launch phases of their product's development, enabling clients to tap into an established infrastructure to meet their sales and marketing needs

Plus, their solutions offer flexible financial arrangements so that they can create a financial structure that will contribute the greatest amount of potential revenue to a client's bottom line.

Fee-for-service - flat fee for service

Benefits to my business

The typical customer is looking for a way to enhance the sale and marketing of their product. The typical scenario includes a needs assessment, a presentation based on those needs, a budget analysis, a competitive analysis of those companies that are offering services and a final summary based on all the information.

PDI makes every effort possible to understand their client's needs and continually refine their processes, systems, and way of doing business to offer the best solutions. PDI capitalizes on attitude and approach. And maximizes their success in the past and their tenacity over the years. They started as a service provider who listened to what the client wanted and did what they needed. But today, PDI has evolved into the commercial partner of choice to the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical devices and diagnostics industries. A proactive partner who not only listens to their customer's needs but makes strategic recommendations about the best way to handle their business challenges.

Meanwhile, determine how the company constructs and markets its offering. You can get this information from the company's web site and from articles in the business and trade press. If you desire (you don't have to do this), you can contact the company or resellers who carry the company's product and interview them to learn more about their strategy and tactics. If you contact the company or retailers, tell them exactly what you are doing, why you are doing it, and offer them a copy of your final paper. Don' t use this as a way to get competitive information. Describe these marketing activities in your paper.

The company uses an interactive approach. They describe themselves as a commercialization partner providing innovative sales and marketing solutions to the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device and diagnostics industries. They combine their sales and marketing capabilities to offer new solutions to clients and partners. In short, they deliver maximum incremental value for their product portfolios.

PDI constructs its service offerings as a partner providing innovative sales and marketing solutions to the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device and diagnostics industries. PDI is a company that knows how to combine our sales and marketing capabilities to offer new solutions to our clients and partners. It means we know how to maximize our resources -- whether offering a standalone service or an integrated solution -- to meet their needs. Offering solutions for managing their portfolios and bringing value to our clients. In short, delivering maximum incremental value for their product portfolios.

What distinguishes them from their competitors is the fact that they offer complete solutions not just contract sales. PDI has a suite of integrated services that allows them to provide customized solutions. A lot of their competitors cannot make that same claim and are only in the business of providing additional sales representatives in the field.

Evaluate how well the company addresses the needs, wants, and decision process of your targeted customer. Describe how the company could improve its marketing. Be reasonable don't recommend things that would obviously cost more than the company or its resellers could afford.

PDI works with each client to determine what solution would best meet their needs. Each one of the solutions can be customized or a client can use just one of the standalone services to promote their product. What helps PDI be so successful is the fact that they really only sell what the client needs.

However, what works against PDI is the fact that they have not been able to successfully move beyond being perceived as a Contract Sales Organization (CSO). Because they were so successful at being named number one in the industry, it is now hard for them to be considered as more than just a sales partner.

So PDI has been changing their business model and now describes themselves as partners to the healthcare products industry and has recently moved into medical devices and diagnostics.

The company needs to promote itself more by working with a top-notch advertising agency that can get their name in the papers via press releases and announcements. They also need to expand the content on their web site and add case studies and industry white papers written by their subject matter experts.

PDI has a lot of untapped potential and is not maximizing the talent that exists in their organization. Their senior level management should be speaking at more industry conferences and should be interviewed in trade papers.

They should also be doing more in the community. Walks for charities and health-related organizations. They need to have more strategic alliances with partners so they can co-promote some blockbuster products and get their name out more in the industry.

PDI can offer the breadth and depth needed to create a very specific product campaign but they need to market that more to their clients. Their new business plan will move them away from being viewed as just a CSO and help to bring them to the forefront as a commercialization partner.

Earlier in the year, PDI, which was formally Professional Detailing Inc. changed its name to just PDI. This helped to create a new image and move away from the idea of "detailing" which is a term used by Contract Sales Organizations about selling pharmaceutical products to physicians. This was a good move on the company's part and worked hand in hand with a new logo they created.

PDI has been making all the right changes to present a new "face and image" to the industry and expand their presence in the marketplace. The fact that they have a solid reputation will work in their favor.

Interview Questions:

Describe PDI?

Are you en employee of the company or a client?

What makes PDI good at what they do?

What is their "sales" pitch? What makes them different in the market place?

Describe a typical sales scenario? What do they do?

How does PDI currently market their service?

Is their marketing effective?

What could they do better?

Basically, the respondents all had positive things to say about PDI. The company has a good reputation and always has. The Contract Sales industry, which is a big part of their business, is experiencing a downturn right now in the entire industry. Some hard times have befallen PDI, which is one of the reasons that they have decided to expand their business model and market other services.

The company realizes they need to move into other market sectors in order to grow as a company. This past year they expanded into the medical device and diagnostics industry that is one of the fastest growing segments of the marketplace. Market projections for the medical devices and diagnostics industry indicate there is a promising and profitable road ahead. Today, many companies are trying to adjust to recent changes in industry trends and are busy preparing for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. The medical devices and diagnostics industry is booming and continues to be one of the fastest growing industries in the world. There has been a virtual explosion of new device technologies in response to evolving healthcare needs. With all of this mounting competition in emerging markets, many medical device and diagnostics companies are choosing a partner to:

Provide the additional manpower needed to launch new products

Implement a focused, customized approach to support product awareness and recognition

Provide temporary resources to reach critical mass

Support sales and marketing efforts to reach potential, untapped markets

Provide customized after-sales support teams to educate your customers on the benefits of your product to increase product usage

Manage operational expenses and mitigate risk

The respondents felt that this would be a new marketing opportunity for PDI and would add to their ability to "sell" their services. The company has been able to use their past successes with 19 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies to be their biggest selling point. Buyers like to know they are dealing with a well-established company that can provide a list of companies that are well-known in the healthcare market place.

Clients of PDI have suggested that the company is one of the most thorough and capable that they have used. One client offered, "They know my business as well as I do and that's why I selected them." That speaks volumes and is probably one of the top reasons that buyers work with PDI.