Business owners and decision makers understand there are many dynamics to consider beyond a good business plan, base technology or driven group of founders. Our “Market Entry Team” is comprised of professionals who have founded their own companies and succeeded in the rapidly changing environment of advanced clinical technologies. As an extension of your own management team, we will apply our relevant skills to your launch strategy; mapping out a step-by-step plan which includes allocation of human capital and financial resources, as well as market risk and scenario analyses. GPS provides you with the tools, thought processes, and critical intelligence needed to better understand your market for vertical or cross-industry opportunities. Our experienced management team will help you navigate all aspects of developing a strategic marketing plan that works.

Whether your company has designed its own launch strategy or worked with our “Market Entry Team” to create your entire blue print, GPS can dramatically accelerate your speed to market. A well prepared marketing plan is only as good the team executing its implementation strategy. GPS is uniquely qualified in this area with key relationships established in healthcare’s highest producing market segments for domestic and international manufacturing, distribution networks, channel sales, direct sales, advertising, public relations, web marketing, luminary access, clinical reviews, podium endorsements, cross-industry alliances, financial resources, and much more. GPS gives you the option to choose from a variety of services to enhance your success.

What went wrong? Was it the product; the wrong customer segment; the sales force; the distribution model; the branding? Did a superior product emerge at the worse time; was there a management change; a bad business plan? Critical industry intelligence is paramount to a successful product launch. Even the best business planners will miss the target when their research is flawed. If your initial attempts at launching your product have been unsuccessful and your target audience is not responding, GPS can quickly step in and perform a detailed analysis to identify your barrier to entry. Our “Market Entry Team” is familiar with the many pitfalls common to market shifts, changes in management, evolving competitive landscapes and complex organizations. Through proven techniques, our advisors will work in concert with your own management team to identify market solutions that are potentially more suitable for your company’s product line.

Understanding your choices, determining optimal strategies and expressing them attractively and effectively is crucial to the success of any company and vital for fundraising. GPS specializes in helping companies create highly refined business plans - both narrative and quantitative - of the quality and specificity demanded by today's investment bankers and corporate communities. Furthermore, the value a company benefits internally from having clear goals, processes and models that are accessible and in tangible form is immeasurable. GPS is exceptionally skilled at developing business plans for new concept market entry.

There is an old saying; “Sales solve everything!” Although this is not exactly true, it definitely helps when your sales force is firing on all cylinders and working in complete synergy. Analyzing sales performance and re-establishing critical boundaries for market coverage is one of the fastest ways to increase revenues.

Questions to consider, include:

• Is your sales force operating efficiently?
• Are their geographic boundaries too large; too small?
• Are they mining opportunities close to home or near the lake house?
• Are they living off annuities or expanding their markets?
• And the number one most important question; does your product provide enough income opportunity to meet their personal financial goals?

Leveraging our extensive experience, GPS will drill deep into your sales process and performance history to analyze your company’s ROI in every territory and product category. We will coach your sales department on how to build digital performance maps to chart and track individual sales and distribution efficacy; and we will make detailed recommendations and forecasts for territory restructuring where needed.

Our experience has proven that you really can "teach an old dog new tricks". In fact, we have a measurable history of teaching scores of industry veterans career changing techniques to survive the rapidly changing environment of clinical technology sales. The fundamental nature of sales in our industry has evolved to an education based peer-to-peer recommendation from one clinician or educator to another. Sales professionals who want to survive this trend need a significant level of clinical and scientific aptitude. GPS is strategically skilled at developing 2-4 hour “rapid training programs” with enough clinical essentials covered to have your customers asking where your sales force went to dental or medical school.

Changing economic conditions often create unique opportunities for foreign-based companies to grab a foothold in the US market. The GPS team can help create the pathways to improve the chances of success. These include identifying regulatory requirements, finding distribution partners, recruiting a qualified sales force and establishing service and installation networks. We can also help with field-testing products and concepts and finding warehousing space.

Many well established companies in the U.S. continue to miss out on opportunities abroad. Capitalizing on overseas markets often opens doors to new levels of top and bottom line growth. GPS brings a tremendous amount of experience and know-how in dealing with cross-cultural, regulatory, market sizing, team-building, transfer pricing, legal and operational issues. From market and risk analysis to strategy planning and implementation projects, we are well versed in what it takes to successfully expand abroad. Individuals from the GPS team have experience in bringing U.S. companies to Japan, Korea, Europe, England, Australia and The Middle East.

• Market Research
  Emerging Trends, Competitive Landscapes, Market Penetration, Customer Surveys, Price Positioning, Distributions Models, Scenario Analysis, SWOT Analysis, Capital Risk Analysis
   
• Industry Intelligence
  Secure critical information for understanding hidden risks including clinical acceptance curves, industry acceptance curves, potential distribution targets, sales processes, static inventory options, market segmentation, human capital, compensation models, hidden supply chain costs, forward investment, and every process being used by your competitors to manage these same decisions.
   
• Product Evaluation Vs Market Potential
  “Will the market accept your product as much as your engineering department likes it?” An unexpected clinical adoption curve can lay waste to even the best marketing plan. GPS has long standing relationships with product rating organizations and the industry’s top “research clinicians” for emerging technologies. These clinical evaluation resources can prove exceptionally valuable if you are entering the market with a new concept or break-through technology.
   
• Market Entry Preparation and Planning
  Our “Market Entry Specialists” will work as an extension of your own management team to design an entire blueprint for detailed market preparation including alignment of human capital, Gantt schedules, industry resources, media, advertising, collateral materials, budgets, forecasts, cost analysis, and dissemination of all related time tables.
   
• Indentify Cross-Market Opportunities
  GPS operates in the Dentistry, Primary Care, Med Spa and Veterinary Health markets. Our management team is in a unique position to identify potential alliance relationships for cross-industry markets, parallel sales channels, co-branding, co-packaging, and OEM prospects.
   
• Sales and Distribution Strategies
  GPS will help you identify the best sales and distribution model for your products. Questions to consider, include:

  Will you need nationwide coverage or regional coverage?
  Will you sell direct to end-users or seek supply chain distributors?
  Do you have cash reserves sufficient to support a direct selling infrastructure?
  How will you mine opportunities?
  Will your margins support distribution channels?
  Will supply chains increase or decrease your advertising needs?
  Will you use an internal sales force or independent contractors?
  If you choose channel distribution, who will actually make the sale to end-users; you or your distributor?
  Are demonstrations done with live products or presentation tools?
  Who manages demonstrator inventory?
  Who pays for demonstrator inventory?
  Who manages end-user transactions, installation and training?

  GPS can provide critical industry intelligence and expertise to answer all of these questions and many more.
   

• Identify and Secure Distribution Channels
  Whether you are already struggling with supply chain distribution or weighing that option for the first time, GPS can enhance your progress and speed to market. Our “Senior Management Team” has very strong relationships among the industry's top distributors and unique access to the decisions maker that drive product selection and company focus. A common mistake among many medical device manufacturers is the belief that dealers will immediately see the value in their products and begin making sales. In reality, that rarely happens.
   
  With more than 400,000 SKU’s on their product sheets, attracting dealers and their sales people to your technology will require significant planning. Our “Market Entry Team” will help you identify the best dealers for your products and develop a strategy to attract those dealers.
   
  The information below is small a sample outline of a plan we develop with many pages of detail:

• Evaluate All Potential Distribution Networks for Product Alignment
• Identify Best First-round Distributors for Rapid Integration
• Identify Best Strategies to Penetrate Individual Distributor Cultures
• Initiate Contact to Determine Interest Among Primary Distribution Targets
• Compile Vendor Requirements for Key Dealers
• Develop Corporate Presentations for Dealer Senior Management
• Prepare Corporate Strategy for Each Dealer to Market Client’s Product
• Prepare Economic Impact Models for Dealers and Client
• Prepare Dealer Demonstration Protocol and Sales Process
• Design Sales Training Curriculum for Dealers
• Prepare Sales Training Outline for Dealer Presentations
• Schedule Corporate Visits to Key Dealers
• Begin Critical Corporate Presentations and Secure Distribution Contracts
• Identify demonstrator product/consignment needs for each dealer
• Indentify internal advertising expectations and costs for each dealer
• Negotiate Opening Orders Based on Formulas
• Oversee Vendor Submission Forms and SKU Identities
• Identify Best Strategy for Rapid Integration of Distributor Sales Personnel
• Assemble Resources for Direct Contact to Dealer Employees
• Identify Dealer Process for e-Training Modules and Webcasts
• Secure Dealer Management Buy-in for Internal e-Blast Campaign
• Schedule Training Sessions, Webcasts, and National Sales Meetings
• Begin Training all Dealer Sales Personnel
• Train Client Sales Force as Needed to Keep Dealers Motivated

• Distributor Sales Training and CE Programs
  This is one area where 95% of all medical device manufacturers attempting to use supply chain distribution fail. As one of our most popular services, GPS is especially skilled at developing training programs that will motivate distributors to engage your product at the customer level. We guarantee it will be worth your time to contact us for further discussion on this topic!
   
• Peer-Review Articles, White Papers and Clinical Trials
  If you are introducing a new concept for Diagnostic, Surgical or Life Science applications, the market will expect “proof of science and efficacy”. GPS is well connected in the academic circles necessary for generating peer review articles, white papers and even full-scale clinical trials.
   
• Recruiting Key Opinion Leaders
  Speed to market for emerging technologies can be heavily dependant on podium endorsements from Key Opinion Leaders and Clinical Advisory Groups. GPS has existing relationships among the industry’s most visible educators and will help you indentify and secure podium endorsements to accelerate your brand message.
   
• Promotional Strategies
  GPS can assist your marketing department with creative input for designing message themes, promotional campaigns, website design/development, e-blasts, clinical videos, animation, coordination of print materials, and much more.
   
• Media Strategies
  GPS will help you design and execute your publicity plan, including creation and distribution of press releases, coordination of strategic news coverage, and placement of articles in print and electronic media.
   
• Develop a Measurable Advertising Plan
  Diving into our industry’s ocean of advertising without a measurable plan is one of the fastest ways to burn through your cash reserves. If you are considering supply chain distribution, you will also need additional information to expose hidden advertising costs associated with those relationships. GPS will help you indentify where and when to execute your advertising needs and the best choices for print media, tradeshow materials, internet advertising, e-branding blasts, and distributor publications.
   
• Tradeshow Strategies and Logistics
  As tradeshows continue down the road of diminishing returns, they remain a necessary evil for most manufacturers and distributors. Choosing which exhibitions and how many to attend is a challenge for every marketing department. GPS has the information resources and historical data you need for making informed decisions. We can assist your marketing department with attendance schedules, logistics, booth requirements, best booth locations for low-ranking placement, visibility campaigns, advertising, and on-site news coverage.
   
• Implementation Management
  GPS offers intercessory management services ranging from one day projects to long range concept development. We encourage you to contact us directly for more information and a free consultation regarding your company’s needs.