To set the basis for a medical device product launch that really delivers, you’ll need to tackle a few key challenges. We’ve gathered a set of tips to help make it happen.

Imagine a launch where your product practically flies through your organization and lands in the hands of excited customers. Now, think about what you need to do to make that imaginary launch a reality.

Are you not entirely sure? That’s no problem. We’ve done our research and found that there are three primary challenges that can prevent you from pulling off a truly great launch. Namely:

  • Getting the plan right
  • Having a solid communication internally (and externally)
  • Making the actual launch an absolute success

By tackling each of these challenges, you can up the chance that your next medical device product launch becomes one for the history books. To help make it happen, we’ve gathered ways to overcome each one:

1. Setting a great product-launch plan

A great plan will form the basis for a launch that delivers. It can be a bit tricky to get it right, but we see that plans with the following points can form a great foundation to work from:

Your goal

What exactly do you want to accomplish with your product and launch? Do you, for example, want to gain ground on your current market, grow the deal size for your current customers or enter a brand new market?

Product details

What product are you launching and what does it do? Write a short description of the product and include the customer pain(s) that it tackles.

Message & target audience

Who are you launching your product to? Find your target audience and the personas you’ll need to reach. You should also set your product message and make it fit the people you’re addressing.

Timeline

Here you’ll set the timeframe you’re working with. In other words, you’ll answer questions like:

  • When will the product be ready to be launched?
  • When can the launch reasonably take place?
  • What needs to be done before that happens?

For a medical device, you’ll most likely have to factor in the time it takes to get your product approved by the FDA (or equivalent governmental entity). This means that your timeframe may not be set in stone, but having a scope for how long it should take is still a super valuable exercise.

Marketing material & Distribution

Now that you know what you’ll launch, when you’ll launch it and to whom, the next thing to do is to figure out the how of it all. I.e. you should decide how you can best get your product out to internal stakeholders and external customers. Here, you should specify the material that needs to be created, as well as the platforms and channels you’ll use to get it out.

Budget

If you are yet to set a launch budget, this will be the next step. Which can prove relatively straight forward at this point, as you now know enough to set an informed budget.

2. Setting up a top-notch communication structure

Communication is absolute key to get your product launch to succeed – and you’ll need to think about both your internal and external communication.

Internal communication

To get your product out efficiently, you’ll need to have a structure for communicating throughout your own organization. This means that you need an easy way for Product and Marketing teams to crunch and distribute material to your sales organization, hold product walkthroughs and make sure that every relevant stakeholder knows what’s going on. If you can pull this off, you can create a smooth ride for your product as it moves through your organization.

External communication

Your sales team needs to have the right material accessible, and be able to use it right away. I.e. you should find a way to make your content easy to find and ready to be shared. With that, your sales teams can always share the right product material with the right customer – once you’ve launched your product externally.

Here, you’ll also need your message to be consistent. What this means is that your message should remain unchanged no matter how potential customers interacts with it. Something that is vital for industries like Medtech, where it’s absolutely critical that the customer gets the right information and can trust it.

3. Get your medical device product launch off the ground

The last challenge is all about the actual launch. To have it succeed, you’ll have to execute on a wide variety of activities. For your marketing team, this ranges from social-media posts to press releases, ads, and customized landing pages, while your sales teams will start their outreach.

These teams will need to work in union, push the same message and work toward the same goal. Which, in turn, means that you need a serious sales-and-marketing alignment to make it happen.

Do you want to make your next product launch the best ever? Our SP_CE Go-to-Market platform is the perfect tool to make it happen. Check out our Medtech Showroom to learn more, or contact us to see how your product launch can look tomorrow.

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