Posts by Scott McKenzie
How Should Pharma, Med Tech And Appliance Market Access Teams Deal With Objections To An NHS Sales Pitch?
When Pharma, MedTech and Appliances market access teams get through the door to sell their products to the NHS, a good pitch isn’t the end of the work that will need to be put in. You can do all the right things – lead with the problem you solve instead of the product, give a…
Read MoreHow do successful Primary Care Networks make their money?
Most of my NHS clients understand they must work out their priorities well in advance in order to attract the most income from the Primary Care Network Direct Enhanced Service (DES) and the Investment and Impact Fund (IIF), which is what I help them to do. In essence, the more indicators – clinical objectives –…
Read MoreWhy pitching to the NHS at place level gives Pharma, MedTech and Appliance firms the edge
When we have a fixed mindset, it can be hard to see the benefits of a different approach. It can be difficult to prove the success of something that you’ve never tried before. With the NHS, the most obvious pathways to market access are not necessarily the most successful. Just as sales teams trying to…
Read MorePharma companies – prove you’re different and you’ll beat the competition
In a previous blog, I mentioned a Coco Chanel quote from Tom Poland’s book, Leadsology: The Science of Being in Demand. The quote is: “In order to be indispensable, one must be different.” I used it to talk about general practice and how thinking differently is really the only way round the workload and recruitment…
Read MoreThe secret to a thriving GP Practice – and how to take on 8,000 new patients without buckling
It goes without saying that these are really tough times for general practice. Workloads are crippling, recruitment is increasingly difficult and staff morale is rapidly dropping. Practices sinking ever further into the morass often don’t have the time and space they need to think about solutions to these issues – the day-to-day chaos of work…
Read MoreThink ‘Prevention’ When The Role Of Your Pharma, Med Tech Or Device Project Does Not At First Provide An Obvious Solution For NHS Problems
Having just spent two days in London working with a major pharmaceutical client, I was able to remind their market access team that even when it looks as though you might not have anything to offer to help solve the NHS’s problems, when you think about things differently you can be a massive part of…
Read MoreCould GPs Take On More Work? That’s Not As Daft As It Sounds
I’ve written a lot recently about the potential for hospitals to subcontract work to general practice via either the practices themselves, the primary care networks or potentially a GP federation. On the face of it, even the thought of piling more work onto GPs seems preposterous. How on Earth could GPs – already drowning in…
Read MoreDoes your product messaging align with what the NHS actually wants?
When working with one of my Pharma, MedTech and Devices clients in the summer, I noticed the language used by the market access team was mainly: “I need tools, I need data, I need something snazzy I can take to the customer.” It took me less than half an hour to dismantle this way of…
Read MoreNHS negotiations – how to challenge commissioning objections
I sat in a meeting recently with one of my Pharma, MedTech and Devices industry contacts where I was coaching my client, who had run up against a brick wall with the NHS commissioner. In their most recent meeting, they had barely got started and the answer coming back from the NHS was: “No. Nope.…
Read MoreWhy isn’t the Additional Role Reimbursement Scheme relieving workload stresses?
I’m hearing a fair bit of criticism at the moment about the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme, which is part of the Primary Care Network DES (Direct Enhanced Service). The whole idea behind the scheme is to grow additional capacity through new roles, and by doing so, help to solve some of the workforce shortage in…
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