What is your current way of organizing sample demands of your potential customers? Are you happy with the efforts put in and results achieved?
Has the sample procedure in the pharmaceutical excipient industry changed a lot over the past decades? Apart from some particular online tools of some manufacturers?
Let’s have a look at the current way of doing business. An excipient manufacturer usually employs a distributor network and some internal key account managers. Those will organize customer meetings with industrial partners or academia. A product presentation is performed with either purchasing or R&D. The most positive outcome would usually be a product sample to be sent to this customer which is showing his interest and gives a fine report to the management or principal. In many cases if there is no real project demand and interest, such sample will sit in the lab for months or even years and when really needed a new one will be ordered again free of charge, of course.
The sales person will chase the R&D counterpart to move this sample opportunity into a lead and a sale - which in the best case will take some years to turn into commercial orders. If the contact is with purchasing it will need some good reasons to exchange an existing source for commercial production - main drivers would be price, supply or quality issues at the original source.
Let's have a look at the other way - the customer has informed himself and is interested in the product. If well organized the excipient manufacturer provides information and direct access to sample ordering online. Yet, the standard is that the interested person finds a general contact email to get in touch. This leaves the potential customer without clear transparency what happens with the detailed demand and it might be shifted internally or transferred to the local agent/distributor.
All in all we talk about loads of efforts well ahead in time of potential commercial success - many of those by costly non-customer driven activities. Of course information about the excipients and its functionalities need to be shared with the customer and without samples no development can be initiated.
But isn’t there a possibility to support the sample handling in a smarter way?
The best chances to transfer a sample demand into a real lead is still the active demand by the potential customer as there is already a stated interest. Simplify the access to samples and avoid multiple searches is another key. To believe having a great online shop on the own website is fully sufficient is similar to wait in your restaurant expecting people to know where to go to get nice food.
Pharmaexcipents.com offers a smart solution by combining information & sourcing on a single neutral platform. Once a researcher has found a solution in an article, whitepaper or product information we can directly connect your product sample in the online shop and he can get the sample ordered without moving to another site. All needed data will be transferred to the manufacturer and the customer is kept up to date. The payment can be offered by credit card, paypal or invoice if preferred.
We can also offer to completely handle the sample business from repackaging in small entities, warehousing and logistics if needed.
Email us to get your products online with pharmaexcipients.com and enhance your visibility and sample handling the smart way!