In this episode, you're gonna learn the four Ps that determine whether your med tech actually gets adopted and not just admired if you've got regulatory approval but no traction. This will show you exactly where your launch is breaking down. Welcome to Clinician to CEO, the podcast helping clinicians simplify your go-to-market strategy so that you can stop guessing and turn your working prototypes into international MedTech businesses. I'm your host, Hakeem Aade. Let's get started. Now, the reason for this episode is simple. I keep seeing technically strong MedTech products stall after launch. Not because the device is poor, but because something critical in the launch was weak and when that happens, going deeper in tactics doesn't fix it. You need to step back and ask what's actually structurally wrong here? So today is it a deep dive into case studies or war stories? It is the core structure, the four Ps that tell you very quickly where your launch is exposed., And we'll go deeper into each one in later episodes. But first, you need to know where the cracks actually are and the four Ps of the MedTech product launch are not textbook marketing jargon. This is the real world version, born out of experience. So what are the four Ps? Number one, product number two, proof. Number three, pathway number four. People miss one and you stall. So let's get into it and break it down. So number one product, is it actually commercially relevant now? Most founders obsess over the product. And rightly so. They look at the cace mark, they look at FDA clearance, they look at engineering perfection. But here's the uncomfortable truth. Regulatory approval. And engineering perfection does not equal commercial redness or commercial success. So I want you to ask yourself, if the product easy to explain in 30 seconds? Does it fit into existing workflows? Does it require behavior change or not?, And is pricing aligned with the perceived value of the customers, not what you think it's worth, but what the customers think it's worth. Now, if the answer. To those questions means that friction gets introduced into the system, then that's the problem. It's not the product. For example, if a nurse has to change routine, you have friction. If you're selling the products for 50 pounds and every customer is feeding back that the value of the products is 15 pounds based on workflow improvements versus what they currently use, then you have friction. And if the people don't understand the benefit to them, and under 30 seconds you have friction and friction kills adoption. So if the product doesn't tick those boxes, don't launch until it does. And then when it does move on to the second p. Proof. Where is the commercial evidence? Now you telling everyone that the product is great and even clinicians. Saying they love it and telling you that they would love to use it, that's not proof, nor even is two pilots with good feedback. What proof means in this context is measurable outcome improvements. Cost saving or efficiency gains, risk reduction, published or defensible data. This is what proof means in this context, because if you can't quantify impact, procurement won't care, in the uk, bodies like NHS England and NICE are expecting economic justification, not just clinical enthusiasm. In the US you need to understand who gets paid and how if your product needs new reimbursement and CMS coding isn't clear, your climbing uphill, but if you can prove margin protection or cost reduction inside existing payment models, reimbursement isn't the barrier. Economics is. proof, turns, curiosity into people actually making budget available for your products without proof. You may be interesting, but you're not gonna get adopted. So let's say that you've now got the right product. And you've got proof that the product is going to improve something significantly in that facility. So let's say that your product is now commercially ready and that you've got the right proof to present to the facility. You now need to move on to the third P and that pathway. How does the hospital or customer actually buy this? So this is where lots of companies with technically strong products die because they think if the clinician wants it, then it's gonna happen. No, I'm afraid to tell you no. Hospitals buy through processes. They don't buy through passion and enthusiasm. You need to understand simple things like who is the economic buyer? Is this attended category? Does it go through a value analysis committee? When it goes through a value analysis committee, what's the structure? Is it a capital or consumable budget? Does it require coding changes? Because if you don't understand the root, you're gonna waste months pushing in the wrong direction. And here's the thing, actually, even if you understand the process. Processes are not the things that make decisions people do, and that takes us onto to a fourth P, which is people who is actually pushing this forward? And this is where decision making unit mapping comes into play. And I actually could happily do a whole episode on this on its own, and I will do, actually, now I'm thinking about it. So let's start externally first. IE the hospital or the facility that you're trying to get into. So what we need to know is what is the decision making unit in that facility? Do you know who is involved in making decisions and what basis they make those decisions on IE are they a user? And they're making through, the lens of actually usability of that product. Are they an expert in our case, generally clinical? Are they making it through clinical ground? In terms of their decision making or are they an economic, decision maker? So they're just thinking purely about the cost, maybe the cost of the actual unit and also the cost in the long term. And then what's the influence within that decision making unit? Who influences who? 'cause you might not always be able to get to the, person who's gonna make the decision, but you might be able to get to the person who's gonna influence. That person. Then you want to know, do you have a champion inside the decision making unit? Or on the converse, do you have a detractor in there? And then there's a massive range of people between being a champion and being a detractor. So you need to understand all those things. And then lastly, critically, who is the ultimate decision maker? Because I know a lot of people will say, oh, it's a committed decision, but there's always one person in that decision making unit who, if they veto it, it doesn't happen. And if they sign it off, it happens. So we need to understand all these things. It's not just about finding one person who likes the product in the facility and thinking that it's gonna go through. I'm telling you it won't. I've seen it store millions of times. So if you're talking to the wrong people about the wrong things. Or not enough of the right people, then your launch is definitely going to stall. So that's a quick look at, at the external people, and I genuinely want you to ask yourself, do you know the things that I've just outlined there in terms of, who's involved in the decisions? What are they making their decisions on? What's the influence between the individuals? Where are the champions? Where are the detractors? And do you know who the critical decision maker is? Because if you don't, before you go any further, go and find those things out and it, it'll make your process much smoother and much more likely. And it'll mean that your product will then be much more likely to get adopted. So now let's take a look internally, and I include the distributors in this. Uh, they are your representative in whichever country that you're working in. So when I talk internally, then I'm talking specifically about the people who are gonna execute the launch of this product. So the question I want you to ask yourself here is, do you have a distributor who really understands the category that they're now selling into? Is your sales messaging aligned? Your sales messaging aligned with the, distributor and the distributor sales messaging? Then clear and concise to the end user. Are your incentives aligned? Are, are, are you gonna be at a motivate your distributor to do what's required? Because they're not gonna just be selling your products These questions are critical to be answered because a keen distributor doesn't actually mean anything. You need stock commitment. You need agreed targets. You need defined focus accounts. And you need a rhythm for structured review. IE is it gonna be once a month? Is it gonna be once a quarter? I would say no less than once a quarter with my recommendation and then obviously at the end of the year as well. Whatever that financial year is, that needs to be clear to both yourself and the distributor, And lastly, you need to make sure that the distributor also understands clearly the four Ps, so that actually you are completely aligned because i've seen companies enter five markets at once and store everywhere. I've sadly, I've seen companies enter five markets at once and they're getting very excited, but then they stall everywhere because nobody owned the execution. And that's because they didn't understand the four Ps. And the distributor has to be the one who owns that with your support. And hence, you both need to be aligned because people execute strategy, not just plans. So that's the four Ps. Product proof pathway and people. And the brutal reality is that you can survive weakness in one of those Ps. It's virtually impossible to survive. You can survive weakness in one of the peas for a while. So for example, you've got a strong product. Proof is solid. Pathway is clear, but people is weak. So for example, your distributor is passive and you don't have a strong champion inside the facility. What would happen in that case? You're not gonna collapse. You're just gonna move very slowly because deals are gonna drag. You follow up is gonna be inconsistent because your distributor's not that great. Your momentum then stalls. But if you fix the people section, growth is gonna unlock quite quickly. So, yes, you can survive one week. P you just don't move. Fast, but you cannot survive weakness in two dep. So imagine this scenario. Proof is weak. People is weak. Procurement therefore isn't convinced economically, and nobody inside the facility is championing that product. And remember, liking device is not the same as championing it. Clinicians can like it. That doesn't mean that they'll fight for budget for it. So you've got all that going on, but then your internal engine isn't forceful enough to compensate for those things that are going on inside of the, facility. So now you're stuck because there's no economic case. And there's nobody inside the organization who's actually going to drive it. And you haven't got an execution engine from your own, business either, either the distributor, so that's not just slow growth, that's a complete drift. And a store really, because launch is not just a one-off event. So what I wanna do now is a rapid 62nd self-audit. So here's your quick check that you can do now. So on a scale of one to 10, I want you to mark your product readiness, your strength of proof, your clarity of the buying pathway. And then also your quality of people driving adoption. So if you've got a pen in the pad, obviously write it down. If you're out running or listening on a train or driving or whatever, just mentally think right, where are you? Because there's only four numbers that you have to remember now, anything under a seven means that you have vulnerability, so don't try and fix everything at once. You identify the vulnerability that you can realistically move in the next 90 days, that will change commercial momentum. That's the key thing. You want to focus on the thing that's gonna change commercial momentum. And the critical thing here is that you what should work on the thing that will change commercial momentum? And to help you with that, remember this, don't fix what's easiest, fix what moves, contracts. So now as usual, I want to give you a decision scenario for you to go away and try and think about, and then I'll answer it on the next episode. So let's say your product is an eight. Proof is a five pathway, clarity is a six, and people alignment is a four. You can only move one of those Ps materially in the next 90 days. Which one do you choose? Do you A, refine the products and remove friction? Do you B double down on generating stronger proof and health economic data? Or C map and unblock the buying pathway properly, or D, strengthen the people engine driving adoption. There is the right answer, but it's not obvious and I wouldn't give you the scenario if it's gonna be obvious 'cause there's no point. And it's not always gonna be the same for every company. And in the next episode, I'll break down how to make that decision without guessing so in closing, if your product is approved, but adoption is slow than you expected, it's almost always one of the four Ps breaking down. And if you want help pressure testing your four Ps and helping you focus on what you can do in the next 90 days to gain traction. Before you burn any more runway. Book a healthcare export accelerator discovery call with me via the link in the show notes and I'll personally audit where your launch is commercial exposed, and tell you your next move that actually moves revenue. Until next time, thanks for listening. Keep challenging your assumptions and keep growing.