“There are strange victories in winning, and no strange defeats in losing.”
The reason why business ideas fail to monetize and new ventures fail is often due to the low resolution and ambiguity in the monetization process.
When you come up with an idea, it’s essential to verify whether monetization is feasible or not.
However, I’ve seen many cases where people immediately take action and start investing in product development and facilities without proper validation, simply because they believe their idea is excellent and should sell.
Even if you think it’s a great product, it often fails because the efforts to expand sales channels and acquire customers don’t go well, leading to a failure in monetization.
Even though the individuals involved may wonder why it didn’t work out as planned, it’s not uncommon for third parties to have foreseen the outcome.
“Differences in the Speed of the Recruitment Process Based on Behavioral Traits and Information Channels”
According to the “Oncologist Fact Report 2022” published by Medical Tribune, the analysis of physicians’ behavioral traits using the “Chasm Theory” reveals variations in the choice of information channels for collecting pharmaceutical information based on different attributes.
When it comes to gathering pharmaceutical information, the groups with faster recruitment processes tend to actively utilize medical seminars and healthcare-related websites. Particularly, they show a higher inclination to gather information through healthcare websites.
The middle segment of physicians is influenced by social factors, whereas the laggards tend to adhere to their existing habits, values, and are more risk-averse.
Utilizing the optimal information channels based on specific attributes seems to enhance the speed of the recruitment process.
An Example of Competitive Analysis – No Mystery in Defeat: Using Matrix Analysis
Creating a business plan is an essential task that draws upon the three crucial elements of the 3Cs: Customers, Company, and Competition.
In today’s business landscape, especially with markets contracting, the significance of competition has grown exponentially. It has transformed into a fierce game of seizing a limited share of the pie, a competitive market where rivals battle for supremacy.
Medical sales data provides invaluable insights, not only into your company’s products but also the sales of your competitors, at the level of individual customers and facilities.
With this data at your disposal, a 3C analysis becomes possible.
To simplify the analysis, I’ve used dummy data with only one competing product. However, in many instances, I’ve heard the argument that such analysis is unnecessary because “customers are clearly defined, and there’s only one competing product.” Such responses often come from those inclined to see things from the perspective of competitive disadvantage.
“Sensitively Perceiving Changes in the External Environment and Responding with Agility”
Strategies must always be influenced by and determined relative to changes in the external environment.
In today’s business landscape, the speed of change in these external factors is exceptionally rapid. Particularly in cases of market contraction and the entry of multiple competitors, the pace of change becomes even faster.
When people think of strategies, they might assume they are long-term and resistant to change. However, that’s not the case.
Unlike the post-war era of high economic growth when markets expanded, today we live in an age of unpredictability, often referred to as VUCA.
By adapting strategies more swiftly and taking the initiative, you can gain a formidable competitive advantage over your competitors.
“Using Pharmaceutical Sales Data to Obtain Information Comparable to Knowing the Data of Unsurvivable Bombers”
In our previous post, we discussed the danger of falling into the “survivor bias” trap, where one focuses solely on visible data, using the example of armored bombers.
But what if you only have access to own company’s sales data for your products?
This data might be akin to the information from bombers that survived hits, with no data available on those that didn’t survive. In other words, you might be making decisions based solely on sales data from existing customers.
Due to the Pareto Principle, over-investing resources in high-yield customers can lead to increased competition from rivals and a war of attrition. However, by utilizing pharmaceutical sales data, you can gain insights equivalent to knowing the data of bombers that didn’t survive, in other words, data about the market, customers, competitors, and your own 3Cs.
As a result, by categorizing resource allocation into four types: maintain, strengthen, reduce, or withdraw, based on market size and competitive advantage, you can efficiently utilize your limited managerial resources without waste.
“Thicken the Armor of Your Business Strategy for Survival!”
In World War II, the U.S. military faced the challenge of protecting bombers from German anti-aircraft fire. The question arose: which parts of the bomber should have thicker armor to ensure their safe return?
The answer was surprising: it wasn’t the areas marked with red circles, but rather the areas without bullet holes that needed thicker armor.
This insight was drawn from data on bombers that survived combat encounters. Those hit in areas other than the existing bullet holes did not make it back.
This example highlights the danger of focusing solely on visible data, leading to survivorship bias and overlooking the real picture.
In today’s world of big data analytics, relying solely on existing data may not yield the desired results, no matter how well-crafted the strategies are.
Now, let’s apply this principle to the realm of marketing. Imagine your high-value customers as the red circles. It’s tempting to prioritize defending the sales generated by these loyal customers, thinking it’s the key to stability and growth.
However, loyal customers typically have little potential to switch to competitor products. Therefore, it makes more sense to allocate minimum resources to maintain their loyalty while strengthening resources in areas without the red circles. This approach can help thwart competition, open up new customer segments, and drive market expansion.
In many industries, obtaining sales data for individual customers, including competitor products, is a challenge. However, in the pharmaceutical industry, access to sales data for pharmaceutical products is possible.
By using this data, you can obtain information akin to understanding which areas of the bomber needed thicker armor. This allows for more precise decision-making, ensuring that your business strategy is well-armored for survival and success.
“Maximizing Information Delivery to Customers through Human Sales”
Why is it that digital information delivery alone often fails to achieve the expected impact?
Digital channels allow us to disseminate vast amounts of information, but the abundance of information can paradoxically lead to choice overload, where individuals opt for not making a choice due to the overwhelming volume of options.
The Paradox of Choice:
Having too many choices can make it difficult to decide.
Sometimes, predefined choices may seem better.
Choices can lead to regrets and guilt down the line.
Furthermore, communication alternatives such as email and chat have the advantage of conveying information without omissions or exaggerations compared to face-to-face communication. However, it is suggested that the vocabulary used in email and chat represents only one-fifth of the vocabulary that Japanese individuals use in their daily conversations.
Online language tools are limited to conveying only about 1.4% of the information transmitted through face-to-face communication.
Human sales enable tailored information delivery to customers, optimizing their experience.
Understanding the importance of non-verbal communication through “Mehrabian’s Law”: Verbal Information: 7% Visual Information: 55% Auditory Information: 38%
Peter Drucker once said that the ideal of marketing is to render sales unnecessary. However, it seems that marketing alone cannot eliminate the need for sales.
Medical representatives (MRs) represent the most costly but effective means of driving customer purchases:
“Why the Strong Get Stronger: Factors Behind Market Dominance”
When a market expands in size, companies with high market share can often solidify their dominance for several reasons:
Companies with high market share can invest in additional resources, further strengthening their position. High market-share companies enjoy greater recognition, attracting new customers and retaining existing ones. They benefit from economies of scale, reducing production costs and enhancing profitability. High market-share companies have more negotiating power with suppliers and distribution channels, leading to favorable deals. They exert significant influence over regulations and industry trends. These factors allow companies with high market share to enhance their competitive advantage during market expansion, making it challenging for competitors to catch up. This shift in the competitive landscape, from a fragmented market to an oligopoly and eventually to a monopoly, is known as Cooperman’s Share Typology.
By employing lifecycle analysis, it’s possible to visualize and quantify share typologies based on market growth rates.
“Customer Demands at the 100 Yen Store: More Than Just Affordability”
Customer needs can often be vague and nebulous in nature.
Steve Jobs famously stated, “Customers don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” This sentiment holds true because at the core of these needs lies a fundamental desire for something that enhances the quality of life, predicated on the assumption of good health.
While affordability remains the fundamental factor driving demand for products at the 100 Yen store, it’s worth noting that all the items featured on information variety programs related to these stores are convenient gadgets. In essence, they fulfill the very basic needs of improving one’s quality of life today.
It may be said that these needs are ultimately desires related to the act of living itself.
“The Terrifying Impact of Reviews: The Power of Word of Mouth”
Would you willingly visit a restaurant with just a two-star rating or buy a product with a low customer review on platforms like Yelp or Amazon? This is the world of customer reviews we’re talking about.
While there are several effective ways to influence customer purchasing behavior, such as advertising, publicity, and sales promotions, the most impactful method across all phases is, in fact, customer reviews.
For businesses, relying on reviews becomes inevitable for places, services, products, or solutions that are hard to evaluate without experiencing them firsthand, be it dining at a restaurant, using a service, or receiving a product.
In the modern era of widespread internet usage, the influence of customer reviews has significantly grown. SEO/SEM strategies have become essential for businesses in competitive markets to ensure customers choose their offerings.
I have implemented these strategies for a medical corporation I advise, and they have proven to be highly effective. It’s no longer a matter of whether to engage in SEO/SEM but a necessity to not only do it but also outperform your competitors.
This trend isn’t necessarily a positive one, resembling an unwinnable chicken race where not participating is a guaranteed loss. What’s even scarier is that, just as there are SEO/SEM service providers, there are entities capable of artificially controlling customer reviews.
As a side note, I recently had such a terrible experience that I left a negative Google review out of curiosity. Surprisingly, the business’s rating dropped by 0.4 points almost immediately. This triggered more negative reviews, as latent dissatisfaction surfaced, perpetuating a vicious cycle as more “dislikes” were given, pushing the review to the top.
While positive reviews are crucial, I’ve once again realized, as a fellow business operator, the importance of avoiding negative reviews.
