Is it fast, or is it accurate? Easy to use, or powerful? Cutting edge, or rock-solid trusted?
When it comes to value props, it’s second nature to think in terms of tradeoffs. It’s a choose-your-sacrifice game, where you win by leaning hard on one thing while playing down another.
But maybe it’s time to look at it another way, especially in medtech, where even being perceived to fall short on one side of the equation can be the dealbreaker.
As technological advances make things possible that we could not have imagined even a short time ago, and markets demand that we bring more and more to the table, winning is now more about the AND than the EITHER/OR.
Simple example: No matter how impressive the performance of your product may be, and how superior the clinical outcomes, it will not get past the hospital’s VAC if you can’t demonstrate equally persuasive economic outcomes.
With our client ACIST Medical Systems (read more about them here) the situation was that interventional cardiologists need the best possible diagnostic visibility to make optimal treatment decisions. However, the contrast dye used for imaging in angiography can create unsafe radiation exposure for physicians, and cause acute kidney injury for patients. The ACIST solution enables less use of contrast media, AND maintaining the diagnostic clarity needed for optimal outcomes in the cath lab.
This is not to say you should try to be everything to everybody. That makes no more sense now than it ever did. But consider how your solution solves more than one problem, accommodating different, equally pressing needs. Maybe your product does exactly that, but it needs to be communicated more effectively. That’s the trick isn’t it? How to deliver the message accurately, in a way that’s does not water down the promise.
In a world where innovation drives the bar on performance continually upward and customer expectations get higher all the time, it’s smart to make the shift from OR to AND.
So, what’s your AND?
