CONSULTANCY Services for MEDTECH businesses

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The most important function of the board and the top-level management of the company is to develop and oversee the company’s strategy.  With an MBA from one of the UK’s top business schools, together with over 30 years hands on experience in strategy development, we have both the theoretical, and the practical tools to guide, support and develop winning strategies for your company.  This will typically be conducted using a strategy workshop approach where our consultant will chair, stimulate and moderate strategy discussions with the senior team.  

Every business needs a sound business plan in order to survive and grow consistently, and well researched marketing plans to ensure that you maximise revenue and profit from your products.  We have developed, reviewed and approved scores of business plans for new products, new divisions and new businesses. We have produced and overseen the production of hundreds of marketing plans, launch plans, annual and five-year business plans, P&L forecasts, and promotional expenditure plans. We can support you in ensuring that your business plans are logical, coherent and easy to communicate and implement throughout the organisation.

 Visia Consulting excels in empowering your Medtech innovations through strategic funding support. We specialise in crafting compelling applications tailored for venture capital and private equity firms. With a deep understanding of the Medtech landscape, we leverage our expertise to navigate the complexities of funding processes, ensuring your project receives the attention and investment it deserves. From fine-tuning business plans to articulating market potential, we offer comprehensive guidance every step of the way.  Visia Consulting can transform your visionary ideas into funded realities, propelling your Medtech venture towards success in a competitive market. 

One of the most important aspects of Marketing for Medtech products is understanding how best to access the market. Products can be professional-use only, near- patient use, patient self-use, prescription-only or sold via consumer channels.  The routes to market are incredibly diverse and many are highly regulated by government agencies to ensure patient safety.   Understanding the best marketing strategies and reimbursement models for these different channels can be incredibly complex.  Having launched multiple products in all of these channels, we can guide and support you in selecting the right model, the right strategy and the right people to bring your product to market. 

The more senior and the more successful you become, the harder it is to find peers within the workplace to support and mentor you to develop your full potential.  People are constantly looking to you for leadership and it can become a very tough and lonely place.  We can supply what you need most of all - a coach, a sounding board, a reservoir of experience and good ideas. We can offer both routine monthly and ad-hoc meetings as required.  This can be offered both at CEO and at other Senior Executive levels within the organisation, depending on the company's needs.

Whilst some companies develop all of their products in-house, many companies source some or all of their product offering from other producers.  We have extensive experience of managing over 50 such distribution agreements over the years and we understand the supplier-distributor relationship intimately.  We can act on behalf of either suppliers, to find and assess appropriate distributors, or on behalf of distributors looking to find and forge new supplier relationships.  We are happy to facilitate and attend meetings and act on either the supplier or distributor side as their representative or as their commercial adviser in the discussions.

Sales Managers are some of the most important members of our teams.   They implement the company’s strategy on a day to day basis, and their efficiency and commitment is crucial.  For us the phrase Sales Management Systems encompasses everything that a Sales Manager uses and does in their day to day job.  This includes CRM systems, Prospect Management systems, business reviews, field appraisals and management coaching approach.  Unlike typical consultants, our approach is not based on theory - it is based on exceptional sales skills, and experience of teaching sales and sales management for over three decades.  

There are times when the company will be left without a senior resource at a crucial time - a CEO, Director or Departmental Manager- and you need to act quickly to put somebody in place.  As we all know, recruitment of the right person at senior levels can take many months, and meanwhile plans can stagnate, staff can become unsettled.  We can offer very experienced interim management to cover a whole range of functions including   Managing Director/CEO/Chairman, Marketing Director/Manager and Sales Director/Manager.   

Medical Devices and Diagnostics are some of the most technical, complex and scientifically specialised products on the market.  They are sold into a rapidly changing, highly regulated environment and some of the most successful products are sold into quite specific niches. This means the normal functions of due diligence in M&A are insufficient to understand the risks and opportunities around a potential purchase.  We can help by adding industry specific expertise to the process which is often missing in a VC or PE driven transaction. 

With a personal network comprising the most senior executives in the Medtech field, and having mentored and developed dozens of current senior executives in the industry, our Principal Consultant is ideally placed to access the only people you really want, but the ones that are most difficult to get – those who are not on the job market because they are doing well and their companies are doing all they can to keep them. The most senior and successful people are not normally open to recruitment companies and are often very suspicious of them.  Because of our history and reputation, our Principal Consultant can make an approach to your target discreetly, in complete confidence.  Privacy can, of course, be maintained on both sides throughout and after the process by using non-disclosure agreements.

Many Diagnostics and Medical Devices are prescribable for patient self-use.  Those that are will  typically be delivered through the pharmaceutical wholesale network.  Whilst this mechanism is logistically efficient, it opens the company up to the danger of wholesalers buying product from outside the UK supply chain, leading to a substantial loss of income and profitability for UK suppliers.  We have been working for 20 years in this arena and have developed the contacts and the techniques which will allow us to boost your sales without any breach of European or UK competition laws.  

Medtech is one of the most highly regulated industries in the world and is in a period of  particularly rapid change at the moment.  As well as changes in Medical Device and In Vitro Diagnostics regulations, Brexit has also added challenges to an already complex environment. We have experts who can support your regulatory needs, including all of the above items, but also other issues such as managing adverse incidents and Field Safety Notices,  interactions with MHRA, Ethical Compliance and Quality Management Systems.