Medical devices are often unsung heroes in the healthcare industry. When most patients receive treatment or blood tests at their local hospital, they pay little attention to the gauze, testing equipment and syringes that make their care possible. Technological advancements in the medical device field, though, have fueled some of the greatest improvements in healthcare — creating better diagnostic services, more sterile care environments, better surgery outcomes, you name it.
But before these devices can reach the patients they serve, medical device companies must sell and deliver them to hospitals and clinics around the world. And that requires bundling the right combinations of products together, navigating complex pricing requirements with group purchasing organizations (GPOs) and integrated delivery networks (IDNs), and more.
That’s where a product like Salesforce CPQ can be a lifesaver. Whether your med device company specializes in capital equipment or single-use items, this tool’s intricate quoting logic allows your reps to build the right orders faster for your customers. It provides functionality that not only helps you sell more but also ensures that the care providers you serve have the equipment they need to deliver positive patient outcomes.
How Salesforce CPQ Benefits Medical Device Companies of All Kinds
CPQ includes a host of features that are sure to meet the specific business needs of any type of med device company: those selling capital equipment or single-use items. If you’re more interested in those specific use cases, skip to the next sections. But before moving on, it’s worth mentioning CPQ functionality that any variety of med device company will appreciate:
Automatically factor in GPO or IDN pricing
No matter what you’re selling, your reps need to navigate complex pricing networks. Depending on which GPO or IDN a customer belongs to, every product will be priced differently. And forcing the rep to calculate their quote price manually will inevitably slow down the sales process.
Salesforce CPQ offers a solution, though. With its contracted pricing logic or price rules, it can automatically determine the base price for each customer based on its GPO or IDN. No matter how complex the quote, your reps won’t be stuck manually looking up pricing information. Everything will calculate correctly as they build the quote, saving time during the sales process.
Recommend associated products
CPQ’s product bundling features allow any med device company to cross-sell more effectively, whether we’re talking about pairing capital equipment with disposables or selling compatible single-use items together. The tool can show associated products as optional bundle options, letting reps quickly add them to quotes on one, easy-to-navigate screen. No more tedious searching to find the correct disposables for a specific piece of equipment — Salesforce CPQ lets you add the right SKUs with just a couple clicks.
Require approval for certain quotes based on discount or margin
Like any business, your reps are always looking for an extra leg up, but your company needs to protect its margins. That tension will typically flare up when it comes to discounting.
Setting up the right approval processes in CPQ can ease this tension (or at least keep your reps from offering drastic discounts without sign-off). Your team can require quote approval based on any criteria such as discount percentage (example, any discount over 10% must be reviewed by a sales manager) or calculated margin. You can route quote approval to the rep’s manager, the VP of Sales, both — whoever needs to be involved in the decision-making process, really.
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How Salesforce CPQ Benefits Companies Selling Capital Equipment
If you’re in the business of selling capital equipment, then complex quotes are the name of the game. With each piece of equipment might come disposables, warranties and other add-ons. Don’t forget the complex pricing that comes along with all of that. Luckily, Salesforce CPQ has you covered here, too. Here are some features that can help you navigate your specific inventory:
Calculate the right number of disposables for any device
Behind its easy-to-use interface, Salesforce packs some robust quantitative power, which means you can use it to crunch the right numbers for you behind the scenes. If you set up CPQ’s price rules and bundles the right way, you can create a custom-made calculator for your reps that automatically determines the correct quantity of disposables a customer needs. The rep enters the number of tests the customer is planning to use your equipment for (this can include multiple types of tests), and CPQ can recommend the necessary amount of disposables from there. This trick once again saves your reps time and helps them avoid the headache of figuring out these numbers themselves.
Manage service-level agreements (SLAs) for your capital equipment directly from CPQ
We all know that complex medical devices and testing equipment are only as good as their longevity, so naturally, you need to keep your customers covered with the right warranties. Here, CPQ not only lets you include warranty options in your quotes automatically; it can also track your customers’ SLAs and entitlements once the deal is sold.
With standard CPQ, you can track your SLAs as subscriptions, giving your reps visibility into expiring warranties so that they can approach these customers about extending their agreements. Or, if your team integrates CPQ with Service Cloud, you can have Salesforce automatically create service contracts and entitlements from sold quotes. This connection allows your sales and service teams to more efficiently provide customers the level of support they need, without any gaps in the handoff.
Create reagent rental agreements directly in the tool
As reagent rental agreements become more popular financing options for hospitals and labs alike, it’s worth pointing out that Salesforce CPQ has the power to sell according to this model too. Your reps can sell disposables as year-long subscriptions that supply customers with a specified quantity each month. From there, CPQ can spread the cost of the capital equipment itself across the length of the subscription to keep the numbers tidy.
Even better, Salesforce can support both types of pricing simultaneously. Just have reps choose the customer’s financing option (rental agreement or purchasing the capital equipment) on the quote, and let CPQ take care of the rest.
How Salesforce CPQ Benefits Companies Selling Single-Use Med Devices
If your company sells single-use devices, then your sales and quoting process will look completely different. Your world is all about bulk orders, volume and keeping your customers well-stocked. Salesforce CPQ offers numerous helpful features here, too:
Automatically factor in volume-based discounting
Given the sheer quantity of products you sell to care providers and labs, you likely have some sort of tiered discounting schedule in place. Zero - 5,000 units cost $X a piece, 5,000 - 20,000 cost $Y, so on. I hate to sound like a broken record here, but, yes, CPQ can do that too.
Enter your discount schedules for each product and set whether they involve slab discounting. CPQ can then combine that discount with the GPO/IDN pricing mentioned above and give reps the option of layering discretionary discounts on top of all that. In all, it provides your team the power to price competitively and make sure customers are well-stocked.
Track month-, quarter- or year-to-date sales by customer
Finally, if your volume-based pricing applies over a longer time frame (like, on a month- or year-to-date basis), Salesforce reports can give reps visibility into whether their customers are approaching any discount tiers. That knowledge can make end-of-month conversations easier (“Buy 2,000 units now, and I can get you into the next discount tier. You’ll get them for a much lower price!”).
No surprise, CPQ is smart enough to handle this logic. It can look at past purchases when calculating discount schedules, again sparing your reps the manual calculation effort.
So whether your company sells million-dollar MRI machines or thousands of gauze packs at a time, you can tailor CPQ to meet the unique needs of your business.
Have questions about what this could look like for your firm? Send us a message to get in touch with one of our CPQ experts — they can help you lay out a vision of what the solution can do for your sales process.
