How to Boost Medical Device and Pharma Sales with Connected Portals

The traditional model for medical device and pharmaceutical sales involved in-person visits, manual orders, and time-consuming resupply. Now? Connected digital portals give valuable time back to sales reps, buyers, healthcare professionals (HCPs), and patients alike.

The digital healthcare market is expected to hit $435.8 billion by 2025 — and connected portals will power every sale. D2C businesses aren’t the only ones adopting digital platforms for sales. The consumerization of B2B commerce has made its way to the healthcare industry, and buyers want more control over how, when, and where to transact.

Connected B2B and D2C portals put customers at the center of your business and help lower the costs to sell and serve. Here’s how it works.

Customer portals are more than just a streamlined way to pay. Their most valuable benefit? Visibility. With a connected portal, customers have a complete view of their entire relationship with your business. Even better: You have a 360-degree view of your customers, complete with order history, product preferences, and account details shared between all your teams.

The result is a customer experience that feels holistic and connected. A customer portal integrated with sales, service, and order management systems makes it possible to deliver personalized experiences at scale. This also speeds up the sales cycle, equips your teams with actionable insights, and lowers your cost to serve.

Medical device and pharmaceutical companies have industry-specific hurdles to clear to implement a safe, reliable customer portal.

Medical device companies have historically relied on in-person sales, over the phone re-ordering, and manual order processing. Over the past two years, that rapidly changed. During the healthcare crisis, digitizing these processes became a necessity.

Digital portals make it possible to get lifesaving devices like ventilators and PPE kits to providers, pharmacies, and patients — fast. In other industries, ordering delays and slow processes cause annoyance and dissatisfaction. But when it comes to critical medical devices, patient lives are on the line. Connected portals shorten the sales cycle for critical devices. What used to take weeks and multiple calls with a sales rep can now be completed in just a few clicks.

The pandemic accelerated the digital transformation of medical device sales, and connected portals were the linchpin. Manufacturers also implemented D2C portals to supplement B2B sales, making medical devices and consumables easier than ever for patients to access .

As a result, digital experiences are now the preferred method for medical device buyers and patients alike. Today, 84% of consumers are interested in buying healthcare products directly online. B2B buyers are also making their way toward the digital front door. One study found that 47% of physicians who preferred in-person visits before the pandemic now strongly prefer virtual engagement. A few short years ago, connected portals were a nice-to-have. Today, they’re critical.

Self-service portals allow providers to proactively and independently prepare for what’s next. Medical facilities need to plan for extra safety equipment and supplies for elective procedures. Automating this process allows HCPs to spend their valuable time focusing on patients rather than constantly checking inventory.

Connected portals enable immediate self-service and instant reordering capabilities. HCPs no longer need to pick up the phone to place an order and wait for their sales rep to manually enter their purchase in an outdated system. Instead, repeat customers who typically purchase the same quantity and type of goods now have the ability to save previous orders — and quickly reorder with a single click. Portals also enable post-purchase self-service. Now, customers won’t need to make a phone call to check up on their order status or see where it is in transit.

Ultimately, this reduces manual error and gives valuable time back to sales reps. By equipping customers with self-service tools and guided experiences, you can reallocate both time and money to other growth opportunities.

In the traditional setup, sales reps focused on representing devices and products during in-person visits. They spent a majority of their time educating customers about how to use and configure devices. Now, connected B2B portals allow for a less product-centric, more customer-centric experience.

Business buyers increasingly want the best of both worlds — a seamless self-service option and a trusted partner who can anticipate their needs. Once the digital front door is open, portals can connect digital transactions to customer training, product documentation, instruction kits, community groups, and more. This means that sales reps can add more value to interactions with customers, and they can prioritize other activities like prospecting and creating net-new deals.

The status quo for medtech sales is shifting. Sixty-four percent of medical device manufacturing companies have launched programs to help their sales reps and executives improve inside sales capabilities. Sales reps have a wealth of organizational knowledge and expert people skills, and (thanks to connected portals) they have more time to spend on strategic initiatives. Their capabilities can also be utilized on marketing and advisory teams.

Pharmaceutical companies deal with seasonality and spikes in demand just like any other business. Cold and flu season peaks in February, allergy season in May — and then there are unpredictable events that drive demand for medicines (ahem, COVID). The solution? Connected portals integrated with inventory visibility, order management , and fulfillment.

During the pandemic, pharmaceutical companies needed to send vaccines and testing kits to millions of different government organizations, clinics, and healthcare institutions all around the world. This required handling massive amounts of inventory on top of different pricing models, quantity limits, licensing restrictions, regional regulatory requirements, and more. That’s a lot to juggle.

Digital portals can automate and accelerate your response to these factors. For example, companies can implement rules-based process automation for online orders. What was once a time-consuming process that involved assembling documents, looking up specifications, preparing licensing certificates, and putting together proposals is now automated and instant. This improves customer satisfaction, speeds up the sales cycle, and enables reps to manage more accounts.

Pharmaceutical companies can also create microsites to expand distribution and reach patients and consumers directly. Through this model, your customers and end consumers use the same platform and catalog, customized for different markets and practices. This means you can maintain brand control, hold onto revenue share, and collect customer data — even with thousands of partners.

Pharmaceutical companies build trust with their buyers the same as any other company: through a demonstrated understanding of customer needs. Traditionally, the weight of this relationship management fell square on the shoulders of sales reps. With connected portals, sales reps now have a reliable tool to lean on — other than direct contact with customers.

AI can track customer data to uncover needs at scale and offer proactive solutions. Just like consumers, pharmaceutical buyers also appreciate relevant product recommendations, pre-populated baskets, and easily accessible order history. For example, if a buyer places an order for antihistamine medications or other allergy treatments, predictive AI could suggest adding skin patch tests to the cart. These features create a stellar buyer experience while providing opportunities to increase AOV (average order value) and drive customer retention.

When patients go to the pharmacy or visit their provider, they expect the medicines they need to be in stock — whether it’s an over-the-counter pain reliever or a critical cancer treatment. But getting drugs to end consumers is no easy task. It involves an intricate supply chain made up of pharmaceutical companies, payers, pharmacies, and wholesalers — all with often incompatible legacy systems.

The good news? It’s possible to weave a more seamless web. A connected system with integrated order management can help streamline all the different players in the supply chain, from manufacturers to end consumers. With a shared platform between pharmaceutical companies, their HCP customers, and end consumers, the supply chain is brought under one roof. Pharmaceutical companies maintain visibility throughout the entire process, with insights into demand and stock levels, and the ability to pinpoint key moments to replenish critical medicines.