For this interview, I contacted my neighbor who is a pharmaceutical sales representative. He knows all about selling pharmaceutical products to all kinds of people all around the country. He talked to me about the challenges of getting my products on the market and about the difficultly in marketing my products. I now have a better understanding of what steps I need to take in order to have the best chance of being successful in selling my products. I need to find ways to market that are specific to my products. This will help people to differentiate my products from all other products on the market that fight nicotine addiction.
Market Expert
For this interview, I contacted my uncle who used to work at his own family’s pharmacy. He knows all about conducting customer research about specific drugs and about marketing these drugs to his potential customers. I now have a better understanding how to identify what my specific customers are looking for, therefore I will be able to better suit their needs. I have a better chance of being successful if I cater directly to what my customers are looking for.
Supplier
For this interview, I contacted my other neighbor (both my neighbors are pharmaceutical sales reps) who deals a lot with selling drugs to other organizations/firms in my industry. While she may not deal directly with products that fight against nicotine addiction, she does work with products that help fight cancers that may occur as a result of nicotine addictions. She explained to me that it takes a lot of time and money to go about selling these types of products and that it may be very difficult to convince potential customers to use my products over other types of products already on the market. I now have a better understanding of some of the obstacles I may encounter throughout my journey.
Reflection
This has been a really great experience. I am now more inclined to put forth as much effort as possible in future networking events. This experience was different from my previous networking experiences because until now, I have never actually talked to people who are in my industry about my products. I enjoyed this much more than I enjoyed talking to potential customers. I learned so much about how to market my products and about finding my customers.
Tyler,
ReplyDeleteI think the people you reached out to were great, specifically the industry supplier. I think it is important to know the obstacles you will face regarding costs. Additionally, I noticed that you chose people that you know. I took a similar approach and asked people that I knew for two out of three of the interviews. My only feedback is to ask someone that you don’t know because they might be more upfront about things, or provide a point of view that you might not get from people you know!
~Izzy C.