Companies invest huge amounts of money into their CRM systems. Given that platforms such as Salesforce have so much power and depth, it’s easy to see why they draw in so many users.

Unfortunately, most companies – and MedTech businesses are no exception – don’t update their CRM systems with enough information to get anywhere near the maximum potential out of them.

CRMs were supposed to provide a full view of the customer. However, when the pandemic hit and reps were unable to meet prospects as they once did, many companies quickly shifting to using data alone found that their CRMs were pretty much useless as a sales channel.

After pouring millions into a platform, many failed to get anything meaningful out of it when it was really needed.

Let’s explore why this is the case.

Targeting & Planning

Some companies have decided to buy contact lists to populate their CRMs but most have relied heavily on their sales teams and they have found that it’s difficult to get sales teams to update such data. It doesn’t play to their strengths as people-focused problem solvers. However, marketers rely on precise information about each target audience – their campaign planning demands it.

Commonly, most CRMs hold name and contact information – as well as a professional’s specialty, and place of work. Others may also have a few additional fields for segmentation purposes. And sometimes, they might even have a sales or opportunity for the rep to follow. The challenge is that data very rarely reflects the true level of engagement between a company and a physician. That information is a critical one to gather – but it’s been kept in the heads of the reps.

However, the businesses which are going the extra mile in terms of gathering data, are the ones focused on understanding the level of engagement in specific areas of expertise – as well as up-to-date GDPR compliant contact details. These are the companies which are seeing great return on their marketing efforts.

A Sudden Priority

Even before lockdown swept across the globe, CRM data quality and depth was lacking. Part of the issue – in MedTech at least – is that sales reps have always networked face-to-face with clients. Relationships were nurtured through personal knowledge. As a result, actionable CRM data was at best out-of-date and at worst non-existent.

We’ve seen many companies forge ahead with new data efforts since COVID – to make up for the shortfall of incoming information. There’s been a massive upsurge in webinars and online events too. However, the challenge is that it’s been difficult to direct this newly-created digital content to the right target audience.

Why? Because CRM databases aren’t segmented enough. You might have hundreds of surgeons labelled as “ENT” specialists in your CRM, when you really need a early adopter who uses new imaging technologies for your campaign. Instead you end up spamming everyone who ‘might’ be relevant.

Data alone is not enough to pique interest. The value lies in its application. Data allows you to connect to the right target – who is then more likely to receive your message, which in turn drives customer preference, increasing your ROI.

Similarly the growth of digital channels as a knowledge-sharing and lead generation tool – across platforms like LinkedIn – is increasingly relevant to the MedTech community. But getting to that level of segmentation and targeting is impossible without solid, relevant data.

That’s exactly what we can help with here at Toxeos.

Through granular data and insight, our data mining platform empowers you to create deep, detailed client profiles which map the market at both a physician and hospital level across a variety of regions and sectors.

We do this by combining multiple data sources, constantly updated, allowing you to target the right prospective clients for your marketing activities.

Given the challenges the MedTech sector will continue to face for some time yet, it’s clear that sales and marketing teams need to be smart and work together.

Data is power; but if it’s not being captured or used in the right way there will continue to be a ‘digital disconnect’.