Entering the European Healthcare Market
Successfully
Health-Advance supports your market entry in Germany and Europe, provides you with comprehensive advice and assumes responsibility in consultation with you. Whether you are looking for a partner for your internationalisation, want to set up structures yourself or want to take over or sell an existing company - Health-Advance structures the need and provides support, especially in the areas presented below.
Market analysis
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Market analysis
Germany is one of the biggest and most competitive healthcare and life sciences markets in Europe. Success in Germany is a hallmark for any European rollout.
Profitable niches for innovations, with low competition and high growth rates exist within the healthcare markets of Germany. On the other hand, regulation, strong incumbents, and skewed incentive structures in the German healthcare reimbursement system may also delay innovation, if they are not dealt with appropriately.
However, regulation and specific market dynamics may simultaneously be instrumental in securing success at an early stage. This may stabilize your long-term success at an early stage already. Your revenues may become relatively independent of the competitive pressures in other, unregulated markets.
Health-Advance provides you with relevant customer segmentation and specific suggestions for the definition and communication of your USP. In this way, you receive a comprehensive and concise actionable plan.
Agile business planning
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Agile business planning
Develop a strong business plan before entering into the German healthcare and life sciences market.
Define clear milestones and stop criteria in order to avoid a financial black hole.
Plan for sufficient initial investment – being too hesitant may endanger overall success of the business. On the other hand, smart spending and clear milestones will limit financial risk.
Increased market dynamics often necessitate an agile approach: Test, experiment and learn quickly, instead of sticking to obsolete planning.
Health-Advance sets up realistic top-line scenarios, help to develop a sound business plan collaboratively and help to define checkpoints for premises and results. This will enable learning and continuous improvement of your market entry approach.
Identify pilot customers
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Identify pilot customers
Keep your fingers on the pulse of the market. Identify early pilot customers quickly. Stay in touch. Receive early feedback on relevant industry topics, gossip and your strategy.
Early customers are a key: They provide essential references, help you adapt your approach and enable fast learning. They may open their network, unlocking new opportunities for you. They signal success within your country and your global organization.
Direct sales may not be the smartest approach. Creative solutions make sure that potential customers find their way to you – instead of the other way round.
Start with the right customers. Inappropriate first customers may cut off your access to specific communities.
Health-Advance provides transparency about industry players and dynamics, and shows you ways to access suitable decision makers and influencers.
Health-Advance identifies suitable early customers. It enables you to enter into sales discussions quickly, with the help of a vast network of direct contacts, multipliers and professionals.
Paul Ehrlich, medicine Nobel prize 1908, citizen of Frankfurt, the home of Health-Advance.
M&A
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M&A
Growing your business organically on your own or partnership may either be too risky or not be fast enough to achieve your strategic marketing goals.
International expansion strategic targets can be achieved faster by acquisition.
Identify suitable target companies and obtain indications about seller expectations promptly.
Health-Advance screens the market, identifies appropriate targets, and uses its network to evaluate and validate the potential partners.
Health-Advance approaches appropriate companies in close cooperation with you, and guide you through all acquisition and negotiation stages. Based on extensive M&A experience, Health-Advance facilitates closing and subsequent integration and communication.
Pricing
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Pricing
Experience has shown that some companies find early adopters in the German healthcare market, but fail to scale up later. Customer interest in your product is one thing – selling is another! Do not get overly excited about innovators, but make sure that the average customer is willing to pay for your product or service.
You need to mingle with key opinion leaders and multipliers in your target markets to receive early feedback on your strategy. Find out about the forces driving the buying decision of your prospective customers. Get a feeling for pricing sensitivity.
Decide on the appropriate pricing structure for different segments, including potential changes in your delivery and product. For example, this may enable recurring revenues depending on the willingness to pay for your specific value proposition in different pricing models.
Health-Advance supports you with customer segmentation and analysis of the actual willingness to pay of your target customers per segment. Health-Advance provides surveys, simulations, cost & benefit & competitive analysis, sensitivity estimates and various other methodologies.
Health-Advance provides access to decision makers, influencers and potential customers. You develop a clear perspective on pricing and willingness to pay of your customers in your specific market. Health-Advance supports you to identify and evaluate the levers for willingness to pay and to identify suitable forcing mechanisms.
Transparency by Health-Advance for commercial success
Adaptation for Germany
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Adaptation for Germany
As an international company, you are well advised to keep the national differences limited to obtain economies of scale and gain experience for your core product.
On the other hand, German healthcare is influenced by national and EU legislation as well as local or regional practices that need to be taken into account. Focus on the national specifics and details should not obscure a clear view, on the fundamental economic and other interests of the stakeholders.
In a lot of cases, localization of minor aspects of your product or solution will be enough to make a big difference in commercial success. This way, you may combine the advantages of a global uniform product and national adaptations.
Health-Advance identifies existing and achievable incentive mechanisms, pressures and sentiments to elaborate an optimal localization strategy for your specific product or solution, while keeping in mind the adaptation cost and the advantages of a globally uniform standard.
Health-Advance connects to resources in IT, R&D, DevOps and UX design as needed, to support necessary localization and adaptation.
Reimbursement options
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Reimbursement options
In the German healthcare system, companies have the opportunity to decouple their market penetration from economic pressures.
Reimbursement by health insurers or other institutions means that the purchasing decision of individual customers or healthcare providers becomes comfortable and independent of pricing considerations.
The German healthcare system provides specific pathways for products or services to become reimbursable. They even grant bridge subsidies until full reimbursement is possible for promising innovations.
From the start, pricing structures and payment models should take into account potential reimbursement options and typical budget situations.
Health-Advance consults on the best pathway for reimbursability and connects you to the right experts and influencers. Health-Advance supports your way to become a product fully sponsored by the German health care system.
Finding EU distributors
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Finding EU distributors
Depending on your product or service, a quick way to success in the EU may be to find appropriate distributors. National distributors may already have the customer relations required to successfully promote your product, and they may even appreciate the opportunity to extend their range of products with your innovation.
On the other hand, distributors may not be able to explain your product as well as you do. They may not promote your product enough, due to diverging incentives. Exclusive national distributors may be tempted to go along for a free ride from your innovation, skimming off profits without much of an own effort.
Health-Advance identifies the appropriate national distributors for your specific product. Who is best positioned to maximize sales, who will likely perform outstanding customer service?
Health-Advance prepares the appropriate communication to convince potential distributors about a partnership with you. We approach the best positioned sales partners on your behalf – open or discreetly – and prepare your direct business negotiations. Health-Advance provides suitable partnership agreements with terms and conditions designed for effective alignment of interests.
Marketing Strategy
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Marketing Strategy
German customers may perceive your product very differently from customers in other markets. You need to position yourself in the light of a specific market segmentation.
The USPs that you will want to stand out may or may not be similar to the ones that you claim in the other markets, even with the exact same product.
Testing for German market specifics can be based on effective, easy to implement and quick techniques.
Using the Health-Advance industry network for carefully chosen questions is a part of the marketing strategy development process.
Health-Advance supports a potential adaptation of your product while maintaining scalability. We identify suitable multipliers for your product or service. We jointly network with partners and influencers for effective placement at the right prices, as integral parts of the marketing strategy development process.
Health-Advance facilitates market entry for medical devices
Operational setup
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Operational setup
Operational, legal and organizational structures need to follow business logic. Thus, these should be set-up as easy as possible for a start, allowing future flexibility and reducing cost.
We connect and combine your existing international and local contacts and partners with additional resources as identified in the course of the market entry and our joint project work.
If the German subsidiary is to be organized in a separate legal entity, Health-Advance can provide a cost-efficient set up, organize necessary certifications and overcome administrative hurdles quickly.
Health-Advance provides advice and coordinates expert opinions in regards to tax considerations, licence and transfer pricing, IP policies and strategic financing options.
Health-Advance provides a full service package for incorporation of the business, or supports your staff with practical information on demand, as needed.
Scaling & plan for growth
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Scaling & plan for growth
German healthcare is not famous for promoting and eagerly adopting innovation, but diversity is high and established pathways to market penetration do exist. With an exciting product, you will find open-minded and experimenting, pilot customers. But avoid the risk of running into the "pilot customer trap“.
Your growth story will fade without followers, who may be largely unimpressed by the experimenting innovators. Make sure to have a plan for the second step while you are on the first!
Next to reimbursement, other forcing mechanisms enable broad market acceptance. The German healthcare system provides various direct and indirect pressures that may push or nudge companies to become your customers.
Health-Advance supports your planning and connects you to the right persons at an early stage, so that you are able to make the most of your early successes.
Health-Advance supports your continuous progress, helps you avoid growth pitfalls, provides access and fills in for any temporary gaps due to the growth of your business.
Recruiting & gaining traction
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Recruiting & gaining traction
Although staffing may be easy if you spend enough money on executive search and remuneration, you may want to look for smarter ways. Health-Advance is not an executive search company. However, recruitment success may still result from your systematic approach of the market and smart ideas on the way.
If you need to resort to executive search companies, Health-Advance will support you, boost quality by appropriate input, and reduce cost significantly in the process.
We identify and convince key opinion leaders and decision-makers for you and your product. Win allies and form appropriate advisory boards or similar structures. Create momentum by PR, marketing and social media.
Health-Advance maintains good relations with leading HR consultancies and provides you with an unbiased market overview.
Health-Advance always keeps your HR strategy in mind. Ideally, staffing is a byproduct of a good market entry preparation. Although applications or relevant contacts to potential candidates may seem to appear by chance, they are the result of a good and systematic market penetration strategy.
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