this lines up with my experience - naproxen sodium is the best otc pain reliever.
I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
131–140 of 408 posts
Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
#132It felt like there was a missing chapter! Consumers don't see the value at all. Doctors see the value, but won't pay for it, because it doesn't change their bottom line. Whose bottom line does this change then? HMOs, insurance companies, organizations that want to improve the health of a population in aggregate. They'd pay money to have healthier people (on average) to provide the service to their docs (who see the v…
Insurance companies are the real target here. If they can potentially manage to get doctors to prescribe more efficient medication, then they will end up needing to reimburse less and improve their bottom line.
Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
It really depends on your tonality when you say it. In either case, saying "Are you sure increasing your user retention isn't worth something to you?" is just going to be met with another "No, we don't need it" from the other end. "So you have perfect user retention then?" is a better question because you know for a fact that they can't have 100% user retention and they know that as well so it forces further dialogue…
i guess this is why I'm not a salesperson. If it works it works, but I'm having trouble accepting that it's not demeaning, which was the original contention. Because it's not really a question at all, it's a sarcastic question. Maybe being demeaning gets sales, sure.
Think of it more as being a pattern interrupt. They are saying no to you over and over, so by asking the question, "So you have perfect user retention then?" they can either say "No" instinctively which opens your sales pitch because they've now told you they have a user retention problem, or they stop and think about the question in which case you've successfully interrupted the pattern of no's that preceded the question and can further the discussion.
There are definitely better examples I could come up with, but now I'm stuck with this one because it's what I quickly typed out earlier.
Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
HN guidelines: “Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.”. I would presume that sentence is a quickly typed paraphrase. If you presume they are a competent salesperson, you can also presume that they say it less antagonistically in real life. Edit: Or perhaps they have found that antagonism is the most profitable sol…
>HN guidelines The comment to which I'm responding explicitly argues that the phrase, verbatim, is a good sales tactic.
People have argued that the tone and context in which it is being said will influence effectiveness. Verbatim has nothing to do with it but you keep ignoring that point.
Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
#135I have read this before but rereading it realized a more fundamental flaw. The author built an amazing tool that's actually worth a lot of money, but not for patients or doctors! The healthcare data analytics industry would kill for a version of this tool done well. Pharma companies and consultants would pay tens of thousands (if not more) to access a tool like this that's kept up to date. He could have sold the IP and rhe data and the protocols (or get acquired) if he'd networked a bit more in this side. It's probably still not too late!
Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
#136The product is good. Keep going.
Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
#137Would it make sense to go to whichever drug company ranked #1 and ask them to sponsor?
The key would be to remain true to the message if the #1 changed. In all cases you would put the ranking up before asking for sponsorship.
Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm sure that happens occasionally as well. I get it, sales people can be annoying but it really only hurts your business (in this hypothetical case) if you have a user retention problems and are actively fighting against people trying to help you solve that problem with a mutually beneficial business agreement. They will call the next person on their list, I'm sure it won't matter much.
>I get it, sales people can be annoying but it really only hurts your business (in this hypothetical case) if you have a user retention problems and are actively fighting against people trying to help you solve that problem with a mutually beneficial business agreement. Oh please. Not every product that's applicable to a given business would necessarily be beneficial to that business. I get it, sales people have to d…
If you have a vendetta against sales people you can just say that. We are talking about a completely hypothetical situation here, I don't see how you're now implying that the lead generation isn't good enough.
Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
#139The author of this one quit too soon or his product, despite his posturing and promoting was poor. 1st off he approached an American Drs practice and they said it doesn’t pay for them to use it. He could have gone on to approach a different country, UK, Australia, Canada to name but a few hell France, Germany - the list of countries with a national Health service with KPIs for exactly this purpose.
Moral of this story is if you got a good product don’t quit just because America can’t see the value lol. The irony that the American healthcare system didn't value this overwhelming.
Re: I wasted $40k on a fantastic startup idea
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Imagine walking into the office of someone who spent the last ~10 years at school and then potentially 20 years practicing their craft as a successful psychologist and then you waltz in and tell them what they prescribe is wrong and your automated treatment plan is better. As I understand it, this is exactly what new pharmaceutical sales reps are asked to do?
It's not hard to get a doctor's attention when he knows you will provide him with golf days and holidays, if he plays his cards right.
At least in the UK, sandwiches are the most that pharma reps can use to bribe doctors with... Which is not to say they aren't effective (you'll get butts in chairs at least, no guarantee they will pay any attention to you though).