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Trilogy Tidings
May 2016
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in this issue

     My level of busy-ness occasionally dictates reaching back into my archives to share my incredibly enlightened (?) thoughts with you. This is one of those occasions, which involves reaching back to 2010 -- funny how some things rarely change.

     The first piece has to do with setting the price for your new product or service and the delicate role that your customers can play in your pricing study. The second topic deals with leveraging a platform technology that you've developed and wish to commercialize in the best way possible.

Regards,
Joe

Setting Prices Based on Customer Input 
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     Is it silly to ask your prospective customers how much you should charge for your wonderful new product?  Maybe so - and maybe not. It depends upon how skillfully you set the stage and ask the question.

Pricing

 

     A former client asked for our help in conducting a pricing study, including a survey of his prospective laboratory-based customers.   There is always a temptation to imagine what a customer would be willing to pay before you ask for the sale.   But is there any way to actually obtain an objective response from a clearly biased source?

 

     This request caused me to resurrect some old thoughts on including customer inputs in your pricing analysis. Check out my advice here.

 

     One of the important pricing tactics is value-based pricing, which attempts to demonstrate cost effectiveness in your customer's hands. Some advice on leveraging cost effectiveness to demonstrate value and thereby achieve market penetration for your new medical product can be found here.

Exploiting Your Platform Technology   
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     We've advised quite a few emerging "platform technology" companies over the years. (A platform technology is one thought to be broadly applicable to many applications, markets, or even entire industries.) Sometimes the owner is right, sometimes mistaken. In either case the overall objective is to somehow monetize the technology by selectively out-licensing the technology to one -- or even better, several -- commercial partners or corporate investors.

Platform
 

     How can you build a business with your wonderful invention(s), which you firmly believe can be applied as solutions to multiple problems? Whether you plan a single, quick-hitting commercial exit or a sequence of licensing deals with multiple buyers, how should you proceed?

     I offer a stepwise plan for dealing with multiple applications and markets from the seller's point of view.

Resources from our Archives 
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     Check out our Reading Room to view my published articles, presentations and white papers on a variety of topics.
 
     And, you can examine an archive of my prior newsletters (since February 2007).
 
What does Trilogy do? 
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     Trilogy Associates facilitates business growth and renewal through commercialization of new products, providing the following services:
  • Opportunity assessment
  • Business planning and enterprise growth strategies
  • New-product conceptualization, commercialization and marketing
  • Market research and competitive assessment
  • Business development and partnering
  • Market and technological due diligence
  • Assessment of the therapeutic and diagnostic potential of novel technologies
  • Design of efficient and effective development strategies for early-stage biomedical products
  • Business and technical writing/publishing

     Inquiries to establish whether and how we might support your business initiatives are always welcome.  Contact us.

Contact Information
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ContactInfoJoseph J. Kalinowski, Principal
919.533.6285
LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/trilogy
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