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University wants to Dominate
Continuing Medical Education
The Situation:
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University of Michigan
Department of Post Graduate Medicine.
 Challenge: build a revenue stream through continuing medical education
 Solution: apply industry accepted methods for marketing and pricing
Outcome: developed a highly profitable media library education program |
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U of M wanted to build a revenue stream by providing physicians with continuing medical education.
Issue: Physicians must have continuing education credits to maintain their license to practice medicine. However, there were several organizations that competed against U of M in the continuing education market. In additional, U of M's CE products were significantly more costly than competing products. Contrary to popular opinion: physicians do not consider themselves to have lots of discretionary income, and thus look for bargains.
Implications:The University had to appear to not be in the commercial arena, while competing commercially. Furthermore, U of M had to be perceived to be providing well above average products to justify the additional cost.
Solution: We determined that the marketing/sales model we should follow to sign up physicians to the U of M CE products should be similar that used by pharmaceutical companies.
- We approached Baxter-Travenol, which specialized in direct to medical center and direct to physician sales. BT was pleased to cooperate and provided training to us similar to that which they provided to their own sales reps.
- In terms of the price point differential, we were able to create a compelling value proposition related to the small amount of time required to study the U of M CE materials, and the effectiveness of passing additional CE licensing exams.
We also provided several ways for physicians to pay:
- 1 and 2 year subscriptions were available so they had to pay only once, thus lessening the pain.
- For others who did not want to write one big check, we provided for automatic monthly payments of smaller amounts.
Outcome: The U of M CE "Media Library" became the most popular CE program in Michigan, and the University ran a profitable cash-flow balance business for more than a decade.
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