A value story is a hypothesis until somebody tests it
A cardiovascular launch team was preparing to go to market in the United Kingdom.
It had a value proposition, a set of coverage assumptions and a view on price corridors. All three were internally coherent, which is a different thing from being externally true.
The market access strategy depended on all three. Testing them before launch costs a study. Discovering them after launch costs the first year.
Interviews and surveys, with the people who apply the criteria
The work combined interviews and surveys with health plan and hospital decision makers across the United Kingdom.
Three things were tested rather than discussed: the value messages, the coverage assumptions and the price corridors.
Message testing works when the message is put in front of the person who will act on it, in the form they will see it. Anything softer produces agreement rather than information.
Payer research also has to make room for the objection. The useful output is not which message scored best but which one a decision maker pushed back on, and why.
The objections came back in time to do something about them
The work gave the market access team a clear view of the likely payer objections.
It also set the launch priorities that followed from them, which is the part that turns a research finding into a plan.
Coverage assumptions and price corridors were both tested against the people who would apply them, so the launch strategy went out with the objections already anticipated.
A value story that has survived contact with a decision maker before launch is a different asset from one that has only survived internal review.
