Six Considerations to Evolve Your Capital Equipment Pricing Strategy
Capital Equipment Pricing Models
As the world of capital equipment changes rapidly, manufacturers must find innovative ways to stay competitive. With new technology and enhancements, such as software upgrades and digital and connectivity solutions, as a crucial part of the value proposition of capital equipment, manufacturers can offer alternative pricing solutions to provide greater customer customization. Flexible pricing is especially pertinent for higher–value equipment on the market, such as AI-assisted imaging equipment, robotically–assisted surgical equipment, and advanced monitoring equipment. With the shift in procedures from hospitals to smaller office-based labs and ambulatory surgical centers, manufacturers can also capture new business opportunities with these alternative models.
New Pricing Models for Capital Equipment
The traditional pricing models offered three options: an upfront purchase with each component sold separately, a consumable upcharge model, or a leasing model. A combination of new technology and more customized pricing improves a manufacturer’s value proposition. With new pricing models, manufacturers can boost revenues, increase penetration, and build long-term relationships with clients by offering greater flexibility.
These new models include:
- Risk-based or outcomes-based model: Risk-sharing pricing strategies factor in a cost savings component from any operational efficiencies gained and clinical outcomes achieved in this model
- Recurring revenue stream model: Instead of the traditional transfer of ownership model, manufacturers offer a subscription with a recurring fee. The purchaser or user is granted access to a set number of capital equipment devices for the subscription period. This fee may or may not include unlimited usage in the number of consumables
- Patient usage pricing model: Based on patient usage, manufacturers can offer a per-patient fee for the equipment over a period of time with this model
- Enterprise–level model: This model bundles the customer‘s capital equipment needs across entire care units and multiple hospitals within the network. The bundle would normally include both equipment and services components. Payment schedules could be yearly or bi-yearly
Six Considerations for Identifying the Right Pricing Model
With so many pricing models emerging, it can be challenging to identify the right one for your product offerings. As your organization moves towards a new pricing model, like the ones above, there are six key considerations to keep in mind to identify the most effective model for your team:
- Set clear objectives: With an identified goal, your organization can better evaluate the potential models. Objectives can include increasing revenue, expanding the adoption rate, smoothing revenue, maximizing profit, and expanding account use of a suite of products and services. For example, if a manufacturer’s goal is to increase the use of a full suite of products, the recurring revenue stream model may be a better fit for their goal
- Identify the value drivers of your product: Drivers, such as clinical efficacy, payment model, ROI, and the strength of existing relationships, impact pricing and the manufacturer’s ability to customize the pricing model
- Determine the decision-maker: Sometimes the end-user who makes the purchase decision is different from the purchaser who chooses the pricing model. Broadly, there are three types of capital equipment buyers: economic, clinical, and operational. The economic buyer’s sole focus is to improve their organization’s profit. In contrast, the clinical buyer is more focused on the clinical value of the product offerings, like patient outcomes or improved patient experience. Operational buyers typically focus on other factors such as department workflow, device integration with key clinical systems, or maintenance and uptime. Knowing the levels of influence and priorities for each buyer type will help determines which pricing model to offer. If the buying decision is more committee-based, the pricing model will need to consider all stakeholder needs
- Consider the impact on clients’ budgets: Pricing structure might impact where a client categorizes a purchase (i.e., capital expenses or operational expenses). Often capital expenses will fall under the hospital’s capital budget while operational expenses fall under the department’s budget, which may sway some clinicians towards a capital expense model
- Understand clients’ financial health: Innovative recurring pricing models might be a better fit for clients working under capital restraints. This consideration is crucial overseas, especially in countries where COVID-19 has ravaged hospitals, which would seek to reduce the upfront cost of purchasing capital equipment
- Establish benchmarking metrics: This consideration is the most important for risk-based or outcomes-based pricing, as identifying the equipment’s impact on patient outcomes or operational efficiencies dictates price. These metrics could include hospital readmission rates or the number of adverse events related to the equipment. When determining these benchmarks manufacturers must ensure they are measurable and that clients have the right infrastructure system in place to measure them
How Kx Can Help You
With our expertise in pricing strategy, Kx Advisors can guide your team through developing an optimized capital equipment business model. Our team of healthcare experts will help you evaluate your base, identify your customer segments, effectively appeal to your ideal customer, and position your organization for long-term success.