The medical device industry taught me something early in my consulting years

The medical device industry taught me something early in my consulting years.

Two companies. Nearly identical products. One has 18% market share. The other has 7%.

It's not the product. It never was.

The 18% company spent years building distributor relationships, training surgeons, optimizing OR workflows for their hospital customers. Their reps weren't selling devices. They were selling fewer minutes per procedure and better patient throughput.

The 7% company tried to win on a 3% spec advantage and a slightly lower price.

Product is the easy thing to compete on. That's probably why nobody wins there.

If you're in a commoditized market and you're still pitching features, the market has already decided. You just haven't read the memo.