Penetrating the Colombian Market with the Insight
Colombia, a country that is halfway around the world from us, is spreading awareness of Vatech products.
What comes to mind when you think of Colombia?
Vanessa, Editor of Vatech Times, thinks about fragrant Colombian coffee and all of the beautiful Colombian people. Colombia has a population of about 50 million people, the same as South Korea, and the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita is about $7,000. While they have great coffee, beautiful people, and a vibrant culture, parts of Colombia have been labeled as dangerous due to illegal drugs and crime rates being high. Over the last 15 years, Colombia has been working hard to rebuild its country and to overcome this perception. Through their diligence, some parts of Colombia have become more polite and there is a steady flow of retirees in those areas as well.
Although things have somewhat improved in their country, Sumin Park, Director of Strategic Planning, is always advised to be safe when he goes to Colombia for business trips.
Just like the dental imaging market in developing countries is centered around the Radiology Center (RC), Colombia also sells panoramas and CBCT’s around RC. Mr. Park began studying Spanish about a year ago and since October of last year, he was put in charge of overseeing sales in Colombia. Let’s see what he has to say about Colombia’s dental industry.
One unusual detail we discovered, after taking over the Colombian market, was that most of the coverage associated with the dental market is owned by J, a Japanese company. Upon further research, we discovered that J’s Colombian distributor has been aggressively selling for over 10 years and it is understood that their products have good durability and maintains a great reputation of Japanese products. It will be difficult to enter this market as a latecomer and increase our sales through distributors, but we have decided that our Insight will showcase our strengths enough to help us out.
We have decided that the best way to go about achieving this goal is to showcase something that others do not have. We can use that to grab the attention of doctors and show them videos of our products, thus leading to an interest in Vatech. There is an Asian Proverb which states, It’s better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times. Just like what the proverb states, we decided that it is necessary to have a reference site in order to show the Insight to our customers. We have decided to allocate 6 locations to use as a reference site within major cities. We will also hold seminars for local dentists in clinics where an insight is purchased, hence increasing the awareness of our insight.
The ultimate goal is to get a doctor to say, please scan this patient using the Insight machine, when they send referrals from Radiology Centers.
Up until June 2019, I have held four Insight seminars in Colombia, and I was able to witness the curiosity spark in the attending doctor’s eyes. It made me realize that our products can make a big impact for the Colombian population.
With the excellence of Insight, Vanguardia, Bucaramanga’s influential daily newspaper, published an article on June 30th, 2019 on interview with Dr. Victor Amado and Mr. Sumin Park (Director of Strategic Planning). Dr. Amado is an Oral Radiologist, from Colombia, who has been named a Key Opinion Leader of Vatech Mexico, as well as being an active guest speaker in major Latin American countries.
The main content of the published article was an image of the Insight being displayed as the future of dentistry. With its capability of taking a multi-layered (41 layers) panoramic image, it ensures that all details will be captured in a depth-added image, which provides many benefits for both the patient and doctor.
We will continue to hold Insight seminars and in 3 years, we are determined to become the number one choice for dental practices in Colombia. Please look forward to our success!
