Drugdu.com expert's response:

When conducting foreign trade in pharmaceuticals and medical devices, some enterprises often encounter such a situation: after their products are launched on B2B platforms, they receive inquiries from overseas buyers one after another. Some ask for prices, some request COAs and product specifications, and others further inquire about packaging, purchase quantities and delivery lead times. Suppliers provide the required documents and complete quotations as requested, yet one or two months pass without any actual orders being formed.

At this point, enterprises will inevitably begin to doubt the effectiveness of their promotion efforts. Clearly, there are already consultations, but why have no transactions been closed? Are the buyers insincere about procurement, or are the products uncompetitive? Is it still necessary to continue promoting this product?

For pharmaceutical B2B businesses, there is often a procurement evaluation process between an inquiry and a confirmed order. Especially for products like APIs, pharmaceutical excipients, medical devices and pharmaceutical equipment, buyers will not only compare prices, but also check quality documents, test samples, evaluate supplier qualifications, and even confirm local registration and import conditions. Therefore, to judge whether a product is worth continuing to promote, we cannot only look at whether there are orders in the short term. Instead, we need to understand which stage the inquiry is stuck at and why it has not moved forward.

Check whether the inquiry has entered the specific procurement stage

Even though all are categorized as received inquiries, different buyers can be at vastly different stages of their procurement journey.

For example, an overseas trader inquires about the price of a certain API, but does not give any further response after the supplier sends the quotation. This type of buyer may just be collecting market prices, or initially sourcing supplies on behalf of an end client, with the procurement project itself not yet finalized.

However, if another overseas pharmaceutical company inquires about the same API, and further requests for quality standards, recent COAs, GMP-related documents, while confirming sample quantities, production capacity and commercial batch delivery lead times, even if there is no order for the time being, it indicates that the two parties have started discussing more specific procurement terms.

The same logic applies to medical device procurement. Some distributors only ask for prices in the first round, while others will further confirm product models, certification coverage, local registration support, after-sales services and spare parts supply. The latter involves more coordination matters, so the procurement cycle may be longer, but it is also more worthy of continuous observation combined with actual progress.

Therefore, when analyzing inquiries, in addition to counting the total number, we also need to see whether buyers are willing to provide specific procurement information, whether they keep confirming product details, and whether the project has entered the stages of document review, sample testing or business negotiation.

If all the inquiries received over several months stay at the stage of simple price inquiry, with buyers failing to specify clear specifications, purchase quantities and target markets, and no subsequent communication, we need to recheck whether the customers attracted by the product match the enterprise's target groups. On the contrary, if some buyers have entered the substantive evaluation stage, we should not directly conclude that the promotion is ineffective just because there is no short-term order.

Some unclosed inquiries may stem from product mismatches

When suppliers analyze inquiry conversion, they tend to focus on whether buyers reply, but ignore whether their own products can meet the other party's procurement requirements.

For instance, a medical consumables enterprise receives an inquiry from a European distributor. The product specifications and quotation meet expectations, but later it is found that the existing conformity assessment documents cannot cover the specific model required by the buyer. Even if both parties are willing to cooperate, the procurement may be temporarily unable to move forward.

Similar situations also exist for APIs and pharmaceutical excipients. Buyers may require specific pharmacopoeia standards, impurity control indicators, packaging specifications or registration documents, while suppliers can only provide other quality standards at present, or lack corresponding document support. There are also some enterprises that can supply commercial batches, but cannot meet the small-batch procurement needs of buyers in the early R&D and testing stage.

These problems do not necessarily mean that the products have no overseas market, but that the enterprise's existing supply conditions do not match the procurement requirements of some buyers.

If different buyers repeatedly put forward the same requirements, such as a certain quality standard, specific packaging, a relatively low MOQ or target market registration documents, it is worthwhile for the enterprise to re-evaluate whether these demands are sustainable and whether it has the conditions to make adjustments.

Some problems can be solved by supplementing documents, some require changing product specifications or supply methods, and others involve production costs, registration investment and market access, which are difficult to solve in the short term. Suppliers need to make judgments according to the actual situation, instead of easily promising procurement conditions that cannot be met at present just to close an inquiry.

The markets where inquiries come from also affect subsequent transactions

For the same product, procurement opportunities in different countries may show significant differences.

For example, a certain medical device already has the compliance documents required by some overseas markets, but local registration still needs to be completed in other countries. If the product mainly receives inquiries from markets where access preparations have not been completed, buyers will not be able to make immediate purchases even if they are interested.

For APIs, intermediates and finished pharmaceutical products, the quality standards, regulatory requirements, procurement purposes of target countries and the capabilities of local importers will also affect the advancement of projects.

Therefore, enterprises should not only look at how many inquiries a certain product has obtained, but also pay attention to where these inquiries come from, what types the buyers belong to, and whether the demands match their existing export capabilities.

Suppose an enterprise receives 20 inquiries within three months, but most of them come from markets where registration requirements cannot be met temporarily. Another product only receives 5 inquiries, but some buyers are conducting sample testing and quality audits. The promotion value of the two products cannot be compared purely by the number of inquiries.

Some markets have a large number of inquiries, but they are faced with fierce price competition and harsh transaction conditions; some markets do not have a high inquiry frequency, but are more consistent with the enterprise's product standards, document capabilities and supply conditions. These differences are all worth considering during the promotion review.

Why do products that already have inquiries still need to optimize their pages?

Many enterprises believe that since their products can already receive inquiries, the product titles, keywords and detail pages are no longer problematic, and the next step is simply to let sales staff do a good job in follow-up.

However, the actual received inquiries often reflect what information is still missing in the product display.

For example, an API is frequently asked by buyers whether it meets USP or EP standards, but the product page only has the English name and CAS number, without indicating the quality standards that the enterprise can currently provide. A certain medical consumable is repeatedly asked whether it is sterile, the number of pieces per package, and whether OEM is supported, which means this information may not be clearly displayed on the page.

There are also some products that attract a large number of inquiries, but the specifications or uses that buyers are looking for are different from the enterprise's actual supply direction. At this time, it is necessary to check whether the title keywords and product descriptions accurately convey the product features.

For products that have already received inquiries, enterprises can sort out the high-frequency questions from buyers and add them to the product details. For technical materials involving confidentiality, enterprises can state what document support capabilities they have, without making all complete documents public.

The enterprise homepage also needs to be checked synchronously. After confirming the product, overseas buyers may continue to learn whether the supplier is a manufacturer or a trading company, whether its main products are concentrated, whether it has a quality system, and whether it has stable supply capacity. If the enterprise introduction is too simple, or the corresponding relationship between relevant qualifications and actual products is not clear, it may also affect buyers' willingness to further communicate.

On pharmaceutical B2B platforms such as Drugdu.com, enterprises can gradually adjust the display information of key products by combining product views, inquiry content and buyer feedback. Especially for products that have already gained certain attention, improving the descriptions of specifications, uses, packaging and document support will help buyers more accurately judge whether the products meet their procurement needs.

When should we continue promotion and when should we make adjustments?

If a product has already attracted buyers consistent with the enterprise's target market, and some projects are undergoing document review, sample testing or procurement condition confirmation, we can consider maintaining the promotion while observing the actual progress of these projects. Especially for products with long procurement cycles, such as APIs, professional medical devices and pharmaceutical equipment, we should not stop the display just because there are no short-term orders.

However, if a product continues to receive inquiries, but cannot move forward repeatedly due to the same problems, such as lack of price competitiveness, mismatched quality standards, insufficient certification documents, excessively high minimum purchase quantities, or the buyer's demands greatly deviate from the enterprise's actual supply scope, we need to re-evaluate the promotion strategy.

If a product only receives simple price inquiries for a long time without further procurement discussions, we also need to consider whether there are problems such as inaccurate target market selection, unclear product positioning, or mismatched types of attracted buyers.

For suppliers, a more valuable approach is to regularly review the received inquiries, record the buyer's country, procured products, inquiry content, current stage and the reasons why the cooperation cannot continue. After a period of accumulation, we can find out which products are easier to attract suitable buyers, which procurement conditions repeatedly affect cooperation, and which markets are worthy of further development.

Whether overseas promotion can continue to invest ultimately depends on the enterprise's costs, product profits, effective procurement opportunities and actual transaction situation. Inquiries themselves cannot replace orders, nor can they guarantee that purchases will definitely be generated in the future.

However, inquiries that do not lead to immediate transactions are not completely without reference value. At the very least, they provide an opportunity to observe overseas procurement demands: what products buyers are looking for, what conditions they care about, which documents are likely to become cooperation obstacles, and whether the enterprise's existing supply capacity can meet the needs of target markets.

If the product can continuously attract matching buyers and the procurement projects are advancing step by step, the enterprise has reasons to continue observing and investing; if the inquiries cannot enter the next stage for a long time, we need to find out the specific reasons, and then decide whether to improve product conditions, adjust the target market, or shift promotion resources to other products.

For pharmaceutical and medical device enterprises, to judge whether a product is still worth continuing to promote, we should not only count how many inquiries have been received, but also see whether these inquiries have the opportunity to enter the next procurement link.

Clarifying the buyer's demands and the reasons for project stagnation before deciding on the subsequent promotion direction will be more reasonable than making judgments purely based on whether there are orders within one or two months.