July 8, 2002
From the CEO
SALES, SALES AND MORE SALES
Welcome to the current issue of Pyng Medical's Executive Notes. This newsletter focuses on progress in production, marketing, business matters, and questions, which may be of particular interest to existing and potential shareholders and to various members of the emergency medicine community.
The second largest sale ever of the FAST 1 product resulted directly from our attendance early in the year at the National Association of Emergency Medical Services Physicians (NAEMSP) 2002 Meeting in Tucson Arizona. The State EMS Department of Puerto Rico placed a direct order valued at US$23,000.
In March we held a Sales and Marketing Round Table discussion with external sales and marketing professionals. A key discussion topic was the hiring (or not) of a sales and marketing professional. The consensus among our advisors was to focus immediately on the short term future to increase our cash flow. The resulting strategies and suggestions are now being implemented. One key strategy included getting the company principals and inventors (that is, David Johnson, Mike Jacobs and myself) out in front of customers to increase our understanding of the sales process and drum up new sales. Another strategy was to significantly increase short-term sales by focusing on those few states in which there are no barriers to a doubling of sales.
In April the three principals traveled to Texas for several reasons. We met with the senior staff members and consultants to the US Army Medical Department Center and School, at the Directorate of Combat and Doctrine Development. The purpose of the meeting was to further the process for including the FAST 1 in the standard issue medic kits. The timeline for this process is not clear to us, although it was apparent from the meeting that it is in progress and moving forward. We remain hopeful that a very significant army order is in our future.
We took the opportunity in Texas to visit a collection of five Fire Departments in the Dallas Fort Worth Area which are all users of the FAST 1. Meeting the end users and their Medical Director was very interesting and rewarding. It was brought home to us that The FAST 1 really does save lives! We made calls on potential customers in San Antonio and Houston. David and I spent two packed days with the BoundTree Medical representative in Houston and learned a lot more about the sales process, in exchange for supporting the manager on his sales calls. He has since sold to several customers we met with. A hi-light was meeting the people that run one of the premiere helicopter ambulance services in the US. They are an impressive bunch and are currently adopting the FAST 1 into their practice.
In May we received a PEMDE grant ($50,000) from the federal government to assist with our marketing expenses this year.
In May I traveled to Henniker New Hampshire, BoundTree's eastern headquarters and held focus groups with the account managers in the eastern Region. I also visited one of the research sites, StonyBrook Hospital on Long Island which is part of SUNY to train them on the FAST 1.
This month we will be at FireHouse Expo in Baltimore and will also be targeting those States that are our key to rapid sales increase.
So how are we doing with sales of the FAST 1? Our target for cumulative sales to the end of Q3 was CAD$442,000. We have achieved CAD$450,000. Last fiscal year we achieved CAD$362,000. The challenge ahead of us is to continue to ramp up the sales and to achieve a positive financial base.
Judy Findlay, P.Eng, CEO
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