New Buyers, New Markets. Is your sales strategy up to date?
Determining your optimal sales strategy hinges on understanding how you will meet the needs of your customers in the face of competition. As we look at trends in the Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences industries, we have observed a number of market changes that may require companies to revisit their sales strategy:
- R&D Consolidation and a Buyer Shift Toward Procurement: As Bio/Pharma companies have consolidated R&D purchasing, Life Sciences sales reps must cover a greater diversity of stakeholders — from bench scientists to procurement agents — and demonstrate both technical and economic benefits to their customers.
- Technology Commoditization: Standardization of common research equipment and sequencing platforms has decreased price points and lowered barriers to entry in an already highly competitive marketplace.
- Growth in Molecular Diagnostics: The MDx market is expected to grow 11% annually through 2015. Traditional instrument companies have noticed this opportunity and many are hopping on the MDx bandwagon with strategic partnerships and acquisitions.
What does this mean for your sales strategy?
Sales leaders must think ahead about the right coverage model to compete in the evolving Pharma and Life Sciences markets. Most of the big players can no longer afford to keep distinct sales teams for each product line. We’re seeing a shift toward account management, with an experienced Account Manager owning the entire customer relationship and bringing in product specialists as needed (similar to the strategy being deployed at large hi-tech companies). Conversely, smaller companies with a more limited product set might choose to target select customers, spreading the word about their technical innovation through key opinion leaders and younger scientists.
At Alexander Group we’re helping companies get a handle on what they can do to drive growth and sharing how other companies address some of these industry trends.
Doug Beveridge leads Alexander Group’s Pharmaceutical Sales practice.
Originally published by Mary Catherine Plunkett.