How to engage and connect with scientists at trade shows
- Feb, 08 2011
- By Lara Marlin Hull
- iPad, Lead Generation, Science Sales
- One comment
Engaging scientists at trade shows isn’t an easy task. As some of you know, I’m recently a scientist-turned-marketer, learning and gathering data on the ins and outs of selling to my former self. I still attend conferences, but instead of geeking out on the latest robots and lab apparel, I windowshop the life science vendor world seeking companies and ideas that engage scientists particularly well.
I’m back from Lab Automation 2011 – the yearly forum for cool automation and robotics for your lab – and I wasn’t disappointed, several vendors really stood out against some pretty tough competition.
EMD’s Got a Cool New iPad App
- Sep, 16 2010
- By Rusty Bishop
- iPad, Online Marketing
- 5 comments
EMD’s Got a Cool New iPad App
by Rusty Bishop
There’s no secret about it, I love the iPad. Those that have seen me at life science trade shows in San Diego always want to check it out. I’m seeing more and more reps out there using it as a sales tool with interactive PDFs, web links, and CRM systems like SalesForce.
I was pretty jazzed to see that EMD Chemicals has new app for the Periodic Table of Elements available for free in the iTunes store. The app gets very solid reviews from users and students, so I decided to have a look.
Overall, the interface is very slick with a cool looking Periodic Table on a black background. Tapping any element will pop-up a large version with text-book type information like atomic radius, melting point, and boiling point. Further, each element contains a history complete with the discoverer! Pretty slick!
Love the interface on EMD's iPad Application
The app is intuitive and simple, yet deep enough that you can really drill down into details about a specific element.
Features
The app has a number of great features that are accessible from the tiny little M button on the top left.
Looking down the list you will see Classification, Atomic Properties, State at Room Temperature, Property Ranking, and Discovery. Tapping these allows you to learn about the elements that fit a given parameter by highlighting them in the big old table of elements.
Want to know what elements were discovered before Christ was born? 11 (How do they know that?)
How about elements that are gases at zero degrees Celcius? 11
I could geek out on this alone for hours.
How this App Sells to Scientists
The app is surprisingly unbranded, but that’s cool too. It says, “We just made for you school children of the world, when you grow up and become chemists you will think of EMD.” Love it!
There is some product ordering information buried deep within the individual elements that will lead you to the ordering page on the EMD-Merck Website. I’m sure that pleases the execs at EMD, but I doubt that it’s used very often. However, I did find some interesting detection kits that I didn’t know about. I hope they are tracking iPad links in their analytics program!
Summary
All in all, the EMD Periodic Table App is a great use of the iPad and I’m certain it will downloaded by a lot of students and chemists. Great job, EMD!
Red Funnel is hard at work on our first iPad app. Launching soon, FatStax is a sales productivity tool for the life sciences built by sales people for sales people. We hope you love it!
Update PDFs to your iPad using Dropbox without iTunes
- May, 19 2010
- By Rusty Bishop
- Science Sales
- 3 comments
by Rusty Bishop, PhD
I’ve been using the iPad for a little over a week now and, I must say this device is incredible. It is going to revolutionize the way you sell and market products. I plan on seeing a lot of you all using it in the near future.
One of the strengths of the iPad is the ability to interact directly with a potential client via the tablet interface. For example, you might load brochures with key product information in PDF format onto the device prior to a large conference or sales run. Using the pad you can walk a potential client through your offering, or better yet; let them walk through themselves while “playing” with the pad.
This article details how we use Dropbox to quickly load files onto the iPad remotely in sales situation.
Quick Summary of the steps needed to load files onto the ipad fast on the go.
- Get free Dropbox account at Dropbox.com
- Create a folder to share with your colleagues for “Dropping” files
- Upload or save your marketing material to the file (PDF’s, jpegs, etc.)
- Get the free Dropbox application from the App Store and install it on the pad
- Now anything “dropped” into the shared folder is immediately loaded onto your iPad
- Find it >> load it >> view it >> and sell it!
Details of the operation
Loading PDFs or images onto the device is fairly simple using the iTunes interface and has been demonstrated clearly by Apple and others. However, you might be wondering what happens when I don’t have a computer handy and I need to show data to a potential customer that is not already on the device?
You could load Safari and search for the information on your company’s website for example, but Dropbox has presented us with a simple solution. Simply call or text a colleague and have them drop onto your iPad!
Quick Primer on DropBox
Dropbox is very intuitive web file sharing application that lives partially on your computers/devices and partially in cyberspace. Using dropbox you can rapidly share files with your devices and colleagues that you invite to be shared on folders you create. Best of all its free-up to 2.5 Gb of storage and secure.
To learn more and install Dropbox visit their website from your computer and the App store on your iPad or iPhone.
Dropbox for the iPad
What I love about Dropbox is the ability to rapidly share large files with others and over my machines (desktop, laptop, and iPad).
The iPad Dropbox interface is super simple to understand. The files you create in your Dropbox folder on their website or your computer appear on the left hand side and documents and images in the right window. Once you find the PDF or image you are looking for simple touch it to load into the right side view screen. Bam, instant documents anywhere, anytime!
Dropbox Ipad Interface is Super Easy to Use
Two tricks you should know
- By tapping the star icon on the top right toolbar you will download the document/file to your iPad for permanent viewing. Thus even when you don’t have wi-fi access (most conferences) your files are still there.
- By tapping the arrow on the top right tool bar you dropbox will assist you in loading the file into other applications on the device such as PDF viewers and image viewers that will allow you to utilize interactive PDFs, etc. I like iAnnotate for PDFs, because I like to mark them up and keep notes.
In Summary
Setting up dropbox with your sales and marketing team can be a quick way to save the day with your awesome new ipad selling machine. Simply call or text the home office and ask them to drop the file you need, find wifi access, access dropbox, and you are rolling.
The blue box above gives you a quick summary of the steps needed to make this work for you.
We’d love to have your comments and suggestions on improving this article.
Mark and I hope to see you at American Society for Microbiology Meeting next week in San Diego! We’ll have our iPads there for you to play with and test for yourself. Drop us a line if you want to meet with us at a specific time during the meeting.
