Life Science Sales – First Day on the Job Advice From a Veteran

by Mark Herb

If you’re new to life science sales AND don’t have a technical background – Wow!  Congrats!

At last, you’ve ditched in the lab bench, the cell culture hood, and that annoying timer that beeps at the wrong times (except when you set it to go off in the middle of a boring meeting to help you escape – admit it, we’ve all done it!).

You’ve made the leap.  You’re finally in life science sales.  Now what…?

Much like me, you probably came to technical sales heavy on the “technical” and light on the “sales”.

Not to worry.   “Been there, done that” and we’re here to help.

Sure sounds simple, but there’s more to it than proclaiming, “We’ve got great products…so how many can I put you down for?”

Let’s begin your journey selling to scientists.

Life Science Sales – Are you ready to make the leap?

Being new to anything, there is always the dreaded learning curve that most wish they could skip.   In the following series, I’ll try to offer newly-minted life science sales reps pearls of wisdom that can help make this transition smooth and less painful.

Caution!  All this may seem obvious but trust me, not everyone gets it yet.  With any advice, take what you need, toss what you don’t but remember as sales professionals selling to scientists, you’ve got to be on your game and ready for anything.

Use these tips if they can help:

Be trainable!

Most newbies to sales will be shipped off to some form of sales training.  Go with it and embrace it.  Remember, everyone develops their own selling style over time but right now you don’t have a “selling style” so using formal selling instruction and skills help get you up and running.  There’s time to polish the message but build a foundation first.

I thought I was ready to sell…let’s face it, how tough could it really be…?  Turns out formal sales training was one of the best things for me.

Organize, organize!

If your lab bench was featured in an issue of Martha Stewart Living, chances are you’ve got the neat and tidy thing licked.  If, on the other hand, you had trouble even locating your lab space at times, get it together and tighten up your game.

A home office is probably in the cards so make sure you’ve got dedicated space for business.  Clean, neat, and equipped for action.  Remember this space must be fully functional and properly set up to be effective.  You’ll need to stay organized and on top of things as you’ll probably be multitasking more than ever before!

For example, I would advise against sending a sensitive email quote to the wrong customer or getting one lab confused with another and having the incorrect products shipped there…I’m not saying it was me…ok, it was me.

Get your “tech” on!

When things get tough, the tough go for comfort – we’re all human.

Early in the transition to sales, use your technical background to help ease the sting.  Continue to develop the business acumen to manage the territory but don’t fear sticking close to your comfort zone at first.

Many won’t agree with this approach but it worked for me and others I know.

Initially, you do what works for you (and hey, most scientists like to talk about their work – like the one that told me to dispense with the introductions – it was time to talk about HIM – I guess he was eager to share…).

Talking “tech” can build rapport and confidence with customers.

Next time, we’ll chat about other things that appear to be common sense yet somehow slip through the cracks when selling to scientists…see you next round.  I welcome your experiences and comments below.

Secret Scientist Meeting Found – Lead Generation Gold Mine for Reps

by Rusty Bishop

Dear Life Science Sales Reps and Managers Here’s a Secret

If I were to tell you about a place you could go once per week for 1 hr to generate new leads, meet PIs, meet post-docs, learn how scientists are using your products, and develop a better friend base at your accounts…

would you go, sales reps?

What if I told you this 1hr meeting is happening on every scientific campus in the world…

would you skip it for a coffee break?

Further, the person leading the 1 hr meeting is virtually guaranteed to be working in Pharma or be an influencer at their next academic science post.

Would that help your sales?

Finally and most important, this meeting is 100% OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Yep, it’s called a thesis defense. They happen all the time at your accounts and they are open to the public.

Science Sales Gold Mine

On Monday I had the privilege of going to the thesis defense of an old friend. As I listened to Chris talk about his 6 years of academic torture, it dawned on me that thesis defenses are an absolute gold mine for a local life science rep.

Here are my actual notes from his defense

1. Support your best clients and meet new ones.
2. There are 7 PIs- one is a National Academy member another is world renowned for the discovery of the link between cholesterol and heart disease!
3. 62 Scientists in attendance (5 relatives)
4. Learn about what frustrates scientists and creates sales questions that lead to your products.
5. Social Media (Twitter, LinkedIn) potential contacts are everywhere.
6. Learn about how scientists are using your products.
7. He’s going to work at a huge Pharma company! Winner!

Here is a running list of scientific assays and reagents mentioned (bold added for multiple mentions)

Ifa, staining, microscopes, hplc, tissue staining,
Pngasef, antibodies, western blots, mice, histology, flow cytometry,
endothelial markers, cells, tumor models, knockout mice,
biotinylation, culture, seras human, elisas, recombinant proteins,
complement systems induction, immunizations, diets for mice, metabolic
cages, fplc

Sell any of those? I bet you do.

All that in a 1hr thesis defense. In my mind it’s a rep’s dream come true.

The Sales Rep Approach

1. I suggest attending a few of these and listening first. Take a lot of notes.

2. If you know the scientist who is defending their thesis, BRING A GIFT. Amazon gift cards are great (so is booze, but you gotta know the scientist.)

3. Attend the after party, but do not under any circumstances talk work or try to sell something. That comes later.

4. Bring business cards. Pass them out if asked only.

5. Make friends. The party will be stuffed with people that buy your products from PIs to purchasing to post-docs. Once again don’t try to sell them. Be interested in their research. Remember their names. Next time you walk through the lab things will go much smoother.

Next time you’re on campus

Keep your eye out for fliers that say “Thesis Defense.”  I bet there is at least one at the campus you visited today!

Good luck out there and as always leave us any comments or suggestions for new blogs.

Myth #2 – The PI buys your product

Postdocs, grad students, and technicians use your products not the PI. This is true whether you sell $400 antibodies or $300,000 microscopes. The PI might pay for it and approve it, but the end users will ultimately get you the sale.
 

Earlier I wrote about the myth of the lab manager, today I will attempt to dispel the myth of the PI.
 

Let me give a you a real life example from my lab that happened recently. We have an extremely talented post-doc Ding Xu that realized we desperately needed a new HPLC to add some critical newly published techniques in our field. HPLCs are not cheap and would probably qualify as a capital purchase for most labs. At the very least they would garner their own line item in a RO1 grant. Ding talked about HPLCs incessantly at lab meeting and cornered our PI often to discuss. He researched HPLCs, contacted companies to bring in demos, and showed the lab and our PI how powerful these new techniques could be.
 

We ultimately purchased a new HPLC from Biorad, which our PI signed off on, but it was Ding that made the sale for the rep. The post-doc that actually used the product.
 

Thus the myth of the PI buying products. In very few incidences will the PI be the linchpin that gets you the sale even for capital products. Convince the postdocs, grad students, and technicians and you win.

Please no crappy graphs!

Almost every piece of product literature I picked up at the American Society for Cell Biology Meeting this year has a graph on it. Inevitably, the graph shows how much better the product performed against “random competitor A and B’s” product. Not one of them has error bars.
 

Hello…in case you didn’t notice, I’m a scientist. Every graph in every science paper has error bars because that means the scientists performed the experiment enough times to achieve statistical significance.
 

Life Science Marketers – you are selling products to scientists, go down to the basement where they are building new products and ask them why they buy the product vs. your competition.
 

Answers may include:
 

1. My buddy in another lab/company told me it works great.
 

2. I saw it in a manuscript that other scientists were successfully using the product for my…experiment, cell line, organism, technique, gene, etc.
 

3. I talked with a scientist at a meeting/seminar about the product and they said it worked.
 

I seriously doubt the graph with no error bars will make the list.

Myth #1 – The Lab Manager

Note: this article is intended for those selling lab consumables to life scientists; I’ll get to capital equipment another day.
 

At many of my talks to Life Science Marketers, I have tried to dispel the myth of the lab manager. It goes something like this….
 

You (the rep) walk into the lab and ask, “What lab is this?” The scientists all look up and tell you the lab name, but few look you in the eyes. You then ask for the “lab manager”. Sometimes you were even clever enough to figure out the lab manager’s name beforehand. Every scientist in the lab breathes a sigh of relief, points you to the lab manager, or the lab manager’s desk/office, or sometimes an empty desk that last quarter’s rotation student vacated for greener pastures. You then leave some fliers/literature/catalog/candy, or you talk with the lab manager and ask dumb questions (at the bottom, you can read my list of dumb questions to ask life scientists). Then you move on to the next lab glad to be out of there without getting radioactivity all over your shoes. Heck, perhaps even you make a sale or two.
 

Here’s the opportunity you missed. Those scientists that tried so hard to ignore you, they are the ones that use your products as well as your competitors’ products. They are struggling to isolate proteins, clone genes, create knockout mice, silence genes, get Western blots to work, etc. Many of them are quite desperate for a better kit, a better probe, or just some help. Here’s the strange thing; most of them see your products as a necessary evil, not a shining light. That makes you an even less desirable person to talk with.
 

Most important – The postdocs, grad students, and technicians use your products; therefore, they buy your products either directly with a credit card or indirectly through the lab manager. Never forget that!
 

What should you do? Simple, talk to the scientists. Give them value, give them help, give them free kits, take them out for beer! Gain their trust and they will buy your products.
 

Furthermore, at least in the US, many of the scientists you see in the labs are not native English speakers. Imagine what it would feel like to be working in a foreign country and have someone you have never seen in different clothes (tie, business suit) walk into the lab and start asking you questions. Hint – Learn a little Chinese.
 

Rusty’s list of dumb questions to ask life scientists (and lab managers) and why they are dumb:
 

1. Does your lab do…? (cell culture,cloning, pcr, mouse work, pipeting, western blotting)
 

Here’s a clue modern life science laboratories do every conceivable type of experiment all the time. Just because we are located in a Biochemistry Department doesn’t mean we only do Biochemistry. Furthermore, the lab manager has no clue that Bob the Post-Doc is planning on isolating a new protein in a week or that Cindy the graduate student can’t get her Western blots working.
 

2. Where do you buy your…?
 
The answer tells you nothing. Either we buy it from your company or the competition. 85 percent of the time, we just use whatever someone else in the lab bought 3 years ago.
 

3. How much are you paying…?
 
Since the lab manager or scientist you are talking with likely didn’t purchase 85% of the consumables in the lab, they don’t have a clue. Furthermore, no scientist except the PI, cares about a 10% savings on a kit. They just want it to work, give consistent results, and for the guy in the bench next to them to stop taking the last widget and not order more.