By Susan Walsh, CEO of Sales-Link Inc.
In the life science industry, finding your multi-million-dollar deal is within reach, even with all the challenges of leads that don't pan out, and significant investment in salaries and support staff.
This article discusses how to optimize your lead gen, sales, and marketing programs and develop a pipeline of business by using a virtual business development model. Whether in a traditional, or virtual department, the same industry rules for success apply. You must first know the answers to these questions: What are the KPIs? Who are your competitors in the market? What tools provide you with a sales advantage?
New Technologies Offer Advancement
The critical question in any sales effort should be: What could this opportunity turn into in say, a year, three years, or five years? It's a straightforward question but often overlooked or ignored. Given the long lead times for some sales opportunities, it is imperative to ask that question upfront. If the answer is clear that the potential is endless, then everyone on your team needs to get on board and push the opportunity forward.
Fortunately, for those companies who lack enthusiasm, or knowledge of sales organizational structures, there are alternatives. In the virtual outsourced model, a company outsources business development to service providers; this includes lead generation, marketing, and sales vendors. When you utilize new digital technologies, contact management systems, and CRMs in association with sales organizations, the combination makes for a robust new business toolkit. Modern technology has enabled sales teams to create pipelines that turn into significant revenue streams.
An example of technology that can revolutionize your team's progress is Tableau. With its ability to portray complex data in easily understood designs, it allows for people without knowledge in data analysis to quickly understand metrics from tables and graphs. Another technology tool that can revolutionize your sales team is Pharma BDI. A contact database/CRM, Pharma BDI, is filled with half a million contacts in the life science industry. These contacts have verified emails and phone numbers attached, streamlining the sales process. Pharma BDI allows you to set up search queues, so your prospect list is populated and ready with new connections every morning.
Start with Identifying Your Needs
Before you consider a virtual sales program, it is essential to understand your company's issues. Examine your strengths and weaknesses. What is working and what is not? If you have a clear understanding of your products or services, and a trained, relatively experienced sales team, but are still not landing sales, then you can benefit greatly by hiring an outsourced virtual business development team of lead generators and marketers. Your decision of who to hire depends on your needs. You might decide on a smaller company for a smaller investment, or you may need to invest in more highly experienced strategic resources.
A Successful Model
The expertise of pharmaceutical, biotech, and diagnostic companies generally don’t lie in sales and marketing, so many of them wisely take advantage of the benefits offered by outsourcing to an experienced virtual sales company with a great track record.
For an outsourcing sales business model to be successful and offer the most value, they must possess certain requirements :
Look for a company that has a well-defined marketing strategy and qualities that give it a significant competitive advantage.
Hire a company that has a robust internal manager who has the background, experiences, and knowledge to understand sales, lead generation, and marketing.
Find a company of sales professionals who are experts in cutting edge sales tools and analytic tools and can offer you dependable performance management.
Partner with a company that has a large database of potential prospects in the life science industry, that is verified and refreshed consistently for optimum results