Our client is a global pharmaceutical contract manufacturing organisation (CMO) with multiple divisions spanning the entire drug development lifecycle. With a global value of $656 million they have assets across North America, Europe and Asia and are one of the few MHRA supersites. Involved at the early stages of API and pre-formulation clinical trials, including phases I to IV, they work through to the manufacturing, packaging and distribution of the drug delivery process.

Due to the sensitive nature of the pharmaceutical industry and operating within a finite marketplace, our client was wary of pro-active engagement for new business as they had traditionally relied on existing relationships, which can take years to come to fruition. Coupled with the fact that the decision-making units are complex and sales-cycles are lengthy, there was an initial scepticism as to whether we would be able to identify the right profile of new business opportunities and strategic alliances, whilst at the same time grasping the niche nature of our client’s products and services.

What we did

Due to the highly niche profile of organisations within the sector, there was limited data available to contact and so we began by building a prospect database and enhancing current internal datasets to account map key influencers and decision makers prime for contact. The focus of the initial campaign was on formulation development prospecting, targeting medium to large bio-tech companies across the EU and the US. International calling was therefore required, scheduling activity according to the multiple different time-zones.

Working across the entire drug development cycle, often the drug discovery and developmental activities are organised under separate business models and across different business functions. It was therefore crucial that we were able to understand the makeup of each prospect organisation to establish where projects were born and how they were managed.

We were then able to qualify potential opportunities and secure appointments for the business development team to progress, arranging introductions with Clinical Trials Managers, QA Managers, Head of Procurement/Outsourcing and Research and development Managers. A soft-sell approach was necessary in order to nurture prospects and build long-lasting relationships. We also gathered key information with regards to infrastructure, buying cycles and procurement frameworks.

What we achieved

As our relationship has developed, we’ve gained an in-depth understanding of the organisation, their processes and how they are positioned within the market. Due to the lengthy sales cycle, long term relationship building was key, and in total we successfully progressed 78% of decision makers spoken to along the sales pipeline. We have utilized a number of key account mapping techniques in order to broaden the client’s target market and ensure the best possible chance of uncovering future opportunities that are relevant and more likely to lead to a sustainable additional revenue stream. Building a clean contact set throughout the campaign has enabled us to carry out regular email marketing on behalf of the client, designing engaging and targeted content to further enhance their marketing strategy.

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