A CRO’s Worst Nightmare

Here’s a scenario:

For the last four years, a CRO sold Phase 1 and Phase 2 studies to their Pharma Sponsor Client.

The CRO was proud of their record; they delivered these studies accurately and on-time. The CRO offered all types of services for Phase 1 and 2 trials. To provide some of these services, they used in-house resources; for others, they used partners and suppliers.

The Sponsor seemed to be pleased with the CRO’s responsiveness and service level. The relationship deepened as the sponsor brought additional drug candidates to clinical trials. Eventually, the sponsor grew to become one of the CRO’s largest, most profitable clients.

One day, everything changed. The Pharma Sponsor stopped buying Phase 1 and Phase 2 services from the CRO supplier. A CRO competitor came along and took the account away. How could this happen? The Sponsor had expressed no reservations about the relationship or the service level.

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So what happened?

The competitor that took the work away did a better job of showing the Sponsor how they would create value. For example, the salesperson and his team inquired about the tools the Sponsor was using to optimize clinical trials. They pivoted the conversation to ways they could get better endpoints and set up the progression to trials in subsequent Phases.

Interestingly, just like the incumbent CRO, the competitor provided a comprehensive solution rather than selling a single service. Unfortunately for the incumbent, they stopped reminding the client of the value they provided and the full solution they could provide. They got complacent with the revenue they had and felt that their customer service and service offering would create client loyalty. Unfortunately for them, they were wrong.

They lost this account, and, interestingly, the competitor didn’t win it on price. They used a clear differentiation sales strategy to position the value of consolidating suppliers with a comprehensive solution which made a strong business case justifying a change. The incumbent was merely a service or product-pusher and did nothing to provide meaningful, differentiated value.

MarketMaker Can Help

This story parallels a dynamic we find in many CROs. They sell a product or service to a client and don’t have a strategy to position the full value they can bring to their Sponsors.

MarketMaker goes above and beyond to deliver high-quality opportunities directly to your sales team. If you’re seeing poor sales performance, check out our MarketMaker Program and start getting sales-qualified opportunities today.