B2B Sales

As our next panel moderator, we sat down with Larry Miller, the Managing Director of Life Sciences at Innovation Works to get a few tips on B2B sales and how the sales process has progressed during his time in the industry.

Marketing

When Larry first started out, marketing responsibilities typically included finding and identifying customers and then handing that information off to the sales force. In order to identify the medical market, sales teams would give marketers lists of hospitals provided by the government and medical societies. Marketing teams went from hospital to hospital while being tracked by sales management to see what was actually done. This was before customer relations management software tools were available, so teams used handwritten reports and phone calls to track progress during a sale.

Customer Relations Management Software and Cell phones

Soon, two disruptive technologies came into play; customer relations management software programs and cell phones. Now sales teams could do the work from their cell phones which changed the economics on how a company staffed. The CRMs allowed sales teams to understand that there were now multiple decision points in hospitals and sales and marketing strategies could be more targeted.

Social Media and Digital Marketing

The next big leap was social media and digital marketing. Now, messages on Twitter and Facebook will often be the first sales call instead of the sales rep knocking on your door. The trick now is knowing when to convert from finding leads digitally or searching through databases to figuring out how to find the decision makers.

Today

Companies today who do B2B sales using social media and digital marketing still use the classic marketing approach of identifying codes, going to meetings and getting lists, however, they can have impact on a much larger scale using these tools.

Which leads us to Larry’s four tips to B2B sales:

1. Education (technical, economic, clinical and ROI)
2. Face to Face meetings
3. Proof of concept readily available (an index of papers and referrals from satisfied customers)
4. Closing face to face is still key!

“A lot of quantification and readiness of due diligence is now done by an inside salesperson.” So what should your main goal be? Getting the face to face meeting.

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Larry Miller is the Managing Director of Life Sciences at Innovation Works. He works with early-stage life sciences companies, medical device companies and other start-ups to address their critical business needs issues including product and business development, fundraising, sales and marketing, and strategic planning. Prior to joining Innovation Works, Larry was President and CEO of Biomec, a privately held technology accelerator and investment company which raised over $20M in SBIR grants and provided contract engineering and manufacturing as well as business development consulting for radiology product manufacturers and distributors. Previously, Larry was President of the Healthcare Products group at Picker International and Philips Medical systems, a $600M distributor of radiology supplies. He also managed the Asia/ Pacific region for sales and service of the diagnostic imaging product portfolio, and was president of the Picker Financial Group, a JV, captive leasing company. Other experience included leading the marketing and sales of CT and MRI products for Picker and General Electric Medical systems.

You can meet Larry and other B2B sales professionals on Wednesday, September 26th at Cafe Innovation. RSVP here.

By Ashley Lopez, IW Associate EIR.