Life Science Marketing Radio

Susanna Harris talks about her communications role in the biotech venture capital world.

  Joey Von Nessen is an economist who has been researching the life science industry in South Carolina. He joined me to talk about the growth and economic impact of life sciences on the South Carolina economy. When we look at what's been happening over the last several years, it’s just the rapid expansion of the industry itself. And if we look in the Southeast and put these numbers in context, we find that South Carolina has seen the fastest growing life science industry since 2017 in the Southeast. And one of the reasons for that is because it is a smaller industry and it's been really blossoming in recent years. But also because of all the efforts of SCBIO and others and the infrastructure and competitive advantages that South Carolina offers. Joey described the factors that support the demand for that growth, some of which is related to demographics. Every demographic trend at US level is more acute in SC than the national average: Older Military Retired And a lot of retirees are moving to South Carolina creating a larger demand for healthcare. We also talked about other factors that help to support a growing life science industry. While we typically think of big university clusters in biotech, R&D is only part of the value chain. Joey described infrastructure, land availability for manufacturing and a strong technical college system that can be a good starting point for a growing life science sector. SCBIO Joey at University of South Carolina Check out cc: lifescience (New podcast and newsletter covering AI and other tech in life science.) Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5 About My Guest … Joseph C. Von Nessen is a research economist in the Division of Research at the Darla Moore School of Business where he specializes in regional economics, regional economic forecasting and housing economics. He regularly conducts a wide variety of economic impact analyses, feasibility studies and independent market research projects for clients in both the private and public sector.   

  “What is this data delusion?” you may ask. Wayne Cerullo explained it to me. When you think of data, you probably think of numbers. Those numbers represent something that you knew you needed to measure. But they don’t give you any insight into what they mean - the “why” behind them. It’s the things you don’t know that you don’t know (Donald Rumsfeld’s unknown unknowns) that will hurt you. Here’s an example he gave: We've done so many projects where obvious behavior led to non-obvious learning. I'll mention a quick story for a major data security company. They were coming out with version 11 of software. …it's version 11… First of all, why do we need to know anything? And second. What's the role of the person who’s coming out with version 11? Well, obviously to show how it's better than version 10. Why else would we be doing this? The ironic thing that they didn't know, nobody knew because it was obvious only in hindsight was that the last thing their customers wanted was how this version was better than the previous version. They didn't want to know that. In fact, the more you talked about it, the more they covered their ears. Why? Because from a buyer's perspective, what was obvious to buyers, but not to sellers was that you've already done 10 versions of this. So the fact that it's version 11 means you guys are on top of this. New customers aren’t interested in the incremental improvements from 10 to 11. (Spinal Tap anyone?) They want to know how the software solves their problem. The bottom line for the entire episode is that it is still (maybe more than ever) important to talk to potential customers as well as customers that bought from a competitor, about why they want or don’t want what you are offering. Maybe you’re just positioning your product or service incorrectly. And that needs to be done on a customer by customer basis when you finally get down to the sale. Sometimes we’re too close to the product and it’s development to understand what makes it attractive. As Scott Galloway often says, “It’s hard to read the label from inside the bottle.” Wayne on LinkedIn B2P Partners Check out cc: lifescience (New podcast and newsletter covering AI and other tech in life science.) Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Wayne Cerullo is Chief Prospect Officer at B2P Partners.   

Lily Elsner talks about the path to her job as Head of Strategy at Arctoris, a startup working on small molecule drug development.

Lily Elsner talks about her job as Head of Strategy at Arcturus, a startup working on small molecule drug development.

  Raman Sehgal’s first job out of college was working as a marketer for Heinz ketchup. But that moved too slow. (See what I did there?) After being told that big pharma would never buy anything by searching online, a CMO client of the agency he worked at landed a big contract based on work he had done for them. He thought, “This stuff works everywhere else. Why not here?” He learned a lot about clinical trials and pharma in that job and eventually started his own agency. We talked a lot about his journey, hiring a CEO and focusing on a very specific niche, companies that sell outsourced services to pharma. One can imagine in a niche like that, it can be difficult to become known. That’s the problem his company, ramarketing, solves for them. While they did dip their toes into other markets, he realized that pharma clients are nice to work with and pay the bills on time. We also had a fun little chat about employer branding, which has become very important in the life science talent hunt these days. I personally think job descriptions say a lot about what your company is like and deserve a lot of thought. Raman has written a book about his experience as a founder with 24 lessons - 12 about business and 12 about individuals. Link below. Raman on LinkedIn The Floundering Founder Ramarketing Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Raman Sehgal is the founder of ramarketing and host of the Molecule to Market Podcast.   

  Compliance isn’t sexy. But it can be interesting if you know a good storyteller. Tom Fox is that storyteller. You’ve probably sat through a training every year to make sure you don’t end up costing your company thousands of dollars in fines, or worse. You can also imagine that there are some juicy tales about people who knowingly or not broke the law. Tom shared an example of someone taking $200,000 in cash across the border to Mexico. If you’re saying, “No one could be that dumb”, you haven’t seen Fargo. Our conversation was about how podcasts can make compliance more interesting and get people to remember to speak up and ask questions when they are unsure of something. The good news is that Tom has a number of podcasts that look at compliance from every angle. What can the Marvel Cinematic Universe teach us about compliance? Check out his podcast network to find out. Tom on LinkedIn The Compliance Podcast Network Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. cc: lifescience (my new newsletter) Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Tom Fox is The Voice of Compliance, Executive Leader at The C-Suite Network and Founder of The Compliance Podcast Network   

  I am hopeful that we will be getting back to normal soon. That means more in-person events. Bonni Scepkowski, Founder at Stellar Meetings and Events, has some thoughts about how to make the most of your time together whether with your team or your customers. Why have a meeting at all? The most essential reason is to build relationships. We know now that a lot can be done online. But there is magic in getting folks together and getting to know each other, sharing stories and hanging out after a session. How do we ensure that happens? Put some thought into the agenda. If information can be distributed in advance, do it. No spreadsheets on a screen. This is the time to have a conversation about what is on the spreadsheet, not to discover what’s on it. Whenever possible, get outside for breakouts because everyone is already looking out there, not at your spreadsheet on the screen (see above). Fresh air is nice and a little less formality probably encourages interaction. For small groups, try a Steve Jobs style walk and talk. Record it with a phone. (They’re surprisingly good!) Finally, Bonni is a big fan of getting all your customers together to learn from each other and share best practices. While you are learning about their needs, they are making connections and getting better at what they do. You’ve essentially created a Mastermind group. I hope I get to see at least some of you somewhere in 2022. If you get to the Bay Area, let me know. I’m happy to meet you somewhere. Bonni on LinkedIn Stellar Meetings and Events cc:lifescience Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5    

  Does a scientist (or any of us) need a personal brand? I know from LinkedIn, this can be a (mildly) controversial topic. We’re not talking about becoming a celebrity. Think of it as cultivating your reputation and making it easier for people who need your expertise to find it. Jennifer Andrews is the founder of Fresh Leaf Marketing in Ontario, Canada. She explained why a personal brand can benefit not only you but also your company. Spoiler: your company shouldn’t discourage it. People with a strong personal brand have a consistent presence and become known for one thing. Wouldn’t you want to be known, the go-to person for whatever you do? That’s the goal here. Jennifer has a three part strategy to get you there. Step one is to have a strategy. Step two is define your personal brand. Step three is use media to amplify your message. Figure out your “why?” Why do you like what you do, the thing you want to be known for? People that know you well would naturally say this about you. Then what is your core message - the one thing you want to talk about from every angle. Consistency here is key. You don’t want to confuse people about your area of expertise. Finally, you have to get comfortable talking about it in the channels where your audience is listening. This can be difficult for anyone, especially some scientists. At the end I asked Jennifer if I really needed brand colors. She explained that it is indeed helpful to use a consistent palette if for no other reason than it may help people pause scrolling their feed when they see your posts. I’ll just add that if you have something to offer the world, and I’m pretty sure you do, it would be a shame not to share it in the best way possible. Jennifer on LinkedIn Fresh Leaf Marketing Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5    

  This episode is about what you might call customer service for physicians but the concept seems applicable to life science more broadly in terms of helping customers access timely information. Sandy Donaldson describes Impiricus, a platform for doctors to access resources e.g. samples or prior authorization, to support their patients via simple text request. Impiricus have developed a two-sided marketplace to connect doctors and pharma companies. The platform features a concierge service which removes much of the friction of having to look for resources in a fragmented marketplace online. Physicians also get information from pharma companies, curated by a physician counsel to keep them up to date on relevant and impactful information, And they are rolling out Doc X. These are series, Derm X, Neurology X and Onc X, of 3-5 minute peer-led videos providing information of innovations or Congress highlights. The lesson here is to make it easy to find help at the moment it is needed and add value by continually providing up-to-date, curated content. Sandy on LinkedIn Impiricus Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Sandy Donaldson is the CEO at Impiricus.   

  This episode is about what you might call customer service for physicians but the concept seems applicable to life science more broadly in terms of helping customers access timely information. Sandy Donaldson describes Impiricus, a platform for doctors to access resources e.g. samples or prior authorization, to support their patients via simple text request. Impiricus have developed a two-sided marketplace to connect doctors and pharma companies. The platform features a concierge service which removes much of the friction of having to look for resources in a fragmented marketplace online. Physicians also get information from pharma companies, curated by a physician counsel to keep them up to date on relevant and impactful information, And they are rolling out Doc X. These are series, Derm X, Neurology X and Onc X, of 3-5 minute peer-led videos providing information of innovations or Congress highlights. The lesson here is to make it easy to find help at the moment it is needed and add value by continually providing up-to-date, curated content. Sandy on LinkedIn Impiricus Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Sandy Donaldson is the CEO at Impiricus.   

  This episode is a little different. Adrienne Leussa invited me to be the first guest on her podcast, Africa Biotech Conversations, which I was happy to do. We traded questions back and forth about our audiences our goals and our experiences in our life science communities. Her vision is to create connections within the African biotech community. I was curious about the challenges they face. Spoiler: funding and investment. But there is also a huge opportunity. The population is very diverse. Among other things. there is a project underway to sequence three million African genomes. Make sure you follow Adrienne and check out her podcast. Adrienne on LinkedIn Africa Biotech Conversations Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Adrienne Leussa Ph.D. is the host of Africa Biotech Conversations and the Director of Ecosystem Partnerships at 54gene.   

  Chris Cullman described for me the challenges of marketing to physicians and the opportunities he sees for getting and holding their attention. While the context for this conversation was for marketing pharma brands to doctors, it is completely applicable for marketing to scientists. Both audiences have the expectations that any of us have as consumers. The lines between the world of work and everything else are gone. We want the information or support anytime, anywhere and if your brand can’t provide that experience, someone else will. What are you doing to match the highest expectations of customer experience? …there's a choice to be made when the physicians make a prescription. There's a choice to be made when they make a referral. There's a choice to be made perceptually when they invite a rep to come into their practice and when they search if they're going to search for information about a product, about specific brands and you see the manufacturer's website and they've been there before. Or they know the manufacturer and they think that's a bad user experience, that they're not going to get the information they want. There's a long list of choices, both competitors and other sources, for that same brand that are not the manufacturer. Just from that one use case, the value of creating a better user experience and the value of making that information easily accessible, it needs to be clear. Another challenge is, of course, attribution and data. Because of privacy, you will never see the final step of who saw what and wrote a script. Understanding what data is available and what gives you the most accurate picture is key to reaching your audience. For me the most interesting bits of our conversation were the following and related to some of the recent conversations on this podcast. The first is using storytelling to give customers (doctors, scientists) a reason to reach out to your sales team to learn about new therapies or products. What kind of stories can you tell that draw people to your brand because of how it makes them feel? This may sound a little squishy but the reality is that this is how we make decisions. Brands may attract or repel us. Which brand do you want to do business with? As an example, Chris talked about the idea of putting two KOLs in a room with a camera and let them talk about an idea they find interesting. He points out that when this happens, before the camera is on, the banter can be fascinating. Why not roll with all (or at least more) of it and breathe some life into your efforts? There will always be concern with compliance and review, but I think companies will learn what needs to be edited and get even better over time to take advantage of this opportunity to speak authentically and about meaningful things. Let me know what you think in the comments. Chris Cullman on LinkedIn Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris Conner about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Chris Cullman is the Executive Vice President and General Manager at RevHealth.   

  Chris Cullman described for me the challenges of marketing to physicians and the opportunities he sees for getting and holding their attention. While the context for this conversation was for marketing pharma brands to doctors, it is completely applicable for marketing to scientists. Both audiences have the expectations that any of us have as consumers. The lines between the world of work and everything else are gone. We want the information or support anytime, anywhere and if your brand can’t provide that experience, someone else will. What are you doing to match the highest expectations of customer experience? …there's a choice to be made when the physicians make a prescription. There's a choice to be made when they make a referral. There's a choice to be made perceptually when they invite a rep to come into their practice and when they search if they're going to search for information about a product, about specific brands and you see the manufacturer's website and they've been there before. Or they know the manufacturer and they think that's a bad user experience, that they're not going to get the information they want. There's a long list of choices, both competitors and other sources, for that same brand that are not the manufacturer. Just from that one use case, the value of creating a better user experience and the value of making that information easily accessible, it needs to be clear. Another challenge is, of course, attribution and data. Because of privacy, you will never see the final step of who saw what and wrote a script. Understanding what data is available and what gives you the most accurate picture is key to reaching your audience. For me the most interesting bits of our conversation were the following and related to some of the recent conversations on this podcast. The first is using storytelling to give customers (doctors, scientists) a reason to reach out to your sales team to learn about new therapies or products. What kind of stories can you tell that draw people to your brand because of how it makes them feel? This may sound a little squishy but the reality is that this is how we make decisions. Brands may attract or repel us. Which brand do you want to do business with? As an example, Chris talked about the idea of putting two KOLs in a room with a camera and let them talk about an idea they find interesting. He points out that when this happens, before the camera is on, the banter can be fascinating. Why not roll with all (or at least more) of it and breathe some life into your efforts? There will always be concern with compliance and review, but I think companies will learn what needs to be edited and get even better over time to take advantage of this opportunity to speak authentically and about meaningful things. Let me know what you think in the comments. Chris Cullman on LinkedIn Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris Conner about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Chris Cullman is the Executive Vice President and General Manager at RevHealth.   

  How do you get buy-in on a big idea like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&!) in a global company with nearly 60,000 employees? Renee Connolly, Chief DE&I Officer at Merck KGAa Darmstadt Germany, joined me to talk about corporate communications in this context because the company believes it pays dividends for their business. We covered a lot of ground. You’ve probably heard this before: Content is King. For any topic, you have to understand that a message that resonates will be more adopted more easily. That starts with a lot of listening on everyone’s part. Just having conversation with coworkers to understand them as humans is a great start. In terms of strategy, Renee laid out a three part framework for thinking about how they will achieve their goals. How do we create diverse teams at the table when making decisions? What practices can take DE&I into consideration when developing and selling products? How do we (as individuals) show up? The conversation went deeper into how to get buy-in at every level and see real adoption. Remember: “It’s a learning curve for everyone. …taking the time to make people understand what role they play in creating an inclusive environment is really the key…” Renee on LinkedIn Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Renee Connolly is the Chief DE&I Officer at Merck KGAa, Darmstadt, Germany.   

  When a physician is deciding which therapy to prescribe for a cancer patient, there is a window of 6-12 days while waiting for test results. Ideally, if your company has an appropriate drug, this is the time you’d like to get in front of that doctor with the right message through the right channel. Hemal Somaiya, Global Brand Lead for Oncology at Merck KGAa, Darmstadt, Germany joined me to talk about how that can happen using data and AI. She described a process that will send emails with different subject lines if the first is unopened. The AI component chooses subject lines and content flow (different educational emails) based on the doctor’s previous responses. What message or subject line is most likely to trigger an open? Because message approval in pharma is time consuming, there is a collection of pre-approved messages available, keeping the content creation challenge to a minimum. If you are curious about how AI can be used to target customers in a timely way, this episode is for you. Hemal on LinkedIn Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Hemal Somaiya is the US/Global Brand Lead for the Oncology Portfolio at Merck KGAa Darmstadt Germany.   

  I’m not sure how it started, but Frank Dolan and I were having a conversation and I became curious about disease state education . Who would attend and why? What are the benefits for a company about to launch a new product? And what might this look like in a virtual world? This podcast conversation was in the context of biopharma but it is relevant for all of life sciences. Disease state education is content marketing plain and simple. Before a brand (new drug) is approved you can’t talk about it or make any claims. That doesn’t stop you from growing an audience to build trust and credibility for your company. Whether you are a biotech launching your first drug or a startup instrument manufacturer struggling for awareness, gathering experts to talk about the disease state or state-of-the-art is an opportunity to be recognized and learn about your potential customers. Frank on LinkedIn Arsenal Advisors EVENTS: Medicine to Market Summit: Brand Breakthroughs Live Webinar: Life Science Marketing Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Frank Dolan is the CEO of Arsenal Advisors. He is on a mission to elevate trust, transparency, and effectiveness in life science   

  Even when you are an expert, maybe especially when you are an expert, writing about science can be difficult. Justine Dees is a microbiologist who embraced the idea of sharing her knowledge and love of science to become a blogger and content marketer for life science companies. Writing doesn’t come easily to most people. And many scientists don’t have an efficient process to create useful content in a reasonable amount of time. Justine took the time to practice, to find her voice, and to figure out the “What’s in in for them?” and become a content marketer. We talked about the value of blogs, email personalization, and writing in a conversational style to make a better connection with the scientists in your audience. You can either learn to write joyfully, or find someone who can. Justine on LinkedIn Joyful Microbe Justine’s Website EVENTS: Medicine to Market Summit: Brand Breakthroughs Live Webinar: Life Science Marketing Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Justine Dees is a Science Writer, Content Marketer, and founder of the Joyful Microbe blog and podcast.   

  This episode is a mix of career and marketing. Dan Chichester was a comic book writer and editor before he transitioned to healthcare marketing. I promise you will dig this episode. We talked about: How comic books are made and how it relates to healthcare marketing. Dan transferred the skills of managing large teams of creatives and sharing a vision from his first career to the next. Embracing your unique background outside of science or healthcare. After downplaying his background he realized he was shortchanging himself and his clients. Embracing his unique experience gave him confidence and power. Pushing the limits in creative storytelling allows a better chance for something extraordinary to happen. You will get knocked down a bit, so aim high. You can move people’s imagination and inspire them. Building trust with clients when pushing creativity. Enthusiasm turns inspiration into a purposeful point of view. Be clear about what your new tech is going to do for the client so ideas can take root and allies get on board. Focus on end result rather than whatever tech you need to get there. What will the audience experience with your creative vision? Creating a positive vision for the future (with a record number of pop culture references in this podcast.) How do we take people into a future of opportunity and embrace potential? Can you create an extraordinary vision? We need more “What comes next” story lines. Dan on LinkedIn Dan’s Website Storymaze Newsletter Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Dan Chichester is a writer, a strategist, and a creative consultant with significant experience in healthcare and marketing. Prior to his marketing career, he was a writer and editor for Marvel Comics.   

    Bob Lempke is a partner and Chief Revenue Officer at Mobile Locker, an engagement platform for healthcare providers and others in pharma, life science and beyond. He joined me to talk about the challenges and opportunities for sales people in the new environment (Covid) which doesn’t look to be going away anytime soon. How Covid has changed the landscape: Over 50% of HCPs say they will not go back to pre-covid protocols in terms of office access at any time in the foreseeable future.  Email as a communication channel with HCPs is up over 300% from pre-pandemic levels. Virtual meetings are up to six times longer on average than a typical face-to-face session.  (19. minutes for virtual vs 3 for face-to-face.) New ways of engaging :  A sales person needs to be able to engage customers by phone, email, zoom, webinar or whatever - maybe all in one day. In those longer meetings there may be more questions so you need to be prepared to go a little deeper in the conversation. Measuring Content: Without as much face to face, how can one build those relationships to where a customer would say, “This person understands my situation?” Content that provides feedback on consumption. What gets opened? What gets read? This is the information that lets you see what specifically is of interest to a potential customer so you can personalize your communications. Bob on LinkedIn Mobile Locker Schedule a 15 minute chat with Chris about content. Leave an iTunes Review. Intro Music stefsax / CC BY 2.5   About My Guest … Bob Lempke is a partner and Chief Revenue Officer at Mobile Locker, an engagement platform for healthcare providers and others in pharma, life science and beyond.