Life Science Marketing Radio

In my recent conversation with Larry Koplow, we talked about brand strategy in the life sciences, why, when and how. Defining Brand Strategy We kicked off the discussion with Larry describing the danger of not having a strategy. In a world overloaded with information, a brand has to cut through the noise and make its value clear. Even if a company has groundbreaking technology, it’s easy to be ove...

David Ormesher, the CEO of CGLife, and I had a conversation about communicating science broadly to the public and within the scientific community. David went immediately to the power of storytelling in making science approachable. He highlighted the hero’s journey, the narrative arc used in literature and film, as a powerful tool to engage various audiences, whether they are scientists, physicians...

By now, I imagine most of you have interacted with ChatGPT in some way. You can use it to summarize a document, brainstorm a campaign or plan a vacation away from technology. The capabilities are mind-boggling and the BS (if you detect it) is amusing. All that aside, how can you use an internal vertical GPT to serve your customers? I spoke to Ian Birkby , CEO of AZONetwork about Azthena, the inter...

Susanna Harris is the Director of Community at Breakout Ventures . She is also the Founder of PhD Balance , a collaborative community empowering graduate students to build their personal and professional resilience and the 2023 recipient of the SAMPS Young Person of the Year Award. This episode is a little different. For the last couple of years, I have interviewed the winner of that SAMPS award o...

Jeffrey Kiplinger is the co-founder and partner at Selling Science, a consulting firm dedicated to helping life science, contract research, and tools companies boost revenue by building and optimizing their scientific sales teams. He is also the author of the book " Expert to Entrepreneur. " Jeff shared his personal journey from obtaining a PhD in organic chemistry in the late '80s to his corporat...

Note: For this episode, I asked ChatGPT to write a summary based on the transcript of our conversation. I enjoy doing these interviews and consider myself a decent writer. However, it takes a lot of time each week to write a summary that I find minimally satisfying and acceptable. You deserve better and I can put my efforts to better use elsewhere or upgrading the whole experience here. I did ligh...

All of us in the life sciences are in the business of making the world healthier. The instruments and reagents we sell and the technologies and therapies that result save lives. A scientist (after a lot of research) will look at a disease or problem and say, “I think I can find a way to fix that.” Can we, as an industry, look at trade shows like a scientist would, and ask, “How can we do this bett...

I traveled to Disneyland Orange County for AACC ADLM back in July to connect with a few folks and walk the floors of the exhibit hall. I was on my way out when Derek Hamre from Launchworks CDMO stood up at his table and got my attention with the best elevator pitch I have ever heard. And that landed him a spot on my podcast. I’ll share what it was at the end of this post.* Imagine this scenario. Y...

Jamie Gier is the Chief Marketing Officer at Dexcare , responsible for establishing the company as a category leader in modernizing the way consumers discover, access, and choose their healthcare services – from digital search to booking an appointment. We enjoyed a wide-ranging discussion about marketing beginning with selling high-value products with long sales cycles and multiple decision maker...

Julie Garlikov is Chief Commercial officer at Sherlock Biosciences where they are developing over-the-counter diagnostics to put answers in the hands of consumers and empower them to make better health decisions. Sherlock is developing two platforms - a disposable test and a reusable reader for home diagnostics. You can listen to the podcast for some details on the science. Let’s focus here on VOC...

Cheri Walker and her colleagues started Rhinostics in the middle of the pandemic in response to the massive increase in testing volume required to keep faculty and students at Harvard safe from Covid. That’s a story in itself. The principals never met in person for the first nine months! We had all of our calls virtually. It was all done telephonically, I mean in Zoom. I basically started the comp...

Hiring people is difficult, expensive and risky. It’s a skill in itself for which most of us get very little practice. I talked to Ken Schmitt about how hiring has changed and a few things to think about when filling a role on your team. Fun fact: Ken got his first job at a staffing agency by answering an ad in a newspaper! Ken’s agency specializes in placing marketing and salespeople. I asked him...

It will come as no surprise that I have talked to a number of people in marketing and sales recently. (That’s literally half of my job.) Sometimes, those conversations all seem to point in the same direction. This month is one of those times. The theme that has arisen spontaneously is how potential customers become customers. And the assumptions we make around that. The assumptions are that: * Pot...

If you are a founder of a biotech or life science startup, you don’t want to miss this episode. If you’re not, you may still find it fascinating. I talked to Sal Buscemi about family offices and what kinds of assets they invest in. Until recently, I didn’t know what a family office was. These are people or families with at least 100 million dollars of investible assets. They represent a unique sou...

Steve Harvey and his business partner managed to raise enough money to rent some lab space in Cambridge (UK) to get started on an idea they had for synthesizing template-free DNA. The Start They invited an investor to meet them at the lab where they sat on the garden furniture Steve brought with him because they had nothing else. TL;DR They got more money. Camena Bioscience was getting started. Th...

Before becoming the CEO of Diaago, a distributor of labware for life science, Jackson Hyde spent some time managing a staffing agency, placing day labor with companies filling short-term needs. That gave him an appreciation of flexibility and an understanding of the diverse needs of employers but also employees. As the founder of Diaago, Jackson’s management approach emphasizes the importance of u...

If you don’t know SAMPS, you’ve been missing out. It’s the only association for Sales And Marketing Professionals serving the Sciences. I’ve been a member since 2014 and it has been a huge boost for me in terms of networking with and learning from like-minded professionals in our business. Live events are back and the European meeting takes place right after ESHG, June 12 (cocktails and appetizers...

I’m a big fan of The Prof G Podcast. Scott Galloway is a thoughtful guy and I’ve learned a lot from him. One of his common phrases is “It’s hard to read the label from inside the bottle.” By that, he means, whether looking at ourselves or our business, it’s very helpful to get some outside advice. This definitely applies to companies pitching to investors. First of all, the story you tell is very...

David Enloe is an organizational culture architect. I found him on LinkedIn and had to find out what that was besides damn good personal branding. I’m always interested in company culture, its value, and how it’s established and sustained. He was hired as the CEO of Societal CDMO in the midst of the pandemic, coming on board without even an onsite visit, to work with people he had never met. His o...

“Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Sell him the hook, line and rod and get a higher valuation.” - Unknown ;-) KromaTiD™ is in the business of helping researchers working on cell and gene therapies make sure, for example, that their CRISPR edits are going to the right places and not causing unwanted structural variations. Those cells ultimately go back into patients and safety is a top conce...

Just as scientists are curious about the “how” of the world, Lee Jay Lowenstein was curious about the “why”. That led to his becoming an ordained Orthodox rabbi. He was also a high school teacher and principal before spending some time in a non-profit as a fundraiser. At that point, he must have had some sales skills, but wanted something more. With no real background in life science other than st...

Cole Yancey was unsatisfied being a bench scientist. So much so, he asked the freezer repair guy about how to get out of the lab. “Maybe I can do what you’re doing.” The freezer guy was not helpful. It reminds me of a scene from Top Gun . 1st Lesson in Networking Cole started chatting up sales reps who came by the lab. One took him under his wing and soon Cole was having lots of conversations with...

David Nathan wrote a children’s book in the carpool line at his kids’ school. ChatGPT delivered the text and he used Midjourney to illustrate the main character. Generative AI applications like ChatGPT and Midjourney are dominating conversations in the marketing world recently. The last episode of cc: Life Science covered possible uses and concerns around Chat GPT which generates text responses to...

Have you been considering creating a podcast for your company? You may be wondering about gear, recording and editing software, structuring interviews etc… Long-time listeners will recognize my buddy David Shifrin . He and I started podcasting at about the same time and have shared our discoveries and methods with each other as they evolve over time. He currently works as the Senior Manager for Co...

Buy both of these Limited Availability recordings for a penny! and I’ll send you two more interviews with outstanding life science marketers every month! If you aren’t happy with what I send, well it’s actually free ;-) This double box set includes 2 individual winners from the 2022 SAMPS Awards , presented at Neuroscience in December. Olivier (Ollie) Welaratne is the General Manager at Red Box Di...