IBO attended the fifth annual meeting of the Association of Commercial Professionals­–Life Sciences (ACP-LS) in Boston, Massachusetts, from October 25 to 27, where collaboration was the dominant theme of the event.  ACP-LS is the premier society of all life science commercial professionals dedicated to selling and marketing to organizations that discover, develop and manufacture pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, medical device, and diagnostic products and therapies.

Mary Kachinsky, vice president of Strategic Sourcing at Forma Therapeutics, started the event on the right foot with her opening keynote, “Demystifying Procurement.” Her lively presentation showed participants how to partner with procurement teams by understanding what their goals are and the types of questions they should ask. For example, is the company in growth mode or saving mode?

Panels

The meeting featured several panel discussions and a lot of attendee interaction. A panel of two senior scientists, two early-career scientists and two procurement specialists, convened by Bill Kelly, president of BioInformatics LLC, answered questions about purchasing decisions and what they look for when buying from life science suppliers. The discussion centered on the recognition that as older scientists retire, they make room for newly trained scientists who bring updated skills to the lab and new approaches to problem solving and information searching. The implications of those generational differences were discussed as they relate to social media, influencer marketing–sponsored content and other forms of marketing communication.

Three commercial experts from smaller companies like Lucigen as well as behemoths like Thermo Fisher Scientific shared their experience, answering questions from their peers. Public relations pros from Thermo Fisher Scientific, Waters and Spectrum Science Communications joined an editor from Chemical & Engineering News magazine to discuss what is important in earned media and how it is changing with the advent of social media.

Life science companies continue to use funding and other data to guide their marketing and sales programs. Andy Bertera, executive director of Marketing at New England Biolabs, and Craig Dobbs, vice president of Marketing and Sales at TriLink Biotechnologies, joined Aaron Sorenson, Bibliometrics Engagement leader for UberResearch, to lay out the types of data available and how to use them to identify opportunities in the context of a case study around the first CAR-T therapy approved for childhood leukemia.

Breakouts

In the breakout sessions, sales and business development professionals learned about prospecting, account planning, the use of dashboards for better forecasting and the importance of adding value in the sales process. The presentation of David Hanna, Director, Genotyping Sales, Americas Region for Affymetrix, “Negotiating Deals is Neither Art nor Science: It’s a Conversation” focused on aligning the interests of buyers and sellers to create a buying process that benefits both parties and is resolved as quickly as possible, underlining the importance of collaboration.

Marketers got to see what is hot in social media from Dan Markham, the host of the wildly successful YouTube channel “What’s Inside?,” as well as experienced how virtual reality will impact life science, and discovered how content creation and better use of Google Analytics will lead to more revenue for their companies.

Helping members succeed and grow in their careers is the core of the ACP-LS mission. Sessions on “Becoming an Extraordinary Leader” and “Managing Up: How to Influence Your Boss” showed attendees the skills they need to work in every direction on the org chart. In “Managing Up”, Gwen Acton, CEO of Vivo Group, pointed out that aligning your goals with your boss’ doesn’t mean doing what he or she says. It means the path to a good outcome is positioning your needs as complementary.

The first Annual SAMI (Sales And Marketing in the [Life Science] Industry) Award for Mentorship was presented to Kurt Mussina, general manager, Frenova. Joe Dustin, principal, Mobile Health, Medidata Solutions, and a protégé of Mr. Messina’s said, “He helped me chart out a career path when no path was being charted for me, and gave me the mindset to consider things I wouldn’t have otherwise. A good boss cares about you, and not just what’s on a spreadsheet.”

Hamid Ghanadan, founder of The Linus Group, received a Special Recognition Award for his contribution to the life science industry. Mr. Ghanadan has long served the community by providing insights into strategies and procedures for marketing to scientists. Those insights and his passion have influenced many if not most of the marketers in the industry and their careers as well.

Beyond the formal agenda, attendees valued most the opportunity to network with their peers and understand they are not alone in their challenges. The relaxed, open environment ensured that everyone walked away with new friends and new ideas.