Sales reps who combine their “offline” interpersonal skills with an “online” tech savvy approach will be the most successful in reframing scientists’ assumptions about the traditional role of a sales rep.
As life science companies continue to develop their mobile platforms, they should keep in mind that any technology they design should be part of a broader marketing strategy.
Scientists, like other consumers, are increasingly deciding what products to purchase via computer and mobile platforms. Consequently, sales reps will now close many sales by informing scientists about products that they have already spent a significant amount of time researching on the Internet.
While marketing departments at life science suppliers will craft the mobile marketing campaign, IT and web developers must be involved in the process to ensure that planned initiatives are technically feasible.
Most life science researchers spend much of their time searching for, creating and organizing data and information. The results of this survey confirm not only that scientists consume information from many different sources, but also that they do so via multiple platforms — desktop/laptop, smartphone and tablet — throughout the day.
Our August 2012 market report, “Mobile Marketing to Life Scientists” reveals that up to 25% of life scientists are very interested in interacting with their lab suppliers through mobile marketing programs similar to the ones they benefit from in their personal lives.
About 30% of the respondents indicated that they planned to evaluate the use of stem cell-derived cells within the next 12-months.
The demand for hepatocytes is met by many of the major commercial suppliers [e.g., Lonza, Gibco (Life Technologies)] as well as entities with a near exclusive focus on the needs of ADME/Toxicology researchers [e.g., Xenotech, Celsis IVT, BD Gentest (Corning Life Sciences)].
We also found that peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PMBCs), fibroblasts from various tissues and neurons are the most frequently used types of primary cells, and that there is very little difference between academic and industrial respondents in terms of cell types used with the exception of primary hepatocytes. 23% of the industrial respondents cite the use of hepatocytes, making them the second most widely used cell type in this segment.
Primary cell cultures more closely mimic the physiological state of cells in vivo and generate more relevant data representing living systems compared to transformed continuous cell lines. Primary cells are widely used—over half of those who perform cell culture use primary cells to achieve their research objectives.
