Webinar Follow Up Questions

We recently presented a 30-minute live webinar on ways to improve your business development process.

The webinar recording is available here.

We also have an annotated transcript available, which you can request on this page.

A few follow up questions have come in. So in this post, we’ll answer a few of them.

What are good credentials for choosing a business development consultant?

If there was one credential, it would definitely be making sure that the strengths of the consultant or consulting firm match the needs you have at that point in time.

As we said during the webinar, business development is a process.

Different skills, and therefore different people, may be needed, depending on where you are in the process.

So, for example, a track record of closing deals is often necessary. But do you really need that now when you lack leads?

Perhaps what you need is someone who can help with copy, online marketing, preparing good presentations, and so forth.

Or maybe you need advice on how to close with a company outside your current geography?

Keep your needs in place, and keep in mind that it is a rare individual who can do all things well.

What if you’re doing everything correctly, yet a deal does not materialize?

As we said in the webinar, many, if not all of these issues should come to light well before the process begins.

Unfortunately, many CEOs are forced to play the hand they are dealt…trying to out-license an asset or technology which has little commercial value or which is too challenging to develop.

Why?

Typically, it’s because the asset has technical or commercial issues which make it unmarketable, such as poor patent life, lack of strong unique selling proposition, expensive clinical development program, poor reimbursement, etc., etc.

As we said in the webinar, many, if not all of these issues should come to light well before the process begins.

Unfortunately, many CEOs are forced to play the hand they are dealt…trying to out-license an asset or technology which has little commercial value or which is too challenging to develop.

If that’s the case, it may be a signal to the CEO to a) do the best he or she can, and b) start looking for that next opportunity!

You mentioned a few conferences during the Webinar. What were they? Are there others? 

You could probably spend the entire GDP from a small country on conferences. There are dozens of them.

As with anything else, the key is to match your needs to your audience.

For out-licensing your typical pharma or biotech assets, you can’t go wrong with BIO and BIO-Europe.

Smaller, local conferences, such as BioTrinity in the UK are also excellent, especially if you are looking for smaller, regional partners.