Opening the Door to Bioresearch Partnerships and Investor Opportunities

You’ve identified a promising opportunity to partner with another research or venture capital group. You’re ready to reach out, introduce your organization’s capabilities, and get the ball rolling.

So, what’s your first step?

Business is full of potential partnership opportunities that can make your company stronger. To take advantage of those opportunities, you need a strategy for:

1. Getting in the door
2. Making your pitch
3. Leaving your audience something to think about

Perfecting your pitch means showing where your organization’s goals and capabilities overlap those of your potential partner with the underlying message that by working together, you can reach those goals faster.

A well-designed Partner Marketing Kit can help you take that first step. It’s a physical communication tool that helps you formulate that strategy, structure your presentation and make a lasting impression.

Why Partner Pitches Matter

One of our new Bioresearch clients recently told me the story of how he turned a long-time competitor into a multi-million dollar customer. It all started with him reaching out to see how his company might be a resource to his rival.

By initiating this conversation, my client discovered that he and his competitor shared key business values and goals that they addressed with very different capabilities. Specifically, both companies were focused on accelerating the Biopharm discovery process to improve human health. By combining each company’s unique offering, they were able to deliver better overall solutions to the end client— clinical bioresearch labs. And they both benefitted from the unlikely partnership.

Though my client’s collaborative efforts were successful, he wished he had a Sales Sheet of sorts to tell his story before he showed up to make his pitch and that he could leave behind after the meeting.

He was describing a Partner Marketing Kit.

What is a Partner Marketing Kit?

A Partner Marketing Kit is a hybrid communication asset that helps Bioresearch companies communicate shared goals and values with competitors, potential scientific partners, investors, and even the media. The difference between the Partner Marketing Kit (PMK) and a traditional Sell Sheet is that the PMK is designed to highlight combined capabilities: Those of your company and those of your potential partner. The goal is to show how those capabilities can complement one another.

Traditional Sell Sheets outline your company’s capabilities and give your sales team reference tools to use during discussions with potential clients and customers. Certainly a Sell Sheet is the perfect tool for customer sales visits, but they are one-sided, which can be limiting when discussing a potential collaboration.

Instead, a Partner Marketing Kit is customized for each pitch opportunity. It tells the story of your company’s values, business goals and capabilities, while simultaneously addressing the business goals and capabilities of potential partnerships. A successful kit will leave room for you to add information such as recent press releases, news articles, graphs and other facts that support your case.

A Partner Marketing Kit is designed to:

• Open the Door to Conversation
  You can send the kit to introduce your company and invite a prospect to a face-to-face meeting.
• Make A Strong Pitch
  The PMK is a useful tool for steering the conversation and highlighting where your interests meet those of a potential partner. It prompts and supports talking points during your pitch.
• Leave a Lasting Impression
  Partner Marketing Kits are just as useful as a Leave Behind, because they can house as much information as you would like to share with a prospect. You may include data sheets, articles or financial projections that you don’t have time to address during your meeting. A PMK keeps your proposal top-of-mind, and can answer questions potential partners have after your meeting has ended.

The main goal of an effective Partner Marketing Kit is to focus the conversation on where your Biopharm or Life Science company’s goals and capabilities overlap those of your potential partner. The underlying message is that by working together, you can reach those goals faster.

Elements in the Bioresearch PMK may include:

• Visual techniques that highlight the unmet customer needs you are hoping to address by partnering with the other entity
• Individual data sheets that summarize capabilities and can be pulled as necessary to support talking points
• News and Press Releases that highlight your company’s previous successes
• Additional pages for taking notes or outlining plans with potential partners

A Partner Marketing Kit is not a one-size-fits all solution. Rather it is customizable for each endeavor, making it the ideal vehicle for sparking meaningful conversations.

At Cushman Creative, we specialize in creating Partner Marketing Kits that make others want to learn more about your company, join your cause, and commit to win-win collaborations.

If you’re curious about how Partnership Marketing can improve your bottom line, or you would like to find out more about creating a PMK, sign up for a free 30-minute “Pick Our Brain” session at right. We’ll talk through your challenges and offer our insight.