Picture this: you’re a manager at a lab developing cancer therapeutics, overseeing a small team. You’ve been given some budgetary leeway to invest in new equipment and have been diligently conducting market research. You’ve narrowed your search down to just two vendors and have spoken to several people from each company. You’re eager to make a decision soon because this process has already taken six months. You have just a few questions left for each team, but you’ve been dragging your feet on calling because it always feels like they don’t quite know what you’re talking about.

If this sounds painfully accurate to you, you’re not alone. This is the unfortunate reality of sales in the life sciences industry. Or, at least, it used to be.

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Modern vendors and sales organizations have learned there’s a better way. They’ve taken buyer feedback to heart: there are too many cooks in the kitchen, it’s hard to get questions answered, sales reps don’t have the necessary technical chops, and the sales cycles are too long.

Sales teams have heeded this call and are adjusting their team structure and strategy accordingly. It’s good news for buyers and the industry as a whole. Let’s dive into these changes and outline what lab managers and purchasing decision-makers can expect moving forward.

A new staffing model simplifies (yet deepens) communications

Life sciences tools and services sales leaders are simplifying team structures to clarify their interactions with buyers. Rather than dealing with an entire bench of sales reps, buyers instead rely on a single account manager who acts as quarterback throughout the entire engagement.

This person handles all day-to-day engagement, fields basic questions, negotiates with procurement, and loops in other reps as needed. They are the go-to contact, orchestrating all other vendor resources. Account managers often serve as generalists but, depending on the engagement and territory, they may specialize in certain areas as well (e.g., biopharma, oil & gas, etc.).

As they move further down the funnel, buyers will need to speak with people who are deeply familiar with the equipment and its underlying processes to meet workflow and application needs. To address this need, the account manager will loop in specialists (e.g., field application specialists, market specialists, product specialists, etc.) who can speak to the science on a granular or technical level. After all, buyers are scientists; it’s imperative that any equipment entering their lab can meet technical performance standards.

Some sales organizations are going so far as to develop specialist hubs in life sciences hotspots like Boston-Cambridge, the San Francisco Bay area, LA-San Diego, and South Korea. Buyers in these areas will have ample resources at their disposal to help inform their sales decisions.

This new staffing structure is excellent news for life sciences buyers who have long dealt with overly complicated engagement models. But this isn’t all they can expect to improve—new technology is also paving the way for smoother, more efficient communications with vendors.

New technology optimizes resource distribution and availability

Historically, buyers would engage with sales reps largely via in-person meetings, phone calls, and virtual demos. But times are changing, and so are buyer preferences. Many buyers have embraced hybrid schedules, making their in-lab time a precious commodity they may not want to sacrifice for sales calls. Life sciences sales teams are shaking things up to accommodate these changing preferences and streamline the decision pipeline.

Sales organizations are developing innovation centers that bring solutions to life, virtual labs that showcase products in context, and peer-to-peer communities that bring buyers together to crowdsource questions and answers. Down the pike, buyers can expect to see instrument configurators, mobile labs, and AI chatbots and avatars to help inform their decision-making.

AI can also lead customer service interactions by retrieving product information, sharing product availability and packaging information, supporting the checkout process, and identifying the right contact for a given inquiry. These efficiencies mean life sciences vendors and solution providers can remove headcount in revenue operations and customer service areas and make up the difference by hiring even more specialists to meet niche buyer needs.

New lab equipment sales models come with new warning signs

As buyers begin to navigate these updated sales frameworks, it will be helpful to understand what to expect: the new motions, contacts, and tools. But equally important is learning what to avoid. Below are some red flags that, at the very least, should give buyers pause before moving forward.

• Sellers who don’t loop in specialists and try to handle everything on their own. This exclusion indicates not only a lack of depth of knowledge but also a lack of confidence in their own specialists.
• Sellers who seem to struggle to coordinate time with specialists. If reps can’t manage to align internal resources, they may face challenges elsewhere in the sales and post-sales process.
• Specialists who are from the product team, not the sales team. On an individual level this may not seem alarming, but at scale it may portend a talent imbalance and a lack of specialized knowledge on the sales team. Plus, it means the product team may be stretched too thin, which becomes a problem when active customers need support.

Knowledge is power, and with a heads up about potentially troubling vendor behavior, lab managers can be sure they’re making the right decision for their organization.

The future is bright for lab equipment purchasing

The shifts to life sciences sales models are all geared toward making the buyer journey smoother, more informative, and more efficient. Buyers can expect more strategic, meaningful relationships with their vendor contacts. New staffing structures mean clearer communication and superior responsiveness—without sacrificing any technical expertise. These efficiencies translate to simpler, shorter pipelines that buyers get up and running with new tools faster than ever before.

Imagine how our initial scenario would change under the new sales framework. Your final decision—whether to sign with Vendor A or Vendor B—would happen much more smoothly. Rather than being shuffled around to a dozen (or more) contacts, you’d be in close contact with one account manager from each organization. They would be your go-to throughout the entire process, looping you in with specialists as needed and connecting you with resources like virtual demos and peer-to-peer networks. Every question you raise would be addressed thoughtfully, scientifically, and in detail. The entire process would take fewer than three months, not stretch to six.

With optimized sales processes, life sciences buyers can spend less time in sales cycles and more time positioning their organizations for future growth. That’s good news for the entire industry.