The Art of Sales Coverage
Life Sciences Roles & Account Coverage Study
Life Sciences leaders are expecting 3 – 6% YoY growth. Research markets have struggled in the first half of 2024, mostly driven by weak instrument and bulk consumable orders in pharma and biotech. Applied markets offer a bright spot through strong performance by PFAS testing, batteries and semiconductors. However, most organizations have reduced overall go-to-market (marketing, sales, service, revenue operations) costs to improve SG&A. With the forecasted comeback, how are leaders determining the right roles and account coverage strategies to align resources by customer, product and industry end-markets?
Survey Demographics
15+
Survey Responses from CROs
50+
Interviews with Executives at Large B2B Companies
30+
Client engagements
Discussion Topics
Account Segmentation
Aligning resources with customer, product and industry segments
I want to get going quickly once I buy … I do not want to spend time sharing my research information with a new person during onboarding.
Sales Process
Deploying resources across each buyer journey stage
We must be mindful of FAS capacity and cost. They’re being deployed for post-sales activities, but we are limiting any sort of ongoing support.
Role Evolution
Responding to changes in business strategy, market trends and AI
In an ideal future state, we receive one-third of revenue from field team, one-third from inside sales & one-third from a digital / ecommerce platform.
As go-to-market models are dependent on product portfolio depth and complexity, life sciences leaders identified five growth plays:
Reinforce Key Accounts Program to protect established revenue streams and land top accounts.
+12% revenue/rep and -8% E/R for life sciences companies with mature key accounts programs.
Deploy Market & Product Specialists in target markets and scale virtually to support growth.
68% of leaders believe AI will have a significant impact on specialist productivity.
Evolve Application Scientist Role to drive post-sales expansion.
72% of sales leaders expect a significant evolution of the Field Application Scientist role over the next 3 years.
Tailor Inside Sales based on the complexity of the portfolio.
60% of sales leaders believe AI will have a significant impact on inside seller productivity.
Transform Customer Service to increase efficiency and scale and improve customer experience.
0.5% – 1.5% customer service expense/revenue ratio is typical across all regions.
Are your role and coverage strategies aligned for productivity and profitability?
For more information on the roles and coverage capabilities for operational improvement, schedule a readout of the Life Sciences Roles & Account Coverage study with an Alexander Group practice lead.
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