Research Briefing

The Art of Sales Coverage

Life Sciences Roles & Account Coverage Study

Life Sciences leaders are facing low single-digit growth in 2025. Research markets continue to struggle, largely due to sustained government funding cuts in the first half of the year. Applied markets have also tightened, though selective areas of growth remain.

Most organizations have completed cost-cutting across go-to-market functions (Marketing, Sales, Service and Revenue Operations) and are now shifting focus toward targeted investments that drive top-line growth.

As capital begins to return, leaders are re-evaluating their roles and account coverage strategies to better align resources by customer segment, product line, application and industry end-market.

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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