There is an art to meeting more potential partners!
Exhibitors at the BIO International Convention get more meetings by starting early, checking often, tailoring meeting requests, and following up on non-responses.
4. Profile counts
Clearly define your offerings.
Publish your profile. Don’t wait.
Request meetings early:
Start 4 or more weeks before
Convention. Don’t wait.
Subject matters
Make it a concise, tailored and
specific statement or purpose.
Target your meeting request:
Provide targeted and specific
benefits of partnering with you.
Follow up
Getting close to the conference but
no response? Re-message the
company.
the Golden rules
5. REAL Case Studies
Exhibitor vs. Exhibitor. Who got more meetings?
Exhibitor # of
requests
start # of
different
subjects
# of
different
messages
Meetings
CMO 1 170 7 weeks
before
60 170 20
CMO 2 20 1 week
before
1 1 2
IT vendor 1 90 5 weeks
before
30 90 30
IT vendor 2 30 2 weeks
before
9 4 3
• Starting early and checking often.
• Tailoring the subject of meeting requests.
• Targeting the message body of each meeting request.
• Sending more relevant meetings requests? Yes. Spam? No.
• Following up on non-responses a month and again 2 weeks before BIO.
Exhibitors got 10X more meetings by:
10X
10X
6. Send targeted requests when partnering opens.
Turn on notifications in your delegate profile. Then
1 Check for new companies often. Send targeted
….requests as appropriate.
2 Be patient. Responses will arrive 3 weeks before the
...event. Very little will happen before that.
3 Request declined? Find another company that’s a good
...target. There will be thousands.
Start early. Check often.
The two most frequent reasons for
a declined meeting are:
- Schedule too full
- Appropriate personnel
unavailable
Why was my request
declined?
Apr 3
Partnering
Opens
Jun 23
BIO Intl.
Begins
May 26
Meeting
Response
Volume
Increases
1
2
3
7. You are sending a meeting request, not an email. Your target has 100+
other requests. Don’t waste your subject with “Meeting request” or similar
EducationTailor the subject
• CMO Our cell line dev platform delivers production-quality lines rapidly
• CRO Specialized phase 2/3 oncology clinical development services
• IT/BI Our competitive intel identifies diabetes licensing ops early
• Trade India offers tax incentives, investment and state-of-the-art facilities
• Legal Licensing, non-infringement analysis, FTO & IP due diligence services
• Biopharm Opportunities for building a manufacturing plant in Ireland
• Academic Scientific and IP collaboration opportunities with Pfizer CTI
• Patient Funding op for your preclinical tnf inhibitor
Good
• Meet <your company name>
• Introducing <your company name>
• Discuss collaborating
• Great opportunity to work with <your company name>
• <your company name> services
• Let’s meet
• Meeting request
Bad
8. Exhibitor Booth Partnering is a powerful tool for targeted sales & marketing.
Do have a strategy and objective. Don’t blindly send generic requests.
EducationTarget the message
Do your research.
• What assets and marketed products does your target have?
- Development phase
- Therapy area / indication
- Mechanism of action / target
- Technology
- Geography
- Finances (i.e. funding round)
- Recent news and events (press release, analyst call, stock, etc.)
- Patents, publications, clinical trials
- Look at the company’s website
- Look at the company’s and delegate’s profiles on the
..partnering system, myBIO and Linkedin
• Why is your company uniquely positioned to meet your target’s
...needs? Describe it in the body of your message request.
Most meeting requests go to biotechs and pharmas
9. Do cater each message to the targeted company.
Don’t use the marketing copy from the home page of your website.
EducationTarget the message (cont’d)
An effective meeting request from a CRO to a Biotech
SUBJECT:
Clinical study execution services for phase 2, diabetes trials in India
BODY:
Dear <name>,
Congratulations on the completion of your phase 1 diabetes trial. Phase 2 diabetes trials
tend to be large, and recruitment speed / cost can make conducting such trials
prohibitive.
We specialize in conducting phase 2 and 3 diabetes and cardiovascular trials in India,
where costs are low and recruitment is fast. We have conducted 8 such trials in the last 5
years, and have rapid access to patients and investigators. Partnering with us will make it
easier to get your next round of financing, as less will be needed to conduct your trial.
Lets meet to discuss a partnership. Kind regards, <your name>
Example:
10. Do follow up on a cancelation.
Don’t take it personally or let it get you down.
EducationCancelation? Make the most
Business Forum is intense. Companies may cancel their meeting with
you
DON’T DESPAIR
The biotechs in Business Forum are seeking life blood financing. The pharmas are seeking
life blood assets. When it is literally the life of a company on the line, the company’s
meeting with you will occasionally get canceled in favor of a biopharma or investor.
Don’t take it personally.
FOLLOW UP
When a company does cancel their meeting with you, they will sometimes leave contact
information in the cancelation. If so, you know what to do. If not, use the Reply Only
function in the One-on-One Partnering system to request their contact information so you
may arrange a meeting after BIO 2014. Chances are you will get it, and simply have the
meeting via web or teleconference after the event. Still a good outcome.
out of it:
11. Exhibitor Booth Partnering vs. Business Forum
“We used the BIO One-on-One Partnering
System to schedule 144 meetings…resulting
in multiple requests for proposals. I’m very
happy with this qualified and substantial
return on investment. “
–Stacie Byars, CMC Biologics (a CMO)
Exhibitor Booth Partnering and partnering in the Business Forum serve different
strategic objectives. The most successful companies employ a combination of both.
Exhibitor Booth Partnering is your chance to show off. Your branding is ubiquitous. The
meeting space is yours. You can pull in your experts as needed. You can show off that flashy
presentation in a comfortable environment that you control. This is your subjective sell. Think
“marketing”
Business Forum partnering is about numbers and science. The space is intentionally
neutral and independent. Your resource who can show the dry cold facts, research and math
of why partnering with you makes sense should be there. This is your objective sell. Think
“science, numbers, finance”
12. myBIO ≠ One-on-One Partnering:
2 systems. 2 separate profiles.
You must publish your partnering
profile to get meetings.
Calendar availability:
Open your schedule on your
partnering calendar.
100 requests allowed:
You can have a maximum of 100
outgoing meeting requests in the
“Requested” status.
More on
Exhibitor Booth Partnering
13. Exhibitor Booth Partnering Home Page:
http://convention.bio.org/exhibitor_resource_center/
Partnering Help:
BIOpartnering@bio.org | (202) 962-6666
Even more on(line)
Exhibitor Booth Partnering
