Over the past 30 years, life sciences and biotech organizations have developed a basic but predictable revenue model, which looks something like this: more sales executives + more products + more messages = more revenue While this model may have worked in the past, it is not the optimal path to profitable growth in the future. The ever-increasing need for efficiency and profitability is squeezing physicians and healthcare staff’s time, leaving them less time to spend with your sales team. These and other factors are leading to a dramatic decrease in sales rep productivity. Today’s life science marketer needs more precision in their marketing strategy to achieve profitable commercial expansion. It’s time to change the formula. The key to increased sales and commercial productivity is smarter segmentation and targeting. Start by developing buyer personas of your target customer(s) and their unique needs and behaviors. Buyer personas are a research-based model of your customer, which include demographic and psychographic profiles. This view of your customer helps to answer critical questions including: what goals drive their behavior, how they buy and what drives their buying decision. By involving customers in the process and creating buyer personas, organizations have tangible profiles of their most valuable segments. With buyer persona profiles, the sales and marketing team can gain alignment on the critical insights needed to reach their customer in the most impactful ways., Once you’ve embarked on a persona development effort there are three important considerations during the process. 1. Pick the right pool of customers and prospects Before conducting your research to inform your buyer personas, make sure you pick a pool of customers and prospects who are representative of the type of customer you want to have more of in order to scale your business. Ask critical questions like: