January 29, 2025 • 42 mins
Explore the transformative role of creative marketing for life science companies with Alec and Drake. Learn how strategic creativity boosts brand awareness, engages audiences, and drives measurable results for your business.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(00:09):
Folks, you are going to lovetoday's episode where I sit down
with SCORR marketing's seniorart director Drake Sauer, and we
discuss the role that creativeand design should play for life
sciences companies. This is atopic that is near and dear to
my heart, because I don'tbelieve that B to B marketing
(00:32):
should be boring. It doesn'thave to be boring, and it should
be fun. And there's nobodybetter to speak to this topic
than Drake and so on thisepisode, what you're going to
hear are a couple of differenttopics. We go back and forth on
establishing your brand withinthe B to B space, how to create
memorable experiences, how yourcreative teams can help distill
(00:55):
complex ideas and systems intodigestible content. And then we
also talk a little bit aboutdesign and creatives role in
helping glue together this kindof intersection of marketing,
business development and thescience aspect of your
organization. I promise youyou're gonna want a pen and a
(01:16):
notepad for this one, becausethere are so many good insights
that Drake brings to the table.
Enjoy this episode.
Look at this Drake. We are Weare live. I am so excited for
today's conversation. We've gotthe wonderful Drake Sauer here,
(01:37):
the senior art director at SCORRMarketing. Today's conversation
is a little bit different thanones we've had in the past. I
feel like Drake, and maybethat's why people are so
excited. I was I was tellingyou, before we hopped live, that
I was getting a lot of messagesyesterday and today about people
that were like, Yep, we'redefinitely attending. We've got
a lot of questions. What doesthis look like? How can we
(02:00):
really achieve creativemarketing in the life sciences
space. So we're going to, we'regoing to do fast and furious.
We've got 30 minutes. I seepeople are starting to join. If
questions come in, I'm going tothrow them right at you.
Otherwise, you know, I'm goingto, I'm going to hit you with
some hard hitting questionsabout why life science
marketing, why B to B marketingis is boring, but before we do
(02:25):
that, before we jump in and whydon't you go ahead, just real
quickly, on behalf of yourself,and introduce yourself to the to
the team here. Well,thanks so much. I'm excited to
be here to talk with you. Myname is Drake Sauer. I am the
Senior Director at SCORRMarketing. I've been with SCORR
for just about 10 years now.
Prior to that, I actually workedin more business to consumer
(02:49):
products, so I've seen bothsides of that area. I work
alongside our chief creativeofficer to make sure that all
the branding, logo work,identities that are going out
the door are on strategy,differentiate our clients. Work
with everyone from heavy hittersin the industry down to startups
(03:14):
in every aspect of lifesciences. So I've seen a lot
through that time, and have seensome trends that I think are
applicable to our conversationtoday.
I love it. I love it. Drake, Iso appreciate you taking the
time out of your day to havethis conversation with us,
because I think you said it. Youknow, there's trends, but there
(03:36):
are going to be things that Ithink can be applicable to
brands right now. I think one ofthe biggest misconceptions for
me that I see, you know, in themarketing and then in our
business developmentconversations, we were just in
Boston for bio, is thiscomplexity around branding, and
that if you're going to do it,it has to be this giant thing
(03:56):
and has to be really fancy andit's really expensive, and then
you see the other side that'slike, we can't do that because
it's science. It's, it's notsupposed to be that way. It's
sales, it's, we're going to callpeople, and it's really business
development forward, and there'snot this thought process around
the brand. So I'm going to putyou right on the spot. I told
(04:17):
you this to start this meeting,and this a question that I hear
all the time is that, you know,B to B, and specifically, as we
talk about the life sciences,can be very boring and it can be
very scientific focused. Whatare some of the things that you
see that can make the brand cometo life? Why do you think that
is, you know that that brandskind of tend to play a little
(04:39):
bit more conservative orreserved from a brand. That's a
lot of questions in one but I'mjust going to put you on the
spot. Microphones, yours here.
Drake, all right.
So I think when we talk aboutthat aspect of being boring,
what a lot of times we're reallysaying is that these brands are
playing it super safe. Yeah, be,you know, life sciences, input.
(05:00):
Particular, it is a heavyregulated industry, and
businesses tend to mirror that.
They don't want to step too farout of that box for fear of
looking abnormal from the restof the pack. So, more so than
other industries, it's a lot ofwe all are going to look like
(05:21):
this and stick together thatway. And what happens is you
lose that voice. Everythingbecomes homogeneous across the
board, and when you startthrowing competitors up side by
side, you're like, Okay, I haveno idea in some instances what
you do or what differentiate tofrom the next guy over another
(05:44):
aspect of this is when you getinto the B to B side,
historically, across allindustries, it tends to be more
buttoned up, because rather thanselling to an individual
consumer, you're selling to Acounterpart in another business
who then has to take, you know,I want to use this company to
(06:06):
make our service better, or tocompliment what we're doing, or
to do something we can't do.
They have to then run it up aflagpole to make sure that
there's buy in across the boardand human nature, we tend to
start thinking outside of whatwe're experiencing. And we're
like, how, how's the CEO goingto look at these two companies,
(06:30):
one that's a little a littleextra, yeah, with their creative
and and one that is moretraditional. And they'll tend to
because we do as humans playthat safe side. So there's a lot
of reasons that kind ofinfluence that thinking when,
when companies go into that,when we bring in a company and
(06:56):
we're sitting down looking atwhat we can differentiate, I
liken it to being a therapist alot of times for for our
clients, where they don'tnecessarily know what
differentiates them, becausethey've never had to think about
it that way. So we do theseexercises where we hold up that
(07:17):
mirror, and then when I'mpresenting that creative to
them, and they're looking at it.
Sometimes I show it, and youknow that mirror does not show
what they want to see, right?
And other times we show it, andyou know it's a perfect
(07:37):
representation of of who theyare in a way that they've never
been able to articulate it. Thethe creative side of that, you
know, how can we make it lookcooler? Right? To use a very
vague term, comes from findingthose hooks of what
differentiates them and givingthem something that stands out
(08:00):
from the crowd, so that whensomeone comes to engage with
them, they know, they knowexactly what they're getting.
They get a bit of thatpersonality that a lot of others
hide behind. They don't want youto see that they're you know a
certain way. And you, you theninvite potential customers to
(08:26):
start building a relationship ina way where it's beyond just the
the BD representative. It is thealways on, you know, your brand
is the the one BD sales person.
And this is, this is not, thisis not an attack on you. They're
the one that they don't sleep.
(08:46):
Yeah, they they are alwaysthere, and a properly maintained
brand that has some of thatpersonality there, and you can
keep fresh. They'll want to keepcoming back and engaging with
and once you start doing that,it makes BD sale sales much
easier. And vice versa, where,if you've got BD involved on
(09:10):
that marketing aspect, theybuild and someone a potential
customer, a then existingcustomer, feels a sense of
loyalty and that I, you know, Iget something special from this,
and that's what we're ultimatelytrying to do, yeah, gosh,
I You said that you were goingto leave us with some insights
(09:33):
right out of the gate. We'refour minutes in, five minutes
in. I've got so many follow upquestions here, you know,
talking about what the brand isand how that builds reputation,
and then love the aspect of ofthe competition I'm gonna, I'm
gonna jump there, because wewere at, we were just in, in
Boston for for bio, and then wewere in Philadelphia for c, p,
(09:53):
H, I North America. And it wasso interesting because, you
know, especially at bio, theyput all of these similar.
Companies right next to eachother, and if you just remove
the logos, they would all saythe exact same thing. The
designs were pretty similar aswell. And I think one of the one
of the challenges that I urgeeverybody to think about is that
(10:15):
creative isn't just design. It'salso the words that you use.
It's the that's the valueproposition, it's how you
display it, but you have tostand out in one way or the
other. And we were talking aboutthis this morning, is it's not
always just differentiation, butit's clarification, and that's
what design can really allow youto do. And why wouldn't you want
(10:38):
to do that? If there are eightthings right here, and all of
them are gray. Why would youwant to be the ninth one that
that's green, especially ifyou're trying to break into that
marketplace, especially ifyou're trying to, you know, find
a new target audience withinthat space too.
Yeah, and it trade shows,especially you've got walls and
(10:59):
walls of people in booths, andas someone who's I've exhibited,
working in the booths, I havegone as a visitor. When you're
walking through those aisles, itis so easy for everything to
become gray. And if you don'tgive someone a hook and
(11:21):
understand why they're walkingin to talk to you. They're going
to keep their head down, maybegrab a free pen if you've got
one sitting on the table, andmove on. And that's that doesn't
help anyone. So when we startthinking about and we'll keep it
on the trade show path for abit. In my mind, for a
(11:47):
successful trade show visit, youwant content of some sort. You
want your booth to be somethingit doesn't need to be crazy over
the top. You don't have to spendhundreds of 1000s of dollars,
but it has to have an invitingspace for someone to come into,
yeah, a booth experience, if, ifyou can build one that makes
(12:12):
sense and ideally loops backaround to what You're doing,
that's that's a big plus. Andthen one that's often overlooked
is the team that's going to bethere working it. We've come up
with so many, what I thoughtabsolutely amazing ideas on what
(12:36):
we could do for a boothactivity. We've done special
things shows that really wrap upeverything and create this
really immersive experience. Andthen we find out that that
company's team could have caredless. Either weren't in the
booth, they weren't playingalong. People want to be
entertained, especially atevents like that, and if you
(12:59):
can't mirror that and give themthat reason to stop in, feel
like something amazing justhappened, so that they not only
start thinking about you as apotential avenue to use, but you
want them to walk away, and whenthey're talking to their buddy
that they haven't seen in threeyears, say, Hey, did you see
(13:19):
that booth over there, right? Ijust, it was super fun. We had a
great time. The ideal situationis that at a trade show, you
come away, yes, you want, youwant to fill that pipeline.
That's that's that. But ifyou've got three team members
that are selling for you, butthose three team members and the
(13:42):
tactics that you have there cantransfer their excitement to a
handful of others that are notrepresenting your company at
all. That then become walkingbillboards and advertisements to
say, hey, go talk to them. Yeah,that's your that's where it
comes together. And, andideally, to loop it all back,
(14:06):
all of those things worktogether, that content, the
experience, the booth, yourworkers. If all of that syncs
up, you're in for a good show,regardless. Well,
and, and Drake, you know whatyou're describing to me, and
again, not a designer here,right? So, but what you're
describing to me is, what Iwould say is the brand, right?
(14:29):
I'm a big proponent that a brandis not a logo. A brand is not
this just the CEO. It's not atagline, it's everything. And so
the way that I like to typicallydescribe the brand is as simple
as what people remember aboutyou when they leave, and that
includes the people at thebooth, that includes the
giveaway, that includes thestrategy, that's everything
(14:51):
that's encompassing So kind ofgoing back, putting that back on
you from a design perspective,from a from a from a creator
perspective, you. Is that kindof your thought process when
building a brand and making surethat we're on strategy, is that
this isn't just one item, thisis everything that we're going
to do for the foreseeablefuture. Yeah,
(15:12):
and this, you know, this issomething that was great about
SCORR, was that I lined up withthe values that we have that
when, when we start talkingabout a brand, it is all of
those things. It's the valueprop, the visuals, then stem
from that value prop. They helpextend that, as does the
(15:32):
messaging, as you know, then youjust keep going down the workers
you know that that companythemselves, all need to reflect
that to be that experience.
Because you think of the bigbrands that you know in your
life, that brand has become acharacter in the background of
(15:55):
your life, whether it's theclothing brands that you like,
the car brand that you like,whatever that is, they become
part of that. And it's not justI like how their their logo
looks or I like how thepackaging looks on this. It's so
much beyond that. It's all ofthose experiences built upon
each other to the point whereyou feel like you know and have
(16:20):
fully understood and immersed inyour, your engaged with that,
that brand, and so, you know,for lack of a better term, a
proper functioning brand almostacts as a mascot, like I said
earlier, they're That BD memberthat's always there because
(16:40):
they're all put together. And onthe creative side is, as a
designer, I want that tovisually stand out from the
pack. I want, I want that personto be so memorable in your mind
that there's no mistaking itanywhere else, whether it's the
(17:02):
copy or the visuals.
Yeah, I think here's theargument, okay, okay, our side,
our science, our science, willspeak for itself, right? And
that's something that we hearall the time, is that we don't
need to put an emphasis on thebrand, that the science, science
will speak for it. I have goneon 1000 rants and 1000 meetings,
(17:27):
and so I'm going to let you goon a rant. So you've got, we
bring you an opportunity, Drake,and it's a great opportunity.
It's a it's an up and comingcompany, and they want to say,
we don't need to focus on thebrand, because our science will
speak for itself. What's thewhat's the counter argument, the
the RE and I, you've kind ofmade it over the last 60 minutes
already, but kind of honing inon this specifically, what does
(17:49):
that look like to you?
Well, to take a little step backbefore I dive into that, when
you look at what is being donein this industry, life science
industry, it is mind blowing.
And I am regularly humbled andamazed at I sit in with
(18:15):
brilliant scientists, brilliantCEOs that have brought together,
an idea, a service, a solutionthat betters lives, yeah, and
while what what you want out ofthat, what should happen is we
(18:38):
should be elevating that. That'swhere the story lies for most of
these companies, and that'swhat's lost a lot of times, is
they are so zoned in, rightfullyso, on that solution, on
providing this potentially lifesaving opportunity, that they
don't understand that those onthe outside don't have that full
(19:00):
story, right? You in an idealworld in this space, if you're
selling B to b1, scientist toanother scientist, they don't
need to understand they'llunderstand what you're talking
about, what you're bringing tothem. That's not how any of
(19:21):
these companies work. You haveto sell sometimes to boards,
private equity. You are sellingto the government. You're
selling to financial officers,you're selling and they've got,
if they don't understand whatyou're selling, yeah, what
you're talking about, you'regoing to struggle so much more
(19:43):
than pulling in a creative tohelp distill down, okay, what?
What about this process? Whatabout this how can I make it so
that I always like to think ofit? Could I put. Together so
that my parents could look atthis and understand, granted,
(20:06):
there are different levels ofthat need, right? But in an
ideal world, you should be ableto put it in front of a
competent human and have them belike, Oh, I get this. You know,
I don't understand theintricacies, but I get this. You
understand that part of this,right? And and on. On that note,
(20:27):
we run I run into this. We runinto this a lot that it's either
we're going to tell you everydetail or nothing and creative
can be brought in if, if, ifthey're pulled in in a way that
helps elevate that you can sayyou have a process that you're
(20:52):
you're trying to offer as aservice. It is two schools of
thought, where you either showeverything and it ends up being
a 40 page PowerPointpresentation of every step along
the way and everything thathappens, or we're going to talk
(21:17):
about it in three bullets andmove on. Ideally, you have that
quick sale. You have the long,unabridged version. But the
sweet spot in there that can beused across everything else is
that interim piece, a piecethat's brought in, creatives
(21:39):
brought in and tells you enoughso that you understand what
you're going to get withoutgiving the whole thing away, and
that is if you lock in with acreative team that can listen to
what you're trying to sell andthen pull that back, your BD
team starts speaking the samelanguage. Your customers start
(22:02):
understanding what, what ishappening, and a consistent
experience starts to emerge. Andthat's what customers want. I
want to know what I'm going toget from you. Yeah. And so I
think in a roundabout way, I gotto your
it's and it's not an easyanswer. And the reason that I'm
(22:24):
excited about your answer,especially where you finish, is
one of the biggest things that Ichallenged companies to do when
we're in the BD process, if theydon't believe that they need a
brand, is to go ask fiveinternal employees that work on
different teams, what how wouldyou describe what we do here,
and it you're probably going toget five different answers. And
(22:44):
if that's confusing internally,imagine what it is externally.
And you talk so much about, youknow, how you're not just
selling to one person. You know,there's multiple parties in
this, but at the end of the day,you're selling to humans, and
humans only buy things that theythat they know that they like
and that they trust, and so thebrand is what's capable of doing
(23:05):
that. And so I could go on forfor 10, 2040, minutes, but you
got three questions in here,Drake, you know you're really
sparking the crowd this Thursdayafternoon. You are nervous about
my questions, but now it's awhole other ball game here.
We've got a question fromBarbara. She says, Drake, from a
marketing perspective, yourtrade show, Dream experience is
(23:29):
great. Everything needs to worktogether, the branding, the
graphics, the message and thevisitor materials, but the boost
team members are perhaps themost important factor. They are
the catalyst that brings it alltogether. If the marketing team
puts the right people in thatbooth, they can create pure
magic. I'm realizing that's nota question from Barbara, but it
is a fantastic call out. And Ithink that's that's exactly the
(23:52):
piece is. And I've talked aboutthis after scope and after cphi
is that now has to be taken intoconsideration for all trade
shows, you can't just show upanymore. It's not enough just to
be there. You have to have thatentire story and strategy built
before the show.
Yeah, and, and something to addto that is right now, as the
(24:18):
world returns to more in personevents, people are still they're
starved for, for what that was.
And while, pre pandemic, we raninto situations where people are
like, this is stale. That's old.
It's, you know, there's peoplethat have been going to trade
shows for 2030, years, andthey're like, we've seen it.
(24:40):
It's just we're over it. Theopportunity that exists right
now is you have potentiallypeople that have that are new to
the industry, would have beenconsidered new to the industry,
that have worked their way up todecision making. Hers over the
(25:00):
last three to four years, yeah,that are getting to go to shows
for the first time. You can tapinto that in a way that that you
haven't been able to do. Webasically reset what it was to
go to a trade show. Yeah, whatyou could get out of a trade
show. And people need to becognizant that there's a lot of
(25:23):
opportunity within there and andknowing where we were, you know
how it's been, and then wherewe're at right now, that there's
a lot of windows open thatthey're there for you. They can
become brand ambassadors. Youjust have to engage with them
and give them something to holdon to, and that would be ideally
(25:47):
your brand, yeah, as a whole. SoI love that. And I think the
last piece there on Barbara'scomment is, you, if you're going
to build this team that's goingto go. Don't just tell them
they're going to the trade show,right? Give them as as much
information as they possiblycan. Who are the targets? What
(26:08):
is this going to impact? Likeshow them the full picture. It's
the same thing I always sayabout SMEs with content. If you
just say, hey, subject matterexpert, I need you to write a
blog. I've got other things todo, right? But if you kind of
sit them down and you show,okay, here's what we're trying
to do. We're trying to build ourthought leadership, our
expertise, so people know thescience, you know, that's type
(26:29):
of, that type of full picture ofwhat we're trying to do as a
marketing program, as abusiness, is going to be really
successful. So I love that, andI think it kind of lends itself
to we got a comment here fromAlec. The better Alec, not me.
And every time I look over I seehis your the bio says, I play
(26:50):
golf, and I just love that. Andso his comment is, I think the
whole science speaks for itself.
Idea proves to be true forrecurring business and expansion
retention, but won't do good fornew business acquisition. And
this is something that I believewholeheartedly in, because I
(27:11):
cannot tell you how many CEOs,CCOs, CFOs, that we have talked
to that say, well, once we're ina room, once we have them, it's
a lock. Like, we're going to getthem like, we're going to make
this work. We're going to dothis once they see the science,
once they see the facility, it'sa no brainer. And it's like,
okay, well, how do we increasethose at bats? Right? Like,
(27:34):
let's that's what we need tofocus on moving forward.
Yeah, and yeah, the you know,something that that can be done,
and we do this with a lot of ourclients, is to give more of a
flexible platform for theirbrand. I think a lot of times
they lock into thinking thatthey need some you know, we're
(27:57):
either we either need to staypretty stoic over here, or we're
going to get crazy, and you canbuild a consistent brand that is
able to stay stoic when it needsto, to get crazy when it needs
to, and have that functiontogether to keep the business
that you have, keep themengaged, because you do need to,
(28:21):
you know, this is the last thingyou want, is a long term
relationship getting stagnant,because they know what we do,
right? You need to foster that,but you also want to bring in
and get excitement from that newwork. I've sat in on calls where
(28:41):
we're talking about next stepsfor our branding exercises, what
we're going to do, and you'llhave a CEO say we're really not
interested in getting more work.
You know, we keep everythinggoing as is, yeah, and, and if
we want it, we just have to get,like you said, we just have to
get in the room and we'll dothat and and that first off,
(29:07):
kudos to them, right, thatthey've been able to do that.
But to such a net, it could be apotentially narrow path to sit
there and think what we gotgoing on is fine. We don't need
to do any more. Think of whatyou could do if you added that.
Yeah, it's just, you know, thoseopportunities are limitless.
(29:32):
When you start thinking, okay,how can we build upon if you, if
you got that much expertise,you're looked to that strongly.
What can you do with a littlebit extra what can you do
bringing in that brand andcreating a strong voice and
strong visuals to really enhancewhat you're doing? Maybe it's
(29:52):
not as much with your currentclientele. Maybe you're not
actively targeting newaudiences. It could be into.
Internal, internal, yeah, andthat's an aspect that we haven't
touched on at all today, butyeah, but creating long term
brand representatives withinyour own company so that they're
speaking on that same platform,everybody's in unison. If
(30:17):
nothing else, it's going to makeHR job easier. So we've gotten
the HR people here,yeah, support, support the brand
well. And I think Drake, youmake a great point. And I know
we're coming up on the half hourmark. I said we'd go a couple
minutes long if we were on aroll. And every time you and I
talk, I feel like we're on alittle bit of a roll. But Lauren
(30:38):
makes a comment in here as acomment question, you know, what
are some of those best ways toleverage the BD team and their
brand and and, you know,obviously I am one of those
individuals that is a massiveproponent of your employees
having personal brands. I I'mgonna call Lauren out if she's
still watching this, or ifyou're watching it later that
she is one of those individualsthat has an excellent brand
(31:00):
herself, that that reallycombines with companies. And I
like maybe, maybe that's justbecause the life sciences space
is a little bit slower, butmaybe 510, years ago, that
really started to take off. AndI think it's slowly taking off
in this space, more so with CEOsand founders. But if you have
alignment on the story. If youhave alignment on the value
(31:23):
proposition, why you exist allthese things, then it's a dream
scenario to be able to leverageBD team members, art directors,
marketer, whoever it is, to beable to leverage them in the
public eye as part of yourbrand. So it's kind of a
comment, but a vague question aswell, thoughts on how you can
have people, a people focusedbrand, but then you also have
(31:45):
the brand in general, you know,building up the company
Well, I think, I mean, yououtlined it incredibly well, and
it's, it's one of the skillsthat that you have that I think
should be replicated across thelife sciences industry. I don't
need any anybody stealing youryour skills. But if you can get
(32:10):
buy in, and there's constantcommunication between marketing
and BD on, hey, what's comingup? What are you seeing? That's
something that you know, we havethose conversations regularly
where it's what, what are youseeing? What? What problems are
you having when you're selling?
Can we change the presentationsthat you're using to accommodate
(32:32):
that? Are you running intoroadblocks here or vice versa?
Are you having a lot ofpotential clients reaching out
to you and saying, Hey, have youbeen dealing with x? Do you have
any information on that? Ifthat's related to marketing and
can be absorbed into the brandso that you are sharing assets,
(32:54):
you're sharing topics, you'resharing all of those pieces. You
can have really vocal BD membersthat have their own thing going
on, but they're going to betalking the same language that
the brand is talking, and thatconsistent experience comes up
and and they know that when I'mtalking to you, it's the same
thing I'm going to get when Iget transferred over to an
(33:16):
internal team member to, Youknow, handle my prod project or
my product, that's what youwant. Yeah, you don't want that
dissonance to be there. And soyou can leverage those
personalities that you broughtin and and give them the tools
that you want them to use back,right? And it's, you know, that
(33:37):
that symbiotic relationship, soyeah, and I think it goes to the
consistency part that you weretalking about earlier is, you
know, the story that I say aboutbrand, you when then you're in a
meeting, are going to say a verysimilar, smarter, more design
focused, but, but same story,tasks, account strategies is
going to say the same story. Andso it's just that kind of
(33:59):
continuity across that. And Ithink again, it goes back to
people. Buy from people. And Italk about this a lot in the in
the daily videos, is just like,if they trust you, they're
placing a bet on you, on yourorganization. And at the end of
the day, your organization ismade up mostly of people, right?
(34:21):
You know, you've got, you've gottech, and you've got machine
like, you've got the facility,but it's the people who operate
it that really are the thescientific expertise, and so
being able to showcase that, Ithink, is, is absolutely
essential. Um, okay, we are.
We're a couple minutes past. I'mgoing to put you on the spot for
a final thought. The one thingthat I didn't mention, but you
(34:43):
were kind of going into itbefore, one of the last
questions is, I think brandmarketing and just brand in
fact, I'm going to get rid ofthe word marketing, because I
think that sometimes gets us introuble. The brand is one of the
few tactics and strategies, inmy opinion, that this. Same
time, it can help the pipelinebeing filled from the top of the
(35:05):
funnel, and it can also helptime to close, right? Those are
the two biggest struggles thatwe see right now that our
clients in the industry isdealing with, is the top of the
funnel, getting pipeline to befilled with leads, and then the
time to close is, you know, it'sgoing from nine months now to 18
months, and a really strongbrand, a really strong
foundation, is going to help onboth of those parts. And I think
(35:29):
that's something that's oftenoverlooked, because if, if
you're trying to sell, you know,let's put me, for example. I'm
trying to sell to one person,but the decision making team has
nine people. If all nine peoplehave to go through this on their
own, the brand is going to bemore of an asset than my voice
will be, right? And so we justhave to use that. And I think
(35:49):
that's something that weoverlook too often when it comes
to the science versus brandperspective. And I don't think
that there's, there's a need forthat argument, in my opinion,
yeah,I mean that you it comes back to
that consistent element. Yeah,you can get, if the BD member
can bring in a person, and thenyou can get them into the funnel
(36:12):
where they are getting that samemessage consistent. What you're
selling becomes simple and notoverly complex. You can dive
into that any one of uslistening to this call can get
on a call with a client and talkthem through the X's and O's
forever. If you can't, youshouldn't be selling it. That's
(36:33):
just the way it is. But if youget them in, simplify it, give
them those bites, so thatthey're continuing to come back,
engage, allowing BD teams tocome in, help be that physical
person that they're talking to,developing that relationship
(36:57):
you've taken What would have tobe a team of 20, and brought it
down to one or two in person,people that are fostering that
relationship and that brand isserving as those other 18 people
who are bringing in thosepieces. And so there is a value
(37:18):
add when you start thinking ofhow to build out your teams, you
know, bring partnering withsomeone like SCORR, who can
bring in a marketing team tohelp alleviate and let your
sales people sell yeah and notdo so much teaching a brand can
teach yeah and and let, Let yoursales people sell and get them
(37:42):
in unison with each other. Andwhen that's happening, magic
happens.
Yeah, I I love that. I want toend it like, right? I don't even
want, I shouldn't even have tosay anything, because that that
line the brands can teach is sovital if the education of your
offering is already out there.
(38:04):
My job as a salesperson, BDS,whoever 70 times easier, right?
Like, if the education is there,and by the way, sometimes that's
education just on the industry,not even just specifically
score. A lot of times I like tojust educate on marketing. Go do
it yourself. Find a free like,that's fine. But if, when you do
(38:25):
come to me and you're ready tohave that conversation, you're
already halfway there, or 25%there, 75% there, it is world
changing, because now thatconversation is a collaboration.
And so I love to say thatbrands, you said brands can
teach. I think the brand canhelp you sit at the same table.
And if you're sitting at thesame table, you're going to win
(38:46):
more often than not. So I lovethat. Yeah. Okay. Final
thoughts, I make this. I makeyou do this every time, whoever
comes on this for the SCORRLinkedIn lives, or these ones
that we do randomly on Thursdayafternoons, you get 30 seconds,
I'm going to start the timer,and I just want your your final
thoughts on on brand, or thefinal takeaway that that the
(39:09):
folks that are watching thisshould have. Are you ready?
I am ready and go. All right, sowhen you start thinking about
how you can build out yourbrand, what it can do for your
company, I would encourage youto start thinking about what are
the stories that need told foryour company? What are those
hooks that when you do get inthe room and you start talking
(39:33):
about it, what? What are thosethings that resonate with the
team your brand should be thatwhether it is flashy, whether it
is stoic, a brand can becreative by telling those
stories and bringing anexperience that's consistent and
wants to be engaged with, andthat's creatives here to do that
(39:58):
you went four. 14 seconds over,but you had me. You had me the
entire time. The brands can dothat, the stories that need to
be told. That was exactly whereI was going with my final
thoughts is, if you think aboutwhat other people are gonna say
about your company, that's whata brand can help narrate, right?
(40:21):
And we can control that. And Ialways go back to most CEOs. If
you're a marketing team memberwatching this, even if you're a
CEO, you might agree. Most CEOs,most boards, most private equity
care about two things, revenueand the story that's being told
about your company. And withbrand, you can control both of
those things. And Barbarafinishes this with, it's all
(40:42):
about the stories. Is the lastcomment. And I could not agree
more, Barbara, so on that note,Drake, thank you so much for
making time today if you wereable to watch it. Thank you so
much. This will be, you know, onthe on the platform to find if
you watched you have anyquestions, either for me or
specifically for Drake, just DMme on LinkedIn, leave a comment.
(41:03):
I'll make sure it gets to Drake,and we'll supply an answer for
you. So thank you so much,Drake.
Yes, thank you. It was a lot offun, awesome.
All right, I'll talk to yousoon. Bye, bye.
(41:24):
As always, thank you for tuningin to this episode of The SCORR
cast, brought to you by SCORRMarketing. We appreciate your
(41:48):
time and hope you found thisdiscussion insightful. Don't
forget to subscribe and join usfor our next episode. Until
(42:10):
then, remember, marketing issupposed to be fun.
Music.
(00:09):
Folks, you are going to lovetoday's episode where I sit down
with SCORR marketing's seniorart director Drake Sauer, and we
discuss the role that creativeand design should play for life
sciences companies. This is atopic that is near and dear to
my heart, because I don'tbelieve that B to B marketing
(00:32):
should be boring. It doesn'thave to be boring, and it should
be fun. And there's nobodybetter to speak to this topic
than Drake and so on thisepisode, what you're going to
hear are a couple of differenttopics. We go back and forth on
establishing your brand withinthe B to B space, how to create
memorable experiences, how yourcreative teams can help distill
(00:55):
complex ideas and systems intodigestible content. And then we
also talk a little bit aboutdesign and creatives role in
helping glue together this kindof intersection of marketing,
business development and thescience aspect of your
organization. I promise youyou're gonna want a pen and a
(01:16):
notepad for this one, becausethere are so many good insights
that Drake brings to the table.
Enjoy this episode.
Look at this Drake. We are Weare live. I am so excited for
today's conversation. We've gotthe wonderful Drake Sauer here,
(01:37):
the senior art director at SCORRMarketing. Today's conversation
is a little bit different thanones we've had in the past. I
feel like Drake, and maybethat's why people are so
excited. I was I was tellingyou, before we hopped live, that
I was getting a lot of messagesyesterday and today about people
that were like, Yep, we'redefinitely attending. We've got
a lot of questions. What doesthis look like? How can we
(02:00):
really achieve creativemarketing in the life sciences
space. So we're going to, we'regoing to do fast and furious.
We've got 30 minutes. I seepeople are starting to join. If
questions come in, I'm going tothrow them right at you.
Otherwise, you know, I'm goingto, I'm going to hit you with
some hard hitting questionsabout why life science
marketing, why B to B marketingis is boring, but before we do
(02:25):
that, before we jump in and whydon't you go ahead, just real
quickly, on behalf of yourself,and introduce yourself to the to
the team here. Well,thanks so much. I'm excited to
be here to talk with you. Myname is Drake Sauer. I am the
Senior Director at SCORRMarketing. I've been with SCORR
for just about 10 years now.
Prior to that, I actually workedin more business to consumer
(02:49):
products, so I've seen bothsides of that area. I work
alongside our chief creativeofficer to make sure that all
the branding, logo work,identities that are going out
the door are on strategy,differentiate our clients. Work
with everyone from heavy hittersin the industry down to startups
(03:14):
in every aspect of lifesciences. So I've seen a lot
through that time, and have seensome trends that I think are
applicable to our conversationtoday.
I love it. I love it. Drake, Iso appreciate you taking the
time out of your day to havethis conversation with us,
because I think you said it. Youknow, there's trends, but there
(03:36):
are going to be things that Ithink can be applicable to
brands right now. I think one ofthe biggest misconceptions for
me that I see, you know, in themarketing and then in our
business developmentconversations, we were just in
Boston for bio, is thiscomplexity around branding, and
that if you're going to do it,it has to be this giant thing
(03:56):
and has to be really fancy andit's really expensive, and then
you see the other side that'slike, we can't do that because
it's science. It's, it's notsupposed to be that way. It's
sales, it's, we're going to callpeople, and it's really business
development forward, and there'snot this thought process around
the brand. So I'm going to putyou right on the spot. I told
(04:17):
you this to start this meeting,and this a question that I hear
all the time is that, you know,B to B, and specifically, as we
talk about the life sciences,can be very boring and it can be
very scientific focused. Whatare some of the things that you
see that can make the brand cometo life? Why do you think that
is, you know that that brandskind of tend to play a little
(04:39):
bit more conservative orreserved from a brand. That's a
lot of questions in one but I'mjust going to put you on the
spot. Microphones, yours here.
Drake, all right.
So I think when we talk aboutthat aspect of being boring,
what a lot of times we're reallysaying is that these brands are
playing it super safe. Yeah, be,you know, life sciences, input.
(05:00):
Particular, it is a heavyregulated industry, and
businesses tend to mirror that.
They don't want to step too farout of that box for fear of
looking abnormal from the restof the pack. So, more so than
other industries, it's a lot ofwe all are going to look like
(05:21):
this and stick together thatway. And what happens is you
lose that voice. Everythingbecomes homogeneous across the
board, and when you startthrowing competitors up side by
side, you're like, Okay, I haveno idea in some instances what
you do or what differentiate tofrom the next guy over another
(05:44):
aspect of this is when you getinto the B to B side,
historically, across allindustries, it tends to be more
buttoned up, because rather thanselling to an individual
consumer, you're selling to Acounterpart in another business
who then has to take, you know,I want to use this company to
(06:06):
make our service better, or tocompliment what we're doing, or
to do something we can't do.
They have to then run it up aflagpole to make sure that
there's buy in across the boardand human nature, we tend to
start thinking outside of whatwe're experiencing. And we're
like, how, how's the CEO goingto look at these two companies,
(06:30):
one that's a little a littleextra, yeah, with their creative
and and one that is moretraditional. And they'll tend to
because we do as humans playthat safe side. So there's a lot
of reasons that kind ofinfluence that thinking when,
when companies go into that,when we bring in a company and
(06:56):
we're sitting down looking atwhat we can differentiate, I
liken it to being a therapist alot of times for for our
clients, where they don'tnecessarily know what
differentiates them, becausethey've never had to think about
it that way. So we do theseexercises where we hold up that
(07:17):
mirror, and then when I'mpresenting that creative to
them, and they're looking at it.
Sometimes I show it, and youknow that mirror does not show
what they want to see, right?
And other times we show it, andyou know it's a perfect
(07:37):
representation of of who theyare in a way that they've never
been able to articulate it. Thethe creative side of that, you
know, how can we make it lookcooler? Right? To use a very
vague term, comes from findingthose hooks of what
differentiates them and givingthem something that stands out
(08:00):
from the crowd, so that whensomeone comes to engage with
them, they know, they knowexactly what they're getting.
They get a bit of thatpersonality that a lot of others
hide behind. They don't want youto see that they're you know a
certain way. And you, you theninvite potential customers to
(08:26):
start building a relationship ina way where it's beyond just the
the BD representative. It is thealways on, you know, your brand
is the the one BD sales person.
And this is, this is not, thisis not an attack on you. They're
the one that they don't sleep.
(08:46):
Yeah, they they are alwaysthere, and a properly maintained
brand that has some of thatpersonality there, and you can
keep fresh. They'll want to keepcoming back and engaging with
and once you start doing that,it makes BD sale sales much
easier. And vice versa, where,if you've got BD involved on
(09:10):
that marketing aspect, theybuild and someone a potential
customer, a then existingcustomer, feels a sense of
loyalty and that I, you know, Iget something special from this,
and that's what we're ultimatelytrying to do, yeah, gosh,
I You said that you were goingto leave us with some insights
(09:33):
right out of the gate. We'refour minutes in, five minutes
in. I've got so many follow upquestions here, you know,
talking about what the brand isand how that builds reputation,
and then love the aspect of ofthe competition I'm gonna, I'm
gonna jump there, because wewere at, we were just in, in
Boston for for bio, and then wewere in Philadelphia for c, p,
(09:53):
H, I North America. And it wasso interesting because, you
know, especially at bio, theyput all of these similar.
Companies right next to eachother, and if you just remove
the logos, they would all saythe exact same thing. The
designs were pretty similar aswell. And I think one of the one
of the challenges that I urgeeverybody to think about is that
(10:15):
creative isn't just design. It'salso the words that you use.
It's the that's the valueproposition, it's how you
display it, but you have tostand out in one way or the
other. And we were talking aboutthis this morning, is it's not
always just differentiation, butit's clarification, and that's
what design can really allow youto do. And why wouldn't you want
(10:38):
to do that? If there are eightthings right here, and all of
them are gray. Why would youwant to be the ninth one that
that's green, especially ifyou're trying to break into that
marketplace, especially ifyou're trying to, you know, find
a new target audience withinthat space too.
Yeah, and it trade shows,especially you've got walls and
(10:59):
walls of people in booths, andas someone who's I've exhibited,
working in the booths, I havegone as a visitor. When you're
walking through those aisles, itis so easy for everything to
become gray. And if you don'tgive someone a hook and
(11:21):
understand why they're walkingin to talk to you. They're going
to keep their head down, maybegrab a free pen if you've got
one sitting on the table, andmove on. And that's that doesn't
help anyone. So when we startthinking about and we'll keep it
on the trade show path for abit. In my mind, for a
(11:47):
successful trade show visit, youwant content of some sort. You
want your booth to be somethingit doesn't need to be crazy over
the top. You don't have to spendhundreds of 1000s of dollars,
but it has to have an invitingspace for someone to come into,
yeah, a booth experience, if, ifyou can build one that makes
(12:12):
sense and ideally loops backaround to what You're doing,
that's that's a big plus. Andthen one that's often overlooked
is the team that's going to bethere working it. We've come up
with so many, what I thoughtabsolutely amazing ideas on what
(12:36):
we could do for a boothactivity. We've done special
things shows that really wrap upeverything and create this
really immersive experience. Andthen we find out that that
company's team could have caredless. Either weren't in the
booth, they weren't playingalong. People want to be
entertained, especially atevents like that, and if you
(12:59):
can't mirror that and give themthat reason to stop in, feel
like something amazing justhappened, so that they not only
start thinking about you as apotential avenue to use, but you
want them to walk away, and whenthey're talking to their buddy
that they haven't seen in threeyears, say, Hey, did you see
(13:19):
that booth over there, right? Ijust, it was super fun. We had a
great time. The ideal situationis that at a trade show, you
come away, yes, you want, youwant to fill that pipeline.
That's that's that. But ifyou've got three team members
that are selling for you, butthose three team members and the
(13:42):
tactics that you have there cantransfer their excitement to a
handful of others that are notrepresenting your company at
all. That then become walkingbillboards and advertisements to
say, hey, go talk to them. Yeah,that's your that's where it
comes together. And, andideally, to loop it all back,
(14:06):
all of those things worktogether, that content, the
experience, the booth, yourworkers. If all of that syncs
up, you're in for a good show,regardless. Well,
and, and Drake, you know whatyou're describing to me, and
again, not a designer here,right? So, but what you're
describing to me is, what Iwould say is the brand, right?
(14:29):
I'm a big proponent that a brandis not a logo. A brand is not
this just the CEO. It's not atagline, it's everything. And so
the way that I like to typicallydescribe the brand is as simple
as what people remember aboutyou when they leave, and that
includes the people at thebooth, that includes the
giveaway, that includes thestrategy, that's everything
(14:51):
that's encompassing So kind ofgoing back, putting that back on
you from a design perspective,from a from a from a creator
perspective, you. Is that kindof your thought process when
building a brand and making surethat we're on strategy, is that
this isn't just one item, thisis everything that we're going
to do for the foreseeablefuture. Yeah,
(15:12):
and this, you know, this issomething that was great about
SCORR, was that I lined up withthe values that we have that
when, when we start talkingabout a brand, it is all of
those things. It's the valueprop, the visuals, then stem
from that value prop. They helpextend that, as does the
(15:32):
messaging, as you know, then youjust keep going down the workers
you know that that companythemselves, all need to reflect
that to be that experience.
Because you think of the bigbrands that you know in your
life, that brand has become acharacter in the background of
(15:55):
your life, whether it's theclothing brands that you like,
the car brand that you like,whatever that is, they become
part of that. And it's not justI like how their their logo
looks or I like how thepackaging looks on this. It's so
much beyond that. It's all ofthose experiences built upon
each other to the point whereyou feel like you know and have
(16:20):
fully understood and immersed inyour, your engaged with that,
that brand, and so, you know,for lack of a better term, a
proper functioning brand almostacts as a mascot, like I said
earlier, they're That BD memberthat's always there because
(16:40):
they're all put together. And onthe creative side is, as a
designer, I want that tovisually stand out from the
pack. I want, I want that personto be so memorable in your mind
that there's no mistaking itanywhere else, whether it's the
(17:02):
copy or the visuals.
Yeah, I think here's theargument, okay, okay, our side,
our science, our science, willspeak for itself, right? And
that's something that we hearall the time, is that we don't
need to put an emphasis on thebrand, that the science, science
will speak for it. I have goneon 1000 rants and 1000 meetings,
(17:27):
and so I'm going to let you goon a rant. So you've got, we
bring you an opportunity, Drake,and it's a great opportunity.
It's a it's an up and comingcompany, and they want to say,
we don't need to focus on thebrand, because our science will
speak for itself. What's thewhat's the counter argument, the
the RE and I, you've kind ofmade it over the last 60 minutes
already, but kind of honing inon this specifically, what does
(17:49):
that look like to you?
Well, to take a little step backbefore I dive into that, when
you look at what is being donein this industry, life science
industry, it is mind blowing.
And I am regularly humbled andamazed at I sit in with
(18:15):
brilliant scientists, brilliantCEOs that have brought together,
an idea, a service, a solutionthat betters lives, yeah, and
while what what you want out ofthat, what should happen is we
(18:38):
should be elevating that. That'swhere the story lies for most of
these companies, and that'swhat's lost a lot of times, is
they are so zoned in, rightfullyso, on that solution, on
providing this potentially lifesaving opportunity, that they
don't understand that those onthe outside don't have that full
(19:00):
story, right? You in an idealworld in this space, if you're
selling B to b1, scientist toanother scientist, they don't
need to understand they'llunderstand what you're talking
about, what you're bringing tothem. That's not how any of
(19:21):
these companies work. You haveto sell sometimes to boards,
private equity. You are sellingto the government. You're
selling to financial officers,you're selling and they've got,
if they don't understand whatyou're selling, yeah, what
you're talking about, you'regoing to struggle so much more
(19:43):
than pulling in a creative tohelp distill down, okay, what?
What about this process? Whatabout this how can I make it so
that I always like to think ofit? Could I put. Together so
that my parents could look atthis and understand, granted,
(20:06):
there are different levels ofthat need, right? But in an
ideal world, you should be ableto put it in front of a
competent human and have them belike, Oh, I get this. You know,
I don't understand theintricacies, but I get this. You
understand that part of this,right? And and on. On that note,
(20:27):
we run I run into this. We runinto this a lot that it's either
we're going to tell you everydetail or nothing and creative
can be brought in if, if, ifthey're pulled in in a way that
helps elevate that you can sayyou have a process that you're
(20:52):
you're trying to offer as aservice. It is two schools of
thought, where you either showeverything and it ends up being
a 40 page PowerPointpresentation of every step along
the way and everything thathappens, or we're going to talk
(21:17):
about it in three bullets andmove on. Ideally, you have that
quick sale. You have the long,unabridged version. But the
sweet spot in there that can beused across everything else is
that interim piece, a piecethat's brought in, creatives
(21:39):
brought in and tells you enoughso that you understand what
you're going to get withoutgiving the whole thing away, and
that is if you lock in with acreative team that can listen to
what you're trying to sell andthen pull that back, your BD
team starts speaking the samelanguage. Your customers start
(22:02):
understanding what, what ishappening, and a consistent
experience starts to emerge. Andthat's what customers want. I
want to know what I'm going toget from you. Yeah. And so I
think in a roundabout way, I gotto your
it's and it's not an easyanswer. And the reason that I'm
(22:24):
excited about your answer,especially where you finish, is
one of the biggest things that Ichallenged companies to do when
we're in the BD process, if theydon't believe that they need a
brand, is to go ask fiveinternal employees that work on
different teams, what how wouldyou describe what we do here,
and it you're probably going toget five different answers. And
(22:44):
if that's confusing internally,imagine what it is externally.
And you talk so much about, youknow, how you're not just
selling to one person. You know,there's multiple parties in
this, but at the end of the day,you're selling to humans, and
humans only buy things that theythat they know that they like
and that they trust, and so thebrand is what's capable of doing
(23:05):
that. And so I could go on forfor 10, 2040, minutes, but you
got three questions in here,Drake, you know you're really
sparking the crowd this Thursdayafternoon. You are nervous about
my questions, but now it's awhole other ball game here.
We've got a question fromBarbara. She says, Drake, from a
marketing perspective, yourtrade show, Dream experience is
(23:29):
great. Everything needs to worktogether, the branding, the
graphics, the message and thevisitor materials, but the boost
team members are perhaps themost important factor. They are
the catalyst that brings it alltogether. If the marketing team
puts the right people in thatbooth, they can create pure
magic. I'm realizing that's nota question from Barbara, but it
is a fantastic call out. And Ithink that's that's exactly the
(23:52):
piece is. And I've talked aboutthis after scope and after cphi
is that now has to be taken intoconsideration for all trade
shows, you can't just show upanymore. It's not enough just to
be there. You have to have thatentire story and strategy built
before the show.
Yeah, and, and something to addto that is right now, as the
(24:18):
world returns to more in personevents, people are still they're
starved for, for what that was.
And while, pre pandemic, we raninto situations where people are
like, this is stale. That's old.
It's, you know, there's peoplethat have been going to trade
shows for 2030, years, andthey're like, we've seen it.
(24:40):
It's just we're over it. Theopportunity that exists right
now is you have potentiallypeople that have that are new to
the industry, would have beenconsidered new to the industry,
that have worked their way up todecision making. Hers over the
(25:00):
last three to four years, yeah,that are getting to go to shows
for the first time. You can tapinto that in a way that that you
haven't been able to do. Webasically reset what it was to
go to a trade show. Yeah, whatyou could get out of a trade
show. And people need to becognizant that there's a lot of
(25:23):
opportunity within there and andknowing where we were, you know
how it's been, and then wherewe're at right now, that there's
a lot of windows open thatthey're there for you. They can
become brand ambassadors. Youjust have to engage with them
and give them something to holdon to, and that would be ideally
(25:47):
your brand, yeah, as a whole. SoI love that. And I think the
last piece there on Barbara'scomment is, you, if you're going
to build this team that's goingto go. Don't just tell them
they're going to the trade show,right? Give them as as much
information as they possiblycan. Who are the targets? What
(26:08):
is this going to impact? Likeshow them the full picture. It's
the same thing I always sayabout SMEs with content. If you
just say, hey, subject matterexpert, I need you to write a
blog. I've got other things todo, right? But if you kind of
sit them down and you show,okay, here's what we're trying
to do. We're trying to build ourthought leadership, our
expertise, so people know thescience, you know, that's type
(26:29):
of, that type of full picture ofwhat we're trying to do as a
marketing program, as abusiness, is going to be really
successful. So I love that, andI think it kind of lends itself
to we got a comment here fromAlec. The better Alec, not me.
And every time I look over I seehis your the bio says, I play
(26:50):
golf, and I just love that. Andso his comment is, I think the
whole science speaks for itself.
Idea proves to be true forrecurring business and expansion
retention, but won't do good fornew business acquisition. And
this is something that I believewholeheartedly in, because I
(27:11):
cannot tell you how many CEOs,CCOs, CFOs, that we have talked
to that say, well, once we're ina room, once we have them, it's
a lock. Like, we're going to getthem like, we're going to make
this work. We're going to dothis once they see the science,
once they see the facility, it'sa no brainer. And it's like,
okay, well, how do we increasethose at bats? Right? Like,
(27:34):
let's that's what we need tofocus on moving forward.
Yeah, and yeah, the you know,something that that can be done,
and we do this with a lot of ourclients, is to give more of a
flexible platform for theirbrand. I think a lot of times
they lock into thinking thatthey need some you know, we're
(27:57):
either we either need to staypretty stoic over here, or we're
going to get crazy, and you canbuild a consistent brand that is
able to stay stoic when it needsto, to get crazy when it needs
to, and have that functiontogether to keep the business
that you have, keep themengaged, because you do need to,
(28:21):
you know, this is the last thingyou want, is a long term
relationship getting stagnant,because they know what we do,
right? You need to foster that,but you also want to bring in
and get excitement from that newwork. I've sat in on calls where
(28:41):
we're talking about next stepsfor our branding exercises, what
we're going to do, and you'llhave a CEO say we're really not
interested in getting more work.
You know, we keep everythinggoing as is, yeah, and, and if
we want it, we just have to get,like you said, we just have to
get in the room and we'll dothat and and that first off,
(29:07):
kudos to them, right, thatthey've been able to do that.
But to such a net, it could be apotentially narrow path to sit
there and think what we gotgoing on is fine. We don't need
to do any more. Think of whatyou could do if you added that.
Yeah, it's just, you know, thoseopportunities are limitless.
(29:32):
When you start thinking, okay,how can we build upon if you, if
you got that much expertise,you're looked to that strongly.
What can you do with a littlebit extra what can you do
bringing in that brand andcreating a strong voice and
strong visuals to really enhancewhat you're doing? Maybe it's
(29:52):
not as much with your currentclientele. Maybe you're not
actively targeting newaudiences. It could be into.
Internal, internal, yeah, andthat's an aspect that we haven't
touched on at all today, butyeah, but creating long term
brand representatives withinyour own company so that they're
speaking on that same platform,everybody's in unison. If
(30:17):
nothing else, it's going to makeHR job easier. So we've gotten
the HR people here,yeah, support, support the brand
well. And I think Drake, youmake a great point. And I know
we're coming up on the half hourmark. I said we'd go a couple
minutes long if we were on aroll. And every time you and I
talk, I feel like we're on alittle bit of a roll. But Lauren
(30:38):
makes a comment in here as acomment question, you know, what
are some of those best ways toleverage the BD team and their
brand and and, you know,obviously I am one of those
individuals that is a massiveproponent of your employees
having personal brands. I I'mgonna call Lauren out if she's
still watching this, or ifyou're watching it later that
she is one of those individualsthat has an excellent brand
(31:00):
herself, that that reallycombines with companies. And I
like maybe, maybe that's justbecause the life sciences space
is a little bit slower, butmaybe 510, years ago, that
really started to take off. AndI think it's slowly taking off
in this space, more so with CEOsand founders. But if you have
alignment on the story. If youhave alignment on the value
(31:23):
proposition, why you exist allthese things, then it's a dream
scenario to be able to leverageBD team members, art directors,
marketer, whoever it is, to beable to leverage them in the
public eye as part of yourbrand. So it's kind of a
comment, but a vague question aswell, thoughts on how you can
have people, a people focusedbrand, but then you also have
(31:45):
the brand in general, you know,building up the company
Well, I think, I mean, yououtlined it incredibly well, and
it's, it's one of the skillsthat that you have that I think
should be replicated across thelife sciences industry. I don't
need any anybody stealing youryour skills. But if you can get
(32:10):
buy in, and there's constantcommunication between marketing
and BD on, hey, what's comingup? What are you seeing? That's
something that you know, we havethose conversations regularly
where it's what, what are youseeing? What? What problems are
you having when you're selling?
Can we change the presentationsthat you're using to accommodate
(32:32):
that? Are you running intoroadblocks here or vice versa?
Are you having a lot ofpotential clients reaching out
to you and saying, Hey, have youbeen dealing with x? Do you have
any information on that? Ifthat's related to marketing and
can be absorbed into the brandso that you are sharing assets,
(32:54):
you're sharing topics, you'resharing all of those pieces. You
can have really vocal BD membersthat have their own thing going
on, but they're going to betalking the same language that
the brand is talking, and thatconsistent experience comes up
and and they know that when I'mtalking to you, it's the same
thing I'm going to get when Iget transferred over to an
(33:16):
internal team member to, Youknow, handle my prod project or
my product, that's what youwant. Yeah, you don't want that
dissonance to be there. And soyou can leverage those
personalities that you broughtin and and give them the tools
that you want them to use back,right? And it's, you know, that
(33:37):
that symbiotic relationship, soyeah, and I think it goes to the
consistency part that you weretalking about earlier is, you
know, the story that I say aboutbrand, you when then you're in a
meeting, are going to say a verysimilar, smarter, more design
focused, but, but same story,tasks, account strategies is
going to say the same story. Andso it's just that kind of
(33:59):
continuity across that. And Ithink again, it goes back to
people. Buy from people. And Italk about this a lot in the in
the daily videos, is just like,if they trust you, they're
placing a bet on you, on yourorganization. And at the end of
the day, your organization ismade up mostly of people, right?
(34:21):
You know, you've got, you've gottech, and you've got machine
like, you've got the facility,but it's the people who operate
it that really are the thescientific expertise, and so
being able to showcase that, Ithink, is, is absolutely
essential. Um, okay, we are.
We're a couple minutes past. I'mgoing to put you on the spot for
a final thought. The one thingthat I didn't mention, but you
(34:43):
were kind of going into itbefore, one of the last
questions is, I think brandmarketing and just brand in
fact, I'm going to get rid ofthe word marketing, because I
think that sometimes gets us introuble. The brand is one of the
few tactics and strategies, inmy opinion, that this. Same
time, it can help the pipelinebeing filled from the top of the
(35:05):
funnel, and it can also helptime to close, right? Those are
the two biggest struggles thatwe see right now that our
clients in the industry isdealing with, is the top of the
funnel, getting pipeline to befilled with leads, and then the
time to close is, you know, it'sgoing from nine months now to 18
months, and a really strongbrand, a really strong
foundation, is going to help onboth of those parts. And I think
(35:29):
that's something that's oftenoverlooked, because if, if
you're trying to sell, you know,let's put me, for example. I'm
trying to sell to one person,but the decision making team has
nine people. If all nine peoplehave to go through this on their
own, the brand is going to bemore of an asset than my voice
will be, right? And so we justhave to use that. And I think
(35:49):
that's something that weoverlook too often when it comes
to the science versus brandperspective. And I don't think
that there's, there's a need forthat argument, in my opinion,
yeah,I mean that you it comes back to
that consistent element. Yeah,you can get, if the BD member
can bring in a person, and thenyou can get them into the funnel
(36:12):
where they are getting that samemessage consistent. What you're
selling becomes simple and notoverly complex. You can dive
into that any one of uslistening to this call can get
on a call with a client and talkthem through the X's and O's
forever. If you can't, youshouldn't be selling it. That's
(36:33):
just the way it is. But if youget them in, simplify it, give
them those bites, so thatthey're continuing to come back,
engage, allowing BD teams tocome in, help be that physical
person that they're talking to,developing that relationship
(36:57):
you've taken What would have tobe a team of 20, and brought it
down to one or two in person,people that are fostering that
relationship and that brand isserving as those other 18 people
who are bringing in thosepieces. And so there is a value
(37:18):
add when you start thinking ofhow to build out your teams, you
know, bring partnering withsomeone like SCORR, who can
bring in a marketing team tohelp alleviate and let your
sales people sell yeah and notdo so much teaching a brand can
teach yeah and and let, Let yoursales people sell and get them
(37:42):
in unison with each other. Andwhen that's happening, magic
happens.
Yeah, I I love that. I want toend it like, right? I don't even
want, I shouldn't even have tosay anything, because that that
line the brands can teach is sovital if the education of your
offering is already out there.
(38:04):
My job as a salesperson, BDS,whoever 70 times easier, right?
Like, if the education is there,and by the way, sometimes that's
education just on the industry,not even just specifically
score. A lot of times I like tojust educate on marketing. Go do
it yourself. Find a free like,that's fine. But if, when you do
(38:25):
come to me and you're ready tohave that conversation, you're
already halfway there, or 25%there, 75% there, it is world
changing, because now thatconversation is a collaboration.
And so I love to say thatbrands, you said brands can
teach. I think the brand canhelp you sit at the same table.
And if you're sitting at thesame table, you're going to win
(38:46):
more often than not. So I lovethat. Yeah. Okay. Final
thoughts, I make this. I makeyou do this every time, whoever
comes on this for the SCORRLinkedIn lives, or these ones
that we do randomly on Thursdayafternoons, you get 30 seconds,
I'm going to start the timer,and I just want your your final
thoughts on on brand, or thefinal takeaway that that the
(39:09):
folks that are watching thisshould have. Are you ready?
I am ready and go. All right, sowhen you start thinking about
how you can build out yourbrand, what it can do for your
company, I would encourage youto start thinking about what are
the stories that need told foryour company? What are those
hooks that when you do get inthe room and you start talking
(39:33):
about it, what? What are thosethings that resonate with the
team your brand should be thatwhether it is flashy, whether it
is stoic, a brand can becreative by telling those
stories and bringing anexperience that's consistent and
wants to be engaged with, andthat's creatives here to do that
(39:58):
you went four. 14 seconds over,but you had me. You had me the
entire time. The brands can dothat, the stories that need to
be told. That was exactly whereI was going with my final
thoughts is, if you think aboutwhat other people are gonna say
about your company, that's whata brand can help narrate, right?
(40:21):
And we can control that. And Ialways go back to most CEOs. If
you're a marketing team memberwatching this, even if you're a
CEO, you might agree. Most CEOs,most boards, most private equity
care about two things, revenueand the story that's being told
about your company. And withbrand, you can control both of
those things. And Barbarafinishes this with, it's all
(40:42):
about the stories. Is the lastcomment. And I could not agree
more, Barbara, so on that note,Drake, thank you so much for
making time today if you wereable to watch it. Thank you so
much. This will be, you know, onthe on the platform to find if
you watched you have anyquestions, either for me or
specifically for Drake, just DMme on LinkedIn, leave a comment.
(41:03):
I'll make sure it gets to Drake,and we'll supply an answer for
you. So thank you so much,Drake.
Yes, thank you. It was a lot offun, awesome.
All right, I'll talk to yousoon. Bye, bye.
(41:24):
As always, thank you for tuningin to this episode of The SCORR
cast, brought to you by SCORRMarketing. We appreciate your
(41:48):
time and hope you found thisdiscussion insightful. Don't
forget to subscribe and join usfor our next episode. Until
(42:10):
then, remember, marketing issupposed to be fun.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.