Guide for the New Consultant April 2015. Entrepreneurship Essentials Copyright © 2015. All Rights Reserved. Confidential Property of Pharma Initiatives.

Guide for the New Consultant

April 2015

Entrepreneurship Essentials Copyright © 2015. All Rights Reserved.

Confidential Property of Pharma Initiatives Consulting Group. LLC

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Agenda

· Introduction

· Getting Started as a Consultant

· Marketing Services

· Selling Services

· Things to Remember

· Questions



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IntroductionBeen Here Before and Back Again

· 25+ year consulting veteran

· Been senior leader of two consulting firms which I helped grow from less than 10 to over 200 people in 10 years

· Started up 2 consulting firms, including one currently

· Advised over a dozen small services and consulting organizations during startup phase

· Current focus biopharma operational consulting in clinical development and medical affairs



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Getting StartedDefine Your Service Offering

· Start by defining your unique experiences:– List major accomplishments – both general and rare

• It helps to start here first to frame the next step• This is something you have done more than once, usually many times

– Example 1:• I have led a global medical affairs organization strategy for a top 3 pharmaceutical company

– Example 2:• I was responsible for establishing market access strategy for the RA therapeutic area, including a

successful market access strategy for two RA launch products

· What skill sets can extrapolate– What did you learn that others may not understand– What challenging issues did you encounter and overcome– You must be able to communicate that explicitly when you discuss your offering– Example 1:

• I understand the specific challenges of aligning medical affairs capabilities on a global basis where the regulations vary by country/region, medical affairs has different reporting structures and different metrics in each region

– Example 2:• I understand the unique aspects of P&T Committee decision making for RA product given current

treatment options and costs of care

The first step in starting a consulting business is defining what you are offering to do – you need to do this before anything else.



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Getting StartedDefine Your Service Offering (continued)

· Translate your skill sets into reasons someone would want to hire you – your value– What are the circumstances where you would offer a compelling solution to

someone’s problem or challenge– Example 1:

• Anyone embarking on building or re-organizing a global medical affairs organization

– Example 2:• Anyone launching a new RA treatment or struggling with market access with an existing RA

treatment

· Gut check time – do I have something to offer? – Do you believe that people would actually hire you for the reasons you listed?– Would you hire you?– How many people do you know that would need your services?– How many people outside of your old company?



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Getting StartedMechanics – Business Structure

· LLC - Flow through entity for tax purposes – Offers great flexibility– Provides legal protections like a corporation & flow through tax treatment like a

partnership– If company seeking equity most likely will need to change to a C-Corp

· S-Corp - More traditional legal structure but offers flow through capability similar to LLC– One class of stock – all common– Max of 100 shareholders

· C-Corp - Most common form of legal structure if outside funding is needed– Delaware Corporation is most common– Double taxation is downside- All losses are contained within the C Corp– Will most likely require a sale of the entity vs. an asset sale upon exit.

Create Your Legal Structure (seek legal counsel for detailed guidance):

Start with LLC, and go from there. Likely to cost few hundred dollars to have a lawyer set up for you. Remember you need to file yearly and pay

fee.



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Getting StartedMechanics – Systems

· Accounting System– Tracks your expenses and income– Important for tax purposes as well as

answering important questions about profitability

– Range of simple, online solutions available

· CRM System– Tracks all your contacts– Tracks and stores last contacts, notes, next

steps– Tracks opportunities– Critical to make sure you don’t drop the ball

and have a record of when and to whom you communicate

– Range of online options available

· Conference Call / Computer Screen Sharing– You’ll need for sales pitches

Even though it’s just you, you do need some system support.



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Getting StartedMechanics – Other Things

· Business Accounts– Recommend business checking account– Recommend separate business credit card– Makes life a lot easier

· Rates and Charges– Highly recommend you use flat fee billing

• You are not yet good at estimating the number of hours

– Answer the question what do you think this is worth– Remember that while you are risky vs. other alternatives with longer track records so

you need to reflect the risk in your price to some degree – pharma buyers equate cost with value so you don’t want to go too low

– Remember to price in the project management effort – it can be considerable· Basic Legal

– Mutual NDA– Consulting Services Agreement– Both can be found online– Read carefully– Bring in a lawyer if you are concerned

Some other things you will need to get things started right.



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MarketingOverview

· Marketing Messages

· Marketing Tools

· Marketing Approaches

We will cover the basics today:



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MarketingMessages

· At a minimum you need:– Define target customers– Core marketing message– Marketing message details– Note: this should all build on the work you did defining your services

· Target customers– Who will be buying your services?– Types of companies

• Pharma• Biotech• Device• Services (CRO, others?)

– People• Level• Title• Function• Situational

Before you can sell something, you must define what you are selling and how you want your customers to understand it.

– Sizes of companies• Large • Mid-sized• Small• Startup

– Geographies • US• EU• Asia• BRAC• Global



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MarketingMessages (continued)

· Core marketing message – summarized value– How you briefly explain what services you offer to potential buyers– Lots of different thoughts on what this should look like – My definition – the least number of words possible to convey the primary value

you offer– Mine: Operationalizing Business Strategy– Others: Partners for Success; Insights that Instill Confidence; We Make Change

Stick– May be easier to start with market message details first

· Market message details– List of the types of value you bring to clients– Short but not reductive– Mine:

• Provide operational consulting to help pharma clients in Medical Affairs and Clinical Development meet their goals by:– Creating the right operational infrastructure– Implementing change initiatives focused on a mix of people, process and IT changes– Embedding those changes to realize results through a proprietary change management

methodology



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MarketingTools

· Once you know what your marketing messages are, you can focus on communicating them

· First you need some supporting materials– Name

• Primary focus should be on a domain name• Go to domain services and try some out• Name is not really critical, but avoid using just

your name if you want to grow the business beyond you

– Color / branding• Don’t worry too much, just pick something• You’ll need this to give logo designers something

to work with

– Logo• Good to have one• Don’t spend too much money or attention – use

online service, lots available now• Can always change this later



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MarketingTools (continued)

· Primary tools for communicating marketing messages are:– Capabilities presentation– Website

· Capabilities presentation should include all your marketing messages. Typical outline includes:– Problems your solve for your clients (questions you answer)– Description of your services– Examples of project, lots of short ones– Your bio

· Capabilities presentations should be:– Well written and edited– Use consistent fonts, colors and graphic styles– Be no more than 6 pages, but shorter is better– Built in PowerPoint – more showing less telling– Should have different versions for different customer sets– Example



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MarketingTools (continued)

· Website– Goal: To allow people to understand what you offer– Reason: Provides needed credibility– Will not generate business directly

· Website building– You can pay $3000 or you can build it yourself– If you have $, invest it in a copy editor to improve your

language and build yourself– Many good systems are available– Takes many hours but you get what you put in– Like with the capabilities deck, show don’t say – Find some good examples and steal formatting / structure

liberally

· Other tools:– Update your LinkedIn profile to match the content in your

capabilities deck and website– Develop 1 page bio– Develop 1 page service offering



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MarketingApproach

· Marketing at launch is all about who you know– Make sure all your contacts are loaded into your CRM solution– Begin to systematically reach out to all of them that are relevant– Your goal for your initial email is to get a call

· Your initial email– Brief and to the point– Inform them of your new venture and focus on core marketing message– Ask for their advice (everyone has advice to give and loves to give it)– Ask to set up a brief call early next week (next week always seems freer than this

week)– Don’t send out on Friday – they get lost in the shuffle

· Your initial call– Explain your business offering– Ask if they have any suggestions on how you can describe it better (the advice)– Ask if they have any need right now – if so secure a meeting to discuss their need

in detail– IF THEY DON’T – ask for referrals – 2 or 3 names of people that can use your

services• This is the hardest part but DO IT• Ask if they can send an introductory email

– Follow up with a thank you and a reminder to send the email– Track all this in the CRM, including all follow ups – STAY ORGANIZED



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SalesConsulting Sales

· Selling consulting is:– A “trust” sale – they are buying nothing more than the trust that you can do what

you say you are going to do– Great book, Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing by Harry

Beckworth– Trust is best when it already exists, but even then it must be strengthened and

rebuilt– Trust in a sale is built by:

• Being completely prepared• Listening to their issues and responding to what they want• Sharing your expertise in the context of their need

· First sales call:– Goal: to understand the needs of the client so that you can propose to address

those needs– What should happen:

• Very brief introduction• Then you ask what the client needs/challenges faced• Then you listen• Then you ask probing questions• Then you listen more• Then you probe more• Then you listen more• Then you share how you have dealt with a similar problem, briefly



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SalesConsulting Sales (continued)

· First sales call:– They will ask you to propose a solution if you have listened and responded well– Common first sales call mistakes

• Trying to demonstrate expertise prior to listening• Jumping too soon to solutions without understanding the whole problem• Interrupting – never interrupt and if you do, apologize• Starting out with long explanation of all services offered

· Approach for your proposal– Use your capabilities deck as the basic template for the proposal style, re-using

graphical elements whenever you can– Framework of the proposal:

• Define the client’s problem (based on all that listening)• Draft a set of project objectives – what are you going to accomplish• Document the scope of services that will allow you to meet the objectives (what are

you going to do)– Quantify whenever possible, including number of meetings, interviews, trips, etc.

• Timeline• Costs including an estimate of expenses – but emphasize estimate• Any other explicit assumptions needed (like who will pay honoraria, or purchase 3rd

party research)



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SalesConsulting Sales (continued)

· Presenting the proposal– Goal: Understand their objections (if any) so that you can revise the proposal to

better meet their needs and win the business– Whenever possible, try to present the proposal face to face

• Yes it costs more but seeing their reaction is critical to understanding their concerns• Many times this is not possible because all the buyers are not, themselves, in a single

location– If you cannot meet face to face, do NOT email the proposal – share it live using a

web meeting– Go through each page and stop at end of each page to ask for questions– Ask if the client wants to start and when to schedule the kick off meeting– Getting questions / objections is GOOD

• Only engaged buyers ask questions or have objections – you don’t questions something you have no intention to buy

• Do NOT be defensive, listen fully to the question, repeat it back to be sure you understand it correctly, then address it directly or offer to modify the proposal to address it



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Things to Remember

· Selling is Hard– There is a reason few people do it– Rejection is constant– BUT – you only need one win at a time

· People will NOT meet your expectations– People you are sure will support you will not– People who you have no expectation of will go out of their way to help you

· Don’t Give UP– It takes a long time to establish a new consultancy, don’t give up after a few

months

· Don’t stop marketing and selling– When you are working, force yourself to do one hour of marketing and selling

each day– Always Need to Find the Next Thing!



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Questions?

My Contact Info:

Gary [email protected]

www.pharmainitiatives.com

mailto:[email protected]

Guide for the New Consultant April 2015. Entrepreneurship Essentials Copyright © 2015. All Rights Reserved. Confidential Property of Pharma Initiatives.

Documents

consulting firms

consulting organizations

consulting business

medical affairs slide

offering example

year consulting veteran

medical affairs capabilities

challenge example