Contract Research Organization

Challenge

A contract research organization (CRO) in the medical device industries faced its third year of zero growth. Management planned to open remote offices to be closer to their customers. We came in to help determine whether that strategy would work, and which steps would be most attractive to the market.

Solution

We measured how different value drivers affected demand and found that the marketplace did not care about company location at all, believed that most CRO’s were about the same, and cared deeply about company’s expertise in their specific therapeutic area (cancer, arthritis, diabetes, etc.). Establishing a new pricing strategy. 

Results

The company abandoned its costly geographic expansion plans and used our insights to develop an effective growth strategy. Marketing and sales training focused on specific therapies, based on customers’ preferences. After six months, the company began growing again and was also able to win business at higher prices. Sales run rate was up 16% and 60% of new sales came from the new offerings, which commanded higher prices.