Second Genome Case Study
Sales Specialization
About Second Genome
Second Genome is a clinical stage company with a mission to improve human health by unlocking the full potential of the microbiome. They do research and use microbiome science to identify new therapeutic targets to treat human chronic conditions.
Challenges & Scope
ICP: Specific Areas of Medical Research within required industries. Academic + Public
Product: Proprietary drug discovery platform to identify effective peptides, proteins and small molecule therapeutics that can address unmet medical needs.
Specifics: Product is very complex. The SDR needed to understand biotechnology to conduct successful conversations.
Second Genome came to CIENCE to find new potential partners in academics, pharma, and biotech. The goal was to explore a methodology for proactive lead generation and promote Second Genome’s research services.
Take Ogawa, Director of Business Development at Second Genome, stated, “We are an early-stage biotech company in that we are a resource and time-limited. That’s when we heard about CIENCE and their capabilities. We saw strong synergies with working with someone like CIENCE to help us accelerate our sales and marketing, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel ourselves. It was a nice fit.”
CIENCE took a two-pronged approach with Second Genome. First, we went through a discovery process where we researched highly qualified leads, followed by outreach to those leads. CIENCE identified what Second Genome’s ideal client profile would look like and came up with research including names, titles, demographics, and contact information.
Project Summary
“CIENCE started to systematically reach out to these potential leads with customized messages. They sent emails to try to contact people, gauge their interest and arrange meetings for my sales team. They integrated into our system of emails and calendars so that the process was seamless. We ran various parallel and serial campaigns with different kinds of clients and different market segments, like pharma or academia.”
CIENCE created customized messaging for outreach that would set appointments with ideal decision makers and influencers that Second Genome was targeting. For academic messaging, meetings were set with job titles including professors, investigators, and directors. For pharmaceutical messaging, job titles included directors, heads of departments, and vice presidents.
CIENCE provided a customer success manager who was Second Genome’s main point of contact. Weekly calls were held to discuss what was done every single week. CIENCE adjusted messaging accordingly based on results and feedback including open rates and responses.
“A little anecdote to share is that with clients and partners that I’ve had an opportunity to meet face-to-face, they always ask about the CIENCE colleagues by name. The CIENCE folks that were doing the outreach really provided a personal touch and our clients expected to interact with them in a greater way. In essence, being asked for by name was a true testament to how involved they were in the whole process.”
The CIENCE dedicated-team model offers clients an “extended team” that integrates seamlessly with in-house stakeholders. Campaigns succeed thanks to this integration.
Why CIENCE
“They were a great team to work with on a personal level, which is important. Overall, I think project management is one of their key assets. Right off the bat, they were organized and good on following up with potential clients. They were able to take feedback and apply it in real-time. We’re selling a heavy, complicated scientific research-based offering that they were able to pick up really quickly and manage accordingly.”
CIENCE worked as an extension of Second Genome’s team and continued to stay educated internally on each campaign. CIENCE’s expertise and experience in the biotech space have enabled our team to develop expertise in the industry.
“What we liked about CIENCE in our evaluation of them was the human-touch aspect they brought. It felt scalable. You could imagine a tradeoff between a hands-on approach and a scaled one where the throughput gets diminished. But in their case, I felt like they were reaching a sufficient number of individuals on a routine, weekly basis while also customizing their messaging.”
“Their ability to offer a customized, hands-on experience both for us and for our clients, the people that they’re reaching out to. Their messaging wasn’t mass, blanket emails, but came from a real person representing our company. They could respond if there were any questions. It didn’t feel automated or like you were talking to a robot. They provided a concierge-type approach.”
All CIENCE campaigns have weekly internal and external review meetings. Custom messaging is the hallmark of the type of bespoke service clients can expect.
Results
“The ultimate success is that they’re gaining meetings for us and that these communications turn into revenue generating sales for ROI. But there are additional incremental indicators in terms of the number of qualified leads we get and how productive those conversations are – particularly because what we were selling is fairly unique. There’s a lot of education required to educate the clients. CIENCE was very thorough in that aspect.”
CIENCE thoroughly researched how to approach each campaign they led for Second Genome.Campaigns included reaching out to Cancer Centers, centers which focus on Metabolic Disorders and Infection Prevention as well as Microbiome Research in the Animal Health Industry.
“I can say qualitatively that by working with them we gained new clients and partners that we wouldn’t have otherwise. Two years is pretty short in the scheme of things. They really helped expand that reach that we didn’t have before. For us, success is based on the investment and the kind and size of the deals we get from each of these customers – the value we get from each opportunity that’s won. We definitely got our return on investment.”
“By working with them we gained new clients and partners that we wouldn’t have otherwise. We definitely got our return on investment.”