The US healthcare pharmaceuticals market is valued at several hundred billion dollars. It’s little wonder that it’s one of the top segments in the sights of a large number of b2b companies eyeing a slice of that pie. When it comes to building a database of healthcare leads and decision makers a custom list building approach is perhaps one of the best sources and well worth the time or money you invest in building it. Depending on the organization within which you need decision makers whether its IT, finance, accounting, compliance or administration, role based lists are a lot more reliable and accurate. Some of the larger company databases may not have the level or type of contacts needed and although ready lists can be purchased or rented, accuracy would depend on how recently they were built and unless these lists can be sampled. When the products or services are more niche and require very specific decision makers engaged in the sales process then aside from generating inbound leads and inquiries for the offering, building role based lists is ideal. For example if the decision maker is the person responsible for diagnostics technology in the lab or the person responsible for emergency response systems and software, it’s unlikely they can be found on most directories or ready lists.
To build a role based list, use a telephone based process of calling into to prospective accounts and asking for decision makers by role rather than asking for someone in a specific job title. For example, if the product being sold is a tissue imaging solution for diagnostics, navigating through the diagnostics lab and identifying the person responsible for imaging is a lot more productive than asking for the IT Director or having the name of the CIO and asking inside sales to connect with him/her. The phone based process is time intensive and slower than buying a list of more general higher level contacts but the value of having a database of accurate direct decision makers which sales and marketing can connect with quickly is well worth the effort and extremely valuable while going after the healthcare segment.
In a market like healthcare and pharmaceuticals where high quality marketing data isn’t always readily available off the shelf, try building your own. Starting with the right person may help you get that piece of the pie before someone else does.