I just received a call from “M”, my totally competent and wonderful household helper.  The call went like this:

“Hi Karen, I just thought I’d call you because I’ve had a cancellation this week, so I’ve got a slot available.  I know you said you wanted more help with the ironing this week.  Do you want me to come round, as well as your usual slot?”

She’d remembered that I had visitors coming and filled in her vacant slot with an existing customer.  Simple.

It got me thinking about the situation I see in life science technology and service businesses who are launching new products and services.  How many times have I seen them include a way to introduce these new offerings to their existing clients, as part of their launch strategy (if they even have one, but that’s another topic)?

Take a new application for a bioanalysis service, or a new reagent for antibody research, or even a new clinical research service that offers a quicker/faster solution for Phase I testing?  The emphasis for these new product and service launches always seems to be on how to attract new business via marketing tactics: direct email announcements, a webinar, a press release and trade journal articles, etc.

Nothing wrong with that, but these activities tend to overlook the obvious “low-hanging fruit”: your existing customers. Out of the top 35 pharmaceutical companies and top 200 biotechnology companies, a certain percentage of these will be working with you already; perhaps on an ongoing project, or planning the next contract, or perhaps they’ve recently completed a project with you.  Are you expecting them to just find out about your new product or service, via your marketing efforts?

How about, as part of your marketing planning for the new service/product roll-out, you prioritise a simple phone call to your key project manager or important decision maker in all of your current, imminent and recent clients, to just let them know about this new offering?  A call from your account manager, business director or even better, your project manager, would be a personal way to introduce the new offering in terms that are relevant and specific to each individual client.  It only takes a few minutes, but being an existing client, you don’t need to overcome the hurdles of winning their trust or embarking on a lengthy contract process, as you’ve already done this.  Plus, it’s a great excuse to just keep the communication channels open.

So, why not include your existing clients in your new product/service launch plan?