SAB NewsSAB Advice for vendorsPosted 2/13/2008 In a recent study we also asked The Science Advisory Board members: "What advice would you give vendors hoping to provide researchers like yourself with the most relevant product information in a timely and convenient format?" Agricultural biotechnology "Apart from the (in)direct mailing and catalogs let a (well-trained) sales representative keep in touch with the researcher so that new developments can be identified quickly, budget can be organized and new applications be tried to find out if they are useful for a lab." Jan, Staff Scientist, North America "As a researcher I would like to advise the vendors to give more emphasis to and produce more quality products with high efficiency. It is important to note that whatever vendors mention about their products some of the reagents and some of their lots may not be work properly. In this case us researchers have to lose our efforts and money. This is critical situation in some of the companies products." Raj, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Be brief and specific. If the rep knows what I need and offers a quality product, I am likely to buy. I don't have time to wade through irrelevant information. I love to talk to people, but I don't really have time to "shoot the bull" with a representative." Steven, Staff Scientist, Europe "Be short and give keys to find further detailed technical information." Luc, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Be up-to-date about scientific background to better understand our needs." Jerome, Staff Scientist, Europe "Become familiar with my research so that the visit can be more focused and briefer." Guenther, Professor/Teacher, North America "Bring protocol brochures or technical info about products on their visits." Fernando, Professor/Teacher, North America "Direct e-mail: brief and concise." Ajit, Staff Scientist, Europe "Discussion with researchers." Anne, Professor/Teacher, North America "Do not bombard researchers with a constant flow of email/mail, but contact them personally when you have a product of interest for a specific researcher. This also means keeping up-to-date with the type of research that is performed by the researcher (i.e. keeping up with scientific publications)." Alan, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "Don't be a salesman." Simon, Production/Manufacturing, North America "Don't be pushy and be honest." Paul, Principal Investigator, North America "Don't flood our email or snail-mail with a bunch of information; good products and services will be used by the best labs and scientists so word-of-mouth advertising will be the best. But, I am much more likely to read product information when technical resources are provided as well. For example, if you want me to purchase an enzyme from your company, include enzyme specific information, prices, etc., but also include a protocol on, say, ribotyping using your enzyme. Or if you sell Taq polymerase, include info about the Taq, why we should use yours, and also include a guide/protocol on how to perform PCR and the fundamentals behind the reaction. Our labs can always learn something, or use your guides as teaching tools." Jason, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "Don't let your sales reps get too annoying. People in my company won't purchase from certain vendors because the rep was very intimidating and was too aggressive, which many people find as a turn off. Handouts with nice images are a good idea, as long as they include the pertinent information to the applications." Sarah, Laboratory Technician, North America "Emailing monthly with news. In the email could be a direct link to its web page, with the possibility of being contacted by local representative by telephone. Local representatives visit only in a quarterly or bi-annually providing catalogs." Beatriz, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Emails that have titles that relate to my specific interests." Tonia, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Free samples if you want to expand your market!" Yi-Hong, Principal Investigator, North America "Give me pictures and prices, and details (like size!) on the web site. I don't have time to call you or talk to you during the day to just gather information. And I don't have time to return something because it isn't the right thing, or the budget to buy a replacement if it doesn't quite fit. I make a lot of comparisons before I purchase something, and I get the information I need from your web site. If the information isn't there, I'll go with another product that I am sure will do the job, even if it costs a little more." Sue, Staff Scientist, Europe "Have detailed protocols/methods to assist the scientist with the product they are selling. Know the value of the "product" by giving scientific information and the ease of use. List the possible applications of the product with references too. First send out brochures with links to web sites for information. Offer trial samples, after discussing possible applications. If it is brand new, prepare an on-line video demonstration (less than 5 min. long). Make sure your web site is fast and simple to navigate." Jon, Principal Investigator, Europe "I like workshops and product seminars, hosted by the vendor with food and demos. This gets the graduate students to come as well as the people with budget authority, and if done well can really enhance even general learning of an area for all of the people attending." Deborah, Principal Investigator, North America "I love informative technical brochures including sales and promotions. I most dislike vendors that visit frequently. I would love to see the reliability and reproducibility results when I try a new product, and a free sample to try to test it in my hands is always appreciated." Melissa, Staff Scientist, North America "I would like sales representatives to visit with new product information, samples (if available), pricing lists, and an easy way to contact them. I dislike representatives that either don't read or reply to their emails and don't listen to their voice mails." Eric, Staff Scientist, North America "I would prefer printed material explaining the advantages of the product + technical information + publication that used the same product. It would be better to present separate book series according to specific needs/fields/etc." Nikolay, Principal Investigator, North America "It's the 21st century - use the web!" Patrick, Professor/Teacher, North America "Know what kind of techniques the lab uses. This can only be done best by visiting the lab. We work long and hard to get a system or technique to work consistently. Once it is working we do not want to mess with it. If they have a product that can duplicate our technique we may be willing to try it. Their product doesn't necessarily have to always do it better, but cheaper is always good." Tom, Laboratory Technician, North America "Know your products and how they can be used, especially in new technologies. Don't recommend something that you're unsure of - give scientists names of contacts for follow up." Joan, Principal Investigator, North America "Less printed ads! Most scientists are environmentally conscious (like myself) and do not like to see the excess of printed paper waste. Promotions and free samples are the best way to get us to try new products! Otherwise scientists strongly tend to stick to a protocol that works, even if it takes a little longer and/or is more expensive. We're usually too busy to spend time improving something that is already working." Lyza, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Less printed material. More emails (through departments, etc.)." Diane, Staff Scientist, Europe "Low price and high quality are keys." Zhanyuan, Principal Investigator, Europe "Make frequent visits to the labs as most of the time we will be in lab and miss the product show." Vidyasagar, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "Offer some type of incentive (promotional item, discount, access to a journal) to get the purchaser to look at the information and become interested in the product. Mention something about saving time and money (both very valuable to researchers!)." Dubear, Professor/Teacher, Europe "Offering small, gratis samples of new products for investigators to try benefits both the company and the investigator. The investigator learns if the new technology is appropriate for the specific end-use, and the company receives valuable information about potentially novel uses of the product. Not enough companies I deal with are willing to experiment with providing small packages of new products." Barbara, Principal Investigator, North America "Our time in the laboratory is very precise. Please do not interupt us with unsolicited phone calls. They are very disruptive. We frequently need written price quotes for preparing grant proposals, but funding will not be available for a year or more. Please work with us in preparing documentation for grants that will incorporate anticipated price increases. When it comes time to purchase, price will be very important to us especially in this time of shrinking grant funding. While it is important to get the information out to us, we often get duplicate or triplicate mailings of the same information. Please check your lists and make it easy for us to remove the duplicate addresses or addresses of students, etc. who are no longer in the lab. We would prefer to have lower prices which may be possible if less money is wasted on duplicate mailings. Please make technical references easily available to us (online will work well). Also, contact information of other customers who are using your products would be helpful." Linda, Principal Investigator, North America "Personal phone calls that are focused are the best way to provide product information. This means the vendor must have met me in person and understand the type of research that I do. Vendors who do not take time to care about my research or who are not familiar with my area of research waste my time. As well, vendors must follow-up phone calls with emails or direct mail in a timely manner." Wendy, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Pricing! Two things that frustrate me most are catalogs without pricing, or worse catalogs like Fisher / VWR, where pricing is over inflated by at least 50%, just so the sales rep can give you a "discount" without hesitation. The scientific community is well above this!" Mark, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Product information in time consuming and solvent usages with high percentage results." Martha, Laboratory Technician, Europe "Provide an estimated cost and provide Web site for more information." Wayne, Principal Investigator, North America "Really have an innovation, not just some secret sauce that's really Tris buffer. Copycat stuff that bills itself as new and improved is a waste of my time and evokes my ire towards the entire company. If it's the same product as another vendor, just say so and offer a better price point. I value honesty in my suppliers over bull marketing practices. The more I know about and can trust a product, the more I am likely to use even if it's not the greatest. Better I should know and be able to diagnose a problem than be left with a black box product and NO answers." Jim, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Response in timely manner and keep in touch regularly." Venkata, Staff Scientist, North America "Send email, do not call." Krishna, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Send mailings from time-to-time and catalogs as a gift." Jevremovic, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Show and tell a new technique or a procedure. Leave a sample behind. Follow up your visit. Help with trouble shooting. Be available when called. Be pleasant, personable and sincere." Autar, Staff Scientist, North America "The best methods are to set-up vendor shows and technical seminars that expose researchers to the products and applications. This also allows for personal contact and establishing rapport. The best vendors I deal with are those sales reps that are genuinely interested in bettering my research through their products/technology. I love to get emails from reps who have some new exciting information that applies to my research, as I know that I am still in the minds of these reps." Tristan, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "The best thing vendors could do would be to first poll the subject (researchers) at a specific location and find out what they need and how they would like to be contacted regarding it. Things coming out of the blue randomly are just annoying and waste time." Jeffrey, Principal Investigator, Europe "The most effective approach to convince me about a good new product is: 1) That the product is really good. 2) The presentation of the product by a kind and professional rep. 3) The availability of samples or technical demonstrations. 4) Pricing." Franco, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "They should keep in mind that time is money for the researchers." Giotis, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "To be fully aware of my specific research goals and practices/procedures." Douglas, Staff Scientist, North America "Vendors should know the science associated with their products. Scientists are typically busy and have very pointed questions to ask. There is nothing more off-putting than a rep knowing less about a product than I do." Millie, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Visit with postdocs and they will suggest purchases." Clint, Professor/Teacher, North America "Website that contains complete information as a hard copy catalog." Merle, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America Biodefense Be concise and to-the-point. Our time is precious." Suzanne, Staff Scientist, North America "Do a literature search of what our labs do prior to coming to selling us a product that we have little or no need for." Ralph, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Email information." Vikas, Staff Scientist, Europe "Food and free pens!" Steve, Staff Scientist, North America "Have a section on the website - titled: latest news, with sections for products, updated protocols, recent publications, etc." Eva, Principal Investigator, North America "Have technical PDFs readily available to download straight form the vendors website." Robert, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "I prefer to contact the vendors first to let them know of my interest in a particular product or service, after reading an ad for it or hearing from a colleague about a new prodcut/service. The best way to reach me, would be by phone or sending an email directly to me from the sales representative, to set up a time for a meeting/demonstration." Tabitha, Laboratory Technician, North America "In my experience, most researchers appreciate companies that make it easy for them to obtain the information they are looking for. My favorite way of obtaining product information is through a company's website. I expect that the website will be speedy and easy to navigate with appropriate search capabilities. I also expect it to have full product and ordering information, including product manuals and MSDS material. If the website is hard to navigate, I'll look elsewhere for products when alternatives are available. Otherwise, I call the company and judge the quality of my interactions with them by the speed in which they get back to me and the expertise of the person returning my call. If I leave a detailed request for information, I expect the person returning my call to be able to address my questions." Catherine, Principal Investigator, North America "Know what my business model is and focus product information and related material on products that directly apply, especially new technologies relating to business model." Greg, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Learn what is done by individual bench-level scientist and cater to it." Joseph, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Make personal contact. Of course, the company's products must be useful and high-quality for us to consider them. But other things being equal, the company who regularly sends a trustworthy, well-informed and responsive rep who establishes an ongoing relationship with us, and strives to understand our needs, will most likely get and keep our business." Gail, Principal Investigator, Europe "No gimmicks, keep prices low." Paul, Staff Scientist, North America "Our Invitrogen rep is a great balance of being abreast of our needs, while not being obtrusive. When a new product is released that he thinks may be of use to us, he will contact us by phone. This is in stark contrast to the many vendors who wander through the lab at an inopportune time trying to push the latest two-for-one deal on a product we don't use or need. I know it takes a lot of work on the Invitrogen rep's part, but it definitely contributes to the percentage of Invitrogen products we purchase, especially if it is a general and comparable product that we could get from many vendors." Robyn, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "Please do not call. I get annoyed with sales phone calls, so I'm less receptive to what the sales person has to say on the phone. The multi-vendor show is the most effective and least disruptive way to pass along new information to us, because it can be planned ahead. For timely communication of promotion offers, I appreciate email alerts from sales persons of vendors that I already use. They should have a regular customer list for sending out timely alerts." Yuk-Ching, Professor/Teacher, North America " Re-design websites. Most importantly, have a good search function. It should lead to a product or a technique. Those in turn should have a link to a technique or a product. Most websites are a pile of garbage. One does better googling a product and using that link to look it up on vendor's website (NEB, Invitrogen are the few exceptions). Don't force the user to go through login or even chose the country. Help me to get where I need in a jiffy." Michael, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Technical support and sales rep providing prompt responses to e-mail queries about products." Suchita, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "Try to establish personal contact on a regular basis without being persistent. Be trained to LISTEN to my needs." Atlas, Staff Scientist, North America "We look for vendors generally for new products, which are making news these days. e.g., IL-17 and IL-23. If any company has these products, they should tell us that they have it. This is the best chance for new vendors to make a place for themselves in crowded market." Ashutosh, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America " Molecular diagnostics 1. At least have some knowledge of the field and what products can do. 2. Know the researchers you are to visit and their work (just a tad). 3. Announce your visit and be concise and quick with it (consistently). 4. Create your own reputation." Julia, Laboratory Technician, North America "1. Keep your website easy to maneuver around and with all of the up-to-date information. 2. Have knowledgeable sales reps. 3. Give us sample products to try out before we commit to buy." Lisa, Professor/Teacher, North America "Add value." Kevin, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Be "on top" of the products. CD's and give-always (unique) are always positive." Floyd, Professor/Teacher, North America "Be brief, direct, competitive and economic." Marta, Principal Investigator, North America "Be flexible with your time, provide the information requested as soon as possible and reward company loyalty." Helen, Principal Investigator, North America "Be informed, accurate in your discussion of techniques and equipment and refer questions you are unable to answer to appropriate person." Donald, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Be professional." Ronald, Department Head, Europe "Be specific, no "cutesy" phrases -- just the facts, ma'am, as they say." Enal, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Be sure to have well trained (in practice) personnel." Alex, Principal Investigator, North America "Better knowledge about work in the lab." Ricardo, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Build websites with product/technical details, and provide advertisements with minimal information, but just enough to comprehend the product. Lengthy ads whether through e-mail or print usually get ignored, but if I see something that strikes my interest, I'll usually do the homework to find out the specifics." Vincent, Staff Scientist, North America "Call and ask the person who is doing experiments." Jinzhe, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "Come and meet in person." Nirmala, Laboratory Technician, North America "Create a well thought out marketing scheme where email from people met at conference are sent in a timely fashion as well as links that are easily found on the internet are provided." Jamie, Principal Investigator, North America "Do not undervalue the role of a sales representative. They are the key way for me in the process of establishing trust between me and a supplier." Neil, Principal Investigator, North America "Do your "homework" thoroughly about the product you are selling, regarding the science behind it, product functioning, etc. before visiting researchers." Sergi, Principal Investigator, Europe "Either live demonstrations or providing the relevant research articles who used the product." Anjali, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Ensure that your sales reps have experience with the products and life in a research lab. Where possible, try to ensure that telephone support staff do not have strong regional accents. And don't let them sound like they are reading verbatim from a knowledge base listing - we might as well look that up on your website ourselves. Ideally such support staff should have good working experience of the products they support and life in a research lab." Rothwelle, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Find the delicate balance between not enough and too much detail and information, so your information can speak to a wide audience from the novice to the guru. If you've worked so hard to capture someone's attention, you've got to keep it without them getting bored or frustrated." Ri-Chee, Staff Scientist, North America "Give a seminar or a presentation in their product show." Xiao-Lu, Staff Scientist, North America "Good products sell themselves. Get good products! Then put all relevant information on a well designed website. If someone asks a good question about the product give them the answer; then put that question and answer in an appropriate location on your website." Vincent, Staff Scientist, North America "I am not interested in been visited by sale representatives. I am most interested in having company web sites that are easy to navigate and offer all of the information on their products including prices in an easy way to find by catalog number or product name. Also the ordering system on company web sites should be easy and fast. As a scientist, I am more used to dealing with a computer and the internet to look for information or place an order than to take the phone to do the same. And what fulfills me the most is having a good and efficient experience in a company web site." Luciana, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "I find that "fluff" in a brochure or ad is distracting and makes me suspicious. Just state the facts. This is what it is, this is what it does, this is how it's different. Give some real world examples and comparisons of applications, not just the best condition results. Humorous pictures and bright colors are OK to get attention, but leave out the fantastical claims of near perfection, etc." Brant, Staff Scientist, North America "I would recommend registering webpage/catalog content information into a search engine such a google. If I can't find something I most of the time do a search on google first." Ted, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "If possible, know the field and specific needs of the individual researchers. Have a quick 2 minute speech already planned out for each particular product, and pick only 2 or 3. Know the demographics- if its a grad student bring up promotions, if its a PI offer a discount. Plus, there's nothing like free food in science! A pizza or a dozen bagels pays for itself a thousand times over." Rachel, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "If you are trying to convince a researcher to use your product, you should know everything about that product and its testing applications. Don't waste the researcher's time. Have all the information regarding pricing, product availability, and positive impact ready for the researcher. Send this information hard copy or via email before visiting in person. Recently a vendor tried to interest my lab in a cystic fibrosis testing method. The College of American Pathologists, an accreditation agency, requires the detection of specific mutations and testing for a poly T variant. When asked about the poly T testing method, the representative did not understand what that meant or how the testing was accomplished. The cost was also more than our current method." Stephanie, Laboratory Technician, North America "If you aren't a scientist don't pretend to be. I don't care if you understand your product or not just present yourself honestly." Hal, Staff Scientist, North America "If you want to get my interest, keep the contact/email/ad brief, focused, and clear. Include pricing. Offer discounts and trial samples. Show/tell why it is better or an improvement on other products. Provide website link for learning more details and make the link really go right to the product; don't make me navigate your website to reach it or I'll get distracted and lose interest. Answer questions fast and don't use my contact as an opportunity to shop your entire catalog at me. If I ask about one product, focus your help on that product or extremely closely related items that I indicate interest in. Know when to stop and don't pester." Vivian, Staff Scientist, North America "Improve you webpage for search, technical information and purchases." Jesper, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "It is very important that they know the scientific lines of the researchers that they visit. It is very boring for us to expend our time explaining over and over what are we doing in the lab to the different vendors that come to our lab." Roberto, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Keep it to the point, short and as informative as possible." Petra, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "Keep your website current and give tech reps the tools to provide answers promptly. There is nothing worse than speaking to a tech rep that knows less than you do about their own product." Thomas, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe " Keep your website updated. We're researchers and we tend to seek out information on our own. If it's on your website, we'll find it." Mark, Laboratory Technician, North America "Know as much as possible about the needs of your clients and understand what they are doing." Michel, Principal Investigator, North America "Know what technologies your customers use and at what frequency and target information accordingly. Ask researchers how technologies can be improved and what technologies should be developed. Helping researchers at the same institution who use similar technologies connect to maximize resources." Roy, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Know your product and do not make an appointment to "find out what I do" without having something to tell me about your products. If I tell you (or someone calling on your behalf) the information I am interested in before you come, be sure to actually have that information, or do not waste my time." Adrienne, Principal Investigator, North America "Know your products and be ready to refer researchers to specialists in your company if you cannot help them." Todd, Laboratory Technician, North America "Link to the web page of the vendor and with enough technical information describing the product together with scientific references." Javier, Principal Investigator, Europe "List product prices and provide images online." Shengwen, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "Make friends with us." Lily, Staff Scientist, North America "Make it affordable for small labs." Kader, Post Doctoral Fellow, North America "Make it worth our time. No one wants to stop working to put time into products that are not of interest. Products must be targeted correctly to be of interest to the investigator." JoEllen, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Make sure that you know the science and don't try to impress me with your knowledge, just be ready to explain details about your product with relevant examples." Simon, Principal Investigator, North America "Make use of web 2.0 applications. Make them attractive and sexy. Be innovative." Patrick, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "More freebies." Jason, Staff Scientist, North America "More transparency." Rajiv, Staff Scientist, North America "My time is extremely valuable. I need information about laboratory products in ways that minimize the amount of time that I spend getting the information. Well-designed web sites are invaluable. I don't want a vendor dropping in or sending unsolicited email that I have to deal with." Shelley, Principal Investigator, North America "No one likes to have to deal with car sales mentality. Cut the aggressive, useless sales pitch out and concentrate on the capabilities of your product/reagent/assay, etc." Deepak, Principal Investigator, North America "Nothing is worse than having an ill-informed rep, feels like it's been a waste of your time. Know your stuff and come prepared to answer questions. This applies to emails, phone calls, site visits." Julie, Staff Scientist, North America "Offer a survey to the researchers so the vendor can tailor a customized set of information "made to order" for the researchers. It will save a lot of time and result in a higher rate of response/return on investment for the vendors." Evan, Physician, North America "Prompt response to query." Devendra, Post Doctoral Fellow, Europe "Provide a truthful no-nonsense summary of product features." Ivan, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, Europe "Quickest answer to technical questions." Elisa, Physician, North America "Register at meta search-engines such as www.biocompare.com." Ludwig, Staff Scientist, North America "Researchers are always planning ahead for future projects/studies, and finding out what technology could be used in future studies would help in the conceptualization and planning of these studies. Consequently, to provide product information in a "timely and convenient format," the vendor has to be "future thinking." They have to make the effort to learn where the studies of the research lab are heading in the future, to try to anticipate what products they will need in the future. They really need to learn from and work with the researchers as new studies are being designed, so that they might be able to make suggestions about what kind of products could help them design a better study and achieve more efficient and effective results. To provide information BEFORE it's actually needed is the only way to provide information that's truely "timely and convenient" for the researchers. Once a project is already in progress, we already know what products are needed--and most any vendor could be of assistance at this point in time. It's the products we have not concluded that we need yet is where the vendor can be the most "proactively" effective, and where the vendor is most needed." Terri, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Scientists are busy people, so deliver your product information in as compact a package as possible. You might even want to consider having different information for the same product for different applications (e.g. a product that can be used for proteomics and genomics, but in very different ways). Basically, know your audience and target them. This means using the sales reps who KNOW the researchers and some of the research going on." Heather, Staff Scientist, Europe "Send a clear and precise email." Krzysztof, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Send me a postcard or email form with a checklist of areas/products of interest that I can fill out. Then, ONLY contact me or send me information related to these areas." Shannon, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Send pertinent literature, technical datasheet and free samples for evaluation or provide warranty on the products." Ajay, Professor/Teacher, Europe "Send requested information by email on the same day." Monika, Principal Investigator, Europe "Stay abreast of competition. Know your products." Richard, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Stop the cold calls. I can read and delete emails at any time and really don't mind SPAM. However, the calls are getting out of hand. Phone calls to my office are a waste of time and, since I conduct meetings in my office, are very disruptive. They do not help your case. You should call only if I ask you to." Jay, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Suggestion to vendors: if the vendors deliver the ordered product, they can add to the order additional information (for example the prepaid postcards or something else). Then the delivery comes, its emotionally the best moment to provide the additional information." Ulo, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, Europe "Technical newsletter or product information on just one page, good overview, best and most important information of the product and links where to get additional information." Grit, Principal Investigator, Europe "The vendor should be very knowledgeable about the science and provide in-depth information about the product which is unbiased." Towia, Principal Investigator, Europe "There is no universal method that can make all researchers happy because researchers are so different. Bottom line, use both bi-weekly tech emails (for those who dislike to rapport with Sales) and monthly sales rep visits (for those who like to talk face-to-face) to communicate with researchers." Robert, Staff Scientist, North America "There must be an evaluation time for a researcher to understand the products provided by vendors. " Prashanth, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "To visit researchers in person." Radim, Department Head, North America "Use unsolved or difficult technological challenges to attract attention, AND provide a solution." Guido, Principal Investigator, North America "Use very short emails as a way to transport offers, new ideas, products or reminders with a link to follow when I find something interesting or appealing to learn more. This way the vendor has almost no cost, researchers like myself are not flooded with print ads that fill up the paper trash. If I have no time to read the emails, I can keep them until later. Frequent reminders of the entire portfolio helps to memorize what actually one vendor has to offer." Nikolaus, Principal Investigator, North America "Vendors should promote their products by sending printed brochures that have innovative and capturing designs; this should be followed by a visit of their sales rep (maybe 2-3 weeks after sending the brochures) that is knowledgeable about the products and their application, and who has personable approach to the customers." Ana, Lab Director/Supervisor/Coordinator, North America "Vendors would do well to utilize more Web 2.0 advances on their websites. For example, they could demonstrate how products work and common troubleshooting techniques using video such as YouTube, or set up Wikis to allow the user community to help each other with questions." Edward, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "Website, website and website." Rob, Graduate Student/Research Assistant, North America "When I consider the vendors that we do regular business with, I'm more and more convinced that we tend to rely on those who make additional effort to visit routinely and maintain a fairly consistent rapport. They tend to have a better basic understanding of the science we do AND they are around when our science changes direction. I find that a vendor who is eager to provide free samples of new kits/technologies or demos of new equipment is more likely to find our research dollars in that company's bank account. We also enjoy staying on the cutting edge of technology and encourage or actively seek opportunities to beta test new kits and equipment. There's no question in my mind that this type of proactive interaction between vendor and end-user results in a longer lasting and more productive relationship." David, Principal Investigator, Europe "Yearly organized vendor fair with other vendors. One stop shop to see what is new that year. I don't want to be bothered every few days with another sales rep." Wayland, Staff Scientist, North America |
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