072: How to Sell a Complex Product Without Losing Your Prospect

Read time: 4 minutes

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**Selling complex products requires deep knowledge, data, and industry expertise, But here's what we forget: Scientists are people, and people buy emotionally. 🤯💡

Harvard Business Review has shown that purchasing decisions are not just rational—they are heavily influenced by emotion. (Check out this article: The New Science of Customer Emotions). 

Yet, in B2B life sciences sales, we often neglect this. Instead, we focus solely on technical superiority and product features, missing the human drivers behind purchasing decisions.

A Real Sales Problem 

Most companies invest in technical training but fail to train sales teams on:

• The customer's problem—What scientific gaps are they struggling with?

• The “Scientific Why”—Why do they need your solution? What’s insufficient in their current setup?

• The “Emotional Why”—What’s at stake for them? Are they seeking funding? Trying to secure a promotion? Worried about their credibility through publications?

The Mistake: ‘Pitch Slapping’ Your Prospect 

A common but flawed approach is attending a discovery meeting and presenting your slide deck right out the gate. This is also known as:

• Show Up and Throw Up 🤮

• Pitch Slapping 👋💥

The problem is that PowerPoint is a crutch!

It makes you feel comfortable but doesn’t account for whether the prospect is interested.

Maybe their boss forced them into the meeting, they have no budget, or they’re 10 minutes away from quitting their job.

If you knew any of the above to be the reality, would you still launch into a 40-minute pitch?

Remember The Alternative Approach: Ask First, Pitch Later 

Instead of diving into your presentation, spend the first part of the meeting understanding four things:

1. Company goals—What is the organization trying to achieve?

2. Personal objectives—What does success look like for the person you’re speaking to (scientist, PM, or CEO)?

3. Project needs—What do they need help with?

4. Emotional Drivers- what are the emotions driving the decision

Only then should you present relevant slides. The aim is to uncover the logical and emotional reasons they might buy and then position your solution around this.

If you always do these four things, I guarantee, your competition is not, putting you in a stronger position to win the deal……..Unless they read this newsletter too.

A Real Example: When Time and emotion Mattered as much as Science 

In a previous role, I was selling a complex service, and the client was eager to hear about all our offerings. But instead of diving into a pitch, I asked questions first.

What did I learn?

They had 3 months to secure funding or their company would run out of runway.

Every scientific solution we offered could solve their technical problem, but only one product could generate data in four weeks, giving them multiple chances to achieve the goal before their funding deadline.

Had I simply presented our full portfolio, we never would have uncovered this crucial insight.

The benefit, we positioned our solution to match both their scientific challenge and their emotional need (fear of failure and financial collapse).

Learning about the client is the difference between selling to them rather than AT THEM!

3 Practical Takeaways for Your Next Call 

1. Keep your deck in your pants—Don’t start with slides. In 80% of my discovery calls, I use no PowerPoint at all.

2. Ask ‘Why?’ repeatedly—The first answer a client gives is never the real reason they’re doing this.

3. Listen for the technical AND emotional ‘Why’—Then position your message around both.

Try This & Let Me Know! 

Next time you're on a sales call, ditch the deck and dig for the emotional why. Let me know how it works for you!

1. Lead Generation: We’ll build target lists, write scientifically relevant messaging, and send messages on your behalf to book qualified sales meetings with biotech and pharma companies.

2. Training for Reps: A skill development platform for life science sales reps who want to improve their sales skills, exceed their quota, and take the next step in their career.

3. Training for Teams: If you want to upskill your team around prospecting, driving to close, key account management, AI, or any other topic, we can put together a training plan specific to your organization’s needs.

4. Strategy Call: Need more than training? Want help implementing and executing your sales strategy? In a 30-minute call, we will assess your company’s current situation and identify growth opportunities.