A Day in the Life: Business Development Manager, Biotech Company
8:00 a.m.: I spend half an hour reviewing what I've planned for the day and another half hour checking and responding to e-mail. There is no routine to my days. My days are divided between proactive and reactive work. Although you have much more control on the proactive side, I'm often on the reactive side of things. This makes my days much less predictable. You have to be able to plan both sides to be productive.
Proactive work: My typical proactive tasks include:
Getting back to any potential customers
Scheduling meetings with prospects
Sending draft proposals to potential clients to go through the details in preparation for negotiating contract terms
Conducting project review board meetings to screen potential projects at a high level (e.g., senior executives, subject matter experts or SMEs) to make a Go/No Go decision. This involves collecting information, drafting or editing proposals
Conducting commercial review meetings with existing clients to review current projects determine whether we are meeting our agreed upon terms (usually either monthly or biweekly meetings)
Coordinating and scheduling conferences and trade shows
Regularly and routinely contacting key industry players who we may not have business with (i.e., maintaining relationships)
Reactive Work: My reactive work typically involves:
Responding to potential client inquiries (phone, email, referral) to set up meetings, collect information, draft proposals, review them with clients, respond to their questions, and set up the terms of the contract
Setting up negotiations with internal clients (e.g., senior executives) as well as external clients
It's important to react in a structured way, but the points of reaction are not that predictable. The challenge is always scheduling, since multiple people with multiple schedules can make coordination unpredictable.
Business Development Manager Uppers and Downers
Uppers
Travel can be either a pro or a con, depending on whether you are single or have a family.
I am often in conversations with leading researchers, who are on the cutting-edge of science, discussing how products are going to be commercialized - that's exciting.
Bringing products to market that are helping to save people's lives is also very satisfying.
I like having the flexibility and freedom that comes from having a job with limited structure and a measure of unpredictability.
Downers
I am quite often the giver of bad news and the receiver of client reactions to that news. For example, when their schedule changes, and they don't make promised deliveries, that impacts everything we do, and often delays our ability to manufacture the product.
You also have to have a thick enough skin to not react to their disappointment and anger.
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This article is excerpted from the Vault Career Guide to Biotech.
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