Persuading Scientists: Marketing to the World's Most Skeptical Audience

by Hamid Ghanadan

This book is written for business professionals in sales and marketing functions of scientific products and services who seek to increase their revenue potential by employing more effective marketing. Leveraging the consumer psychology of scientists to solve the most fundamental challenge in science marketing--overcoming skepticism--this book provides a step-by-step approach to marketing programs that engage and persuade scientists. This book describes the model through illustrative examples from within the life science industry and provides a step-by-step guide for managers of any experience level to make all of the necessary critical strategic decisions, build the necessary framework, and successfully manage deployment of highly effective marketing campaigns.

144 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2012

About the author

Hamid Ghanadan is the founder of Linus, a creative digital marketing agency that focuses solely on collaborating with partners in the healthcare and life science industries. Hamid has dedicated his career to closing the gap between science and humans by studying the interplay between logic and emotion in how people comprehend technical information. A biochemist turned digital marketer, Hamid has written two books—Persuading Scientists and Catalytic Experiences—about the decision-making patterns of scientists, and what this means for today’s marketing landscape. He has appeared on the global stage at TEDx as well as a frequent guest speaker at corporations and industry conferences and a trusted contributor to several industry publications and magazines.

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was already on my reading list and a co-worker said he read it so I bought a used copy which was more than the original published price.

This book is very good and spot on from a marketing perspective and having worked in this industry for more than two decades I agree that most marketers fail at their jobs and just do what has always been done.

More marketers should follow the advice in this book and I don’t know why they don’t.

I highly recommend this book.

[Michael Stern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a solid effort. However, the book is focused on manufacturers. Considering that a significant share of marketing to scientists is done by distributors, it would have been helpful to have more perspective from that angle.

[Chloe Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been on my TBR for a while and, granted it is a little out of date (2012), but a lot of the advice I’d say remains pretty relevant. The author, Hamid Ghandan, is a career life science marketer helping biotech clients trying to sell their products better.

Coming from the bench, and interacting with sales people on the daily trying to convince me to buy their latest reagent or new and improved test tubes, I feel like much of the advice given is obvious, but I wouldn’t have known how to as succinctly described it as Ghandan has here. For example, talking about how scientists want to see the data behind bold claims, or creating basic protocols for scientists to use on their website which will also define the company as a leader in that area of research.

It’s tough to break into a biotech market when there is a gold standard for every reagent in the field for decades. Many scientists don’t want to risk trying something new that might not match up with years of experiments don’t with a tried-and-true product. To convince a scientist to take that risk, the potential rewards have got to be worth it. Improved accuracy? Less time or less steps? Significantly less cost? And then the company itself also has to prove that it will hold up the test of time - no scientist worth their salt is going to switch their “baby” (aka their project) if the same reagents might not be around in a decade for someone to repeat and build on. It’s for sure a tricky business, and one I didn’t appreciate as much until I read this book from the marketing POV.

If you don’t have much experience interacting with sales people at the bench, then this book will give you great insight into what bench scientists do and don’t care about when buying products. It’s also really short, which I appreciate. Cuts out any nonsense and gets right to the point every chapter. As someone with experience interacting with biotech Sales people, I found the book quite useful putting into terms and showing the logic behind the strategies that were employed on me (e.g. free samples, having a representative always available for questions).

Solid 4/5⭐️. Not the most I’ve learned from a book, but useful and to the point. If you’re interested in a career in sales or marketing though this is a must read!

[Georgina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Specific examples, widely applicable core principles

I read "Persuading Scientists" eagerly after our new digital marketing director recommended it. I'm a scientific writer that reports to marketing in a company that sells life science research products and services.

Ghanadan dives into the unique aspects of scientific researchers as an audience for marketing with concrete examples including both companies and technologies familiar to me as a life science research professional.

Then, he helpfully "zooms out" and extracts some general principles in a few steps that almost anyone can try. I even recognize some of the strategies used by my employer.

The only things I wished could have been added are some appendix exercises and more guidance on troubleshooting if challenges arise in implementing the book's recommendations.

I recommend this book for anyone looking to market to scientific audiences and to anyone looking for creative marketing ideas. Its careful definitions are especially helpful for those like myself without backgrounds in marketing or sales.

[Stanislava Panova · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the book. It is not an entertaining kind of literature, much more of a guide almost like a school text book with examples and approaches described. I would not recommend this book to anyone until the person works in Life Science marketing and has a significant amount of freedom and time allocated to create a powerful marketing campaign. If you are just looking to make few improvements there and here, it is not for you. Otherwise an excellent book, the author has ability to critically analyze and classify information in the original way. Very helpful read for somevody, who is on the same path.

[Emilia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short book offers a wealth of interesting advice on adapting well-known marketing strategies to better appeal to scientific minds. It’s a compelling read, especially for those who understand how differently scientists can react compared to the average person.
I believe it will be quite useful in my current line of work, although I would have appreciated more extended examples throughout the book.

[Spradling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Product-focused; would be better if it included services.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing magical in this book. It’s just another marketing book, the dime a dozen type that sales people and marketers like to be seen reading, and mention on their LinkedIn page.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it's a bit of confirmation bias, but this book put into words/frameworks a lot of what I'd been feeling about the right approach to communicating with customers/leads overall (not just for scientists). Reading it again already and applying the concepts...worth any marketer's time who is in B2B/tech, especially in science.

[Erin Caldwell]

A decent read for marketers in the life sciences field. Few of the concepts are new to seasoned marketers, but the application to scientists is helpful if you're working with those folks.