In today’s fast-evolving CDMO landscape, achieving sustainable growth demands more than operational excellence—it requires a strategic and long-term account planning and resource allocation. Recently, we partnered with a prominent player in the CDMO industry to support and enhance their business development efforts. The goal was to prioritize high-value opportunities and better align their sales organization with customer industries and needs.
The Challenge: Unfocused Efforts and Untapped Potential
Our client faced a familiar challenge often seen in dynamic industries: balancing the competing demands of business development and project/ account management. This dual focus resulted in a “reactive” sales approach with the team focus and time largely absorbed in farming existing business rather than hunting new one. In long sales-cycle industries such as CDMO this might result in the likely risk of running into a dry pipeline in the long term with negative top-line consequences.
Strategic Approach: Prioritizing targets through data
To tackle these challenges, we implemented a structured, data-driven framework. Our approach began with a diagnostic review of the organization account portfolios, resource allocation, and governance practices. This involved extensive engagement with cross-functional teams to identify opportunities for improved efficiency and untapped opportunities.
Next, we introduced a multi-factor model to prioritize accounts based on “customer potential”. This model segmented sales targets into three categories:
- Targets with focus closely aligned to our client and a significant ability to invest at scale
- Targets with focus closely aligned to our client and moderate investment capability (often innovative startups and scaleups)
- Companies with broad vertical operations (and focus which might not be consistently aligned to our client offering) but substantial capacity to invest at scale (often large conglomerates operating in multiple industries)
“R&D intensity” and “CDMO orientation” were integrated into the prioritization process to ensure a sharper focus on targets with significant potential.
Enablement: Redefining Roles and Priorities
A critical element of this transformation was redefining business development roles to align with the specific client needs. We re-categorized the sales team tasks into two distinct roles:
- “Hunters” focused on cultivating high-value, long-term client relationships, uncovering opportunities, and driving account growth
- “Farmers” concentrated on orchestrating internal operations, driving project management, and ensuring seamless project delivery to free up “Hunters”
This new role clarity enabled the team to channel their efforts effectively, with each member focusing on areas where they could deliver the greatest impact.
Impact: Driving Measurable Results Without Additional Resources
Results have the potential to be truly transformative. By reallocating existing resources and focusing efforts on high-value accounts, the client is now positioned to achieve double-digit growth over the next two years. Key wins include:
- A more focused pipeline that prioritizes fewer accounts but targets higher potential value
- Streamlined CRM reporting and KPI measurement, enabling timely and accurate data-driven decisions
- Stronger internal alignment, ensuring leadership and team efforts are unified toward ambitious growth targets
- All of this was achieved without additional investment—simply through smarter resource allocation and a clear, actionable growth strategy
Conclusion: A Roadmap for Sustainable Growth in CDMO
This project highlights the importance of precision in resource allocation and the power of data-driven prioritization in unlocking growth potential. At Eendigo, we are proud to have supported our client in navigating these challenges, enabling them to transform their approach and achieve sustainable growth in an increasingly competitive industry.
Written by Malika Makhmutkhazhieva
Reviewed by Martino Bissoli
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