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Scientists go to conferences to see the latest work, swap ideas with peers, and come back with something new to try. The whole lab benefits. Commercial teams in life science rarely get the same chance, so most of what we learn comes from trial and error inside our own companies.

The SAMPS North America Conference on Dec 3 in the Bay Area is built to fix that. One day of practical talks from people running sales and marketing at life science companies right now, on the tools and methods they are using to hit targets with the resources they already have.

Thursday, Dec 3, 2026 at the DoubleTree by Hilton San Francisco Airport, Burlingame, CA. (Networking drinks the night before).

Register here and use code Succession20 for 20% off.

There are about eight weeks left until Christmas (shocking, I know), and this is usually when teams start frantically launching a bunch of cold outreach campaigns to try and get new business in and close deals before EOY. But a new lead you contact now still has to find budget, set you up as a vendor and get through legal before anything happens. With the holidays in the middle, that’s a lot to ask of eight weeks and near impossible.

What I see with almost every team we work with is that the leads they need are already there. The person who trialled your product in the spring, the scientist who told you in June to come back in Q4, the specialist who attended your webinar earlier in the year. Most of these leads were contacted at the time, but haven’t heard a peep from you since.

So this week I’ve put together 6 campaigns you can run on people who already know you, with the aim of actually closing deals before Christmas.

1. Other teams at accounts where you already have an MSA

The list: Every company with a signed MSA where only one team buys from you.

Why it closes fast: The slowest part of a first deal with pharma usually isn’t the scientist. It’s vendor setup, the security review and legal, and that can take a quarter or more. An MSA means that work is already done. 

How to run it:

• Use AI to map the account. Ask: “For [company], list the other sites, departments and research areas that could use [product] for [workflow], and the likely title of each team lead.” Then find the names.

• Check what your MSA covers. Some are limited to one site or one legal entity.

• Ask your current champion for the intro before you go in cold.

• Lead with their colleagues: “Your colleagues in [team] have been using [product] for [workflow] since [month]. We’re already an approved vendor at [company], so if it’s useful for your group, it wouldn’t need a new vendor setup.”

2. Customers with budget left to spend

The list: Existing customers, especially labs that order consumables or reagents regularly.

Why it closes fast: In a lot of companies and institutions, budget that isn’t spent by the end of the financial year doesn’t roll over. Plenty of buyers are actively looking for a sensible place to put it. The customer is already set up, the purchase order process works, and they know the product. You aren’t asking them to decide whether to buy. You’re asking whether to buy now.

How to run it:

• Use AI to build the list. Ask: “From our order history, list every customer with their last order date, typical order size and what they usually buy. Flag anyone who orders regularly.”

• Make an offer worth acting on: a prepay, a bundle, this year’s pricing locked in, or a guaranteed Q1 delivery date.

• Talk to the person who raises the order, often the lab manager, as well as your user: “Hi {first_name}, a few labs we work with are using remaining budget before year-end to stock up for Q1. If that’s the case for your team, I can put together a quote that locks in this year’s pricing. Want me to send it over?”

3. Customers who bought once and never came back

The list: Anyone who ordered in 2024 or 2025 (pick a suitable time frame that makes sense to your business)

Why it closes fast: They’re already a vendor in the system, they know what you sell, and something made them buy once. Then something changed. The project ended, the person left, a competitor got in, or they simply forgot. Every one of those is a conversation, and a much easier one than a cold email. You’ll also learn why customers drift, which is worth knowing on its own.

How to run it:

• Use AI to find them. Ask: “List every customer who ordered in (your timeframe). Show what they bought, who ordered it, and whether that person is still at the company.”

• If your buyer has left, go to their replacement. Then reach out to the person who left at their new company.

• Ask what changed. Don’t pitch: “Hi [first_name], your team ordered [product] for [project] last year and we haven’t heard from you since. Did the project wrap up, or did something not work out? Either way, it would be great to know.”

4. Trials, demos and event contacts

The list: Everyone who had a trial, sample or demo in 2026 and didn’t buy, and everyone you met at a conference or event this year who never became a deal.

Why it closes fast: These people have already used your product or met you in person, so you aren’t starting cold. With trials, the question isn’t “do you care?” any more. It’s “what stopped you?” There’s usually a specific reason, like the timing, a missing feature or a budget holder who wasn’t convinced, and each one has an answer. Event contacts mostly got one or two follow-ups and were then forgotten. They remember the conversation, and a lot can change in a few months: a project gets funded, a team grows, or the problem they told you about gets worse.

How to run it:

• Use AI to find out why each one stalled. Ask: “Find every trial, sample, demo and event contact from 2026 that didn’t lead to an order. Using my notes and emails, give me the most likely reason each one stalled.”

• Group them by reason. Each group gets a different message. 

• Trials, ask about their results: “Hi [first_name], your team trialled [product] in May. How did it go, and did anything hold it back? If it was timing or budget, we have a few more options now.”

• Events, pick up the conversation where you left it: “Hi [first_name], we talked at [event] in [month] about moving [workflow] in-house. How has that gone since? If it’s still on the list, I’m happy to share what we’ve seen work for other teams.”

5. “Not right now” replies

The list: Everyone who replied to your outbound this year with “not right now”, “circle back after the summer” or “budget gets set in Q4”.

Why it closes fast: Most reps file these as “not interested” and move on. But someone who wasn’t interested would have ignored you or told you to stop. This person took the time to reply and tell you when. A lot of those replies really mean “come back to me”, and if you lump them in with the real no’s, you lose the warmest leads you made all year. You aren’t starting a conversation. You’re keeping a promise they asked you to keep, and they’re already qualified.

How to run it:

• Use AI to find them. Connect it to your inbox and CRM and ask: “Find every 2026 reply that pushed back on timing, not a real no. List the name, company, their exact words and when they asked me to come back.”

• Check the list yourself. Rank it by how specific they were. “Budget is set in Q4” goes above “maybe later”.

• Reply in the same thread, so they see their own words: “Hi [first_name], back in June you mentioned budget would be set in Q4. Is that still the plan, and is it worth a quick look before the year closes?”

• Tag “timing” replies in your CRM from now on, with a reminder for the date they gave. Next year, this list builds itself.

6. Lease-to-own for deals stuck on budget

The list: Instrument deals that stalled on money. That includes quotes and trials where the answer was “no capital budget”, labs waiting on funding, and customers who want a second unit.

Why it closes fast: “We love it, but there’s no capital budget until next year” is the most common reason a warm instrument deal stalls. By year-end, capital budgets are often spent or frozen. A lease-to-own or rental option turns one big upfront purchase into a monthly cost, which can often come from a different budget with a lighter approval. The lab gets the instrument working now and owns it later. How a lease is booked varies by company and country, so point them to their finance team rather than promising an outcome.

How to run it:

• Check with your own finance team first what you can offer: the term, the buyout and whether rental is an option.

• Use AI to find them. Ask: “Find every quote, trial or deal from 2026 where budget, capital or funding was the reason it stalled.”

• Remove the blocker: “When we last spoke, capital budget was the blocker. We can offer a lease-to-own option, so the system could be running in your lab this quarter on a monthly cost, and yours at the end. Want me to send the numbers?”

You don’t need a new tool or a bigger budget for any of this. Mostly you need an afternoon with your CRM and your inbox. When we run these campaigns for clients, the replies are warmer and the conversations move faster. Every now and then someone even writes back “funny timing, I was just about to reach out.” Those are the deals worth chasing before Christmas. And anything that doesn’t close this year is already a head start on next year’s pipeline.

Divya

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