Selling Science: Marketing positions hold allure, but present challenges

Vaulting from the lab bench to the marketing office sounds tempting for scientists considering leaving the research world for a business environment. But several scientists who have made that move report that it takes more time, effort, and patience than many may realize. LONG-TERM MATTER: Dennis Bittner, group product manager at Bio-Rad Laboratories, says most Ph.D. scientists with no business experience will likely fail to land marketing positions immediately. "They'd like to go straight from the bench into marketing," says Dennis Bittner, marketing manager at Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., a Hercules, Calif.-based instrument manufacturer, of scientists contemplating the switch. Most Ph.D. scientists with no business experience will likely fail to land marketing positions immediately, Bittner notes. But scientists can do three things to gain the experience necessary for a marketing position: work as a field sales representative, serve as a technical support person, or earn an MBA. A technical background combined with any of these strategies will give scientists an advantage over nonscientists when vying for marketing positions in technical companies, Bittner contends. Before Bittner completed his Ph.D. five years ago, he decided not to follow a traditional academic pathway. Instead, he focused on a science marketing career. However, he realized that he needed basic business experience to make that transition. "I had determined in advance that the fastest way to establish credibility was in field sales." That strategy paid off. Bittner worked as a sales representative for other companies and Bio-Rad before earning his present position. He hypothesizes that, if he had stuck with academia, he would just now be leaving a postdoc for a tenure-track position. His sales positions also allowed him to earn a higher salary than a postdoc or assistant professor. While he took the sales job to gain a business pedigree, his scientific background gave him a sales edge. "You have technical credibility with your Ph.D." Similarly, the sales experience has helped him develop the marketing skills he uses now. "You're in contact with customers so much, you get an idea of why someone buys something." Still, Bittner acknowledges that sales--as an entrance to marketing or otherwise--has its share of downsides. Some scientists who go into sales and marketing feel stigmatized (see related article, this page). Salespeople must also face a lot of rejection, without taking it personally. They also face the constant pressure of improving their numbers over the previous quarter. And, finally, excelling in sales does not necessarily guarantee a future marketing position. After having left the lab bench to pursue an MBA, Carolyn Stock would occasionally run into one very outspoken friend and former scientist colleague who didn't hesitate to tell her exactly what he thought of her chosen career path. Referring to her move from research and development to marketing, he'd say things to her like "You sold out!" and "Why are you doing this?". "It's funny," Stock says stoically before bursting into laughter. "Now he's involved in a startup business and he's not in the lab anymore." Currently the director of marketing communications at Epicentre Technologies in Madison, Wis., Stock spent six years doing research for a biotech company before deciding that she needed a change. Stock, who has an M.S. in genetics, has run into her share of criticism since making the move from lab bench to office desk. But she's received her share of praise as well. Many of the Ph.D.s she knew from her lab days have since moved into more administrative and marketing-related positions. "A lot of them have said, 'you did the smartest thing by going and getting an MBA because we're not trained in this. We were never taught this in grad school.'" Is there a stigma attached to scientists who enter the relatively nontraditional fields of marketing or sales? Do many R&D scientists view such a career move as beneath them? Yamuna Dasarathy , a Ph.D. recipient in biochemistry and a former faculty member of the New England Medical Center, hasn't noticed any such feelings since her move to the marketing department of Amersham Pharmacia Biotech Inc. in Piscataway, N.J. "So far, I've not seen it," she maintains. But one product manager at an East Coast biotech company has. He spent several years working in R&D in industry before making his foray into the marketing arena. Some researchers, he contends, may regard the move into sales and/or marketing as an admission of a lack of success in the lab. "It's so hard to make it in that field that if you leave, then you're obviously not good enough," he says of colleagues' perceptions. Dennis Bittner , a group manager at Bio-Rad Laboratories in Hercules, Calif., has noticed the stigma as well. Looking to enter the business arena, Bittner, before getting into marketing, first went into sales after getting his Ph.D. He contends that Ph.D's in sales, in part because there are so few of them, are especially vulnerable to criticism. "I wish more [science Ph.D's] would go into customer sales," he notes. "There is sort of a stigma." According to Bittner, the typical science professional doesn't make a very good salesperson. "Doing something like a field salesman is distasteful to them in my opinion." He believes many scientists shy away from the rejection and uncertain income that go along with the sales and marketing professions. "You have to be outgoing," explains Susan E. Jessee , a marketing administrator at the Southern Research Institute in Frederick, Md. "You have to be able to walk up to strangers and communicate with them and make them feel comfortable." After getting her B.S., Jesse first worked at the lab bench, then in biotech sales, then in technical support, and she finally went on to get her MBA. "There are people who don't want any part of the business in the company," Jessee continues. "They just want to work in the lab." --ER Bittner notes that working in technical support may provide a less stressful route to a marketing job--but also a potentially less lucrative one. "It's the least money up front, but it's the easiest way in." Yamuna Dasarathy, now marketing director at Amersham Pharmacia Biotech Inc. in Piscataway. N.J., notes that her transition from a faculty member at New England Medical Center to technical support was painless--largely because she had used the chromatography equipment for which she was now providing customers support. "My experience in chromatography helped me tremendously." Because of that experience, she understood both the technology and the users' needs--perspective someone without her research background lacks. "If you are a technical person, you know where a customer comes from. You know their problems," Dasarathy explains. "The technical background definitely helps." Dasarathy agrees with Bittner that, without her technical support experience, gaining her present position would have been difficult. "Just because I had a technical background didn't mean I knew much about business." After taking her nonresearch job, Dasarathy decided she wanted to learn even more about business. So she began chipping away at an MBA. "In biotech marketing, you need the technical background to understand, but that's only half." Since beginning work on that degree, Dasarathy has learned about the chasm that divides the two cultures. "Your thinking is so different," she explains. "The goal of research is to publish papers. You have no desire to find out how this experiment is going to work in the marketplace." Her goals have now reversed. "My thought process is 'How can I convert [an experiment] into a product?'" Dasarathy anticipates more science Ph.D.s will earn MBAs as the biotech industry continues to evolve. In that arena, a marketing director with an MBA, but no scientific background, would be at a definite disadvantage. "You don't know your marketplace. You don't know your customers. You don't know how scientists think." COMPREHENSIVE PREPARATION: Susan E. Jessee used all three strategies -- biotech sales, technical support, and an MBA -- to prepare herself for a marketing administration position. Susan E. Jessee, marketing administrator at Southern Research Institute in Frederick, Md., has used all three strategies--biotech sales, technical support, and an MBA--to reach her present position. But one thing drove her out of the lab: the need to do something different. "I worked behind the bench long enough to know I wanted to get out. I'm more people-oriented," Jessee explains. All three experiences gave her different skills applicable to her marketing career, she notes. Her previous field sales experience helps her understand her company's sales representatives' needs and concerns. Marketing directors without a sales stint behind them tend to be less responsive when a salesperson asks for support. "They have no idea what it's like to be out there alone." The technical support jobs she's performed helped her understand scientific products better. "I was amazed at how helpful that was," Jessee notes. "It linked me back to the science." And although the MBA required the biggest investment in both time and money, that investment has reaped dividends, she notes. "I didn't realize how valuable it was until I got it." In addition to helping her increase her salary, the business degree has also boosted her demand. "I get calls all the time from recruiters who don't even have my resume." She notes that her situation contrasts with scientists hoping to break into academia, where hundreds compete for one slot, or even in sales, where one slow quarter can reduce the field. "Before I got my MBA, I was with a company and they cut their sales force, and I was [laid off]." Still, Jessee admits that making the transition can be tough--both on one's wallet and on one's ego. When she left the bench for her first sales job, she received the same position and salary as new graduates with no lab experience. "I had to start at the beginning," Jessee recalls. BILINGUAL: Carolyn Stock, director of marketing communications at Epicentre Technologies, says the ability to speak the languages of science and business is a necessary skill. Getting that first nonlab job can be brutal, Carolyn Stock, director of marketing communications at Epicentre Technologies Inc. in Madison, Wis., agrees: "Breaking through to the first job is the roughest experience. Your resume just speaks ... lab jockey. ... People look at it funny." She remembers interviewing for a management position with a large company while still in business school, and thinking she and the interviewer were speaking two different languages. Stock's interviewer told her: "As a product manager, you need to conceptualize," Stock recalls. "All I could think was, 'This person doesn't have an idea about what DNA is about.' " Now, she says the ability to speak the language of both science and business has helped her immensely. "I'm bilingual," she explains. "I can easily talk to customers because I know that scientific lingo," she continues. "But then I can flip over, and, having the business background, the schooling, and, now more practical experience, I talk that language, too." Stock anticipates that more hi-tech marketers will be speaking both languages in the future. When she first started in marketing, she often met marketing directors without technical backgrounds. Now, some companies almost demand research background as a prerequisite to a marketing position. "You won't grow in the job if you don't have one," Stock concludes.

Selling Science: Marketing positions hold allure, but present challenges

Sep 13, 1998

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