I had an interesting exchange recently with a fellow business leader on LinkedIn. He had just connected with me, noticed that Krieger Scientific seems to be gaining traction, and wanted to know how we were doing it. He runs a firm that has been in operation for nearly 14 years. He told me he had spent close to $750,000 on marketing with little net new business to show for it. He had tried in-person events. He had tried getting his team invested in business development. Nothing had moved the needle the way he hoped.

He wanted tactics. Lead generation strategies. A formula.

I did not have a formula to give him

What I Told Him

I told him it comes down to people. Are they invested? Good people will keep you going. Bad people will cause a reduction in work. Great people will grow your business.
It is not always the leads. It is the people behind the delivery.

People need a purpose, not just a job. When you make someone’s existence purposeful, personally and professionally, something shifts. They stop working for a paycheck and start working for something that matters. And when the people take care of the clients, the growth takes care of itself. I have never worried about margins and money. When I focus on margins and money, I sacrifice the human element. Without people, I have nothing.

I also told him that marketing and communications is one of the most overlooked investments a company can make. Not just outward-facing marketing, but communications — internal and external. How you tell your story. How your people understand and carry that story. How the market comes to see you as the answer before they even know the question.

He pushed back, respectfully. He had tried that too, he said.

And I believe him. But I also think there is a difference between trying something and committing to it. Between spending money on it and building it into the DNA of how you operate. Between hiring someone to generate leads and giving someone the trust, the runway, and the authority to shape how the world sees your company.

Where Krieger Actually Is 

I want to be honest about something. Krieger Scientific is an early-stage company. We are not a 14-year-old firm with hundreds of employees and a mature client base. We are building.

But here is what early-stage does not mean for us.

It does not mean inexperienced. I have 35 years in life sciences compliance. I have built teams, run programs, managed capital projects, and navigated the full asset lifecycle inside regulated environments more times than I can count. I know this industry and it knows me.

And I am not doing this alone. Drew Deeter, our Senior Director of Marketing and Communications, brings more than 30 years of life sciences marketing and communications experience to this effort. Between the two of us, we have north of 65 years of combined industry knowledge behind every decision we make, every piece of content we publish, and every conversation we have with a prospective client.

That is not a typical early-stage company. That is a company that knows exactly what it is building and why.

The trajectory is steep. We will soon be a trio. Then a four-leader team. Then five. Each addition will be deliberate, experienced, and purposeful. Because that is the only kind of growth worth having.

What I Would Tell Him Now

If my LinkedIn connection is reading this, here is what I would add to our conversation:
The tactics matter less than you think. The people matter more than you know. And the story you tell about your company, consistently and authentically, is what makes the right clients find you rather than the other way around.

Stop waiting for the phone to ring. Stop collecting orders. Get in the rooms where your clients are going to be, and when you are there, be the most knowledgeable, most generous, most present person in that room.

Failure is a lesson learned, but only if you are willing to try again. The version of you that learns from what did not work is the version that eventually builds something that lasts.

We are building something that lasts.