Learn how to find and develop high-value clients in CDMO business development, from global conferences to LinkedIn. Practical tactics for 6–24 month sales cycles, with real lessons on technical positioning, trust-building, and resilience.
If you’ve ever worked in CDMO BD, you’ll know this job is a marathon, not a sprint.
A lot of people think BD is just “carrying brochures and pitching everywhere.”
Nope — not even close.
From the first meeting to signing the contract, 6 months is fast, 1-2 years is normal, and I’ve seen deals drag on even longer.
I want to share some real experiences from my time doing CDMO BD — the good wins, the painful failures, and the practical stuff I wish someone had told me earlier. Hopefully this helps anyone who’s doing BD or planning to enter this field.
BD in a CDMO is a bit like sales, but with a little more strategy baked in. Everything starts from one thing:
CDMO business is extremely dependent on tech capabilities. If you don’t even know your own services, how could you find the right customers?
Start with the basics: What platforms do you actually have? What types of drugs do you specialize in? For examples:
Each type comes with totally different processes, equipment, QC workflows, and regulatory requirements. So your outreach strategy must match what your factory is built for.
Also important: what stage of development does your CDMO support?
Generally speaking, target clients fall into three categories:
They have cutting-edge technology and product pipelines, but no manufacturing facility, so need CDMOs. Since startups specialize in specific technology, there are often significant challenges for CDMOs to overcome in development and manufacturing.
They might outsource because they need capacity, diversity risk, or niche technologies (e.g. high potent API, ADC payloads). If the project is commercial-stage or late-phase, they’ll look into your GMP track record carefully. Having US FDA/EMA inspection history is a huge advantage.
Usually very early-stage tech or scale-up. You usually need to spend more time explaining regulations and why certain work is needed.
There are several biotech/pharma conferences. Some well-known ones:
These exhibitions are the hub for business partnerships—potential buyers and sellers are all there. Clients talk with CDMOs, startups show their pipelines, big pharma look for licensing opportunities. Heads of BD, CMC, licensing, PM, and buyers all show up.
BDs schedule meetings before the show, non-stop talking in the show, and follow up after the show.
Attending or having a booth in international conferences is really expensive, however, you cannot skip it if you want to do global business. Anyway, it gives your CDMO an opportunity to show in front of potential clients; in additional, a face-to-face meeting often builds more trust than email and calls, isn’t it?
CDMOs’ clients are usually these people:
On LinkedIn, you can:
Seriously, your LinkedIn profile information matters than you think. If you build a professional presence on LinkedIn, clients might contact and ask you.
Don’t just write down your job title in your work, please add more information about your projects and what you did without disclosing confidential company information. Because it can save other people’s time to know you and your company.
For example:
(X) Bad: “BD Manager”
(O) Good: “BD Manager | Focus on mRNA/LNP Process Development | Helped 5+ Startups Complete IND Submissions”
If someone only writes a job title, I have to google the company and guess what they might be responsible for. It’s really time consuming, and I could pass it and choose another one to contact.
LinkedIn offers paid premiums and gives you more tools to do business work. With the free version, you need to add connectors and then you can DM them, just like other social media. There are books and online resources that you can learn how to expand your network.
Unlike the US, and Europe, LinkedIn isn’t so popular in Asia. It is work-focused and could be not fun enough. However, if you want to have a global connection with business, please build your presence here.
When I was not travelling, I spent time doing desktop research.
My workflow:
From my personal experience, paid databases help, but even free sources can get you started.
If your target is biotech startups, you need to know VCs who fund them. Because startups are usually in early stages, they need funding to support their work; VCs are a source for this.
If you are spotting early spin-offs, tech transfer offices in university and academic organizations are good to you.
As I mentioned, CDMO relies heavily on technical capabilities. If your CDMO is specialized, please share it often publicly, so potential clients get to know you. When they need these services, they’ll think of you.
You can share it through:
Here are example topics:
So, do not hesitate; just share it!
All the tactics above matter.
But if your mindset is wrong, BD in a CDMO will burn you out faster than you think.
Here are some lessons I learned the hard way:
CDMO sales cycles are really long—from first contact to signing can take 6 months to 2 years, or even longer.
Here is an example from my experience. It took almost one year from the introduction call to signing with my client. My client was a biotech startup pushing their biologic drug into clinical trials, so they looked for CDMO service.
We walked through CMC requirements, timelines, and costs step by step. Then, they paused everything to fundraise. (Believe me, fundraising is super tough)
They came several months later, fundraising finally successful, and we signed the contract.
Besides fundraising, there are many other tasks that extend timelines, like:
CDMO projects are technical. Clients do not want sales but want “solutions” to specific problems.
You need to work like a consultant to understand their technical challenges, regulatory path, timeline pressures, and budget limit, and propose something that fits you CDMO’s strengths.
Sometimes you go back and forth for months, and finally you still lose the deal…
Let’s be honest, It sucks!
It really feels like spending months pursuing someone only to get “You are a great person but…” ending!
Early in my career, rejection hit me hard. However, how to accept rejection and failure was also a lesson I had to learn. It could be technical fit, price, timing issues, or competitors maliciously backstabbing, not necessarily my fault.
Gradually, I learned to get over it and ask for feedback whenever possible-it is incredibly valuable.
BD requires emotional resilience. Don’t let rejection destroy your energy. Then you can keep going.
CDMO team needs to understand this:
This is a partnership, not “we manufacture, you listen,” but rather “Let’s work together to push this drug into clinical trials.”
I hope CDMO teams don’t look down on clients just because they don’t understand GMP manufacturing, nor because they’re a small company.
BD is a bridge connecting clients and CDMO team to work together, who need to understand internal capacity and capabilities and external needs, not over-promise to clients and facilitate collaboration between both sides.
If both sides work well, they can grow together. If not, I saw real cases of stopping projects.
Anyway, there is one thing really important for the CDMO team:
CDMO BD work is like running a marathon, not a sprint.
It requires expertise, patience, sincerity, resilience, and passion for the biotech/pharma industry.
Short-term, you’re “finding clients,” but long-term, you’re actually “building a trust network” and “helping others succeed.”
When you genuinely want to help clients succeed, clients can feel it.
If you’re also doing CDMO BD or interested in this field, feel free to comment below; also welcome to connect with me through LinkedIn or Email
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