The Business of Science

Life science and high-tech marketer Sigma-Aldrich has doubled the size of its sales force in the last 18 months. Understandably, the company needed a way to get qualified leads to its more than 300 representatives in 34 countries.

Sigma-Aldrich embarked on a lead-management initiative last March, which will be fully implemented in the second quarter of this year. Leads come from numerous sources, including traditional direct response, online and trade shows. Worldwide, the company has about 60,000 accounts and 1 million end users. The top 20% of the customer base is sold to by the company’s sales force, while the remainder is contacted through direct response channels, including catalogs (a million copies are mailed annually) and a Web site that pulls in 25% of sales worldwide.

Direct recently talked with Cliff Langston, director of marketing services for St. Louis-based Sigma-Aldrich, about how the company is building a lead-management strategy on the base of its B-to-B catalog foundation. Prior to joining the $1.3 billion firm in 1999, Langston was in the agency world, first with JKL Marketing and then with Dimac Direct. When he came to Sigma-Aldrich he had no scientific background.