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How to Stay Top of Mind During an 18-Month Sales Cycle
- Sarah Sink
- Dec 9, 2025
- 4 min read
If you work in business development for a CDMO, you already know the truth that no one outside the industry quite understands. Most sales cycles are not weeks long. They are not even a few months. Many stretch to 12 or 18 months, sometimes longer, depending on funding, data readouts, internal alignment, and shifting priorities.
In a long sales cycle, staying top of mind has nothing to do with chasing prospects. It has everything to do with relevance, timing, and presence.
Biotechs do not forget you because they are uninterested. They forget you because they are overwhelmed. BD professionals who win long-cycle deals know how to show up in ways that feel natural, valuable, and consistent rather than intrusive.
Here is how the best stay present without pushing.
Consistency Matters More Than Intensity
Many BD professionals make the mistake of communicating in bursts. They reach out several times during the first month, then disappear for six. By the time they re-engage, the relationship feels cold, and they are starting from scratch.
Top BD performers treat visibility as a rhythm, not a campaign. They show up steadily in small ways, not loud ones. A brief check-in after a funding announcement or a simple note when a biotech posts a team update can carry more weight than a perfectly crafted sales message.
Why it works: People remember patterns. Your presence becomes familiar, and familiarity builds trust.
Add Value Without Asking for Anything
Biotech teams are bombarded with outreach. The BD professionals who stand out are the ones who send something useful without expecting a reply.
Sharing insights about regulatory shifts, sending a relevant case study, or even passing along an article tied to the sponsor’s modality shows genuine attentiveness. The key is not to follow it with a question like, “Do you have time to reconnect this week?” Let the value speak for itself.
Why it works: When you provide value with no strings attached, you position yourself as a partner rather than someone trying to force a conversation.
Align Yourself With Their Timeline, Not Yours
An 18-month sales cycle is rarely linear. Funding pauses, leadership changes, clinical delays, and shifting priorities all affect momentum. The BD professionals who stay top of mind understand that their timing is secondary to the sponsor’s.
Instead of assuming the prospect is slowing down, listen for what they are navigating. If they mention an upcoming board meeting, a formulation challenge, or an IND milestone, that is your signal to adjust your cadence.
Why it works: When you mirror their pace, you feel aligned rather than pushy. You become someone who understands their world rather than someone who pressures them to move faster.
Become the Name They Associate With Stability
In long sales cycles, the biggest differentiator is consistency. Not capability, not slide decks, not technology. Consistency.
Biotechs want partners who feel steady, responsive, and reliable. When months pass between conversations, they will remember the BD professional who stayed calm, curious, and present. They will not remember the one who pushed for updates every three weeks.
Why it works: Stability is an emotional signal. It makes you feel like the safe choice, which matters more than anything during complex decisions.
Remain Interested Even When You Are Not Actively Selling
One of the strongest ways to stay top of mind is to show genuine interest in the prospect’s progress even when the conversation is not about you.
A quick message that says, “I saw your team published new data last week. Congratulations, that is a huge milestone,” takes thirty seconds. But it does far more for your long-term relationship than a forced check-in ever will.
Why it works: People remember who paid attention. Particularly in biotech, where progress is often hard-earned and highly emotional, acknowledgment is powerful.
The Bigger Picture
Staying top of mind in an 18-month sales cycle is not about frequency. It is about intention.
Consistency, value, empathy, and timing are what keep you present in a sponsor’s mind. The best BD professionals understand that visibility is not maintained through pressure but through presence. They build trust slowly, respectfully, and authentically, which is why their prospects return when the moment is right.
A long sales cycle is not a problem. It is an opportunity to demonstrate the kind of partner you will be once the work begins.
If you want to strengthen your communication rhythm throughout long sales cycles and build predictable trust from first touch to close, my course Ask Smarter, Close Sooner was created for business development professionals in CDMOs. It provides the frameworks and strategies to guide conversations with purpose and stay top of mind throughout every stage.
For more insights and personalized support in navigating the biotech-CDMO landscape, visit my website: www.yourpharmagirl.com and follow Your Pharma Girl on LinkedIn. Whether you need strategic guidance, tailored BD solutions, or expert advice on building lasting partnerships, I am here to help you and your team succeed at every stage of development.
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