Pass the Baton: Why Great CDMO BD Professionals Let Their SMEs Shine

Sarah Sink
Jun 2
3 min read

Updated: Aug 3

In CDMO business development, your job isn’t to be the smartest person in the room; it’s to bring the smartest people into the room.

At a glance, BD roles might look like they're all about pipeline generation, high-stakes conversations, and getting contracts across the finish line. And yes, we do all of that. But the deeper value we bring and what really drives successful partnerships is knowing when to lead and when to pass the baton.

Early Conversations: Listen Before You Pitch

In those initial interactions with potential clients, your mission is simple but crucial: understand. Understand the science, the clinical phase, the drivers, the pain points, and the risk tolerance. The sponsor may be preclinical, IND-enabling, in pivotal trials, or preparing for validation, and each stage requires different thinking. You don’t have to pretend to be a formulation expert or a fill-finish engineer. Instead, ask sharp, thoughtful questions that show you're invested in why their program matters and what they’re trying to solve.

You're not there to prove that you could write the batch record yourself. You’re there to show you can assemble and coordinate the team that will do it right.

Let the Experts Do What They Do Best

At some point in the conversation, the sponsor wants to go deeper: timelines, formulation challenges, process fit, cleaning strategies, or transfer concerns. Here’s where your next big move comes in: get out of the way.

This is when you hand off to the subject matter experts, the scientists, engineers, quality leads, and ops team who will actually be executing. They’re the ones who give the sponsor confidence that your CDMO can handle the nuances of their molecule, the risks in their method, and the complexity of their delivery system.

And guess what? Letting your team shine makes you look better too.

The best BD professionals know that credibility doesn’t come from overreaching. It comes from orchestrating. From being the partner who brings clarity, responsiveness, and alignment.

It's a Team Sport

A CDMO-client relationship is never a solo act. It’s a complex, multi-function relay, and each handoff matters. Consider how many SMEs contribute to a successful deal and eventual program execution:

Proposals Team: Captures scope accurately, minimizes change orders, and reflects the client's exact expectations.
Process & Analytical SMEs: Dig into the science, highlight risks, optimize approaches, and assess feasibility and phase-appropriate strategies.
Quality Assurance: Reviews documentation, resolves CAPAs, dispositions lots, all while maintaining compliance and confidence.
Legal & Contracts: Drafts and negotiates with clarity to ensure both parties are aligned from Day 1.
Project Management: Builds realistic, transparent timelines and deliverables that underpin execution.
Operations & Manufacturing: Schedules batches, preps equipment and personnel, and ensures readiness across departments.
EHS: Reviews OELs and compound banding to determine safe and compliant fit within the network.

Every one of these teams is a subject matter expert in their field, and together, they’re what makes your promises real.

So, Where Does BD Fit?

BD is the spark that starts it all.

Your role is to find potential clients, build the initial connection, and deeply understand their program goals, pain points, and decision drivers. You're the one who asks the right questions early, before tech transfer, before proposals, before timelines are even drafted.

You are the advocate who moves the conversation through the sales cycle. You listen. You position. You bring in SMEs when the time is right. You help the sponsor visualize what a successful partnership looks like with your CDMO, and then you help build the internal alignment that gets it there.

You're not the one managing Gantt charts or coordinating manufacturing windows. That’s not your lane, and that’s okay. Because what is your lane is just as critical: building trust, setting the foundation, and getting the partnership to “yes.”

Celebrate the Partnership As a Team

When a program executes flawlessly on time, on budget, with quality intact, everyone deserves to celebrate. The BD person who helped the client feel heard. The SME who dug into an unstable molecule and suggested a better buffer. The QA lead who flagged a risk early. The scheduler who got creative when timelines were squeezed.

The truth is that no one wants to work with a “lone wolf” CDMO rep who tries to own everything. They want a partner.