Pharma marketing services firms fall into a particular trap when they position themselves: they talk about what they do.
They list capabilities. They describe deliverables. They lay out a deep bench of senior talent. All of it is real. All of it places them in the same crowded category as every other firm with a similar capability list.
The firms that build durable positions do something else. They define the problem they solve for their customer and position the firm in a way that elevates above features and benefits to solve that problem at its real scale.
That is the difference between being one of many capable vendors and being the firm that someone calls because they already know what they are calling about.
Why capability-list positioning wins internally and loses in market
Capability-list positioning is the easiest to write, the safest to defend, and the simplest answer to “what do you do.” When you have built real breadth, it feels accurate to lead with it.
Breadth is not differentiating in pharma. Every serious firm has it. Procurement shortlists start with three to five vendors that describe themselves identically: senior leadership, integrated execution, deep bench.
The conversation that wins is not the capability checklist. It is the one where the firm names a problem worth solving, explains why it is harder than it looks, and demonstrates a defensible point of view on solving it. The rest is sales support.
The customer’s real problem sits one level deeper than the scope
The project a customer scopes is rarely the problem they are trying to solve.
A medical affairs team scoping a thought leadership program is trying to figure out how to be relevant to a community that is moving without them. A commercial team scoping a launch campaign is trying to answer whether the brand can earn its credibility in the window before the data lands.
The firms that win those engagements name the harder problem first. The customer should not have to explain it to them.
Category creation is the harder version of this work
There is a version of this that is harder: when the problem you solve does not yet have a category name.
There is no shortlist. No procurement template. You are not winning by being better than another firm. You are winning by convincing the customer that the problem is real and your way of solving it is the right one.
That requires sustained voice and authority where the customer is paying attention. Done well, category creation gives you the strongest position in the market: the firm that defines the category is the default leader of it.
Voice and authority are commercial work
Sharper positioning and louder voice win the right engagements at better rates and build inbound that compounds.
Voice is a sustained, defensible point of view, delivered to the people whose attention matters. Authority is what voice earns when it is consistent and substantive enough to be remembered.
Firms that do this work get called first, by the right buyers, for the work they are best positioned to win. The market rewards firms that solve a real problem and are unambiguous about it. The rest spend their time explaining why they should be on the list.
Kristin Marvin Keller is the Principal of Compleo Advisors, a rare disease strategy and creative firm.