How to Find and Connect with Top Executives in the Pharmaceutical Industry

The US pharmaceutical industry employs over 1.3 million people. 

And as a sales rep in the industry, it’s your job to sift through all of these people to find the top executives – and then actually build connections with them too. 

Talk about a tall order…right? 

Wrong. 

Finding and connecting with the right top executives in the pharmaceutical industry doesn’t actually have to be difficult. And this article is going to explain everything:

• Understanding the Target Audience of Top Executives in the Pharmaceutical Industry
• The Old Way of Finding Pharmaceutical Industry Executives 
• Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to Identify Top Executives in Pharmaceuticals: the Newer, Faster way
• How to Find the Email Addresses (and Phone Numbers) of Top Executives in the Pharmaceutical Industry

By the time you’ve finished reading, you’ll be a pro in finding the people you need to speak to and locating their contact details. In other words, you’ll be set up to start finding out more about your prospects and sending them targeted outreach campaigns that will reel them in in no time at all. 

Ready? Let’s go:

Understanding the Target Audience of Top Executives in the Pharmaceutical industry

First of all: who do you actually want to speak to? 

Top executives in the pharmaceutical industry usually have a relevant advanced degree in a field like pharmacy, life sciences, or business administration. They might have started in research or product development – or, on the other side of the coin, in a more commercial role. They’ll often boast experience in regulatory affairs, clinical trials, or business development, too. 

In other words, they’re pretty impressive people – which is why they’ll often be a Founder, C-level executive, or VP. Let’s find out more. 

The Founder in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Founders are people who have built businesses out of their ideas. They’ll have established the company, secured funding, and guided its early growth. They may have also been involved in the early stages of drug discovery, partnerships, and regulatory strategies. 

Founders in the industry often have strong backgrounds in science, medicine, or business, particularly in the pharmaceutical or biotech sectors. 

The Chief Executive Officer in the Pharmaceutical Industry

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO, to you and me) is responsible for the overall strategic direction and day-to-day operations of the company. They often oversee all departments and make sure everyone in the company is working towards the same vision. 

A typical CEO in the industry often has extensive experience in leadership roles in pharmaceutical or biotech businesses. They’ll also have a proven track record in leading large teams and driving company growth. 

The Chief Financial Officer in the Pharmaceutical Industry

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) manages the company’s financial health: this will include budgeting, financial planning, reporting, and investor relations. In the pharmaceutical industry, this will also include funding for research and development (R&D), pricing strategies, and financial compliance with regulatory standards. 

CFO’s backgrounds are usually in finance or accounting within the pharmaceutical industry. 

The Vice President in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Vice Presidents (VPs) are usually one step down from a C-level executive. They’re responsible for a specific department (in the pharmaceutical industry, for example, this could be R&D or regulatory affairs). Their role is operational, meaning they work to make sure strategies are executed in a way that contributes to the company’s overall objectives. 

VPs often have deep expertise in their specific area alongside leadership experience. For example, a VP of R&D might have a PhD in a scientific field and work in drug development before moving over to a leadership-focused role. 

Whatever the title, top executives in the pharmaceutical industry often share the following characteristics: 

Decision-making authority: high-level executives must be able to make critical decisions quickly and effectively, and will be responsible for the outcomes of their decisions. These might include decisions about resource allocation, drug development, regulatory compliance, and market strategy. 

Risk management focus: pharmaceuticals can be a risky industry. A business’s top executives need to be on top of drug development, regulatory approval, and market entry, to make sure that the business stays financially on track without compromising patient health or regulations. 

Strategic vision: at the top of the company, executives need to have a vision for the business years – and we mean years – down the line. They need to anticipate future trends, set long-term goals, and make sure that the business is well-set to overcome any curveballs that come its way. 

How Can I Decide Which Top Executives to Target in the Pharmaceutical Industry? 

So, you’ve been tasked with targeting top executives in the pharmaceutical industry – but who should you be targeting? 

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. This, by the way, is a good thing. Imagine if every sales rep in the pharmaceutical industry was going after the same person – nightmare!

Instead, who you reach out to will depend on your product. Who is it built for? In other words, who is your ICP? 

We’d also recommend looking at your historical data. If your sales cycles usually involve multiple stakeholders – known as a buying committee – you want to be building relationships with everyone. There’s no point in pouring all of your energy into one person, only to find out halfway through the process that the decision-maker is your boss. That means reaching out to and connecting with everyone who’s likely to become a part of the process from the get-go. 

From there, it’s important to focus on building meaningful, value-led relationships with your prospects. Finding them is just the tip of the sales iceberg.

The Old Way of Finding Pharmaceutical Industry Executives 

Call us mind readers, but we’re pretty confident you landed on this article because you’ve been tasked with finding top executives in the pharmaceutical industry – and haven’t been too successful so far. 

Is your usual approach visiting a company website in the hope that it will throw up some contact information, or googling ‘top pharmaceutical companies’? At best, you’re going to have a very, very, very time-consuming lead-generation process. At worst, you’re going to have a very, very, very time-consuming lead-generation process – which results in no leads whatsoever. 

Here’s the thing: not every website is built the same. Some don’t even have a Contact Us page! And unless you fancy trying to get the attention of the CEO of Johnson & Johnson or Pfizer, Google is only going to get you so far. 

Fortunately, we’re also future-predictors as well as mind-readers. Here’s how you’re going to search for pharmaceutical executives from here on out. 

Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator to Identify Top Executives in Pharmaceutical

Before we get started, it’s worth noting that LinkedIn Sales Navigator does come with a monthly or annual subscription cost. That said, if you – or your company – are serious about finding the right profiles to reach out to, it’s an absolute necessity. 

Why? Well, LinkedIn Sales Navigator has powerful filtering which will help you narrow down its users to a list of ICP-alike profiles pretty quickly. In an industry with millions of employees, that’s going to be pretty handy. 

So, first things first – start by setting the industry filter to Pharmaceutical and the positions to CEO, CFO, VP, or whichever role it is you’d like to target. 

Those are the basics. To really refine your search, we’d recommend using more filters that are in line with your ICP’s features. For example, where are they based? How big are the companies you sell to? How many employees do they tend to have? How much money are they making? 

Once you’ve got a specific category of people in a list, you can save them using LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s lead lists feature. We like this feature a lot as it helps you to stay super-organized and collect more data on who you’re reaching out to. 

Tips for pharmaceutical industry sales reps using LinkedIn Sales Navigator 

Because we love LinkedIn Sales Navigator so, so much, we’ve got some more tips for you to use to create an ICP list so brilliant it’ll blow your team away: 

Boolean search: you can include or exclude certain profiles using operators like OR or NOT alongside your keywords. 

Recommended lead lists: this is a great feature that takes a look at your past activity and the type of profiles you’re working with, and then builds you a list of up to 100 new profiles with similar traits. That means less time playing around with filters, and more time selling to businesses you potentially wouldn’t have come across otherwise. 

Saved searches: save and come back to searches you’ve already made, and you can build on work you’ve already done – much easier than starting from scratch! LinkedIn Sales Navigator will also send you alerts on new profiles that fit the same criteria. 

Now you’ve got to grips with LinkedIn Sales Navigator, it’s time to find out how to make it even better (no, we didn’t think that was possible at first either).

How to Find the Email Addresses (and Phone Numbers) of Top Executives in the Pharmaceutical Industry

We’re sure you’re on the edge of your seat, so without further ado: how to find the contact data of the people you locate on LinkedIn. 

It all starts with a little tool called Surfe, which is an absolute wizard 🧙 at finding contact data. Here’s how it works. 

Using a LinkedIn profile 

If you haven’t got LinkedIn Sales Navigator yet, or someone’s sent you the name of someone you should get in touch with, you can still use Surfe to find their email address and phone number: 

1. Download and install the Surfe Chrome extension. This takes about 2 seconds. 
2. Next, head on over to the profile you like the look of, and click ‘Add to CRM’. 
3. Surfe then finds the email address and phone number and sends them straight over to the CRM of your choice, so you can say goodbye to manual data transfers. 

But wait…how does Surfe actually find the contact data? The magic lies in its waterfall enrichment technology. Surfe aggregates all the best contact databases, like Apollo, RocketReach, Dropcontact, Hunter, and People Data Labs, and then validates the email addresses it finds through ZeroBounce to make sure you’re not going to have your email bouncing or being marked as spam. 

By aggregating several databases, Surfe improves the changes of 1) finding what you need 2) its findings being accurate. Pretty clever, huh? 

Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator lists

If you’re one step ahead and already have LinkedIn Sales Navigator downloaded (good for you!), then Surfe can help you populate everyone you’ve found – in just a few clicks. Once you’ve made your search or added your contacts to a lead list, select the ones you want to reach out to and click ‘Export to CRM’. Surfe gets to work, using the same waterfall enrichment technology to find everything you need and, you guessed it, send it straight on over to your CRM too. 

Using the Surfe App 

While most of your prospecting is probably done on LinkedIn (it is 2024, after all), we wouldn’t be so bold as to assume all of it is. If you have a CSV of contacts you’d like to find the contact details for, Surfe can help with that too. All you need to do is upload your file to the Surfe App and Surfe will enrich them all. And with a 93% find rate, you can be confident that you’re not going to have too many – if any – gaps to fill in.

Let’s Wrap It Up!

Do you believe us now? Turns out, finding and connecting with top executives in the pharmaceutical industry isn’t as difficult as you might think. All you need is a strong ICP, LinkedIn and, last but not least, Surfe. 

Give it a go – we can’t wait to hear how you get on. 

FAQs About Finding and Connecting with Top Executives in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Who Are the Key Persons in the Pharmaceutical Industry? 

Key roles in the pharmaceutical industry include Founders, C-level executives, and VPs. These roles often play a pivotal role in the strategy and direction of a pharmaceutical business and are usually instrumental in any important decisions that have to be made. 

Are There Pharmaceutical Executives on LinkedIn? 

Yes, there are. You can join groups such as Professionals in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry, or Life Sciences, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Professionals to connect with individuals in your industry who might have a need for the product you’re selling. 

How to Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for the Pharmaceutical Industry? 

Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator’s powerful filtering capabilities to find top executives in the pharmaceutical industry. The most important filter for you is going to be the ‘industry’ filter – from there, use a custom combination of filters until you have a list of people who fit into your ICP. You can also get recommended lead lists, which will introduce you to even more businesses which you may be able to sell to. 

How to Find Email Addresses of Top Executives in the Pharmaceutical Industry? 

The best way to find email addresses of the people you’d like to contact in the pharmaceutical industry is to use Surfe. You can use the Chrome extension to find contact data from a single LinkedIn profile or from a LinkedIn Sales Navigator list – or, use the Surfe app to enrich any CSVs you have with email addresses and phone numbers.