Help CenterIt’s frustrating when outreach, conversations, and negotiations don’t seem to lead to actual deals. Here are some key questions to reflect on — and actionable suggestions — that may help pinpoint what’s going wrong and how to improve.
Were companies completely unresponsive to your outreach?
This is often the most common issue: outreach emails or calls that simply get no reply.
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Possible causes: Bad timing, over-sensitive spam filters, a lack of clarity or value, or a weak subject line can cause emails to be missed.
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To assess: Review your outreach procedures. Did you reach out within 48 hours with a warm introduction? Did you then follow up 2-3 times over a few weeks?
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What to do next:
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Consider what makes a good quality impression. For example, a good initial email would give more information on the technology; conduct background research on the company to personalize the outreach and provide any additional potential opportunities; and suggest times for a call.
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If you’re short on time, it can help to prioritize going this extra mile for more established contacts, priority companies, and companies that have shown interest in a wide cross-section of your portfolio over companies that have not been as engaged in your portfolio. Check whether they feature heavily in the Company Activity page of your dashboard. Use Data Insights to see whether they’ve previously read summaries or been introduced before – warm leads respond best.
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Ask Inpart to check in with the company if they have not responded.
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Did companies immediately end the conversation after receiving further information?
Sometimes, the outreach looks promising, but once you send additional content (e.g. technical summary, proposal, non-confidential materials), the other party drops out.
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Possible causes: Generic and untailored materials sent; the scope/requirements in the extra information may look risky; no clear next steps established; benefits not compelling; or shifting priorities.
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To assess: Was the content aligned with what they’ve asked? Does it highlight the benefits, risk, and required effort? Is it easy to digest? What format was the further information in?
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What to do next:
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Tell prospects in advance what materials they will receive. A slide deck can be great to present information in a compelling way; TTOs are often competing with biotechs and startups for interest from larger companies, and most of these will have a slide deck ready.
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Offering a call with the inventors can be a great way to attract industry partners for further discussion that they cannot get from papers alone. Being overly protective of inventors can risk the company abandoning this opportunity.
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Did conversations tail off without a clear outcome or end?
This “conversation limbo” can be particularly frustrating: promising initial calls, but then no next steps, or vague “we’ll come back to you” that never manifests.
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Possible causes: Internal delays, stakeholder misalignment, unclear next steps, or no internal advocate within the other party.
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To assess: Did the last call end with concrete deadlines or actions? Did you confirm by follow-up email?
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What to do next:
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Always end meetings with a clear plan: who will do what, and by when.
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Follow up promptly, and if there’s no response, set a deadline after which you’ll check in again or move on.
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If a longer-term hiatus is established to work on the research further, use conferences to keep in touch between updates, and keep the company informed if other projects arise that they may be interested in.
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Did conversations reach the stage of negotiating an NDA/CDA, and were these negotiations straightforward?
Getting to NDA/CDA often shows serious interest. But sometimes the negotiation of terms can drag, or the other party may try to change them in ways that make the deal unattractive.
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Causes: Disagreements on liability, terms and conditions.
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To assess: How early in the conversation do you push for and NDA to be put in place? How many conversations got to an NDA stage? What terms blocked progress? Did you find yourself making concessions?
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What to do next:
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Know which clauses are non-negotiable. Be ready to explain your position and aim for simplicity to reduce friction.
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Try to be flexible on when to introduce an NDA. If you won’t let the company speak with PIs before an NDA is in place, many companies might prefer to abandon the conversation rather than take on legal obligations that they consider unnecessary.
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An early, non-confidential discussion with the PIs involved might also help push the company through otherwise slow and difficult negotiations down the line.
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Did conversations lead to other outcomes, such as MTAs, letters of support for funding, or agreements to reconnect in the future?
If a licensing deal hasn’t materialized, there may still have been alternative outcomes that are useful. These can help build relationships, may lead to trust, and may pave the way for future deals. They can also be signals to other prospects that you are active and credible.
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What to do next:
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Catalogue and document these alternative outcomes and follow up to convert where possible.
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Provide feedback from closed conversations back to PIs to help them further develop the technology and make it more competitive.
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Use high amounts of interest as a bargaining chip. Even if things are not progressing, five introductions from other companies could push your priority lead to move forward on sealing the deal.
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Use high amounts of interest in funding applications to further the research, demonstrating perceived value from industry.
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Build up a database of priority contacts. If a conversation progressed well in the past with a company, you should seek them out at the next conference to discuss any new projects that you have available.
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Are you building up an address book and reengaging with companies?
Sometimes the same company can be relevant for different projects, themes, or technologies. If your team re-engages them with new ideas, perhaps something fits better.
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To assess: Did we “lose” a company in one opportunity, but later re-contact them for something else? Did that second outreach get a better response?
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What to do next:
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Maintain a CRM to track all introductions.
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Flag companies for future re-approach and catalogue their priority interest so that you can send them the most relevant new projects.
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Ensure knowledge of previous interactions is passed among the team to avoid re-engaging without context.
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When introductions come without a message
If someone requests an introduction but doesn’t include context:
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Send a short message thanking them for their interest, clarifying the potential fit, and include additional information, such as attaching a slide deck.
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For example: “Great to be connected. Please see the further information attached. Could you share any questions you have about this technology?
This saves time and ensures alignment early.
We don’t know this company, should we still reach out?
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Who is this? Inpart curates its network of industry members, but ask your account manager if you’re unsure about who this company is.
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We can’t or don’t want to work with that company. You are not under any obligation to contact the companies that we connect you with, but please do let us know if you have any feedback on connections that are not aligned with your strategy.
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We reached out and they tried to sell us something. We are clear with companies that they should not use Connect to find customers, but there are sometimes misunderstandings. If you feel a company is misusing the platform, please let your Account Manager know.
Best Practices for Turning Outreach into Deals
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Make a good quality impression with warm, tailored outreach.
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Rank and prioritise contacts by using Data Insights to see who’s engaged before.
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Always define actions, owners, and timelines.
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Be flexible on when to introduce an NDA, and consider non-confidential discussions with the PIs.
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Track all alternative outcomes, which can be built upon in the future.
Success depends on persistence, clarity, and tracking. As our recent article, What industry really wants from academic partners: Interview with an insider, highlights, alignment of value and clarity of benefit are non-negotiable.
That’s why we built Inpart Deal, a CRM tailored for academic/research institutes. It helps you manage leads, track outcomes, and streamline follow-up – so fewer opportunities slip through the cracks.