Need go-to-market that sales actually uses? Book a 20-minute Fractional CMO consultation with Bill to align marketing, VOC, and field execution—so reps stop “pushing” and start solving.

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Pete Tortorelli (GM/Managing Director, Revvity) breaks down how to build life science sales teams that scientists actually trust. We cover application-specific selling, channel orchestration, hiring for integrity and curiosity, and why the best reps sometimes refer business to competitors.

Connect with Pete: linkedin.com/in/ptortorelli

00:00 Why life science sales fails without market awareness
00:10 Building sales teams scientists actually trust
01:55 From accidental sales teams to intentional design
05:07 How to sell to scientists without “selling”
07:43 Do life science sales reps need a science background
09:58 Tracking trends that reshape lab workflows
11:41 Selling by solving real lab pain points
17:21 Why integrity beats short-term revenue
27:39 When sales drives product innovation

Life science buyers aren’t shopping for hype; they’re validating hypotheses. Pete Tortorelli led Omni through growth and acquisition and now runs the business inside Revvity.

In this episode, he lays out how to build a sales model scientists respect: application-specific proof, honest discovery, and rigorous support from an app's “cavalry.”

We get tactical: how to use interrogative selling to find true constraints (budget, staffing, SOPs), when to cut bait, and why referring a misfit project to a competitor can earn long-term trust. On team-building, Pete favors integrity and curiosity over perfect CVs, then surrounds reps with fast, accurate answers.

Finally, we look forward. Your advantage isn’t a louder pitch; it’s a tighter proof.

3 Secrets to add to Pete’s Sales Model

1. Sales is your fastest learning loop — faster than product, faster than marketing.
In life science, sales isn’t just about closing deals; it’s about learning in real time. If you’re paying attention, sales will tell you things your dashboards never will — before you’ve spent months building the wrong thing.

The founders who win are the ones who treat sales as an intelligence engine, not just a revenue function. They expect their sales motion to surface insight weekly, not quarterly. If your sales conversations aren’t teaching you something new about your market regularly, that’s a systems problem.

2. Trust isn’t built by good intentions — it’s built by systems that hold up under pressure.
Everyone says they value integrity. That’s easy when things are going well. The real test comes when a rep is behind quota, a quarter is tight, or a big logo is dangling just out of reach. Trust doesn’t survive on values alone — it survives on structure.

Founders have to design systems that make honesty the default, even when it’s inconvenient. If you’re relying on “good people” without guardrails, you’re putting your reputation at risk without realizing it.

3. The real constraint in modern labs isn’t budget — it’s cognitive load.
It’s tempting to assume price is the blocker, but more often it’s mental bandwidth. Labs are understaffed, overworked, and drowning in complexity.

The products that win aren’t always the most powerful; they’re the ones that simplify life. Less explaining to a boss or a collaborator. If your product asks someone to think harder, it needs to replace something else entirely — otherwise it just adds friction, no matter how impressive it is on paper.

Follow Life Sci Continuum for real-world commercialization lessons from operators who’ve built, scaled, and learned the hard way.

Visit https://meshagency.com/fcmo-fractional-cmo-fractional-marketing/ to learn more.

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