The Dog Days of Summer: When Clinical Research Sales Hit the Beach (And What Smart Teams Do Instead)

It's that time of year again. The conference rooms are quieter, email responses take longer, and your usually bustling research sites seem to have adopted a more leisurely pace. Welcome to the dog days of summer in clinical research – when decision-makers are splitting time between baseball games, family picnics, and well-deserved beach vacations.

But here's the thing: while your prospects might be sipping margaritas on the coast, your competition is either making the same excuse to coast... or they're getting strategic.

Why Summer Slowdowns Hit Clinical Research Hard

Unlike other industries, clinical research has its own unique summer challenges. Principal investigators are often balancing reduced staff due to vacations, slower patient enrollment as people prioritize summer activities, and the general healthcare industry's tendency to defer major decisions until fall budget planning kicks in.

Research sites are managing skeleton crews. IRBs are processing reviews with vacation schedules affecting timelines. Technology companies find their clinical contacts are harder to reach. CROs are dealing with delayed project starts as sponsors wait for "everyone to be back."

Sound familiar?

The ACG-Clinical Playbook: Turn Summer Slowdown Into Setup Season

While others are waiting for September, here's what the smartest clinical research sales teams are doing right now:

Relationship Building, Not Deal Closing Summer is relationship season. Your hard-charging Q4 approach won't work, but genuine relationship building will. Schedule those coffee meetings, attend the smaller regional conferences, and have real conversations about industry challenges. The deals you build relationships for in July often close in October.

Content That Educates, Not Sells Create valuable content that addresses summer-specific challenges. How are research sites managing with reduced staff? What are IRBs doing to maintain review timelines during vacation season? What technology solutions help maintain productivity when key team members are out? Your prospects have time to consume thoughtful content – give them something worth their time.

Prospecting the Vacation-Proof Contacts Not everyone takes August off. Site coordinators, IRB administrative staff, technology implementation teams, and operational staff often maintain more consistent schedules. Build relationships with the people who keep the operations running – they often have significant influence on vendor selection and purchasing decisions.

Process Improvement Projects Summer is perfect for the unglamorous but crucial work: CRM cleanup, sales process refinement, competitive analysis, and territory planning. Come September, while your competition is scrambling to rebuild momentum, you'll be executing from a position of strength.

Strategic Planning for Fall Pipeline Map out your Q4 strategy now. Identify which prospects will have budget to deploy, which sites will be ready for new partnerships, and which technology rollouts are planned for fall. Summer planning creates autumn success.

The September Surge Strategy

Here's what most people miss: the clinical research industry doesn't just "wake up" in September – it explodes back to life. Budget years are ending, new studies are launching, and all those delayed decisions need to happen fast.

Teams that use summer strategically don't just participate in the September surge – they lead it.

The research sites that seemed unreachable in July? They're now dealing with increased enrollment pressure and need solutions quickly. The IRBs that went quiet in August? They're facing review backlogs and looking for efficiency partners. The technology companies that reduced their outreach? They're now racing to hit annual targets and seeking strategic vendor relationships.

Your Summer Action Plan

Stop waiting for fall. Start preparing for it:

• Schedule relationship-building meetings with key prospects

• Create educational content addressing summer operational challenges

• Build deeper connections with operational contacts at target accounts

• Clean up your sales processes and data

• Map your Q4 pipeline strategy

• Research budget cycles and decision timelines for key prospects

And here's the bonus strategy that too many sales professionals forget: take those three-day weekends and actually enjoy yourself! Rest up, recharge at the beach, catch a few baseball games. You'll need that energy to hit it HARD come September.

The dog days of summer don't have to mean dead days for sales. While your competition is waiting for the season to change, you can be changing your position in the market – all while maintaining the work-life balance that makes you more effective when the busy season returns.

Ready to turn your summer slowdown into a competitive advantage? At ACG-Clinical, we help clinical research vendors – from sites and IRBs to technology companies and CROs – build sales strategies that work in every season. Let's talk about how to make the most of these quieter months.

Reach out to me at [email protected] to discuss how I can support your summertime strategy!