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In this episode of the Science of Selling STEM, I’ll be talking to Justin Duplantis, the director of Business Development for Bioinformatics CRO, a contract research company that serves the computational biology needs of biotechnology companies, with a focus on genomics. Justin Duplantis comes on to share how he started his career in retail sales and worked his way up to corporate-level management.

Justin is a talented recruiter and technical trainer with a proven record of sparking exponential growth and positioning companies for success. He is an Analytical chemist turned sales leader who graduated with an undergraduate degree in analytical chemistry from Louisiana state university. Justin has over 15 years of full-cycle project management experience working with Fortune 100 companies

On Today’s Episode of the Science of Selling STEM:

• How he began his career to where he is now and his transition journey to something not chemistry related (01:33) 
• Sales experience in the retail world and its relation to biotech (03:48)
• Having relatability when approaching your customers in order to build rapport  (07:02)
• His transition from analytical chemistry to retail sales and then to the bioinformatics world (07:50)
• Pulling someone from outside the industry to bring diversity in perspective and thought (12:12)
• Having a global perspective and creating relationships with referral partners (13:48)

Connect with Justin Duplantis:

• Justin on LinkedIn
• Website: bioinformaticscro.com
• The Bioinformatics CRO Podcast
• Twitter: @BioinfoCRO
• Email: justin@bioinformaticscro.com

Connect with Wesleyne Greer:

• Wesleyne’s Website
• Wesleyne on LinkedIn
• Wesleyne on Facebook
• Wesleyne on Twitter

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Thanks for tuning into The Science of Selling STEM! If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn even more about what it takes to transform your sales, don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite episodes on social media!

Join The Science of Selling STEM community on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit my website for even more content, information, and resources.

As a sales manager, you are judged by the

performance of your team, and you're praised when they do

well. But one thing that you've not been able to figure out is

how to get everyone on your team consistently hitting quota every

single month. On the Snack size sales podcast, we discuss the

science of selling stem sales leadership in the science,

technology, engineering and manufacturing fields is

difficult. You will learn from sales managers just like you

that will give you actionable insights and tips on how to

develop as a leader and achieve your revenue targets every

single month. So pop your headphones in and get ready to

listen to my guest today. They will give you information and

inspiration to ensure that you have actionable insights that

you can put into place today. Hello, and welcome to the snack

sized sales podcast today. My guest is Justin do plantas. How

are you, Justin?

How you doing? Well. How are you?

I am awesome. Justin has over 15 years of full

cycle project management experience with Fortune 100

companies. He is a talented recruiter, technical trainer,

and he brings rapid and sustained growth to each company

that he has worked at. He is a person after my own heart as an

analytical chemist turned sales leader. Justin, how did you

start your career and tell us how you got to where you are

now?

Sure. So first of all, thanks for having me

here today. Yeah, so basically, I started off in retail and did

retail sales and worked my way up into corporate level

management. As I was going through college, graduated my

undergraduate degree in analytical chemistry from LSU.

And did not kind of pursue anything in that industry. So

was in a variety of different roles at different types of

companies, everything from home services to working in still in

retail, and then the modeling and acting industry. So kind of

dabbled in a lot of different industries. But always the

common thread was the the recruiting, train development

and management as well as sales. So I just recently transitioned

last year into a role in the STEM industry. So kind of

putting my undergraduate degree somewhat to work as the Director

of Business Development for the bioinformatics CRO where I'm the

director of business development there,

huh. So how did you graduate from college and

not use your degree at all? One of my brothers, one of my

younger brothers, he has a classmate he's a chemist also.

So he followed in my footsteps when he graduated, he went to

work for Waffle House, and now he's like a district VP or

something like that, a waffle house, and he never used it

degree. So tell me, how did that transition go for you when you

were like, I'm not doing anything chemistry?

Yeah, I think essentially, the I was lost, I

guess, in college didn't really know what to do. My parents, my

mother's in the medical field, my father's a Civil

Environmental Engineer. And they were both kind of pushing me in

either direction, I have went to some pre med type camps, I

looked at potentially doing law school, actually, toward the law

school that LSU and just determined it was really it was

just kind of lost. And so being in management while going

through college, it was one of those things where I just stayed

where I was, and didn't transition out of the industry

that I had already kind of started working in, never really

wanted to work in a lab. And there's not much you can do with

the analytical chemistry degree other than that.

Okay, so tell me about your experience in the

retail sales world, because a lot of times people on the

podcast, they're very stem focused, or, you know, in the

b2b area. So tell me about that sales experience?

Yeah, I think it's a, it's interesting,

because a lot of industries don't see retail as a legitimate

form of any type of employment more as a temporary move from

university to their career. But I think for me moving up into

management, I did international store opening, I did train

development on a national level technical training, I was in a

district wide level where I was managing, you know, 15 to 20

locations. So there's a lot of moving parts, I think the key

thing is there, I guess the big relation to biotech is it's a

very fast moving environment. And you're always kind of having

to think on your feet. Biotech is the same way where you may be

kind of slow to pick up one day, and then the next day, it's

like, we have to hit the ground running really hard, which is

aka Black Friday. So I think there's a lot more relation than

people give it credit for between the biotech industry and

retail industry as far as the way that it's structured.

So tell me, before we delve into your

current position, what are some of the hard core skills whether

they're soft skills or hard skills that you were able to

translate from the retail industry to the stem industry?

Yeah, I think definitely the train development

is something that's going to be pretty much crosses every plane,

but more specifically, the client interface. So in biotech,

a lot of times we have bioinformaticians, that are

coming from more of an academic background that don't have any

type of interaction with customers at all. So there's no

client interfacing whatsoever in their position to transition to

a company like ours, where we are at the bioinformatics CRO,

specifically client interfacing with our bioinformaticians that

are dealing directly with the clients. So having that client

interface training is very important. So I'm not the one

going through and helping them with the scientific side and

working AWS, but I am the one on the flip side saying, Okay, this

is the way that we properly communicate with clients, which

is a direct relation to that business to consumer type

customer service that we expect in the in a high level retail

environment as

well. You know, one thing that people always

tend to forget when we're in this, the b2b sales environment,

is the fact that at the end of the day, yes, this is a business

to business sale, but you're selling to a person. So it is

still a consumer, and each person within the organization

has to really be thought of as an individual, right? It's not

just like, oh, this is a big company, I'm selling to let me

think all about the company, you know, it's who is the person

you're specifically calling on?

Yeah, and I think, you know, coming from I

grew up in Louisiana, and South Louisiana, specifically, and the

culture down there is very much a carefree lifestyle. And we're

going to be asked with people. And I think that's one of the

things that sets us apart at the bioinformatics CRO, the way that

we kind of or I handled the sales cycle is, the first half

of the conversation has nothing to do with what the product is,

it's 100% Getting to know that person and joking around and

having that relatability and finding that common ground. And

then the other half is just Oh, and by the way, we have a

product that we're supposed to be talking about. And I think

that translates no matter if you're talking about shoes, or

you're talking about bioinformatics, it's the same

type of interaction that people respond well to because as you

mentioned, we're not selling to, you know, some man behind the

screen, you're talking to an individual and that's, that's

what you're selling yourself to. And what we really pride

ourselves in is making sure that the synergies are right between

the company that we're dealing with and our company that we are

an extension of their organization, as opposed to this

third party that's coming in for one or two projects, one offs.

It's really good, you know, building that

rapport, and that relationship, especially in these technical

fields, sometimes we just focus so much on the science or the

technical problem that we're trying to solve our process or

our tool, how that can actually, you know, we're so focused on

us. And really, at the end of the day, what is sales? It's all

about the person on the other side of the table. Right? So how

can I help the person on the other side of the table? So how

did you transition from, you know, so chemists to retail

sales back into the bio informatics world?

Yeah, it was pure luck. Essentially, I was

working in the modeling acting industry, I was the basically

had call the head of sales. But basically, I was the Director of

Admissions. But we're basically in sales, getting individuals to

work for a Malian acting organization, we were a school

and Academy in Louisiana area. And when COVID started kind of

peeking its head out, I knew that I saw the writing on the

wall, that it wasn't probably not going to be a stable

organization to be a part of. So I transitioned my family to the

Texas area where my wife resided, and started kind of

looking for work. And I thought it was gonna be a really easy

transition. And it just wasn't, I was having a really hard time,

I was being told a lot that I was overqualified for certain

roles that I was going out for, or I didn't have the exact

experience they were looking for. So I am not one that's very

active on social media. But I posted my first thing ever on

social media out of pure desperation and frustration, and

basically said, I'm tired of being told that I'm

overqualified, and had a little political cartoon that said, you

know, I'm sorry, you're overqualified. Come back when

you forget some things, and so posted that on social media and

and was just kind of like, Hey, I'm frustrated. Someone that I

know from the triple nine society, which is a high IQ

society that I'm a member of, it's kind of like Mensa, but a

little bit, it's a more strict as far as the application

process. So like menses 90th percentile, this is the 99.9

percentile. One of my members of my cohort from TNS is the owner

of the bioinformatics URL, and he reached out and said, Hey,

let's have a conversation. We talked and I said, I don't not

think I'm a great fit for this. I don't know anything about

bioinformatics. And he says, But you know, sales and that's what

we need, and you can learn the bioinformatics side of things

you know, you're a smart guy, you have a background in you

know, somewhat of a it's not related but you know, in a STEM

field at least you'll be fine. And he was the one that had the

I guess the confidence in me when I definitely did not, but

our results have have definitely shown that he I guess he saw

something I didn't see and we we've made some really great

strides since since coming on board. So

the so your boss, I hope he listens to this

podcast. He is one of the most brilliant people that I know in

hiring salespeople, sales leaders, because that's what I

like I say this all the time and people don't get it. You need

somebody with strong sales skills. You need somebody with

strong leadership capabilities, your product is as good as you

say it is. You can teach them the technology, simple, plain

and simple. And he really proved that that's exactly what he did

with you. And another thing I say is don't hire industry

insiders. He could have went in pluck, I call them your

competitors rejects kind of where to pluck a competitor's

reject, right to fill your position. But he did. And he had

an open mind and looked outside. And really, as you said, you

guys have really been able within this last year to blossom

to grow.

Absolutely, yeah. And I think the

interesting thing about that is I had about three or four months

ago, I had somebody reach out to me, Well, I reached out to them

kind of hunting down leads, as I often do through LinkedIn, and

reach out to this person. He said, Look, we don't have any

needs. And I said, Okay, well, I'll follow up with you,

intermittently, to see if the needs have changed. And so a

couple months later reached out to him again, and he said, You

know, I don't need anything. And then quickly afterwards, he

responded, actually, you know, actually, I do have a need to

meet, let's have a conversation. So great. We jumped on the call

a few days later, he said, he's like, so tell me a little bit

about you guys. So I started kind of going over my normal

kind of conversation, I don't really like to call it a pitch,

because it's different every time I do it, it's just more of

just like kind of chatting, and this what we do. And about

halfway through, he said, Hey, I don't need to hear anymore. And

it was very abrupt. And it took me a little bit by surprise. And

he said, I'll be honest with you, the reason I got you on

this call today was because I'm interested in talking about

coming on board with us in a business development role. And I

said, Oh, well, you know, I'm happy where I'm at, could you

send me though the job description, as well as, you

know, salary kind of range, so that I can address with maybe

some contacts that I have. So we sent it over. And one of the

things that was in that job description was five years of

industry experience. And so I addressed that with him, I said,

you know, I just want to point out the fact that you're trying

to recruit me, but I'm not even qualified for the position

you're trying to recruit me for? And he said, What do you mean,

you're highly qualified? And I said, I am? Absolutely not. I

said, I've been in this role for, you know, a little less

than a year in this industry, I have had don't have the

qualifications that you would even look at me. And he said,

Well, I want to let you know that you've changed my mind on

that quite a bit. And I so I agree with you, I think, I think

that's huge, you know, to be able to think outside the box,

you're going to find much better candidates than the ones that

have been doing the same thing over and over again, because

they're going to bring those preconceived notions on how

things are done. And that may not be the way that your company

wants them done at, you know, at that time. So there's a lot of

advantages to pulling someone from outside the industry, for

sure.

Absolutely. It gives you that difference of

opinion as to the diversity of perspective, diversity of

thought. And really, what you'll find is when you build your

sales team with Yeah, okay, maybe you have some people who

are within the industry, or who have come from your competitors,

as well as the outside perspective, that's what really

builds a strong sales team. And that's how companies really

achieve that double digit, triple digit growth, because you

have so many different opinions like, okay, in retail, we didn't

like this. Okay, in my last bioinformatics company, we did

like this. In polymers, we do it like this, right? All of that

put together is really what builds these organizations that

makes them strong.

Absolutely. Yeah, for sure. I think one of

the things that that we've kind of implemented is that more that

human touch that I had, I kind of mentioned earlier, we provide

all of our clients with basically like a little

biography of the bar fish they're gonna be working with,

but not in a traditional sense, we're not going to send you

their CV, we're sending you a photo of them, it tells you

about their hobbies has little pictures, it's much more of this

as a human being that you can be working with. And then on the

sales side of things, you know, I think one of the things again,

that we we emphasize is that we want to be an extension of your

organization, we don't just want to be a contractor that you're

using for a one off project, it needs to be something where it's

a much more client telling than it is a customer interface. When

we're interacting with these potential clients. One of the

things that company was doing in the past was trying to basically

ascertain a client here and client, their client here,

client there, but what we have changed in that mentality, and

it's coming from all the diverse backgrounds I've had is I would

rather make a relationship with a company that has similar to

similar clients and build that network. So that I have other

companies headhunting for me for clients as well. So if I have

this company that's related, let's say we just made a

relationship with at Cedar, which is a equipment leasing

company, well, when you go to lease the equipment, you're

going to have to be producing a lot of data. And that data needs

to be analysis analyzed. And that's where we come in. And so

having that relationship with this company, they're able to

pitch our company to their clients. And I think making

those b2b relationships, not just thinking on a client

perspective, I think has been big for us as well.

Yeah, really that global perspective, I was

actually just telling somebody that we're doing a whole thing,

showing people how to use LinkedIn. I said, Well, you

know, one of the greatest benefits that I've had on

LinkedIn is not just the direct interaction with prospects and

clients and employees. It's actually I'm building these

great relationships with referral partners. And they're,

you know, you talk to somebody, you get on a call, and you're

like, Wow, you should meet this person, or you should meet that

person. And then it's like you have this whole ecosystem, these

arms, that you've touched people that are so far outside of your

realm that you wouldn't have been able to do if you were just

so focused on I have to get business, I have to hire

employees,

and a warm lead, as opposed to a cold lead

that point to

exactly, exactly. So tell me about your

great success, something that you're really proud of? Yeah. So

I think this is a combination of a personal

note, as well, as a professional, I think the past

month has been a very challenging month. So I'm

currently in grad school. I'm ascertaining my MBA right now,

and working full time. And so that obviously, is a big strain.

And then last month, on the 15th, my five year old son was

diagnosed with medical blastoma brain cancer. So we have kind of

uprooted our family from the Dallas Fort Worth area to now

living in Memphis, where he's going to St. Jude's for his, his

treatment. So we've kind of displaced our family and have

been able to still kind of manage all of the different

aspects, I think being able to juggle having a family and

working full time and going to school full time and having a

child with, you know, obviously a very serious illness in brain

cancer, I think has been has definitely been a challenge. But

we have as a family stepped up to the challenge. And I think,

you know, you're only as strong as you believe you are. And it's

amazing to see, I guess all these other families that are

here as well, that are are not able to do kind of the working

from home and everything like that. So we're very blessed. But

it's been a challenge. But I'm happy to say that we're making

it through it. So

I love that. And you know, one thing, I asked

this question all the time, and when I wrap up the podcast, and

sometimes people you know, they're proud of a project or a

team member, somebody who they've mentored and, you know,

you really took it to that. I'm a human being and life has been

challenging, and I'm proud, proud of myself for overcoming

it. And one thing that I always tell sales leaders is, at the

beginning of every year at the beginning of every quarter, you

have to sit down with your team and make it have them make a

personal goal, right. And that personal goal, that's why we're

working so hard. That's what we're doing, you know, is it

that I need to get treatment for a child? Is it that I need to

buy a car, I want to retire my parents early? Like whatever

that goal is? That's what they're working for? Yes,

they're working for your company. Yes, they're working

because they want to make commission but at the end of the

day, why are they working so hard? It's to achieve that goal.

And so again, hats off to you for everything that you've been

experiencing this past month, because I can only imagine just

the gravity of having a child that's being treated at St.

Jude's, and being in grad school and working full time. I mean,

just all three of those, each one of those things is a lot,

but put them all together, I definitely think that you're

you're doing a great job, and hats off to you as a husband,

and as a father. I appreciate it. Thank you. And so if people

want to get in contact with you to chat with you more, learn

more about the products that you guys sell, what is the best way

for them to do that?

Yeah, so we actually have a podcast as well.

So our podcast is the bioinformatics CRO podcast, very

original name. It's industry related. So generally talking

about to therapeutic companies that are in the industry. We

also have a website, of course, bioinformatics cro.com. And then

my email address is Justin at bioinformatics cro.com, as well.

And of course, you can always find me on LinkedIn, I'm pretty

easily found. My name is not all that that normal, we have, I

think there's one or two other Justin do planets, but there's

not very many,

pass them. And all of that contact information

will be in the show notes. So please check out I love other

podcast hosts because they get the what is like the other other

side of the mic. So please check out the podcast connect with

Justin on LinkedIn. And thank you so much, Justin for sharing

your story, your journey and I really, you know, the biggest

takeaway that I got, and that's going to stick with me is really

your biggest accomplishment. And that's what I really enjoyed the

most about this conversation. Yes, we're all salespeople or

sales leaders, but we're also human beings. And as human

beings, we have challenges that we have to overcome. So thank

you. Thank you. And that is a another episode of the Snack

size sales podcast. Remember what we do here is we talk about

the science of selling stem. So in everything that you do, make

sure you transform your sales. See you next time.

Thank you for joining us today on the snack sized

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