“We can do this with AI.”You should — after the sprint.“We already know our differentiation.”Then it survives the copy-paste test.“We just need a copywriter.”A copywriter writes the decision. They don’t make it.“Our science speaks for itself.”Not on slide thirty-four.“We’ll do it after the raise.”The deck you raise on is the problem.
“We can do this with AI.”You should — after the sprint.“We already know our differentiation.”Then it survives the copy-paste test.“We just need a copywriter.”A copywriter writes the decision. They don’t make it.“Our science speaks for itself.”Not on slide thirty-four.“We’ll do it after the raise.”The deck you raise on is the problem.
A positioning practice for specialist CROsClinicalBioanalyticalSpecialty
What you get
One thing is for sale
Everything else unlocks only if the work says you need it.Most of the time, it doesn't.
Positioning Sprint for Specialist CROs
Four weeks · fixed scope · one at a time
€10,000
Pilot
We're running a pilot through 2026. Early clients pay €6,500, in exchange for a detailed case study.Half at kickoff, half after week one. If week one doesn't earn the rest, you stop there and keep it.
Message Architecture DocumentThe positioning decision, written down. Twelve to eighteen pages, yours to edit.
Competitive Alternatives MapThe CROs, internal options and status quo the sponsor weighs for this kind of programme.
Capabilities deck structure and production-ready copyNot a direction to interpret. The story and the words, in order.
BD Meeting BriefThe decision logic, proof and questions your team opens before a sponsor meeting.
AI Context Pack™Positioning, voice and proof in a format your team uses to keep proposals and RFP responses on message.
Implementation Readiness AssessmentScored across five execution surfaces. It decides what happens next.
Three 60-minute working sessionsPlus a 45-minute handoff with whoever has to use the work.
For scale: a Head of Marketing is €80–150k a year, plus four to six months of ramp.
Three hours of your time in total, spread across three sessions. Everything else happens without you in a meeting.
Before we start
Your side
One kickoff questionnaire, then the evidence you already have: RFP debriefs, winning and lost proposals, capabilities decks, sponsor feedback and recordings of BD calls. Before you sign, we tell you how much of the work that evidence can carry.
No sponsor interviews inside the critical path. Nothing waits on someone else’s calendar.
Our side
We read your homepage and public capabilities material against three direct alternatives, then trace where your strongest scientific and delivery proof appears across the sponsor decision path.
We arrive at the first session having already read the evidence.
01
Week 01
Decision context
60 min of your time
Mon
Working session 1
60 min
How the sponsor team frames the programme, which risks each stakeholder carries and what proof moves the shortlist.
Tue
Evidence synthesis
We read RFP debriefs, proposals, capabilities decks, sponsor feedback and BD calls line by line. Their decision language, not ours.
Wed
Competitive Alternatives Map
Three direct CRO alternatives, the internal option and the cost of leaving the programme as it is.
Thu
Three to five positions
Each written as it would open your capabilities deck, ranked by risk, with the evidence behind it.
Fri
Our recommendation
Loom ~10 min
Which position we would take, and why. In the pilot, this is the checkpoint: continue, or stop and keep it.
02
Week 02
The filter
60 min of your time
Mon
Working session 2
60 min
The Science-to-Signal Filter™. Capability table stakes get cut, out loud, with you in the room.
Tue
The copy-paste test
Every surviving claim gets a competitor’s name pasted into it. If it still reads true, it dies.
Wed
Objection architecture
The scientific, delivery and risk objections sponsors actually raise, and the proof for each.
Thu
Positioning drafted
The decision written as a sentence, before it is written as a document.
Fri
Loom
~10 min
What survived the filter, and what we killed. Including the capabilities you liked.
03
Week 03
The architecture
60 min of your time
Mon
Working session 3
60 min
You choose one position. We write down which sponsors and programmes it prioritises and what you give up to hold it.
Tue
Message Architecture Document
Twelve to eighteen pages. The decision, the reasoning, the proof and the language.
Wed
Capabilities deck structure and copy
The sponsor story and the words, in order, ready for design and production.
Thu
Readiness scoring begins
We score your five execution surfaces. If something is failing, you hear it this week.
Fri
Loom
~10 min
Where the scoring is heading, before it is final.
04
Week 04
Handoff
45 min of your time
Mon
BD Meeting Brief
The sponsor decision, proof and questions your team opens before a meeting.
Tue
AI Context Pack™
Positioning, voice and proof in a format your team uses for proposals and RFP responses.
Wed
Implementation Readiness Assessment
Five sponsor-facing surfaces, scored one to five each. Out of twenty-five. You see the sheet.
Thu
Handoff
45 min
The document, deck structure, assessment and what happens next. Bring whoever owns BD and scientific review.
Fri
Delivered
If the assessment came back red, the Messaging Implementation Blueprint is in the package at no extra cost.
Sponsor interviews are a separate module. They never run inside the four weeks, because the sprint never waits on someone else’s calendar.
Week four
The assessment decides. Not us.
Every surface that carries your message gets a number out of five.
Capabilities deck
RFP / proposal
Website
Conference / outbound
BD alignment
You see the sheet. Not a summary of it.
Sometimes the answer is that you need nothing else from us.
Ready · 18/25
You implement it yourself, using the Message Architecture Document and deck structure as the guide. We're done.
Your team produces the capabilities deck from the structure and copy, not from a brief.
A 30-day follow-up call, if you want it.
You spend nothing further with us.
This is the outcome we're aiming for.
Partly ready · 15/25
Some surfaces can carry the new message, others can't.
A prioritised roadmap: which surface to fix first, and why.
The ones that failed can be fixed module by module.
Or handed to your own team, with the document as the brief.
Two surfaces out of five, in this example.
Not ready · 9/25
Your execution layer can't carry the message at all.
The Messaging Implementation Blueprint comes in week four, at no extra cost.
Page structure, hierarchy, wireframes and example copy.
Executable by any developer or agency you already use.
That part isn't for sale. It's what we owe you.
Each column is one surface: capabilities deck, RFP/proposal, website, conference/outbound and BD alignment.
Puts the message onto the surfaces you already have. Modular — one module per surface that scored low, so you only pay for what failed. Two to three weeks.
The site that implements the positioning. Design and build, not a rewrite of the one you have. It is the only execution we take on, always downstream of a positioning decision we made with you.
For scale: a full-service agency rebuild runs €30–80k over three to six months, without life sciences expertise.
€18,000–25,000
Sponsor Evidence Module
Add-on · no assessment needed
Three sponsor interviews we run and synthesise. The sprint itself runs on evidence you already have — RFP debriefs, proposals, capabilities decks, sponsor feedback and BD calls — so this is an addition, never a dependency. It runs alongside or after; the sprint never waits on it.
€2,000
Messaging Ops
Requires Positioning Sprint · minimum three months
Two calls a month, review of new sponsor-facing assets before they ship, a quarterly update of the Message Architecture Document, and the AI Context Pack kept current as capabilities, indications and competitors change.
€1,500/month
What we don't do
No retainer without a sprint. Maintaining a message that was never decided is just maintenance of the problem.
No website or deck redesign without the positioning in front of it. A surface that looks better and says the same thing is an expensive way to stay interchangeable.
No promised numbers. Positioning moves over quarters, and anyone selling you an attributable percentage in ninety days is selling attribution, not positioning.
No campaigns, no content factory, no fractional CMO. Adjacent work, different business.
What we guarantee
If any deliverable doesn't meet the standards we define at kickoff, we revise it until it does.
And if you implement the messaging for ninety days and see no measurable improvement in how sponsors engage, we run an additional optimisation sprint at no cost.
Payment is split 50% at kickoff, 50% on delivery. During the pilot, the second half is due after week one — and you can stop there.
Before you ask
Six questions, answered first
We win through relationships. Why does positioning matter?
Relationships earn access and trust. Positioning makes that advantage travel when the sponsor meets the rest of the team, compares the capabilities deck, circulates the proposal or has to defend a shortlist internally. The sprint gives every person and surface the same clear reason to choose you.
Every study is different. Can one position cover all of them?
The position does not replace programme-specific thinking. It establishes the pattern: which sponsors and programmes you are unusually well suited for, which operating choices make that true and which evidence reduces risk. The proposal still adapts to the study; the reason to trust you stops changing from pursuit to pursuit.
Do you interview sponsors?
Not inside the four weeks. The sprint runs on the evidence you already have — RFP debriefs, winning and lost proposals, capabilities decks, sponsor feedback and BD calls — agreed before you sign. If you want fresh sponsor interviews, the Sponsor Evidence Module runs alongside or after, without putting the sprint on someone else’s calendar.
What exactly do you deliver for the capabilities deck?
The complete narrative structure and production-ready copy: the sponsor problem, fit, scientific and delivery evidence, risk reduction, service detail and next step, in order. Visual design and slide production are outside the sprint. Your team or agency can build from the finished structure without interpreting a strategy deck.
Can we use AI to write proposals and RFP responses?
Yes, once the decision is clear. The AI Context Pack gives your team the approved positioning, voice, proof and boundaries in a reusable format for ChatGPT or Claude. AI can then accelerate a programme-specific response without quietly inventing a new “why us” every time.
Who actually does the work?
One person, one sprint at a time. There is no team to hand you off to and no junior doing the first draft.
The capabilities teardown
Thirty minutes, one deck
Bring your capabilities deck. We’ll read it as a sponsor would: for fit, proof, delivery risk and a reason to choose you over the alternatives.
