How To Get Better At Negotiating Clinical Trial Budgets and Contracts

Summary

In this video, the Clinical Trials Guru discusses a unique strategy for negotiating clinical trial budgets. With over a decade of experience, the speaker shares a recent tactic of asking for a midway point between their current budget and the highest paid site, as a way to test the market and learn more about budget negotiations. The video encourages building strong relationships with sponsors and emphasizes the importance of networking and collaboration among research sites to improve negotiation outcomes and raise industry standards.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker is the 'Clinical Trials Guru', offering advice on clinical trials and negotiation strategies.
• 📢 The speaker encourages new subscribers to also check out the blog and follow on Snapchat for exclusive content.
• 📈 The video discusses a strategy for negotiating budgets in clinical trials, emphasizing the importance of this skill for research sites.
• 🔄 The speaker mentions that they have been in the industry for over a decade, indicating a wealth of experience in contract negotiations.
• 🤝 The strategy involves a relationship-based approach, suggesting it's only effective when there's trust and open communication with the sponsor.
• 💡 A new negotiation tactic is introduced: asking for the midway point between the current budget and the highest paid site, as a way to test the market.
• 📊 The example given is about an open-label extension of a clinical trial, where there was an opportunity to renegotiate the budget.
• 🤔 The speaker highlights the importance of always testing and measuring one's standing in the industry to improve negotiation skills.
• 🏆 The speaker's firm was found to be the second-highest paid site, which is a positive outcome and a point of pride for their consulting firm.
• 🤝 The video stresses the value of building relationships in the industry, whether with project managers or contract specialists.
• 📚 For new sites, the speaker recommends networking at investigator meetings and learning from others in the field to improve negotiation strategies.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is how to negotiate budgets for clinical trials effectively.

Who is the target audience for this video content?

The target audience includes new audience members, research sites, and clinical trial sites looking to improve their budget negotiation skills.

Why is it important to subscribe to the Clinical Trials Guru's YouTube channel and blog?

It is important to stay updated with exclusive content, tips, and strategies on clinical trials budget negotiation and site contracts.

What is the significance of developing a relationship with contract specialists or project managers in the clinical trials industry?

Developing relationships helps establish trust, facilitates open communication, and can lead to better negotiation outcomes for both parties.

What is the strategy mentioned in the video for negotiating budgets?

The strategy involves asking the sponsor to provide a midway point between the current budget and the highest paid site's budget, as a means of testing the market.

Why was the new budget negotiation strategy tried for the first time with a specific individual from a pharma company?

The strategy was tried because the Clinical Trials Guru had already established a relationship and open communication with the individual, allowing for a more comfortable negotiation approach.

What was the outcome of the new budget negotiation strategy when it was first tried?

The outcome was that the site was the second-highest paid site, and they decided to accept the current budget as a result of the negotiation.

How does the video suggest new clinical trial sites can learn about budget negotiations?

The video suggests that new sites should network with other sites during investigator meetings and share information about their budget negotiations.

What is the importance of testing the market in budget negotiations as suggested in the video?

Testing the market helps to understand where a site stands in terms of budget allocation and can provide insights into whether they are negotiating effectively.

What is the relevance of the saying 'a rising tide lifts all ships' in the context of clinical trial site budget negotiations?

The saying implies that when sites improve their negotiation skills and receive better budgets, it raises the standard for the entire industry, benefiting all involved.

How can experienced research sites benefit from investigator meetings according to the video?

Experienced sites can benefit by networking with other sites and building relationships with project managers or contract specialists, which can lead to better negotiation outcomes.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introduction to Budget Negotiation Strategy

The speaker introduces a video on the Clinical Trials Guru website, discussing the importance of budget negotiation in clinical trials. They mention an innovative strategy they recently tried for the first time after establishing a relationship with a pharma company representative. The strategy involves asking for the midpoint between their current budget and the highest paid site's budget, as a way to test the market and learn more about effective negotiation. This approach is recommended for those with an established rapport and open communication with the sponsor's representative.

05:02

😉 The Value of Relationship Building in Negotiations

In this paragraph, the speaker emphasizes the significance of building relationships in the clinical trials industry, especially with project managers and contract specialists. They share their experience of being the second-highest paid site for an open-label extension of a clinical trial, which is beneficial for their consulting firm. The speaker encourages experienced research clinics to use investigator meetings to network and share information about budget negotiations. They also stress the importance of always testing and measuring one's standing in the industry to improve negotiation skills and raise the bar for all research sites, using the metaphor 'a rising tide lifts all ships' to illustrate the collective benefit.

Keywords

💡Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are research studies that involve human volunteers to determine the safety and effectiveness of medical interventions. In the video, the speaker discusses strategies for negotiating budgets for clinical trials, which is a critical aspect of conducting research and ensuring that sites are adequately compensated for their participation.

💡Negotiating Budgets

Negotiating budgets refers to the process of discussing and agreeing on the financial terms for conducting clinical trials. The video emphasizes the importance of this process, as it directly impacts the financial viability of research sites and their ability to participate in studies.

💡Research Sites

Research sites are locations where clinical trials are conducted. They can be hospitals, medical centers, or other facilities that have the necessary infrastructure and personnel to carry out research. The video discusses the importance of these sites in the context of budget negotiations and building relationships with sponsors.

💡Sponsors

In the context of clinical trials, sponsors are organizations or individuals who finance the research. They are responsible for setting budgets and negotiating terms with research sites. The video script mentions negotiating with a sponsor's representative to determine the budget for a trial.

💡Open-Label Extension

An open-label extension is a phase of a clinical trial where all participants receive the treatment without being blinded to it. The video mentions an open-label extension as a specific scenario where budget negotiations take place after the initial trial has concluded.

💡Midway Point

The midway point refers to the average between two values. In the script, the speaker suggests a negotiation strategy where the sponsor provides a budget that is halfway between what the site currently has and what the highest paid site is receiving, as a way to test the market.

💡Market Testing

Market testing in this context means evaluating how competitive or reasonable a budget is by comparing it with others in the same field. The video describes a unique approach to market testing by asking for the midway point in budget negotiations to gauge the site's standing.

💡Investigator Meetings

Investigator meetings are gatherings of researchers and other stakeholders involved in clinical trials. These meetings provide opportunities for networking and sharing information, as mentioned in the video when discussing how new sites can learn about budget negotiations.

💡Rapport

Rapport refers to a harmonious or sympathetic relationship between people. The video emphasizes the importance of building rapport with sponsors and contract specialists, which can facilitate more effective budget negotiations.

💡Collaboration and Networking

Collaboration and networking are essential for sharing information and building professional relationships. The video suggests that new research sites should actively network at investigator meetings to learn from others and improve their negotiation strategies.

💡A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships

This phrase means that the improvement of one situation or group benefits all involved. In the video, it is used to illustrate the collective benefit when research sites improve their budget negotiation skills, raising the standard for the entire industry.

Highlights

Introduction to the Clinical Trials Guru's platform and encouragement to subscribe and follow on different channels.

Announcement of a future webinar on negotiating contracts and budgets, a top priority for research sites.

Discussion on the importance of developing relationships with contract specialists and project managers in the pharmaceutical industry.

A new strategy for negotiating budgets by asking for the midway point between current and highest paid site budgets.

The strategy was tested with a pharma company representative with whom a relationship had already been established.

The outcome of the strategy revealed that the site was the second-highest paid, providing valuable market insight.

Emphasis on the importance of always testing and measuring one's standing in the industry.

Suggestion for new research sites to network at investigator meetings to gain insights on budget negotiations.

Highlighting the benefits of collaboration and networking among sites for mutual benefit and industry improvement.

The concept of 'a rising tide lifts all ships' applied to the research site industry, indicating collective growth.

Advice for experienced sites to still network and try the new budget negotiation hack if they feel comfortable.

The significance of building trust and rapport with sponsors for effective negotiation.

Encouragement for sites to use investigator meetings as opportunities for relationship building and knowledge sharing.

The importance of continuous learning and adaptation in the clinical trials industry.

A reminder of the value of the Clinical Trials Guru's services in contract and budget negotiations.

Closing remarks with a thank you note to the audience and a prompt to visit the Clinical Trials Guru's website.

Transcripts

hey everybody welcome back to the

clinical trials guru.com again is the

clinical trials guru calm thank you for

watching make sure you subscribe so I

got a question on snapchat and I was

debating doing a snapchat video but I

got plenty of those

I got a few save for tomorrow so for

today I wanted to answer it here

exclusively for YouTube so thank you

everybody who's brand new make sure you

subscribe and then go check out the blog

too alright the clinical trials guru com

subscribe there and also make sure you

follow me on snapchat alright you can

get lots of exclusive stuff that are

only on snapchat so today's video is

gonna be about how to negotiate budgets

and we've done so many videos on this

but I know there's so many new audience

members and we're probably gonna have a

longer webinar style video maybe next

month or the month after we're back out

doing the regular monthly webinars

myself and Chris we just had one the

other day in case you missed it go check

it out it's about how to get more

studies for your site contracts and

budgets definitely like top 3 priority

for any research site I mean I would say

priority 1 is getting studies priority 2

it's probably training your employees in

the priority to these contracts and

budgets right and then you get patient

recruitment and all that other stuff so

this video it's a strategy that we've

actually tried the other day for the

first time we've negotiated tons of

contracts and budgets right we've been

doing this for 10 years over 10 years

now in fact this is our 11th year doing

this we've negotiated tons of contracts

and budgets many with the same contract

people on the other end so on the pharma

side we're dealing with the same

individual we've established

relationships with them already so I'm

giving you this context to let you

understand that we have a relationship

with these people so what I'm about to

recommend you do and you try this only

if you have a good relationship and

fairly open communication with

person on the other end right so this is

this strategy we've only employed after

negotiating like five contracts with

this guy from the pharma company all

right same guy right so what we did was

we wanted to try something out and we

wanted to test the market which you

should always be doing if you can afford

it test the market if you have a

relationship and you feel like you can

be open with the other guy test it all

right so what we did is we we told this

other guy on the other end from the

sponsor side who's responsible for

negotiating the budget on behalf of the

sponsor and we're obviously negotiating

the budget on behalf of the site we said

hey rather than spending all this time

going back and forth negotiating the

entire budget and going like assessment

by assessment why don't you give us the

difference between what we already have

so anytime you get a study they're gonna

send you an initial budget and then

you're supposed to negotiate it and go

back and forth we said why don't you

give us the midway point between what we

already have versus what the highest

paid site is getting right so again I

would never try this with someone brand

new then we have no interactions with in

the past no history no context we felt

fairly comfortable with this person and

the person said that's interesting no

one's ever asked that and then we said

what we know this is why we're doing it

we're actually testing we're learning

how to negotiate budgets better so it

may not be in your best teach us but we

are gonna be using this as a learning

experience so this is a budget that we

received this is for an extension for a

clinical trial so for those of you who

don't understand how it works some

clinical trials have an open-label

extension right so the previous clinical

trial ended and now the open-label

extension came out so it was time to

negotiate that budget so we already had

the assessments kind of negotiated but

we had the opportunity to negotiate more

because it's technically a new study so

the sponsor said that's interesting okay

we'll do it and then they went to look

at the other sites and all their budgets

they got back to us within a few days

and said hey just to let you know you're

the second-highest paid site so to give

you halfway between what you currently

have and what the highest paid site is

getting would be taking a pay cut for

you and then we said okay now we'll take

what we have thank you so we're testing

the market if you have this opportunity

I would suggest doing it that way you

can sort of see and even if it's a crude

way of measuring where you stack up

hopefully it will provide enough insight

into how much you're either leaving off

the table or whether you're negotiating

the budget the way you should so we were

happy to hear that we were the second

highest paid site of course this is

really good for consulting firm because

we negotiate contracts and budgets for

our clients all the time so we're

definitely going to be bragging about

that but I wanted this videos for you

more experience research clinics that

have dialogue and have a rapport and

have history with the sponsors and

you've been negotiating numerous

contracts and budgets with the same

person develop that trust this is why

it's important to develop relationships

in this industry right whether it's the

project manager and you've worked on

five trials with them in the past or a

contract specialist and you've

negotiated like four or five contracts

with them in the past I would even do it

like on the third contract with someone

with the same person test it out see

where you stand always be measuring

always be testing otherwise you really

don't know where you stand unless you

collaborate and network with a bunch

other sites who are doing the same study

as well which would be option number two

for those of you brand new sites out

there sites typically don't mind sharing

information as far as what they've been

able to negotiate on the budgets and the

best place to do this for you brand new

sites is that the investigator meeting

so when you're at these investigator

meetings introduce yourself to some of

the other sites there's plenty of

opportunities for this at dinner lunches

outings breakout sessions try to network

with as many people as you can and then

just be open window say hey we're a

brand new site we don't know

whether we're negotiating the way we

should be generally sites try to help

each other out because it's in

everyone's best interest it's in the

entire industry's best interest when it

comes to research clinics for sponsors

to pay sites more right it's in the best

interest of the site's for that to

happen so if we get better we being the

sites get better and negotiating our own

budgets it raises the bar for everyone

right a rising tide lifts all ships all

right that's a common expression used by

sailors or something I believe but it

applies in this situation so for the

experience sites out there you can still

do networking at investigator meetings

but definitely try this little hack if

you feel courageous enough to do so and

then for you brand new sites network

with network like crazy with other sites

and investigator meetings and then

really focus on building these

relationships with the project managers

or the contract and budget specialists

on the other end right dan from the

clinical trials guru comm thank you very

much digger

you