From technology to customer value: where labtech companies are missing opportunities

From technology to customer value: where labtech companies are missing opportunities

TL;DR:

Laboratories face staff shortages, fragmented data and increasingly stringent requirements around compliance and sustainability. For labtech suppliers, this creates an opportunity: position your company around the problems customers are actually trying to solve and make your expertise consistently visible. Marketing Is Mensenwerk helps technical companies sharpen that positioning and build visibility around it, even without an in-house marketing department.

Labtech companies are often good at explaining what their technology can do. Commercial success, however, does not automatically go to the company with the best specifications, but to the one that most clearly demonstrates which relevant customer problem it solves and ensures that the market associates it with that solution.

Different niches, shared challenges

The labtech sector can look like a collection of separate niche markets. One supplier sells cryogenic storage, another spectroscopy instruments, laboratory automation or a cloud-based LIMS. Viewed from a product perspective, the differences are significant.

Look at the people who ultimately make the purchasing decision and a different picture emerges. Whether the end customer is a hospital laboratory, dairy producer, chemical company or university, several people are almost always involved in the decision. The lab manager assesses practical usability, QA/QC safeguards compliance, procurement looks at terms and costs, and in smaller organisations the managing director is often involved as well. Labtech companies therefore serve a function, the laboratory, that exists across dozens of sectors.

Three challenges

Looking at the market from this shared operational perspective reveals three recurring challenges.

The first is staffing. Automation and robotics in sample preparation and liquid handling are, for many organisations, a response to the structural shortage of qualified laboratory technicians. Automation helps laboratories maintain capacity and deploy available staff on work where human expertise is genuinely needed.

The second is data. Results are still frequently scattered across Excel files, individual instruments and paper protocols. A cloud-based LIMS, integrated with ERP and configured in line with standards such as ISO 17025, GLP or 21 CFR Part 11, is therefore increasingly becoming a basic requirement. At the same time, AI is creating a new divide in maturity. Large pharmaceutical companies are experimenting with it extensively, while many mid-market organisations are still looking for concrete applications. Suppliers that help customers distinguish meaningful use cases from hype can position themselves strongly as expert partners.

The third challenge comes from outside the laboratory: regulation and sustainability. PFAS analysis, microplastics and stricter environmental requirements demand new testing methods. At the same time, sustainability is carrying increasing weight in purchasing decisions. Lower reagent consumption, energy-efficient equipment and circular product lines are therefore gaining commercial significance. General sustainability claims are becoming less persuasive; concrete, measurable results matter more.

Why good products alone are not enough

A strong product does not automatically make you relevant in the customer’s mind.

Reliable service, support with accreditation and a complete offering ranging from advice to maintenance are important, but many customers now regard them as a given. Differentiation arises when a supplier demonstrably helps the customer move forward. This may include specialist advice, flexible commercial models such as rental or service contracts, and measurable sustainability results. For smaller players in the Benelux, there is also an opportunity in local presence, personal accessibility and short lines of communication.

The next challenge is making that differentiation visible. This is precisely where many labtech companies miss opportunities. Their communications still focus heavily on equipment, technology and specifications, while laboratory technicians and lab managers are primarily concerned with practical questions: how can I increase capacity with the same team? How can I gain control of my data? How do I comply with new regulations?

Suppliers that consistently connect their expertise to these kinds of issues are seen as knowledgeable partners. That requires visibility in the places where customers research and evaluate solutions, through expert articles, real-world case studies, trade media and events that demonstrate an understanding of their world and their challenges.

How Marketing Is Mensenwerk can help

For labtech companies, this means marketing should start with the question of where they genuinely make a difference for their customers.

That is where our approach starts as well.

First, we sharpen the proposition. How does your solution contribute to addressing staff shortages, data challenges or sustainability objectives? Which problems can you demonstrably solve better? And why should a lab manager, QA professional or buyer want to talk specifically to you?

We deliberately look beyond marketing alone. Marketing needs to align with the business strategy and contribute to concrete commercial objectives. Drawing on our many years of experience as entrepreneurs and commercial B2B professionals, we can contribute at board and management-team level to the choices required to achieve this.

And we do not stop there. We translate the strategy into concrete marketing activities and take responsibility for execution as well, with clear priorities, objectives and agreements about what we will do, what it will cost and what results we aim to achieve.

Based on those answers, we build visibility that fits the way laboratory professionals search for information and make decisions. This can include practical expert articles and case studies, clear and consistent messaging across sales and marketing, and, where desired, strategic marketing leadership without the need to hire a full-time marketing director.

AI can play a role here too. It can accelerate research, analysis and content production. However, decisions about positioning, target audiences, messaging and quality require substantive direction. For us, that is the human component of marketing.

Frequently asked questions

Our customers operate in very different sectors. Can one marketing message really work?

Yes, as long as the message starts from the questions buyers have in common. A hospital laboratory and a food laboratory have different applications, but decision-makers in both look at issues such as compliance, capacity, reliability, data and costs. These shared themes can form the basis of a strong core message, which can then be refined for each segment.

We have a very small marketing department. Is this still feasible?

Absolutely. Fractional CMO support provides strategic direction and concrete content without the need to hire someone yourself, while keeping marketing closely connected to what your salespeople discuss with customers every day.

Do we have to use AI in our marketing to remain relevant?

Not as an end in itself. AI can accelerate content production and analysis, but the strategic choices — what you say, to whom and why — still require human direction. That is where we make the difference.