Turn interest in your data asset into a real revenue opportunity

Before a biopharma customer commits to a data deal, they ask a version of the same question—how many patients in your dataset match my criteria? Manifold’s Pre-Sales Agent lets you answer it the moment it’s asked with the context that makes the answer trustworthy on the same platform that carries the deal through delivery.

Picture this: a biopharma prospect is on a call with your business development team. They’ve read your dataset summary and are interested in what they see. Then, they pose the leading question that decides whether the conversation moves forward.

“How many patients in your data match my inclusion/exclusion criteria?”

In most real-world data (RWD) organization, this question starts a relay. The business development (BD) team notes it down, routes it to the data team, who then translates the criteria into a query, runs custom code, verifies the output, and sends the number back. Finally, the BD returns to the prospect with the answer several days later, ending the relay.

By then the prospect has moved on to other datasets, providers, and priorities. Interest that goes unanswered today may not survive until the next follow-up, and deals slip to faster competitors. Each follow-up question restarts the relay, and the data team spends hours on requests that may never turn into a real opportunity.

A sales lead is like a perishable good: interest that goes unanswered today may not survive until the follow-up call.
- Data Partnerships Manager at a leading molecular diagnostics company

Critical period for answering questions

Like critical period—a specific time during which an event or experience must occur for it to have an effect—there is a stretch between a prospect asking a question and their interest fading, which can determine whether the conversation leads to any opportunity. We call this critical period, the answer window.

The answer window is shorter than it used to be. Biopharma teams now get instant answers from AI tools across their work, and they expect the same from the providers whose data they're evaluating. A sales process that depends on a manual relay will often miss the window.

Pre-sales Agent: Turn interest in your data into a real opportunity

With Manifold’s Pre-Sales Agent, you can now strike the answer window while it’s hot and make answering prospect questions self-serve. Anyone on the commercial side, including BD and account management teams, can answer a prospects’s questions live on the call without looping in the data team.

In this demo, Medina Life Sciences, a RWD provider, is working with Rocinante Therapeutics, a precision-oncology company weighing a next-generation KRAS G12C inhibitor for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The commercial rep opens the Pre-Sales Agent and asks it what the prospect is asking. It returns the number first, with the criteria and dataset behind it.

Ask the question

The commercial rep types in, verbatim, what the prospect asks, “How many NSCLC patients have a KRAS G12C mutation?” The Pre-Sales Agent returns the answer live on the call—5,152 patients out of 39,854 with NSCLC and saves the result as a cohort. The filters are visible and customizable with NSCLC as the cancer subtype, KRAS as the gene, G12C as the protein change, so the rep can show exactly how the number was reached.

Dig in deeper

When the prospect wants information on biomarkers and asks, “How many patients also have RNA-seq data?”, the Pre-Sales Agent  adds the filter and shows that all of the 5,152 patients have RNA-seq data, a strong value add to bring up in the conversation that the prospect doesn’t lose any patients when the filter is applied.

A one-click view also shows the cohort's tumor mutational burden (TMB) distribution, split roughly evenly between TMB-low and TMB-high beside the conversation, so you never have to leave the call to pull in more information.

Questions that matter for the deal

As Rocinante Therapeutics is competing with approved KRAS G12C inhibitors, they ask how many patients in the cohort received sotorasib, adagrasib, or neither. The Pre-Sales Agent returns a short table: 185 patients on sotorasib only, 15 on adagrasib only, 3 on both, and 4,949 on neither. The rep answers the prospect’s important questions live on the call, and the prospect leaves the conversation with a clear idea of what the dataset offers and how it fits into their research priorities.

Answers rooted in data and evidence

The Pre-Sales Agent provides the prospect with more than just a fast answer. It tells them what the numbers mean, where they come from, what part of the dataset supports the answers, and raises caveats when certain figures or numbers need care before sharing.

Leave an impression even after the call

When the call ends, you can add the sessions to the project’s Featured Sessions and share it as a read-only link with your team. The next person who has a similar question can view the conversation and see the work. You can time-box the access to the Featured Session or revoke access at any time.

When the prospect is ready for the data itself, the same Pre-Sales Agent can cut a child dataset from the cohort, moving the conversation towards delivery on the same platform.

What this means for data providers

Give every prospect a tailored experience

Your commercial team responds to a prospect’s questions on the call instead of days later, so  the conversation moves forward and the opportunity stays with you. In addition, each prospect gets answers that fit their criteria with follow-ups handled in seconds.

Answers your team can stand behind

The agent explains its counts, names the data source, and flags caveats, so commercial teams can share numbers with prospects on the call with confidence. It understands the dataset at the level prospects ask about, including mutation-level filters, assay types, and the difference between claims and EHR records.

Keep your data team on the work only they can do

The Pre-Sales Agent enables commercial teams with rapid, self-serve access to common feasibility analyses, so routine pre-sales questions no longer queue up behind critical delivery projects. By reducing the need for ad hoc requests, the agent allows scientific teams to devote more attention to high-value research initiatives like evidence generation while still delivering fast, responsive support to biopharma customers.

What this means for biopharma customers

Make informed decisions without waiting weeks for your answers

Check whether a dataset fits your research program on the first call. Whether you are the clinical sponsor or the biostatistician, evaluate whether the dataset holds the right cohort criteria, sample size, and biomarkers before you commit your time and investment and make informed decision supported by the right evidence without waiting weeks to get your answers.

See the Pre-Sales Agent in action

Before a biopharma customer commits to a data deal, they ask a version of the same question—how many patients in your dataset match my criteria? Manifold lets you answer it the moment it’s asked with the context that makes the answer trustworthy on the same platform that carries the deal through delivery.

Book a demo with our team or contact your Manifold account manager today to learn more about how you can turn interest in your data asset into a real opportunity.

What’s next

Curious what happens after your prospect gets their first questions answered? Stay tuned to learn how you can let prospects explore your data for themselves before anyone signs without the data ever leaving your environment.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Pre-Sales Agent?

Pre-Sales Agent is Manifold’s self-serve agent that lets your commercial team answer a prospect’s “how many patients match my criteria?” question live on the call with the evidence and caveats behind the number. It closes the answer window while interest is still hot and keeps your data scientists focused on high-value work like evidence generation.

How do I build a cohort on Manifold?

You can ask the Pre-Sales Agent to save its answer as a cohort with visible, editable filters and built-in visualizations.

What are Featured Sessions?

Once the conversation is done, you can share standout sessions with your internal teams as read-only links and revoke access when you choose.