Health B2B Marketing

Rather than think about case studies as sales support vehicles, health care B2B marketers should consider case studies as PR opportunities.

In my last post, I offered four tips for strengthening a health B2B workhorse: the news release. In this post, I’ll offer tips on strengthening another B2B PR workhorse: the case study. The news release is the medium for getting news out through the news media. But the case study is the medium for sharing your organization’s story through the news media.

In health care B2B, most of us marketers think about case studies as sales support materials. While it’s not uncommon for us to try leverage the sales support case studies we write for the news media, I suggest that we’re thinking about case studies the wrong way.

Rather than write a case study with sales in mind, why not consider pitching your case study idea to the news media? All it takes is well-crafted, one-to-two paragraph description to select editors. If the idea doesn’t get traction from professionals who think about your audience all day every day, maybe the case study shouldn’t be written. If the case study gets accepted for inclusion in a magazine, then the finished piece is seen by far more prospects than if you published it yourself. Plus, if the magazine offers reprints, you can still use it as sales support.

Once your case study is accepted, some news media will want their own writers to write the story; others will accept stories that are written by someone in your organization or your client’s organization. Whether you are writing the story or just approving it before it goes to the publication, here are some tips for assuring an excellent case study.

Make the client the hero. If you’re writing the story, you might be tempted (or cajoled) to make your product the center of the story. That won’t fly with the media, and it certainly won’t fly with your audience. Your client had a problem. Your client found a solution. The solution yielded results. End of story. Your job is to work your product into that story in a supporting role, not a leading role.

Help the reader put herself into your client’s shoes. The most impactful case studies are those where the reader can identify with the client. Readers identify with people, not with organizations. So tell the story from the perspective of a leader within that organization. Which leader? It depends on what leaders you’re trying to reach. If your target is a CFO, tell the story from your client CFO’s point of view.

Tell the whole story. It’s unlikely that your product was the only part of the solution that your client implemented, and it’s important that you include the whole solution in the story. You undermine your organization if you take credit for results where credit is not due.

Include ROI. No case study is complete without ROI. So before you make your case study pitch to a publication, make sure that there is a defensible return on investment. When you’re sharing the ROI in the story, make sure you present the ROI in a just-the-facts format.

Photo credit: Michal Hadassah (cc)

The rivalry between sales and marketing has gone on for too long. Let's discuss on Health B2B Marketing how we can improve sales and marketing integration.

Whether you’re in marketing or in sales, you’ve felt it: the frustration that the sales team isn’t working hard enough. The burning feeling that marketing is out of touch and would be nothing without sales. The uneasiness of handing over a lead, or accepting a lead, to or from a group you just don’t trust.

One sales executive I know told me once that he thought his company’s marketing team, and marketing in general, was “useless.” One HIStalk commentator recently referred to HIT salespeople as “dumb slackers.”

As a marketer, I’ve found myself frustrated with sales. And I’ve been on the other end of the phone with a frustrated sales guy or gal.

Sales vs. marketing: It’s been a struggle in the decade-plus I’ve been doing marketing, and I’m sure the struggle has lasted longer than those 13 years. I have my suspicions on how this mutual animosity came about. My guess is that prior to CRM systems coming into being, there wasn’t much interaction between these two groups. But as soon as their success was dependent on each other, a rivalry sprung up.

The stakes are high. Marketing always seems to be fighting for high valuation and respect from business leaders. And Sales? They’re fighting for their living.

But does it need to be a fight?

This month, the Health B2B Marketing blog will be discussing ways to improve sales and marketing integration. We all have the same goals. If we work together, we can reach them.

I’m interested in your comments. What do you think is the key to sales and marketing integration?

Photo credit: Nic Stage

For a health care marketer, trade show prep starts long before the booths go up.

I’ll be in Atlanta during the first week of March attending HIMSS10. This isn’t my first HIMSS, but it is the first one for which I have a full attendee pass. At previous shows, I’ve attended as an exhibitor and managed a fairly large booth (actually, it was average by HIMSS size standards). Notwithstanding the enormous amount of work that goes into pulling off a show, I’m feeling a bit nostalgic today. So I’d like to share a few of the things I’ve learned about managing a health care vendor presence at a large trade show.

Start outreach long before the show begins. Identify your key prospects and start talking about a show meet-up months before the show. I know of one organization that reached out to their key clients and prospects six months prior to a show, and they ended up doing a lot of business there. If you’re just starting to set appointments at HIMSS, you may be running behind.

Get the right people there. HIMSS is the best show for networking in healthcare IT. Your executives will want to be there. Make sure they’re busy. One vendor executive told me that the worst thing he could do at a trade show is step in front of a speeding bullet, that is, try to cold contact a C-level attendee. One of your highest priorities should be setting appointments for your executives to meet with your client and prospect executives. And do not—I repeat, DO NOT—schedule them to work the booth. Save that space for your hardest-working, most outgoing sales and marketing people.

Treat your booth like a stage. Think of your booth as “theater in the round,” and your booth staff as actors. Once the actor steps on your booth carpeting, she’s “on.” Your booth staff need to be in character as brand ambassadors, and they need to know—and act—their part.

Do more than just show up. The best booths are the ones that draw crowds. How? Not because of a vendor’s fabulous booth design or because they’re giving away an iPod (will this year’s big giveaway be an iPad?). The crowds come because of in-booth engagements: educational sessions, themed presentations, cocktail parties, book signings, celebrity endorsers, and the like. For example, Ingenix provides fantastic educational sessions. NextGen does a great job at professional presentations. And who doesn’t love the OnBase sports bar?

Remember, it’s not just about the hot lead. The hottest leads are often the ones you did nothing to get. They’ve identified you as their target and want to use the trade show as an opportunity to meet with you. All the work you’ve done—the pre-show outreach, the appoinment setting, the attractive activities, the messaging—will bring in a lot of people looking for freebies and a smaller subset who qualify as “warm leads.” Value those warm leads. Follow-up with them. Nurture them. Stoke their flame so that they’ll become “hot” some time in the future. And don’t forget about those who are just interested in a giveaway. Have a strategy for them as well. There will likely come a time when they’re looking for something you’re offering.

How have you made your trade show booths successful?

No, this is not me. And this post is not about the "hard sell." It's about not wasting a CFO's time.

In my last post, I wrote about how hospital marketing agencies need to pitch the CFO. This post will discuss some CFO pitching principles for health care b-to-b sales and marketing leaders.

An appointment with a hospital CFO is an essential opportunity to move your prospects toward closing. When a salesperson reaches this level, sales leaders can’t go it alone: they need marketing support. From my interview with my CFO friend, here are three principles that sales and marketing should keep in mind:

1. Do your homework. “Before you show up on a CFO’s doorstep, know enough about the business,” says the CFO. “Cash, revenue, income statements—all decisions depend on this.” A nice source for this type of information is the American Hospital Directory. It’s a free source of public data that includes high-level revenue numbers: gross patient revenue, non-patient revenue and net income (or loss). AHD.com also shows the hospital’s service lines, utilization statistics and total patient days.

2. Remember who you’re talking to. “Finance doesn’t drive anything,” my friend says. That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t make decisions, just that he typically isn’t the person who needs to be sold on need. However, he definitely needs to be sold on value. Price is part of that equation, as is features, reputation, product stability and cost savings. Sales and marketing should work together on a message that incorporates all of these elements. Which leads me to my final point.

3. Have client success stories, preferably with ROI. “When I talk to a sales rep, I’ll always ask for references, and I’ll always look for a return on investment that can be quantified,” the CFO says. Marketing and sales need to work together to develop these stories through branded case studies, ROI calculators, customer testimonials.

Next post: Do CFOs pay attention to marketing and advertising?