Healthcare is a massive industry, representing over 18% of the United States’ GDPOpens a new window , and it seems like no matter where you turn, everyone is looking to sell into the market. In 2020 alone, investors poured over $51 billion into healthcare companiesOpens a new window .
Additionally, healthcare is an incredibly target-rich environment and becoming increasingly complicated to navigate. Given its breadth, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to selling into healthcare.
To successfully market or sell a product, solution, or service in healthcare, you need healthcare commercial intelligence to understand your target market, the challenges and issues they face, and how to best reach them. You need both market context and market contacts.
See More: The Future of Data-Driven Marketing Is Inside Data Clean Rooms
Here’s a deep dive into the three strategies to implement to get the most out of your marketing efforts:
1. Find the Right Target Market
As with any go-to-market strategy, understanding and segmenting your target audience is a critical component. However, in healthcare, it isn’t as easy as saying “I want to target physicians†or “I want to target hospitals.†There are extra layers of complexity given the many subspecialties and types of provider organizations out there. Additionally, you need to understand the types of patients visiting these healthcare organizations to understand who fits into your target audience.
The global healthcare market is estimated to rake in a substantial revenue of $536.6 billion by the end of 2025, up from $196.3 billion in 2017, according to Transparency Market Research. To fully understand a target market in an industry as big as healthcare, you need data — and lots of it.
For example, if you work at a biotech company and are looking to launch a new drug that reduces inflammation and hospital admissions after a knee or hip replacement surgery, you will need detailed insights that peel back the layers of complexity. Some data that could provide the market context includes:
- The amount of knee replacement surgeries performed each year
- What physicians typically perform this procedure, and which performed the most
- What affiliations do the physicians have? (e.g., associations with physicians’ groups, health systems)
Gaining access to as much data as you can on your market upfront will allow you to understand how big your potential target market is. This data will also help you cast a more targeted net in your sales and marketing communications. Data allows you to better personalize your messaging based on the insights you uncover. While the biotech scenario is one example, the opportunities for growth across all healthcare sectors with the use of data are unlimited.
2. Understand Your Healthcare Audiences’ Pain Points
Understanding what gap your product or service fills is key to shape your messaging for sales and marketing. However, in healthcare, it can be challenging to get the full market context given the complexities of the industry.
Pain points can vary from hospital to hospital due to a few factors: how an organization is structured, what payment and quality programs they participate in, what payers they work with and what technology they already have in place are all important pieces of the puzzle.
To understand the market context and the best way to personalize your messaging to your target audience, you need additional data.
Data on the following can provide your marketing and sales teams useful context to shape the messaging for companies looking to sell into healthcare:
- Hospital revenue and expenses
- Number of employees, physicians and residents
- Readmission, mortality and safety rates
- Quality scores, referral patterns and payer mix
- Technology installations, and
- GPO participation, to name a few.
While the categories are endless, these data points are just a start for companies to take into consideration when planning their strategy. It’s also important to note that what might be a pain point for a company now may change in the future. The pandemic has shed light on the problems companies face, and as they continue to grow and evolve, their challenges will change with them.
3. Reach the Target Audience
Once you’ve identified your target market and taken the time to understand its pain points, you need insights on market contacts.
Once again, in healthcare, this isn’t as easy as it sounds, given the complex relationships between providers, hospitals, and IDNs. Frequently, the end-user of your products is not the key decision-maker, making it a challenge to identifying the right executive for outreach.
One way to overcome this is to look for key opinion leaders (KOLs) to target in your sales and marketing strategy. KOLs are trusted, well-respected influencers in an organization with proven experience and expertise in a particular field. By cultivating a relationship with them, you can gain insight into who the key decision-makers are and leverage them in the sales conversations.
Keep in mind that because KOLs can come from a wide range of roles and backgrounds, you’ll need additional data to identify who these thought leaders are. This includes insights on physician specialty, procedure volume, board memberships, published research and the number of clinical trials they’ve led.
See More:Â 4 Ways Pharmaceutical Brands Can Elevate Point of Care Marketing Campaigns
With the right insights, you should be able to find the correct contact for your strategy and avoid common pain points that bad data can often produce. For example, nearly one-third of business analysts spend over 40% of their time vetting and validating their data before it is analyzed and used for strategic decision making, according to ForresterOpens a new window .
Outside of identifying KOLs, you’ll also want to make sure you have the correct contact information such as phone, email, LinkedIn, location, etc., for anyone you decide to target.
Align Your Focus for the Future
Instead of shooting arrows in the dark and seeing what lands, leverage data and insights to drive your healthcare marketing and sales strategy.
With healthcare commercial intelligence, you’ll be able to save time, money and effort, and ultimately win new business by personalizing your marketing and sales efforts.
What strategies are you using to market technology products, services, or solutions to healthcare providers? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .