Podcast
Mastering Your Value Equation in a Loud and Crowded Market
Tom Mitchell
Managing Partner, Stratipoint
The CMO role is typically the shortest-tenured position in healthtech C-suites, but Tom Mitchell is the exception to the rule. As a seasoned healthcare professional, Tom has over thirty years of experience in and around the healthcare universe, as well as a strong background in leading marketing operations for multiple high-growth healthcare and technology firms. On this episode of Healthcare Market Matrix, Tom and host John Farkas discuss sticking with long-term multi-channel marketing strategies, setting realistic expectations, creating true and lasting relationships with industry associations, and the Tenessee HIMSS Marketing Seminar.
Listen Now
Transcript
Introducing Tom Mitchell
John Farkas:
Well, welcome to Healthcare Market Matrix. I’m your host, John Farkas, and today we have the privilege of sitting down with Tom Mitchell. Tom is a seasoned healthcare, dare we say, grizzled healthcare industry expert with over 30 years in and around the healthcare universe. And he has a lot of backdrop in leading strategy marketing operations for some high growth healthcare and technology firms globally. And he brings a wealth of knowledge and insights to our discussion today. He’s also a longtime board member of the Tennessee HIMSS. And for those of you who may not know, Tennessee is certainly one of the most vital national chapters of the HIMSS organization. So we like to brag about that. And he’s also the founder of Stratipoint Advisory, and they’re dedicated to helping drive high-value go-to-market strategy for organizations through their research, strategic planning, and execution. So Tom, welcome to Healthcare Market Matrix.
Tom Mitchell:
Thank you, truly an honor to be here.
Tom’s Background in Healthcare
John Farkas:
Well, to start off, I’d love for you to give us a little bit of a backdrop of your journey. I mean, tell us how you got where you are, what were some of the stops on the road? I know you’ve got certainly a few interesting chapters.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, definitely. So in mid-nineties started kind of my healthcare journey with research actually, in research content and pushing that out. If you remember the days of CD-ROMs when you’d go into a library and put in a CD-ROM and it would tell you, Hey, go find this article in this serial publication if you’re doing some research. So started out working in that industry [inaudible 00:03:13] focus on biomedical and we pushed that, believe it or not, to the internet and got away from the CD-ROMs. So that was really pushing content to the internet from a very tangible type of product and making that content accessible. And that was a global organization and that was fun. So working with publications like New England Journal of Medicine to very esoteric other type publications, so with very niche type content.
Then I went from there to the revenue cycle space and kind of got my chops in going from content to truly, truly hardcore kind of marketing in a very, I would almost say consumer-centric claims type model. And working with an organization that had one of the largest claims clearinghouses in the industry at the time, pushing billions of dollars of claims through annually, a clearing house in kind of different formats from an on-prem to a subscription type and SaaS based model in early days. And then working in different areas from clinical side to payer relations, running strategy for electronic health record company. And then with my own firm working across radiology perspectives, anesthesiology firms, provider organizations.
So yeah, grizzled I think is the right word to use when you talk about 30 years across the healthcare spectrum. Probably been in hundreds of hospitals and every payer organization in the United States over the years to physician practices, radiology clinics in almost every state you can think of. So it’s been a fun journey. I will tell you a lot of great relationships and I think that’s a big key part of it, is the relationship factor that you gain in this industry. And when you talk about healthcare and relationships I’ve had for over 30 years and I’m proud to still call friends and colleagues from those relationships and working with people like you, John.
John Farkas:
Well, way to put the warm fuzzy at the end of that one. Thanks.
Measuring the Success of Marketing Efforts in Healthcare
John Farkas:
Hey, I am curious, coming from the marketing kind of angle, because that’s a little different from a lot of our guests here, we’re talking to folks that are in the marketing space, but a lot of who we’re talking with are people that are targets. But I’m curious, can you share with us your experiences in your role specifically around what have you encountered from some of your reporting structures? How have you traditionally measured success and what are the metrics that you are accustomed to looking at as you are looking at really diving into the marketing realm and helping a health tech company be successful in that regard?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, and I think there’s a lot of different ways to look at that, but I categorize marketing effort in three buckets, what I call awareness, preference and demand. And awareness is traditional paid placement, advertising, public relations, trying to create just general awareness about an organization. The preference is using third party endorsement from organizations like Class, traditional thought leadership where you’re really trying to get that unbiased opinion, and favoritism of your product or organization in the industry. And then demand is really what are you putting into the pipeline? So marketing outside of awareness and preference, but working directly with sales organizations within a company to drive that pipeline, which is truly the most measurable ROI. But things like awareness and metrics and measuring KPIs there, it’s obviously engagement on your website, paid clicks, what are you pushing through from a digital marketing, content marketing perspective, what are number of views, impressions you’re getting from a social media perspective.
And strategy to how are you engaging on the PR front? That’s kind of old-fashioned. I mean PR has changed dramatically. That’s one area that’s really changed over the years with the advent of truly kind of digital and the growth of social media. Preference, I mentioned Class, for those that are familiar with Class, watching your Class score improve and getting those unbiased kind of Gartner points if you will. Also working with organizations like Gartner to grow where you are in their magic quadrant. And then working with industry leaders to further your thought leadership and metrics around that. Again, how are you improving on your Class score? How are you improving from a thought leadership perspective? And the metrics there are related to your content marketing. For instance, how many white papers you pushing out that might have an industry speaker, industry leader. There’s a lot of trade show aspects in a [inaudible 00:08:51] awareness preference.
And then demand is really very simple, truly measurement and then probably the easiest ROI you have. What are you pushing into the sales pipeline from an outbound perspective and an inbound perspective? So are your awareness and preference strategies working to grow the sales pipeline? And I think all three are exclusive of each other, but all three are also inclusive of each other and very truly what I would call integrated marketing. When you put those three buckets together.
Tom’s Experience Targeting the C-Suite
John Farkas:
Yep. I know that you have had some experience working with some formidable organizations that are selling pretty far up the food chain in the healthcare administration world. Talk about some of the challenges that you’ve experienced in going after those targets from a marketing perspective, because I know that you’ve been working to attract the attention of chief information officers, working to attract the attention of or needing to talk to chief technology people, CEOs, and we’re very fond of say saying we’re trying to sell into some of the most highly targeted human beings on the planet. And so I’m just curious what your experience been like that and what are some of the ways that you’ve seen work in that regard and as far as getting the right type of engagement and the right type of eyeballs?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, absolutely. So the golden parachute of healthcare marketing is reaching that C-suite and getting the attention of the C-suite is probably number one, especially when you’re talking about a demand program with sales.
John Farkas:
Yeah.
Tom Mitchell:
But I think there’s ways you reach that C-suite and I look at it as kind of a ladder. You kind of have to start by creating kind of a grassroots effort within the organization, creating awareness of your product or your service and working up the chain from the influencer to more of a decision maker to ultimately the one that signs off on it. And different healthcare organizations require different strategies. I think the biggest challenge over the past few years has just been the level of M and A in the healthcare market. A lot of provider organizations that used to be more accessible now are becoming more corporately-owned with chains, very well known hospital operators, for instance.
[inaudible 00:11:42] ways to reach C-suite. Again, it’s a grassroots effort. A lot of that has to do, I think, with truly [inaudible 00:11:50], you just can’t run the demand program into the C-suite. It’s next to impossible. Too many gatekeepers, too many email filters, too many obstacles get in the way. But getting those contacts are key. And I mentioned relationships earlier, this is definitely a relationship industry, it’s how you build those relationships. But again, I look at truly that integrated marketing approach to creating awareness, preference and demand. And you have to hit all three of those to really reach the C-suite, especially on the preference level where you’re trying to get that unbiased approach into an organization, into your target, if you will. And the better you can create a thought leadership strategy, in my opinion is one of the strongest ways to do that. But again, you have to have all the [inaudible 00:12:50] elements [inaudible 00:12:51] start getting the attention of a C-suite, you have to have a very effective website. You have to have a very effective content marketing approach and be seen as a leader in whatever you’re trying to deliver.
John Farkas:
Yeah, I’m really glad to hear you say that, Tom. I think that it is, first of all, often lost on a number of people of the importance of building ground support because we’re at, typically we’re looking at broad ecosystem solutions, we’re talking about long sales cycles that have a lot of influencers in them. And if you’re going after… It is almost always a proper and a good tactic to build the kind of support on the ground that helps trickle things up to those decision makers. And it is not a light investment. If you’re wanting to push a marketing effort and expecting in six months to sell something substantial into a health system, that’s not an easy expectation to fulfill because first of all, from first hearing to decision, you might be six months or 18 months away. But to when invest in creating the kind of brand awareness, the kind and injecting the kind of thought leadership that actually will move the needle, it often requires a pretty substantial investment going after a whole ecosystem of people that are going to contribute their voice into why should we explore this solution? And I think that that’s an important thing that can to just underscore.
Tom Mitchell:
[inaudible 00:14:40].
John Farkas:
I see a lot of impatience in this realm and a lot of unrealistic expectations from everywhere from company leadership to the board members where there’s just this gross underestimation of what it takes to build the kind of awareness it takes to win favor. And much of that comes through really substantial time-intensive thought leadership, like you said. Because if you want to turn somebody’s head, it’s not going to be with an ad.
Tom Mitchell:
Right.
John Farkas:
It’s going to be with a meaningful assertion that helps them to a better place. And we talk about this all the time, I mean, what our objective is to create some sort of resource that is of a caliber and substantial enough that when it finds a CIO of the right organization, that they look at it and go, “Okay, these guys, they’ve just enhanced my perspective. I’m going to share this with these three of my peers that I respect and I know that when I do that, they’re going to respect me more because I’ve just given them something.” That’s the objective to me, is to try and create that caliber of assertion, which doesn’t happen in a pithy product-focused blog post.
Tom Mitchell:
Absolutely. You have to love it when you launch a campaign and two days later a CEO comes in, “Where’s my leads?”
John Farkas:
That happened to you before?
Tom Mitchell:
Oh yeah, once or twice. Because it is an investment. I mean, you mentioned it is an investment and it’s not just dropping an email or direct mail piece. It’s creating a strategy that does reach kind of the influencer and it’s really about value. What are you showing the influencer to make them look good? I think one way is just think about that. What value are you providing and do you have a value proposition that is going to help that influencer share your content up the food chain to make them make it worth the while and the time to have their bosses and their executives read more than a blog post, like you said. And again, it’s repetition also. You just can’t do it once and be done with it and expect results. And most of our contacts are very savvy. They’ve been in the industry a long time. They know what’s real, what’s attainable and what’s achievable. And if you’re putting something out that’s truly pie in the sky and beyond that level, you’re not going to get the results at all you want.
Committing to a Long-Term Multi-Channel Strategy
John Farkas:
So Tom, talk about what are some of the channels that you’ve seen be successful for getting that out? I mean, you mentioned Class, which obviously is one of several validators that exist out there, and there’s all sorts of controversy about how, I say controversy, maybe that’s overstated, but maybe suspicion’s a fair word, about how objective those elements can be. But there is only so many channels like that and that’s certainly one of them. But talk about what you’ve seen be effective for ways to get out the kind of thought leadership and validated assertions that end up being meaningful.
Tom Mitchell:
The strategies I’ve used are multiple channels, so there’s not just one magic channel to work, no silver bullet.
John Farkas:
Yeah.
Tom Mitchell:
You really have to work across the spectrum. And working with groups like industry associations, I believe, are key.
John Farkas:
Yeah.
Tom Mitchell:
So positioning yourself as a leader within those associations. And as we know in healthcare, there are many, because there’s many functions. You know, look at the revenue cycle side with groups like HFMA to access managers from Naham to groups like Tennessee HIMSS, which focus on healthcare, health, IT. And there’s it involved in everything you look at in tech, but again, I think the channels are multied and varied. I don’t think there’s one that you work, you have to work all the channels. But the key to really working that is making sure you’re seen as a leader in having a solid content strategy in place that helps you do that. Social media probably won’t reach the C levels, but will probably reach more of the influencer base, but pointing them back to meaningful value content is key. I wish there was one channel because if we honed in on that, we’d be successful time and time again. And you mentioned it earlier and you said that it’s an investment, it’s an investment, a long-term investment usually, and unless you have a magic widget that everybody wants right away, there’s no way around that and it is investment in time and patience.
John Farkas:
Yeah, I think that that’s one of the things I typically will look at in this market is just a very, what I’ve been hearing myself say recently is either do marketing or don’t.
Tom Mitchell:
Right. That’s a good point.
John Farkas:
And because doing it partway and having a partial commitment to test the water and see if it works is not a good strategy because if you’re tentative, first of all, it’s a persistent thing. If you’re looking at it, let’s try it for something months, it takes you six months to turn the switch on.
Tom Mitchell:
Absolutely. That’s right. Yeah.
John Farkas:
And if you have an expectation at the end of six months to have seen something actually move, that’s not realistic. You get to start seeing it move at the end of six months of determined effort and then we can start measuring. And so that’s something that I’ve realized and what I hear you echoing and affirming in that is no, it’s not just one meaningful assertion, it’s a continuous drum beat because by the time somebody… They missed your first one. Chances are they missed your first one, maybe a few folks that saw it. And then you make the second one and then it starts to snowball. I mean, it starts building and you build a reputation of having something worth saying and people start tuning into your channel.
Tom Mitchell:
Right.
John Farkas:
And at that point you’re at a year, right? I mean, it’s taken a year to establish that level, and that’s after persistent substantial assertion and activity.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah.
John Farkas:
And then you can start building from that foundation. But unless you’ve really made a significant push, don’t have expectations that it’s just going to be able to dribble in there.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, I’d rather have a marketing budget that is longitudinal over a year or two years with realistic expectations than throwing that same amount of a marketing budget to a six-month campaign that just is chaotic and looks, to the market, disjointed. And sometimes you look desperate when you do that. And I think a very thoughtful approach where you’re investing the dollars over a year to two years to roll out a product, make a splash, like you said, is not realistic. I mean, you just can’t do that this day and age. There’s too many competing messages and too much noise. And I think the industry has gotten to the point where that type of approach is filtered out.
The Importance of Your Value Equation
John Farkas:
Yeah. What are you seeing in your contemporary engagements and when you’re talking to the folks that you’re working with now, what are you seeing as some of the primary problems facing healthcare that technology has the opportunity to really solve or be a significant player in solving? What are some of those hot buttons right now?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, obviously there’s a lot of talk around artificial intelligence. I kind of hate to use that two letter AI word, but artificial intelligence is creating and has, for a number of years, in different segments of the industry. But artificial intelligence is a technology that holds a lot of promise and a lot of fear from both a caregiver perspective to the administrative side. But challenges that it addresses are numerous from efficiency, quality, but you still have to have the human touch in it, obviously. And the core of my background in my early days, healthcare marketing, truly on the revenue cycle side is it’s just keeping the lights on. I mean, being viable in the industry, being there for your patients is key. And you really have to, from a healthcare provider perspective, is make sure you’re viable and that you can deliver on the services and promise you give your community. And there’s numerous ways to do that.
And the conversations around value-based care coordination to simple implementation of a health record that stretches across your realm of care as a patient is still very much in conversation. And it seems like over 30 years, the conversation in many ways hasn’t changed a lot, but the delivery has. So the promise we have or healthcare providers have for their communities and delivering care for the patients and being the top provider in community is key. But I’ll tell you, competition among providers is reached probably all time highs. And so how you differentiate yourself and if you’re a vendor that provides services into a provider organization, how can you help them be more competitive? How can you help them keep the lights on and have a return on their investment? As much as ROI has probably been downplayed more over the last few years than previous years, but how can you provide a return to them that makes it meaningful and help them achieve their goal of truly caring for their populations? That’s kind of a long-winded answer, but there’s so many facets to it. It’s really, really unbelievable. And every healthcare provider and organization has their own different goals, but they all want to be there for the long term, and that’s really, really key.
John Farkas:
Yeah, I think what you bring out there is something we’ve heard echoed pretty frequently here is that you’ve got to nail your value equation.
Tom Mitchell:
Absolutely.
John Farkas:
And it’s more important now than it’s ever been because the budgets are tighter than they’ve ever been.
Tom Mitchell:
Exactly.
John Farkas:
They’ve never been loose, but they are tighter now than they’ve ever been. If the CIO is on your equation and you have to know that that person is balancing a wealth of opportunity, they have any number of vendors coming to them saying they’ve got something that’s going to result in some sort of savings somewhere for somebody and make something easier for somebody. So there’s lots of claims. And their job, they’re looking at a broad spectrum of opportunity with a narrow budget and what they have to find a way to do is deploy those funds for the maximum good. And so if you’re asking for a share of their wallet, you’ve got to have that value equation dialed in really strong and have that something that you’re ready to fly forward as an opportunity for their organization. And if you don’t it’s going to be really hard to win. If it’s fuzzy, if you don’t have good validation and other people that are saying, “This has been truly valuable, here’s our numbers,” that’s going to be a hard thing to do.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, I think every vendor’s trying to do the same thing, and that is to get that mind share of the CIO from a health tech perspective and show how you’re different, but there’s only so much mind share you can get from any at any given time, and your priority may not be his or her priority at that time also. So that’s, again, where the patience aspect comes in, because you may become a priority, your solution that they’re looking for may become a priority down the road. So it’s that repetitive, that long-term strategy that you have to keep in mind when you talk about developing a marketing plan and gaining reach into an organization. Again, I always go back to the influencer level, keeping those contacts warm, keeping the content fresh for that influencer level, so when the time is right and they share that white paper, they share a link back to your website blog posting, that it’s relevant to them at the time. It’s like, “Oh yeah, we’re trying to address this problem. I remember seeing that somewhere.” And they search, find it, and find your website and point their boss to the blog that got their attention.
Setting Realistic Expectations for Your Marketing Strategy
John Farkas:
So Tom, I’m curious, I know that you have been the top marketing leader for a number of companies in this space. I am curious how you look at your relationship with the CEO in that realm and how you’ve navigated that in the past. I know I’ve heard lots of different stories from lots of different people about the nature of that relationship and the importance of it. And I also know that the chief marketing officer for tech companies is one of the shortest tenured positions historically in the C-suite. And I know that you have managed to have some longer than average 10 years. So I’m curious what you’ve learned in your experience about the importance of that relationship and how you’ve navigated it.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, so I think two or three things come to mind immediately. One is setting realistic expectations, so making-
John Farkas:
Which we’ve talked a lot about in this context.
Tom Mitchell:
Absolutely. Again, when you launch a campaign, don’t set the expectation that, oh, we’re going to have six leads in a week that are going to fill a pipeline or 30 leads in a week, but set the expectation that, hey, this is long-term program, this long-term strategy, our investment will pay off, become an ally. I think one thing too is become an ally of the CEO, become an ally of your boss because we know that a lot of times that ideas come from all different areas of the organization and sometimes the marketing executive, it’s too easy for someone to point a finger at you, hey, go launch this, go do this. We’ve got the best solution out there. But come back to the CEO, come back to the executive levels and the board if necessary and say, “Hey, yeah, this is a great solution from a marking perspective. We’ve done our research and we’ve done the background on this, and time we don’t feel is right, but we need to start laying the foundation.”
So truly kind of with Stratipoint Advisory, I really, emphasis on the advisor perspective too. Be a trusted advisor in your organization and be a champion across the board. Be a champion of the strategy of the organization, be a strategy of the vision, and always kind of go back to those two factors. And everything you do from a marketing standpoint, make sure you’re living up to the promise of your company and the promise your CEO is making to his or her board.
John Farkas:
Yeah, that’s good. I think that that’s really critical to get on the same side. And I know that, one of the things I’ve seen is somebody will get hired because they’ve made some unrealistic promises, just even in the onboarding process-
Tom Mitchell:
Absolute yes.
John Farkas:
In the interview process, even. And it’s one of the worst. And I do believe that that’s part of why the average tenure that I’ve heard is typically somewhere in the realm of 18 months.
Tom Mitchell:
Oh, yeah.
John Farkas:
And the reason for that is often expectations are set way up here when people are joining and they’ve not done themselves or their organization the favor of setting realistic expectations, which we talked about. I mean, it is unusual to turn on a dime in this arena. It’s a big, long investment and helping people understand the difference between it’s a difference between lead generation and demand generation, for instance.
Tom Mitchell:
Absolutely, yeah.
John Farkas:
Not marketing’s job to do lead generation. It’s marketing’s job to help create demand. And so if you have a lead generation expectation that’s going to be disappointing right out of the gate.
Tom Mitchell:
Right, and I think you align yourself with sales in that regard as well. I think it’s extremely important to set that differentiation because again, you know [inaudible 00:33:14] CEO come in, “How many leads did I get?” Well, from campaign, we created demand for the sales team to follow up on the leads or some organization, account management team, maybe. If it’s into your existing customer base and you’re rolling out a new product, but you can’t expect to be the ownership of the final result of those leads or those demand metrics that come in. You have to be able to deliver on, again, the promise and expectation that you’re going to create demand, and demand comes from multiple different areas. I think event management is a good example of that.
You’re going to a trade show, or if you’re going to HIMSS, for instance, go there and be set the expectations realistically, each year is different when you attend HIMSS. Each focus is different, every year is a different focus. You had meaningful use for a number of years, now everybody’s talking about artificial intelligence. In one year it might be more around care coordination and population health solutions. So you have to really know where you fit in. And if your solutions don’t fit into the core thought of that, then you need to set the expectation and maybe lower it. That’s tough as marketers to do because we want to go be successful. We love what we do, and we think we can go create as much demand and interest in our products as we can, but sometimes you have to set that expectation at a lower level. And that’s hard to do.
John Farkas:
Yeah. Because if you’re in this industry, you’re typically in to win and you want to make people happy.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah.
John Farkas:
And so the temptation’s always there to put the expectation bar up high, but keeping it real, that’s-
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah. I have many stars from early in my career about that because you know, you want it, you think you can and you think you can be wildly successful given the budget and the target.
Tom on Creating True, Lasting Relationships
John Farkas:
Yeah, that is true. I’m curious, and we talked a little bit about the value of partnerships and working with analysts, working in associations. Talk about your experience with partnerships overall in your marketing tenure. How do you see the value of that? How has that worked in your favor? What have you seen be particularly effective? Any words on and around that?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, I think partnerships are extremely important in any industry. Specifically on healthcare, so again, so much mind share you have out there. So I’ve managed partnerships in multiple ways. I mean truly kind of channel management, channel partners, resellers, but creating true partnerships that create lasting relationships are really what matter. And I say that meaning you align yourself with the right kind of partners, you align yourself with partners that can help you get into and get noticed by the organizations you’re targeting. But I think creating partnerships with those who can help you deliver your goals, with organizations like marketing agencies, with organizations as specific healthcare industry associations. Those partnerships, you have to work it all across every channel. But I’m a big believer in partnerships. I’m a big believer that there’s value in numbers in a way, with meaningful, relevant partners. And again, I think the key word there is relevant. You know, have to have the right partner. But alliances, partnerships, whatever you want to call it, are valuable.
In healthcare, by far, relationship management, reputation management is key. And having the right partner to help you knock down those barriers and overcome objections are key. It’s more than just exposure and it’s more than a partnership. It’s a deep, deep relationship that truly makes a difference. And what you find out after you really start working on a partner strategy and looking at who your partners are, you might hone in on a few that you have those deep relationships with. And then you have another tier that’s more higher level that you’re just associated with, and it’s where you put your dollars and your time to get the investment amount that makes the most sense.
John Farkas:
Absolutely. That’s a great word. That is a great word. It is. And I think that level of collaboration is something I see being a little less common with some of the younger organizations and I think that it is reforming. I think there is a different way that people are engaging. A lot’s changed in the last bit, but I think that the digital virtual world we live in tends to be a little bit isolating. And I think that that has done something to diminish the perceived value of those relationships. And it’s how the world still works. And I think that figuring out how to form and optimize for that, I think it’s a big part of marketing’s job as you look at the outward focus. And I think that that does lead me to another question.
The Convergence of Sales, Marketing, and Product
John Farkas:
In your experience, I know that one of the changes that I see happening is the convergence of sales, marketing and product into a unified growth engine. I think it’s one of the essential things that an organization coming to market in our world needs to be focused on. And I’m curious your experience there, because I know you’ve worked in a variety of them and I’m sure you’ve seen them as very isolated silos and you’ve seen more integrated functions. I’m curious to hear your perspective on how to bring those together and what you’ve seen be successful.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, definitely. Different companies I’ve worked for, they’ve either been in different departments, different organizations. I’ve worked in companies where they’ve been part of marketing or under some kind of strategy role, at least with a unified leader. You really have to cross the organization, and it goes back to that advisor role within an organization if you’re a marketing professional. And that is bringing together those different silos. There’s nothing worse than being a marketer and not getting the information you need or understanding what the strategy is that is trying to happen across and to be deployed across an organization. So I’ve always tried to bring together those organizations, not necessarily advocated that they be under marketing, but make sure we are working closely together. I think from one of my core beliefs in marketing is that you have to think of yourself as a unifier in any company, and you have to have really good relationships among the disparate departments.
And I think that’s one thing that I’ve been successful with and has helped contribute to my success is working across the organization. For product marketing or product management, if it sits outside of traditional marketing, it’s working together. I mean, you have to understand the roadmap. You have to understand what the product does init’s basic entirety, what’s being demoed, what’s being talked about, and really what the value is. And that’s really the core of it, is understanding the value and how you deliver that value in your marketing strategy. I’m not sure if that answered your question, but it’s truly an approach that cannot be siloed. Those three organizations have to work in tandem, have to work together. And to be honest, it’s been a challenge in some parts of my career in different times. And sometimes the barriers are put up, whether it’s politically or just by the culture of an organization. And sometimes you have to be brave enough to break down those silos and change culture. And that’s not always perceived favorably in the beginning, but usually the end result is a very favorable approach.
John Farkas:
Yeah, I think that is definitely a difficult subject in some organizations, but I think if we’re looking at the organizations I’ve seen be most successful in today’s climate have the least amount of separation in those realms. I think what you said, I love what you said about being the unifying force. I think that that’s the word you use. I regard the marketing function as the translation layer for the organization.
Tom Mitchell:
I like that.
John Farkas:
I think that it’s really important for marketing to be able to move seamlessly across those lines because at the end of the day, we’re on the point to communicate things out to the world. And what is communicated out has to be a harmonious, consistent, clear picture. And the only way to get that is by very integrated, seamless alignment between those three and the rest of the organization too. But I think those are the essential ones that you have to bring together along with the CEO, who ultimately is knit directly into all three of those segments. But that really is, it’s a key understanding I see for companies now and something I try and promote with our clients, especially when I see the divisions and the rivalries that can crop up there. Let me just say it out loud, there’s no room for rivalry here.
Tom Mitchell:
Right. Right.
John Farkas:
It’s toxic and destructive and takes too much energy away from what needs to be a unified, combined effort. And I’ve been as bold to tell people that are looking at different organizations to go into, to take inventory of what that looks like. Because first of all, if you’ve got an organization where those three are knit together, that is a good thing and that’s important DNA. If they’re not overcoming the dysfunction, is maybe not something you want to try and do at the end of the day.
Tom Mitchell:
Right, right.
John Farkas:
Because that’s a systemic issue that has to be actively worked on and broken down. And for the agility that companies need in this market. It’s really important to have those three working together as one entity focused on growth.
Tom Mitchell:
Yep. I totally agree. And I think depending on what’s going to happen, marketing budgets could be tighter. So you really have to have that relationship across the organization. And I like what you said about the translation layer. I love that term, the marketing being the translation layer. And I think that’s a really apt way to say that.
Tom’s Advice to Healthcare Marketing Professionals
John Farkas:
Yep. Yes, indeed. Well, Tom, I’m curious, just as we finish up here, if you had a piece of advice to somebody leading into this market right now, we’ve covered a lot, and so if you had a headline to bring across, that one thing, what would you underscore?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, I would say be true to yourself from a marketing perspective, from a marketing professional perspective. And by that I mean set expectations. Know what you can deliver, lead your teams. I mean, we’re kind of talking about executive-level marketing roles. So lead your teams and engage with partners that can help you be successful. So be true to yourself. And then I would just end it, would say, have fun too. If you’re not having fun, don’t do it. So, you have to have fun.
John Farkas:
Yeah, no doubt.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, it’s not fun every day, but have fun overall.
The Tenessee HIMSS Marketing Seminar
John Farkas:
Well, that’s definitely a good word. Hey, I know we’ve got some stuff coming up in and around Tennessee HIMSS, so I just wanted to take a second to shout out something that we’ve got coming up. Tom, do you want to kind of set the deck for the event we’ve got coming?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, so from a Tennessee HIMSS perspective, we’ve always worked at definitely an education and thought leadership level, but really kind of more focused on our members and the roles that we focus on. But I will be a little bit biased here when I say this, as a long time marketing professional, looking across our members and our partners and our sponsors that really provide the value to us. John, you and I talked about this is what can we deliver back to those marketers to help them be successful? And so Tennessee HIMSS is proud to be working with Golden Spiral to deliver a marketing seminar, a series of seminars, to help you just do that. And how can you be successful in your efforts as a health tech organization and as the one leading marketing with the organization? So I’m really excited about it and we’re definitely proud to partner with you, longtime partner and sponsor of Tennessee HIMSS.
John Farkas:
Yeah, we’re looking forward to that. It’s going to be fun. What I want to say is, what I know about Tom, what I know about our Tennessee HIMSS organization, what I know about Golden Spiral, is what our involvement is and what we look at certainly transcends health tech marketing. We’re really interested in… I believe that technology has to play a very essential role in healthcare in the future because all the equations are adding up to we’re not going to have enough providers for the demand. I mean, that’s just the bottom line. And the way that that’s going to be solved is helping our providers be more effective and efficient in treating more people. And technology has to be a part of the solution. So in some sense, I’m investing in my future because I’m going to be part of that big bubble that’s in danger of bursting in the next couple decades-
Tom Mitchell:
Right.
John Farkas:
As those equations shift to unmanageable, by today’s operative standards, an unmanageable curve. And so I’m interested in helping the technology companies that are trying to move into healthcare to help healthcare work be more effective because we need it. And so that’s part of our mission as an organization. And so anything we can do to be helpful is part of what we want to do, and that’s why we’re teaming up with Tennessee HIMSS to offer what I hope is a very valuable set of insights that can help you connect more effectively with your market. And so we’ll be sharing more information. The first installment coming up here in a couple of weeks, the first part of June. We’ll have some information connected directly to this podcast that you can take a look at and take advantage of.
Closing Thoughts
John Farkas:
But Tom, again, I am really appreciative of your support. Tom is part of our advisory board, and as you’ve heard and seen, you can get some idea of the value that he brings and the perspective that Tom comes with, a wealth of knowledge and ecosystem understanding that helps us as an organization provide value, but also certainly a good resource in the context of his advisory service that he offers. We’ll be linking to his information directly too. So Tom, again, thank you for joining us today. Great conversation.
Transcript (custom)
Introducing Tom Mitchell
John Farkas:
Well, welcome to Healthcare Market Matrix. I’m your host, John Farkas, and today we have the privilege of sitting down with Tom Mitchell. Tom is a seasoned healthcare, dare we say, grizzled healthcare industry expert with over 30 years in and around the healthcare universe. And he has a lot of backdrop in leading strategy marketing operations for some high growth healthcare and technology firms globally. And he brings a wealth of knowledge and insights to our discussion today. He’s also a longtime board member of the Tennessee HIMSS. And for those of you who may not know, Tennessee is certainly one of the most vital national chapters of the HIMSS organization. So we like to brag about that. And he’s also the founder of Stratipoint Advisory, and they’re dedicated to helping drive high-value go-to-market strategy for organizations through their research, strategic planning, and execution. So Tom, welcome to Healthcare Market Matrix.
Tom Mitchell:
Thank you, truly an honor to be here.
Tom’s Background in Healthcare
John Farkas:
Well, to start off, I’d love for you to give us a little bit of a backdrop of your journey. I mean, tell us how you got where you are, what were some of the stops on the road? I know you’ve got certainly a few interesting chapters.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, definitely. So in mid-nineties started kind of my healthcare journey with research actually, in research content and pushing that out. If you remember the days of CD-ROMs when you’d go into a library and put in a CD-ROM and it would tell you, Hey, go find this article in this serial publication if you’re doing some research. So started out working in that industry [inaudible 00:03:13] focus on biomedical and we pushed that, believe it or not, to the internet and got away from the CD-ROMs. So that was really pushing content to the internet from a very tangible type of product and making that content accessible. And that was a global organization and that was fun. So working with publications like New England Journal of Medicine to very esoteric other type publications, so with very niche type content.
Then I went from there to the revenue cycle space and kind of got my chops in going from content to truly, truly hardcore kind of marketing in a very, I would almost say consumer-centric claims type model. And working with an organization that had one of the largest claims clearinghouses in the industry at the time, pushing billions of dollars of claims through annually, a clearing house in kind of different formats from an on-prem to a subscription type and SaaS based model in early days. And then working in different areas from clinical side to payer relations, running strategy for electronic health record company. And then with my own firm working across radiology perspectives, anesthesiology firms, provider organizations.
So yeah, grizzled I think is the right word to use when you talk about 30 years across the healthcare spectrum. Probably been in hundreds of hospitals and every payer organization in the United States over the years to physician practices, radiology clinics in almost every state you can think of. So it’s been a fun journey. I will tell you a lot of great relationships and I think that’s a big key part of it, is the relationship factor that you gain in this industry. And when you talk about healthcare and relationships I’ve had for over 30 years and I’m proud to still call friends and colleagues from those relationships and working with people like you, John.
John Farkas:
Well, way to put the warm fuzzy at the end of that one. Thanks.
Measuring the Success of Marketing Efforts in Healthcare
John Farkas:
Hey, I am curious, coming from the marketing kind of angle, because that’s a little different from a lot of our guests here, we’re talking to folks that are in the marketing space, but a lot of who we’re talking with are people that are targets. But I’m curious, can you share with us your experiences in your role specifically around what have you encountered from some of your reporting structures? How have you traditionally measured success and what are the metrics that you are accustomed to looking at as you are looking at really diving into the marketing realm and helping a health tech company be successful in that regard?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, and I think there’s a lot of different ways to look at that, but I categorize marketing effort in three buckets, what I call awareness, preference and demand. And awareness is traditional paid placement, advertising, public relations, trying to create just general awareness about an organization. The preference is using third party endorsement from organizations like Class, traditional thought leadership where you’re really trying to get that unbiased opinion, and favoritism of your product or organization in the industry. And then demand is really what are you putting into the pipeline? So marketing outside of awareness and preference, but working directly with sales organizations within a company to drive that pipeline, which is truly the most measurable ROI. But things like awareness and metrics and measuring KPIs there, it’s obviously engagement on your website, paid clicks, what are you pushing through from a digital marketing, content marketing perspective, what are number of views, impressions you’re getting from a social media perspective.
And strategy to how are you engaging on the PR front? That’s kind of old-fashioned. I mean PR has changed dramatically. That’s one area that’s really changed over the years with the advent of truly kind of digital and the growth of social media. Preference, I mentioned Class, for those that are familiar with Class, watching your Class score improve and getting those unbiased kind of Gartner points if you will. Also working with organizations like Gartner to grow where you are in their magic quadrant. And then working with industry leaders to further your thought leadership and metrics around that. Again, how are you improving on your Class score? How are you improving from a thought leadership perspective? And the metrics there are related to your content marketing. For instance, how many white papers you pushing out that might have an industry speaker, industry leader. There’s a lot of trade show aspects in a [inaudible 00:08:51] awareness preference.
And then demand is really very simple, truly measurement and then probably the easiest ROI you have. What are you pushing into the sales pipeline from an outbound perspective and an inbound perspective? So are your awareness and preference strategies working to grow the sales pipeline? And I think all three are exclusive of each other, but all three are also inclusive of each other and very truly what I would call integrated marketing. When you put those three buckets together.
Tom’s Experience Targeting the C-Suite
John Farkas:
Yep. I know that you have had some experience working with some formidable organizations that are selling pretty far up the food chain in the healthcare administration world. Talk about some of the challenges that you’ve experienced in going after those targets from a marketing perspective, because I know that you’ve been working to attract the attention of chief information officers, working to attract the attention of or needing to talk to chief technology people, CEOs, and we’re very fond of say saying we’re trying to sell into some of the most highly targeted human beings on the planet. And so I’m just curious what your experience been like that and what are some of the ways that you’ve seen work in that regard and as far as getting the right type of engagement and the right type of eyeballs?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, absolutely. So the golden parachute of healthcare marketing is reaching that C-suite and getting the attention of the C-suite is probably number one, especially when you’re talking about a demand program with sales.
John Farkas:
Yeah.
Tom Mitchell:
But I think there’s ways you reach that C-suite and I look at it as kind of a ladder. You kind of have to start by creating kind of a grassroots effort within the organization, creating awareness of your product or your service and working up the chain from the influencer to more of a decision maker to ultimately the one that signs off on it. And different healthcare organizations require different strategies. I think the biggest challenge over the past few years has just been the level of M and A in the healthcare market. A lot of provider organizations that used to be more accessible now are becoming more corporately-owned with chains, very well known hospital operators, for instance.
[inaudible 00:11:42] ways to reach C-suite. Again, it’s a grassroots effort. A lot of that has to do, I think, with truly [inaudible 00:11:50], you just can’t run the demand program into the C-suite. It’s next to impossible. Too many gatekeepers, too many email filters, too many obstacles get in the way. But getting those contacts are key. And I mentioned relationships earlier, this is definitely a relationship industry, it’s how you build those relationships. But again, I look at truly that integrated marketing approach to creating awareness, preference and demand. And you have to hit all three of those to really reach the C-suite, especially on the preference level where you’re trying to get that unbiased approach into an organization, into your target, if you will. And the better you can create a thought leadership strategy, in my opinion is one of the strongest ways to do that. But again, you have to have all the [inaudible 00:12:50] elements [inaudible 00:12:51] start getting the attention of a C-suite, you have to have a very effective website. You have to have a very effective content marketing approach and be seen as a leader in whatever you’re trying to deliver.
John Farkas:
Yeah, I’m really glad to hear you say that, Tom. I think that it is, first of all, often lost on a number of people of the importance of building ground support because we’re at, typically we’re looking at broad ecosystem solutions, we’re talking about long sales cycles that have a lot of influencers in them. And if you’re going after… It is almost always a proper and a good tactic to build the kind of support on the ground that helps trickle things up to those decision makers. And it is not a light investment. If you’re wanting to push a marketing effort and expecting in six months to sell something substantial into a health system, that’s not an easy expectation to fulfill because first of all, from first hearing to decision, you might be six months or 18 months away. But to when invest in creating the kind of brand awareness, the kind and injecting the kind of thought leadership that actually will move the needle, it often requires a pretty substantial investment going after a whole ecosystem of people that are going to contribute their voice into why should we explore this solution? And I think that that’s an important thing that can to just underscore.
Tom Mitchell:
[inaudible 00:14:40].
John Farkas:
I see a lot of impatience in this realm and a lot of unrealistic expectations from everywhere from company leadership to the board members where there’s just this gross underestimation of what it takes to build the kind of awareness it takes to win favor. And much of that comes through really substantial time-intensive thought leadership, like you said. Because if you want to turn somebody’s head, it’s not going to be with an ad.
Tom Mitchell:
Right.
John Farkas:
It’s going to be with a meaningful assertion that helps them to a better place. And we talk about this all the time, I mean, what our objective is to create some sort of resource that is of a caliber and substantial enough that when it finds a CIO of the right organization, that they look at it and go, “Okay, these guys, they’ve just enhanced my perspective. I’m going to share this with these three of my peers that I respect and I know that when I do that, they’re going to respect me more because I’ve just given them something.” That’s the objective to me, is to try and create that caliber of assertion, which doesn’t happen in a pithy product-focused blog post.
Tom Mitchell:
Absolutely. You have to love it when you launch a campaign and two days later a CEO comes in, “Where’s my leads?”
John Farkas:
That happened to you before?
Tom Mitchell:
Oh yeah, once or twice. Because it is an investment. I mean, you mentioned it is an investment and it’s not just dropping an email or direct mail piece. It’s creating a strategy that does reach kind of the influencer and it’s really about value. What are you showing the influencer to make them look good? I think one way is just think about that. What value are you providing and do you have a value proposition that is going to help that influencer share your content up the food chain to make them make it worth the while and the time to have their bosses and their executives read more than a blog post, like you said. And again, it’s repetition also. You just can’t do it once and be done with it and expect results. And most of our contacts are very savvy. They’ve been in the industry a long time. They know what’s real, what’s attainable and what’s achievable. And if you’re putting something out that’s truly pie in the sky and beyond that level, you’re not going to get the results at all you want.
Committing to a Long-Term Multi-Channel Strategy
John Farkas:
So Tom, talk about what are some of the channels that you’ve seen be successful for getting that out? I mean, you mentioned Class, which obviously is one of several validators that exist out there, and there’s all sorts of controversy about how, I say controversy, maybe that’s overstated, but maybe suspicion’s a fair word, about how objective those elements can be. But there is only so many channels like that and that’s certainly one of them. But talk about what you’ve seen be effective for ways to get out the kind of thought leadership and validated assertions that end up being meaningful.
Tom Mitchell:
The strategies I’ve used are multiple channels, so there’s not just one magic channel to work, no silver bullet.
John Farkas:
Yeah.
Tom Mitchell:
You really have to work across the spectrum. And working with groups like industry associations, I believe, are key.
John Farkas:
Yeah.
Tom Mitchell:
So positioning yourself as a leader within those associations. And as we know in healthcare, there are many, because there’s many functions. You know, look at the revenue cycle side with groups like HFMA to access managers from Naham to groups like Tennessee HIMSS, which focus on healthcare, health, IT. And there’s it involved in everything you look at in tech, but again, I think the channels are multied and varied. I don’t think there’s one that you work, you have to work all the channels. But the key to really working that is making sure you’re seen as a leader in having a solid content strategy in place that helps you do that. Social media probably won’t reach the C levels, but will probably reach more of the influencer base, but pointing them back to meaningful value content is key. I wish there was one channel because if we honed in on that, we’d be successful time and time again. And you mentioned it earlier and you said that it’s an investment, it’s an investment, a long-term investment usually, and unless you have a magic widget that everybody wants right away, there’s no way around that and it is investment in time and patience.
John Farkas:
Yeah, I think that that’s one of the things I typically will look at in this market is just a very, what I’ve been hearing myself say recently is either do marketing or don’t.
Tom Mitchell:
Right. That’s a good point.
John Farkas:
And because doing it partway and having a partial commitment to test the water and see if it works is not a good strategy because if you’re tentative, first of all, it’s a persistent thing. If you’re looking at it, let’s try it for something months, it takes you six months to turn the switch on.
Tom Mitchell:
Absolutely. That’s right. Yeah.
John Farkas:
And if you have an expectation at the end of six months to have seen something actually move, that’s not realistic. You get to start seeing it move at the end of six months of determined effort and then we can start measuring. And so that’s something that I’ve realized and what I hear you echoing and affirming in that is no, it’s not just one meaningful assertion, it’s a continuous drum beat because by the time somebody… They missed your first one. Chances are they missed your first one, maybe a few folks that saw it. And then you make the second one and then it starts to snowball. I mean, it starts building and you build a reputation of having something worth saying and people start tuning into your channel.
Tom Mitchell:
Right.
John Farkas:
And at that point you’re at a year, right? I mean, it’s taken a year to establish that level, and that’s after persistent substantial assertion and activity.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah.
John Farkas:
And then you can start building from that foundation. But unless you’ve really made a significant push, don’t have expectations that it’s just going to be able to dribble in there.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, I’d rather have a marketing budget that is longitudinal over a year or two years with realistic expectations than throwing that same amount of a marketing budget to a six-month campaign that just is chaotic and looks, to the market, disjointed. And sometimes you look desperate when you do that. And I think a very thoughtful approach where you’re investing the dollars over a year to two years to roll out a product, make a splash, like you said, is not realistic. I mean, you just can’t do that this day and age. There’s too many competing messages and too much noise. And I think the industry has gotten to the point where that type of approach is filtered out.
The Importance of Your Value Equation
John Farkas:
Yeah. What are you seeing in your contemporary engagements and when you’re talking to the folks that you’re working with now, what are you seeing as some of the primary problems facing healthcare that technology has the opportunity to really solve or be a significant player in solving? What are some of those hot buttons right now?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, obviously there’s a lot of talk around artificial intelligence. I kind of hate to use that two letter AI word, but artificial intelligence is creating and has, for a number of years, in different segments of the industry. But artificial intelligence is a technology that holds a lot of promise and a lot of fear from both a caregiver perspective to the administrative side. But challenges that it addresses are numerous from efficiency, quality, but you still have to have the human touch in it, obviously. And the core of my background in my early days, healthcare marketing, truly on the revenue cycle side is it’s just keeping the lights on. I mean, being viable in the industry, being there for your patients is key. And you really have to, from a healthcare provider perspective, is make sure you’re viable and that you can deliver on the services and promise you give your community. And there’s numerous ways to do that.
And the conversations around value-based care coordination to simple implementation of a health record that stretches across your realm of care as a patient is still very much in conversation. And it seems like over 30 years, the conversation in many ways hasn’t changed a lot, but the delivery has. So the promise we have or healthcare providers have for their communities and delivering care for the patients and being the top provider in community is key. But I’ll tell you, competition among providers is reached probably all time highs. And so how you differentiate yourself and if you’re a vendor that provides services into a provider organization, how can you help them be more competitive? How can you help them keep the lights on and have a return on their investment? As much as ROI has probably been downplayed more over the last few years than previous years, but how can you provide a return to them that makes it meaningful and help them achieve their goal of truly caring for their populations? That’s kind of a long-winded answer, but there’s so many facets to it. It’s really, really unbelievable. And every healthcare provider and organization has their own different goals, but they all want to be there for the long term, and that’s really, really key.
John Farkas:
Yeah, I think what you bring out there is something we’ve heard echoed pretty frequently here is that you’ve got to nail your value equation.
Tom Mitchell:
Absolutely.
John Farkas:
And it’s more important now than it’s ever been because the budgets are tighter than they’ve ever been.
Tom Mitchell:
Exactly.
John Farkas:
They’ve never been loose, but they are tighter now than they’ve ever been. If the CIO is on your equation and you have to know that that person is balancing a wealth of opportunity, they have any number of vendors coming to them saying they’ve got something that’s going to result in some sort of savings somewhere for somebody and make something easier for somebody. So there’s lots of claims. And their job, they’re looking at a broad spectrum of opportunity with a narrow budget and what they have to find a way to do is deploy those funds for the maximum good. And so if you’re asking for a share of their wallet, you’ve got to have that value equation dialed in really strong and have that something that you’re ready to fly forward as an opportunity for their organization. And if you don’t it’s going to be really hard to win. If it’s fuzzy, if you don’t have good validation and other people that are saying, “This has been truly valuable, here’s our numbers,” that’s going to be a hard thing to do.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, I think every vendor’s trying to do the same thing, and that is to get that mind share of the CIO from a health tech perspective and show how you’re different, but there’s only so much mind share you can get from any at any given time, and your priority may not be his or her priority at that time also. So that’s, again, where the patience aspect comes in, because you may become a priority, your solution that they’re looking for may become a priority down the road. So it’s that repetitive, that long-term strategy that you have to keep in mind when you talk about developing a marketing plan and gaining reach into an organization. Again, I always go back to the influencer level, keeping those contacts warm, keeping the content fresh for that influencer level, so when the time is right and they share that white paper, they share a link back to your website blog posting, that it’s relevant to them at the time. It’s like, “Oh yeah, we’re trying to address this problem. I remember seeing that somewhere.” And they search, find it, and find your website and point their boss to the blog that got their attention.
Setting Realistic Expectations for Your Marketing Strategy
John Farkas:
So Tom, I’m curious, I know that you have been the top marketing leader for a number of companies in this space. I am curious how you look at your relationship with the CEO in that realm and how you’ve navigated that in the past. I know I’ve heard lots of different stories from lots of different people about the nature of that relationship and the importance of it. And I also know that the chief marketing officer for tech companies is one of the shortest tenured positions historically in the C-suite. And I know that you have managed to have some longer than average 10 years. So I’m curious what you’ve learned in your experience about the importance of that relationship and how you’ve navigated it.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, so I think two or three things come to mind immediately. One is setting realistic expectations, so making-
John Farkas:
Which we’ve talked a lot about in this context.
Tom Mitchell:
Absolutely. Again, when you launch a campaign, don’t set the expectation that, oh, we’re going to have six leads in a week that are going to fill a pipeline or 30 leads in a week, but set the expectation that, hey, this is long-term program, this long-term strategy, our investment will pay off, become an ally. I think one thing too is become an ally of the CEO, become an ally of your boss because we know that a lot of times that ideas come from all different areas of the organization and sometimes the marketing executive, it’s too easy for someone to point a finger at you, hey, go launch this, go do this. We’ve got the best solution out there. But come back to the CEO, come back to the executive levels and the board if necessary and say, “Hey, yeah, this is a great solution from a marking perspective. We’ve done our research and we’ve done the background on this, and time we don’t feel is right, but we need to start laying the foundation.”
So truly kind of with Stratipoint Advisory, I really, emphasis on the advisor perspective too. Be a trusted advisor in your organization and be a champion across the board. Be a champion of the strategy of the organization, be a strategy of the vision, and always kind of go back to those two factors. And everything you do from a marketing standpoint, make sure you’re living up to the promise of your company and the promise your CEO is making to his or her board.
John Farkas:
Yeah, that’s good. I think that that’s really critical to get on the same side. And I know that, one of the things I’ve seen is somebody will get hired because they’ve made some unrealistic promises, just even in the onboarding process-
Tom Mitchell:
Absolute yes.
John Farkas:
In the interview process, even. And it’s one of the worst. And I do believe that that’s part of why the average tenure that I’ve heard is typically somewhere in the realm of 18 months.
Tom Mitchell:
Oh, yeah.
John Farkas:
And the reason for that is often expectations are set way up here when people are joining and they’ve not done themselves or their organization the favor of setting realistic expectations, which we talked about. I mean, it is unusual to turn on a dime in this arena. It’s a big, long investment and helping people understand the difference between it’s a difference between lead generation and demand generation, for instance.
Tom Mitchell:
Absolutely, yeah.
John Farkas:
Not marketing’s job to do lead generation. It’s marketing’s job to help create demand. And so if you have a lead generation expectation that’s going to be disappointing right out of the gate.
Tom Mitchell:
Right, and I think you align yourself with sales in that regard as well. I think it’s extremely important to set that differentiation because again, you know [inaudible 00:33:14] CEO come in, “How many leads did I get?” Well, from campaign, we created demand for the sales team to follow up on the leads or some organization, account management team, maybe. If it’s into your existing customer base and you’re rolling out a new product, but you can’t expect to be the ownership of the final result of those leads or those demand metrics that come in. You have to be able to deliver on, again, the promise and expectation that you’re going to create demand, and demand comes from multiple different areas. I think event management is a good example of that.
You’re going to a trade show, or if you’re going to HIMSS, for instance, go there and be set the expectations realistically, each year is different when you attend HIMSS. Each focus is different, every year is a different focus. You had meaningful use for a number of years, now everybody’s talking about artificial intelligence. In one year it might be more around care coordination and population health solutions. So you have to really know where you fit in. And if your solutions don’t fit into the core thought of that, then you need to set the expectation and maybe lower it. That’s tough as marketers to do because we want to go be successful. We love what we do, and we think we can go create as much demand and interest in our products as we can, but sometimes you have to set that expectation at a lower level. And that’s hard to do.
John Farkas:
Yeah. Because if you’re in this industry, you’re typically in to win and you want to make people happy.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah.
John Farkas:
And so the temptation’s always there to put the expectation bar up high, but keeping it real, that’s-
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah. I have many stars from early in my career about that because you know, you want it, you think you can and you think you can be wildly successful given the budget and the target.
Tom on Creating True, Lasting Relationships
John Farkas:
Yeah, that is true. I’m curious, and we talked a little bit about the value of partnerships and working with analysts, working in associations. Talk about your experience with partnerships overall in your marketing tenure. How do you see the value of that? How has that worked in your favor? What have you seen be particularly effective? Any words on and around that?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, I think partnerships are extremely important in any industry. Specifically on healthcare, so again, so much mind share you have out there. So I’ve managed partnerships in multiple ways. I mean truly kind of channel management, channel partners, resellers, but creating true partnerships that create lasting relationships are really what matter. And I say that meaning you align yourself with the right kind of partners, you align yourself with partners that can help you get into and get noticed by the organizations you’re targeting. But I think creating partnerships with those who can help you deliver your goals, with organizations like marketing agencies, with organizations as specific healthcare industry associations. Those partnerships, you have to work it all across every channel. But I’m a big believer in partnerships. I’m a big believer that there’s value in numbers in a way, with meaningful, relevant partners. And again, I think the key word there is relevant. You know, have to have the right partner. But alliances, partnerships, whatever you want to call it, are valuable.
In healthcare, by far, relationship management, reputation management is key. And having the right partner to help you knock down those barriers and overcome objections are key. It’s more than just exposure and it’s more than a partnership. It’s a deep, deep relationship that truly makes a difference. And what you find out after you really start working on a partner strategy and looking at who your partners are, you might hone in on a few that you have those deep relationships with. And then you have another tier that’s more higher level that you’re just associated with, and it’s where you put your dollars and your time to get the investment amount that makes the most sense.
John Farkas:
Absolutely. That’s a great word. That is a great word. It is. And I think that level of collaboration is something I see being a little less common with some of the younger organizations and I think that it is reforming. I think there is a different way that people are engaging. A lot’s changed in the last bit, but I think that the digital virtual world we live in tends to be a little bit isolating. And I think that that has done something to diminish the perceived value of those relationships. And it’s how the world still works. And I think that figuring out how to form and optimize for that, I think it’s a big part of marketing’s job as you look at the outward focus. And I think that that does lead me to another question.
The Convergence of Sales, Marketing, and Product
John Farkas:
In your experience, I know that one of the changes that I see happening is the convergence of sales, marketing and product into a unified growth engine. I think it’s one of the essential things that an organization coming to market in our world needs to be focused on. And I’m curious your experience there, because I know you’ve worked in a variety of them and I’m sure you’ve seen them as very isolated silos and you’ve seen more integrated functions. I’m curious to hear your perspective on how to bring those together and what you’ve seen be successful.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, definitely. Different companies I’ve worked for, they’ve either been in different departments, different organizations. I’ve worked in companies where they’ve been part of marketing or under some kind of strategy role, at least with a unified leader. You really have to cross the organization, and it goes back to that advisor role within an organization if you’re a marketing professional. And that is bringing together those different silos. There’s nothing worse than being a marketer and not getting the information you need or understanding what the strategy is that is trying to happen across and to be deployed across an organization. So I’ve always tried to bring together those organizations, not necessarily advocated that they be under marketing, but make sure we are working closely together. I think from one of my core beliefs in marketing is that you have to think of yourself as a unifier in any company, and you have to have really good relationships among the disparate departments.
And I think that’s one thing that I’ve been successful with and has helped contribute to my success is working across the organization. For product marketing or product management, if it sits outside of traditional marketing, it’s working together. I mean, you have to understand the roadmap. You have to understand what the product does init’s basic entirety, what’s being demoed, what’s being talked about, and really what the value is. And that’s really the core of it, is understanding the value and how you deliver that value in your marketing strategy. I’m not sure if that answered your question, but it’s truly an approach that cannot be siloed. Those three organizations have to work in tandem, have to work together. And to be honest, it’s been a challenge in some parts of my career in different times. And sometimes the barriers are put up, whether it’s politically or just by the culture of an organization. And sometimes you have to be brave enough to break down those silos and change culture. And that’s not always perceived favorably in the beginning, but usually the end result is a very favorable approach.
John Farkas:
Yeah, I think that is definitely a difficult subject in some organizations, but I think if we’re looking at the organizations I’ve seen be most successful in today’s climate have the least amount of separation in those realms. I think what you said, I love what you said about being the unifying force. I think that that’s the word you use. I regard the marketing function as the translation layer for the organization.
Tom Mitchell:
I like that.
John Farkas:
I think that it’s really important for marketing to be able to move seamlessly across those lines because at the end of the day, we’re on the point to communicate things out to the world. And what is communicated out has to be a harmonious, consistent, clear picture. And the only way to get that is by very integrated, seamless alignment between those three and the rest of the organization too. But I think those are the essential ones that you have to bring together along with the CEO, who ultimately is knit directly into all three of those segments. But that really is, it’s a key understanding I see for companies now and something I try and promote with our clients, especially when I see the divisions and the rivalries that can crop up there. Let me just say it out loud, there’s no room for rivalry here.
Tom Mitchell:
Right. Right.
John Farkas:
It’s toxic and destructive and takes too much energy away from what needs to be a unified, combined effort. And I’ve been as bold to tell people that are looking at different organizations to go into, to take inventory of what that looks like. Because first of all, if you’ve got an organization where those three are knit together, that is a good thing and that’s important DNA. If they’re not overcoming the dysfunction, is maybe not something you want to try and do at the end of the day.
Tom Mitchell:
Right, right.
John Farkas:
Because that’s a systemic issue that has to be actively worked on and broken down. And for the agility that companies need in this market. It’s really important to have those three working together as one entity focused on growth.
Tom Mitchell:
Yep. I totally agree. And I think depending on what’s going to happen, marketing budgets could be tighter. So you really have to have that relationship across the organization. And I like what you said about the translation layer. I love that term, the marketing being the translation layer. And I think that’s a really apt way to say that.
Tom’s Advice to Healthcare Marketing Professionals
John Farkas:
Yep. Yes, indeed. Well, Tom, I’m curious, just as we finish up here, if you had a piece of advice to somebody leading into this market right now, we’ve covered a lot, and so if you had a headline to bring across, that one thing, what would you underscore?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, I would say be true to yourself from a marketing perspective, from a marketing professional perspective. And by that I mean set expectations. Know what you can deliver, lead your teams. I mean, we’re kind of talking about executive-level marketing roles. So lead your teams and engage with partners that can help you be successful. So be true to yourself. And then I would just end it, would say, have fun too. If you’re not having fun, don’t do it. So, you have to have fun.
John Farkas:
Yeah, no doubt.
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, it’s not fun every day, but have fun overall.
The Tenessee HIMSS Marketing Seminar
John Farkas:
Well, that’s definitely a good word. Hey, I know we’ve got some stuff coming up in and around Tennessee HIMSS, so I just wanted to take a second to shout out something that we’ve got coming up. Tom, do you want to kind of set the deck for the event we’ve got coming?
Tom Mitchell:
Yeah, so from a Tennessee HIMSS perspective, we’ve always worked at definitely an education and thought leadership level, but really kind of more focused on our members and the roles that we focus on. But I will be a little bit biased here when I say this, as a long time marketing professional, looking across our members and our partners and our sponsors that really provide the value to us. John, you and I talked about this is what can we deliver back to those marketers to help them be successful? And so Tennessee HIMSS is proud to be working with Golden Spiral to deliver a marketing seminar, a series of seminars, to help you just do that. And how can you be successful in your efforts as a health tech organization and as the one leading marketing with the organization? So I’m really excited about it and we’re definitely proud to partner with you, longtime partner and sponsor of Tennessee HIMSS.
John Farkas:
Yeah, we’re looking forward to that. It’s going to be fun. What I want to say is, what I know about Tom, what I know about our Tennessee HIMSS organization, what I know about Golden Spiral, is what our involvement is and what we look at certainly transcends health tech marketing. We’re really interested in… I believe that technology has to play a very essential role in healthcare in the future because all the equations are adding up to we’re not going to have enough providers for the demand. I mean, that’s just the bottom line. And the way that that’s going to be solved is helping our providers be more effective and efficient in treating more people. And technology has to be a part of the solution. So in some sense, I’m investing in my future because I’m going to be part of that big bubble that’s in danger of bursting in the next couple decades-
Tom Mitchell:
Right.
John Farkas:
As those equations shift to unmanageable, by today’s operative standards, an unmanageable curve. And so I’m interested in helping the technology companies that are trying to move into healthcare to help healthcare work be more effective because we need it. And so that’s part of our mission as an organization. And so anything we can do to be helpful is part of what we want to do, and that’s why we’re teaming up with Tennessee HIMSS to offer what I hope is a very valuable set of insights that can help you connect more effectively with your market. And so we’ll be sharing more information. The first installment coming up here in a couple of weeks, the first part of June. We’ll have some information connected directly to this podcast that you can take a look at and take advantage of.
Closing Thoughts
John Farkas:
But Tom, again, I am really appreciative of your support. Tom is part of our advisory board, and as you’ve heard and seen, you can get some idea of the value that he brings and the perspective that Tom comes with, a wealth of knowledge and ecosystem understanding that helps us as an organization provide value, but also certainly a good resource in the context of his advisory service that he offers. We’ll be linking to his information directly too. So Tom, again, thank you for joining us today. Great conversation.
About Tom Mitchell
Tom’s 30+-year background includes leading global strategy, marketing, and operations for high-growth healthcare and technology firms. He serves as President and Chief Operating Officer of Insequence, Inc. He is also the Managing Partner and Founder of Stratipoint Advisory, a company he created to drive high-valued go-to-market strategy into organizations based on research, strategic planning, and execution.
He has led companies through corporate rebranding initiatives, new product launches, portfolio diversification, and through acquisitions.
Tom has over 20 years of experience in healthcare, focusing on information technology and services, along with clinical, financial, and consumer-related strategic initiatives. He is a multi-channel marketing professional experienced in creating significant brand value and successful marketing strategies at a number of top healthcare and technology companies, including MEDHOST, M*Modal, Dell Healthcare, Life Sciences, DocuSys, and SSI.
He currently serves on the board of the Tennessee chapter of HIMSS, serves as a Steering Committee Member of the Nashville Chapter of The Compassionate Friends, has served in an advisory role with the American Hospital Association, served on the marketing committee of CommonWell Health Alliance and been actively involved with the Healthcare Financial Management Association, along with Leadership Health Care and the Nashville Health Care Council.