You may be familiar with the causality dilemma of the chicken and the egg. Which came first?
It’s a real head scratcher. You might have even gotten into heated arguments over it!
The same dilemma exists in the world of healthcare IT. What should come first, sales or product marketing? On one hand, product marketing develops the strategies that generate sales. On the other, sales generate revenue—the lifeblood of any business.
Many leaders of young healthcare IT companies would say that sales should come first. In fact, it’s not uncommon for early stage healthcare IT companies to focus on hiring a sales leader as soon as they perceive their product to be ready for commercialization. The pressure to generate revenue and return on investment is very powerful. This is often before they hire a product marketing leader.
In this blog we’ll discuss three strategic facts that prove why this may not be the best strategy..
Strategic Fact #1: You might already be doing some product marketing, but not enough.
When a healthcare IT founder or leader…
- sees a problem
- has an idea for a solution
- starts building a product
…this is part of product marketing!
But, unless they bring a product marketing expert on as part of the core team, product marketing often ends here. For most founders—especially those who are more engineering focused—this leads to the following mistakes.
Relying on assumptions rather than validated market research. When founders look at the market too myopically, they may form false assumptions. For instance: market size, the value of their solution, or how to navigate the sales journey.
Not identifying different buyer personas and their unique motivations. Each clinical, technical, and operational persona will have their own unique problems, workflows, and motivators. Understanding these is essential for informing product design and developing effective sales strategies.
Ultimately, product marketing plays a foundational role in defining market opportunity and product strategy. Bringing a seasoned product marketing expert into your team early on can help avoid the above pitfalls. It will also speed up product readiness and commercialization success by taking a more evidence-based approach to product design, positioning, and pricing.
Strategic Fact #2: Product marketing strategy IS business strategy.
Another mistake made by many healthcare IT founders is assuming that a product marketing strategy only encompasses “advertising and promotions.” When done right, product marketing is so much more. It plays a pivotal role in informing the overarching business strategy by contributing to:
Objective setting. Research demonstrates there is a strong, direct correlation between setting clear goals and achieving success. Product marketers keep a pulse on the market. They play a key role in defining clear, measurable, and achievable sales and revenue targets based on validated market evidence.
Quantifying value. Product marketers are experts in the healthcare IT domain. They have a deep understanding of the problems your product solves. Marketers also know the value of solving those problems. With this expertise, product marketers can define value-based pricing models that show a clear ROI for your customers. All this makes sales conversations easier.
Team alignment. Companies achieve faster and more efficient growth when everyone has a unified understanding of relevant customer personas, their problems, and how associated product features address them. This is the domain of product marketing. Marketers facilitate collaboration between engineering, sales, and support teams. They ensure alignment in development, commercialization, and implementation strategies.
With product marketing’s early involvement, healthcare IT companies are much better positioned for commercialization success. They can now develop informed business strategies that define a clear roadmap to revenue generation. In turn, strategy informs growth, investment, and resourcing decisions.
Strategic Fact #3: Without product marketing, commercialization delays are inevitable.
There’s a hard truth many healthcare business leaders don’t realize. If you don’t bring product marketing on before sales, you can end up to six months behind when it comes time to sell. This is because product marketing plays a key role in developing the go-to-market plan. It also generates awareness and establishes credibility among your target audience. In healthcare IT, buyers are more risk averse and have long purchasing processes. This means marketing efforts need to start well before your sales team is ready to start engaging with customer prospects. Which involves:
Building an effective messaging framework. By working closely with beta sites, product marketers can extract the value propositions realized. They can then use that to mature product messaging in advance of commercialization.
Gathering proof points. Working with early pilots or deployments, product marketing can gather case examples, testimonials, and other proof points. This will lend credibility to marketing and lead generation activities.
Paving the way for sales. By generating awareness in advance of the product launch, product marketing prepares the market for sales activities. Marketers highlight the importance of the problems solved by the product. They also prove the value of addressing them. Even for products awaiting 510(k) clearance, marketers can achieve early awareness. This may involve publishing scientific studies (e.g. peer reviewed papers, etc.) developed in collaboration with your beta sites. These points discuss the problem statements and articulate the value of your solution.
How can marketers best accelerate commercialization and secure early sales? By ensuring strategy development and tactical execution of a product marketing program runs parallel to product development activities. Then, when the time comes to sell, the market is ready to engage with your sales team.
Finding a Balance that Works for You
So, what should come first, sales or product marketing? Unlike sales, product marketing’s role spans all phases of a healthcare IT company’s lifecycle. It begins with developing the business strategy and continuing well past commercialization and deployment. Engaging a product marketing expert early saves both time and headaches as your product progresses towards launch. It also eases the pain of investors demanding revenue!
Do you need help integrating product marketing into your business and commercialization strategies? Our experts bring decades of healthcare IT expertise. We can help prepare your organization for sales success. Contact us to learn more.
