Episode 41: What Digital Health Innovators Need to Know About Selling to Hospital and Health System CIOs with Merritt Group EVP Tom Rice and Director of Healthcare Practice Erin Erban (Part 1)
Key opinion leaders are very important in reaching out to CIOs as they amplify the science associated with a company solution and lend a company a lot of credibility.
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In this episode you’ll discover:
What surprising channels influence health system CIOs most
What KOLs are and why they should matter to you
How to apply trends and statistics from this report to your marketing efforts
Keep scrolling for a transcript of this episode.
Key Takeaways
75% of buyers get their product info from events, and that’s why it’s important to invest in showing up to these events. In terms of how you choose which events to attend, you have to keep in mind where you’re going to get the most ROI for what you’re going to spend.
65% of buyers say a product’s regulatory status is only somewhat important to the purchasing decision. Meaning, just because the regulatory framework isn’t there, doesn’t mean that they don’t see the value of your product. Don’t throw out the importance of compliance but do invest in figuring out creative pathways to reimbursement. (For more on this, visit NixonGwiltLaw.com—that’s our special sauce!)
According to trends and statistics, CIOs trust media more than social media or podcasts. They might prefer more traditional marketing channels versus the newer channels. Key opinion leaders are very important in reaching out to CIOs as they amplify the science associated with a company solution and lend a company a lot of credibility. Leverage them in your marketing activities.
The best way you can apply these trends and statistics is not in focusing on one and abandoning the rest of the media but by keeping balance and diversification in your marketing strategy. Lean more into the avenues that work and less on the ones that don’t, but don’t completely abandon a channel just because it’s not the best.
Learn more from Carrie and Rebecca:
Healthcare insights (monthly email) | Telehealth/Virtual Care Mgmt Update (biweekly LinkedIn update)
Website | Carrie on LinkedIn | Rebecca on LinkedIn | NGL on LinkedIn
“What we learned from the survey is that just because something isn’t reimbursable, or in this regulatory framework, yet doesn’t mean that buyers don’t see its potential to make an impact. ”
Learn More
Tom Rice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-rice-626717/
Erin Dixon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erindixonmedia/
Get the 2023 Healthcare Technology Marketing Guide: Marketing and Selling to the Health System CIO : https://www.merrittgrp.com/2023-healthtech-marketing-guide/
Episode 36: Understanding Digital Health's ROI with Charm Economics Founder Adam Block, PhD
Read the transcript
Intro (00:01):
You're listening to Decoding Healthcare Innovation with Carrie Nixon and Rebecca Gwilt, A podcast for novel and disruptive healthcare business leaders seeking to transform how we receive and experience healthcare.
Rebecca Gwilt (00:17):
Welcome back to Decoding Healthcare Innovation. I'm your host, Rebecca Gwilt, Partner at Nixon Gwillt Law, where we help digital health companies create business models and choose revenue models for the best paths to reimbursement among other things. Even if you have all that organized, however, that still leaves the big question for founders selling into big organizations. What do these buyers need to know to say yes to your solution, especially in the shifting markets we're experiencing today? So in the next two episodes, you're going to hear from Merritt Group's Executive Vice President, Tom Rice and Merritt Group's Director of Healthcare Practices, Erin Erban. This nationally recognized marketing and PR firm just published a survey of healthcare CIOs on what they're looking for when they're evaluating technology investments. So really pertinent, really good insights and super excited. Today we're going to dive into the role of CIOs and CFOs in buying decisions and where founders can exert the most influence. Welcome to the pod, Tom and Erin.
Tom Rice (01:16):
Thank you so much. Rebecca,
Erin Dixon Erban (01:17):
Thank you so much, Rebecca. Excited to talk with you today.
(01:20):
Yes, and Erin, you just presented this report at a conference in Vegas last week, is that right?
(01:24):
Erin Dixon Erban: Yeah, that's right. We were lucky enough to present the survey findings at the Healthcare IT marketing conference held in Las Vegas, and it was really great to share the insights with some of the people that we are trying, that we developed the report for and get their assessment of the results and what we can all learn from it. So it was a really great opportunity.
(01:43):
Rebecca Gwilt: Yeah, I'm excited to get some really fresh feedback from the folks that you spoke with last week. We'll be sure to get some of those insights today. And Tom, why don't you start by telling me a little bit about the Merritt Group?
Tom Rice (01:56):
Yeah, so Merritt Group, we've been around 25 years, just celebrated our 25th anniversary. As you mentioned, we're a healthcare and we're a marketing and PR agency focused on many different markets, but one specifically is healthcare. Erin and I focus the group particularly on health tech and med tech. Those are our two focus areas, but we're a full service agency, so anything under the marketing umbrella, everything from demand generation to sales enablement to content pr, of course social media, analyst relations, and work with everybody from early stage startups to large global national companies as well.
Rebecca Gwilt (02:33):
And you're bicoastal, is that right?
Tom Rice (02:35):
Exactly. We're based in Tysons Corner just outside of DC and have a small office in San Francisco and also in Dallas, and then folks located all across the country like Erin, who's up in Boston. But yeah, clients all across the country.
Rebecca Gwilt (02:48):
Wonderful. And I'm just curious, I did not plan to ask this question, but it just popped into my head. We're starting to see a lot of international companies try to enter the US market, and there's no one that needs a more firm foundation about how to sell in the US market than someone who is brand new to it. Are you seeing that trend as well?
Tom Rice (03:07):
Yeah, that's interesting. You'd mentioned that we actually are I have a client by the name of Informatica, they're they're head of commercial systems, actually did a podcast for us on this report as well. So they're based in Poland and started really pushing in the US market about two years ago, and we've seen some other interest overseas as well.
Rebecca Gwilt (03:25):
Yeah, I'm seeing the same. And it's one of the good things that came out of Covid is we really started thinking about healthcare care more globally and in less sort of siloed ways, which means we are lucky enough to be able to get the innovative thinking of companies all over the world. So super exciting time.
(03:45):
Okay, so Merritt Group just produced a healthcare technology marketing guide, which I read and reached out to you and said, we have to come and talk about this on the show because I get questions like this all the time. And of course I'm a lawyer and I can be of very little help <laugh> when it comes to sort of marketing expertise in the health tech sector. So you all conducted a survey of 20 health systems CIOs, those are chief in information officers, is that right?
Tom Rice (04:15):
That's correct.
Rebecca Gwilt (04:16):
To gain insight on factors that influence their technology buying decisions. Of course, health systems are big buyers of technology or have been traditionally in the last couple of years.
Tom Rice (04:26):
Yeah, I mean, good, great question. First and foremost, it was really about helping our clients. We did something similar in our security practice a few years ago which was called Marketing and Selling to the Chief Security Officer. So we thought that model really worked well. So our healthcare clients are always asking us and themselves about how best to reach the health tech buyer, and mainly this is the CIO at the health systems. So we really wanted to go straight to our clients and go to that target buyer and ask them how they want to be marketed, sold, and communicate to so that we could better hone our strategy for them as well. So that was really the genesis of the report.
Rebecca Gwilt (05:04):
So why choose CIOs and why the focus on health systems?
Tom Rice (05:09):
Yeah, great question mean in terms of CIOs, typically they're the primary buyer for some health tech companies, and again, health tech companies are our target clients. That's why we really wanted to focus in on that audience in terms of health systems, again, goes back to our clients. This is primarily who our clients are selling into. I think going back, thinking about the genesis of the report, we could have gone broader but I think we really just wanted to be really focused with this piece of research and I think we may look at other audiences down the road.
Rebecca Gwilt (05:36):
Yeah, I wonder if, what I've heard also is that chief financial officers get very involved in this as well. Now of course, they're not generally like the subject matter experts when it comes to health and health tech, but they certainly are a prime person in the line of decision making. I had a really good conversation with Adam Block from Charm Economics, which I'll put that podcast in the show notes, but Adam has a company that sort of puts together numbers with a focus on CFOs and making that economic argument for the adoption of technology. So I would love to see that population's thoughts on this.
Tom Rice (06:15):
Yeah, I think it's a great idea actually. We're actually talking to a revenue cycle management company, and CFOs are definitely part of their audience too. So it seems like the CIO, right? Well, certainly technology buying decisions fall under that person. They also listen to a lot of different folks within the healthcare organization from CFOs to the CEO to certainly physicians as well. So it's definitely not a straightforward sort of sell sometimes,
Rebecca Gwilt (06:43):
But this is the first time that I had seen this kind of insight laid out so clearly. So let's get to discussing the key takeaways.
(06:51):
So one of the key takeaways here was that 75% of buyers get their product info from events. Erin, I'm interested in your thoughts on how innovators should choose which events to attend, if any.
(07:05):
Erin Dixon Erban: Yeah, well, before I get into how you choose, I think we found this stat so interesting because anecdotally from our customers we heard that although we're very fortunate that events are sort of back at full blast now after Covid in terms of numbers and attendance, they don't exactly feel the same. They don't feel the same as they did before. And many of our customers are saying that they're not generating the leads from events that they used to. And so from our perspective, we're hearing events are just not working the same for these health tech companies.
(07:38):
So then to hear that 75% of CIOs say that they're learning about new vendor products from events, you know, from that we learned, well, it's important to still show up and still have a presence at these events. However, that said, obviously many marketing budgets are being cut when health tech companies are struggling. Marketing budgets are the first to go on the chopping block often. And so events are expensive. They're a big line item on the budget and absolutely, absolutely. I was at HLTH in Vegas in the fall, and someone told me one of the booths was like $200,000 or something like that. I was blown away. Absolutely. And I mean, how does a small health tech startup do that? And it, it's challenging. So in terms of how you choose which events to attend, you know, have to be thoughtful about where you're going to get the most ROI for what you're going to spend.
(08:29):
Unfortunately, for many of these smaller companies, that means skipping the big events like HLTH and HIMSS and ViVE. I mean, it's not always doable, but that doesn't mean that you can't have a strong and impactful event strategy. None the less, maybe you instead focus on smaller events that while it's a smaller attendee list, maybe you make more meaningful connections. It's lower cost, you're engaging with the smaller but more engaged audience. Or another thing that we've talked about, something that we discussed a lot of about at HICC last week was focusing on regional events, the regional affiliates of national events, presenting at regional hymns events and then earning a speaking slot, doing a very successful session at a regional event than being selected for the national event. Based on that, obviously when you're speaking and chosen to present, that helps cut down on entry fees. Often your registration is covered, and that's a way to have a presence there at a lower cost.
(09:27):
So it's putting some thought into what can we say that's really impactful, doing a small presentation and then being picked for national. So there are ways to still have an event presence when you don't have a ton of money to spend, and that's important.
(09:42):
Rebecca Gwilt: Yeah. Yeah, that's great insight. And not for nothing, the buyers are probably looking for less expensive conferences as well, right? So it's big money to go to the big main conferences, but maybe if you're in Boston and there's a Boston Medical Center, or you're a buyer in the northeast, maybe you choose to attend a lower cost regional event as well.
(10:07):
What I found as a lawyer really interesting was that 65% of buyers say of products regulatory status is only somewhat important to the purchasing decision. Can you give me some additional insight on this? Sounds risky.
(10:25):
Erin Dixon Erban: Yeah, well, I think depending on the segment of mean, again, we're working with a real diversity of health tech clients, but depending on the segment that you're working in, the regulatory landscape can be challenging, quickly evolving. I think the example that comes to mind, particular to one client that we have is the SaMD (software as a medical device) space. I mean, that's a place where they are very much still trying to figure out what the parameters and regulatory framework that they want to put around SaMD.
(10:57):
Rebecca Gwilt: Yeah. So we're seeing a ton of that as well.
(10:59):
Erin Dixon Erban: Yeah, so I mean, it's all that said CIOs and other health tech buyers can still see this has potential, and this just because the regulatory framework isn't there, and you're maybe not specifically having those certifications or benchmarks yet, doesn't mean that they don't see the value of your product.
(11:20):
And then just also something else we see with, again, some of the smaller startups that we work with, is that they don't have the money or the time or the resources to dedicate to having this robust regulatory team at this point. So again, I think the survey, what we learned from the survey is that just because something isn't reimbursable or in this regulatory framework yet doesn't mean that buyers don't see its potential to make an impact.
(11:47):
Rebecca Gwilt: And at some point there, which I have seen is that maybe there's still some question marks in terms of regulatory, but the company knows it has to get there and it's working on it, right? If they can demonstrate a path to reimbursement that is compelling there's some sort of forgiveness there. So I thought that that was interesting. And possibly the takeaway for companies is keep, don't throw out the importance of <laugh>, making sure that you are compliant with state and federal law, but do invest in figuring out creative pathways to reimbursement regardless of which side of the fence you come down on in terms of regulatory.
(12:29):
Erin Dixon Erban: That's exactly right.
(12:31):
Rebecca Gwilt: Okay. So we talked about conferences. Let's talk about the media. We have a lot of companies spending a lot on media. This should be encouraging to them. The report said that 80% of buyers get their healthcare news from the media, and they equally weigh trade publications, medical journals, and national business press coverage. Now, I know as a person who does media for my own firm and podcast, that there is a big price differential between producing something for a trade publication or medical journal and producing something for national business press coverage. Is that something that you're talking to your clients about? Am I going in the right direction here, Erin?
(13:09):
Erin Dixon Erban: Well, I think in terms of paid media, I mean, there's certainly a big difference. But looking at this from our perspective as a PR agency, I mean, we are on retainer with our clients to pitch their story to the places that will make the most impact.
(13:29):
And in many cases, our clients think that that is top tier national business outlets or bust <laugh>. And what we often have to discuss with our clients and tell them, and I think that this statistics or this result proves that, is that sometimes a very substantive, maybe longer form byline or video interview that we can place during our pitching hours in a focused trade publication, a healthcare technology trade publication is just as valuable as with in terms of connecting with their buyer. Then a mention in a top tier article, a Forbes wrapup.
(14:13):
Rebecca Gwilt: Wow, I see. Yeah. Yeah.
(14:15):
Erin Dixon Erban: So I mean, again, a lot of companies think that we need to be in the New York Times, and not that we are not. And I know having worked in other health tech PR agencies, that is all of our, we're working on that, and all across, every PR practitioner wants to land their client in a big outlet, but you can't disregard the value of healthcare trade media and it's focus and it's opportunity to again, say something more substantive that really speaks to the buyer's challenges and how you overcome them.
(14:55):
Rebecca Gwilt: Yeah, it's interesting because I certainly wouldn't even know where to start in terms of which trade publications would be compelling. I'm assuming that given your work in this space, you'll know you'll have a list of those that you understand which ones are actually being read by these CIOs, and that becomes a part of the strategy when you're working with clients.
(15:16):
Erin Dixon Erban: Yeah, it, that's exactly it. It's the healthcare IT news, healthcare IT today health leaders, media, modern healthcare. Getting opportunities with some of these reporters working in these publications is just as valuable as being in a fast company Listical article. Yeah, different but equally valuable.
(15:39):
Rebecca Gwilt: Yeah, I mean, I'll say that the publications you just listed, those are the ones that I'm reading certainly. Okay. Let's switch gears a little bit and bring Tom back into the conversation. All right. I'm sad to announce on my podcast that only 20% of CIOs, <laugh> are getting their information from podcasts and only 40% are in social media. The report indicated that social media was some of the least interesting sources of information for buyers, but media itself is a top market influencer. How should companies interpret that, Tom?
Tom Rice (16:12):
Yeah, I mean, this was something that drew our eyes as soon as we got the results back to, I mean, I think the big takeaway here is that the media's demise is overrated. I mean, the media is still trusted out there. I mean, that was a big talking point or big takeaway from this report, and I think we compare media versus social really that really came to pass. And I think back to Erin's point, I mean, I could really understand how medical journals and health trades were far outperforming social and podcast, but to see the business press up there at the same level was pretty surprising. So that just showed you how valued these CIOs see the media on your point about podcast, I mean, it is a lower number, but I will say that number, I don't have proof on this, but I'm pretty sure that that number was a lot lower five years ago.
(17:05):
Cause we're seeing from talking to our clients and their customers that the podcast are gaining momentum. I think it comes down to this specific audience, the CIOs, I mean, these are very busy folks as we all know. I think they view podcasts listening to a long podcast, a longer podcast, and also just trying to keep up with things on social media as a pretty significant time commitment. And I think they're looking at the folks at the media organizations, the columnists, the reporters, the be writers who follow their topics pretty frequently, as again, just more trusted. So I think that's where they're gravitating to it. So it it's clearly an audience in terms of these CIOs that performs more traditional marketing channels maybe versus some of the more newer channels right now.
Rebecca Gwilt (17:48):
So that's all the time we have for today, but join me in episode 42 for the continuation of this conversation with Tom Rice and Erica Erban of the Merritt Group. Next episode, you'll learn how to apply what you've learned today about CIO buying habits to land more business. In the meantime, be sure to check out episode 36, and that's with Charm Economics, CEO Adam Block, where we talk about showing the ROI of your digital health solution. And check the show notes for this episode for links to the Merritt Group survey we've been talking about. Many, many thanks to Tom and Erica for this discussion. I can't wait to share the rest with all of you.
(18:28):
Thank you for listening to Decoding Healthcare Innovation. If you'd like the show, please subscribe, rate and review at Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd like to find out more about Carrie, me, or Nixon Gwilt Law, go to NixonGwiltLaw.com or click the links in the show notes.