Our client’s recently-hired Head of Digital Marketing was seeking to develop the program vision in order to understand the opportunity areas.

We were brought in to conduct a current state assessment, identify innovative opportunities, and propose a strategic framework & roadmap to achieve digital marketing excellence.

Our client was pursuing market entry in the US for a product already launched in the APAC region. They had little insight into both the landscape and stakeholder (physician, payer) habits and did not know where to begin.

We were brought on to initiate their US go-to-market strategy.

Our primary focus was on “value messaging” (i.e., ‘How can we position our product features in a way that represents with the stakeholder groups that we would like to target?’).

Our client recognized that one of their largest pain points for their leading brand was that one customer segment was being neglected due to a lack of understanding. Sales teams in essence were ignoring this customer segment and wanted to be shown a more coordinated customer interaction strategy.

We were brought on to create a messaging strategy and playbook that would enable sales teams to target this customer segment and provide them with a differentiated experience.

Our client was kicking off a firm-wide digital transformation centered around customer experience.

We were brought on to orchestrate the transformation and provide the proper change management support to enable and ensure effective adoption.

✔️ Co-created value story with client (i.e., continual alignment on which clinical attributes to highlight)

✔️ Synthesized key findings into client readout deck for Chief Medical Officer

✔️ Coordinated market research efforts

✔️ Drafted product profile for A/B message testing

✔️ Led internal interviews with Account Managers to understand current perceptions & opportunity areas

✔️ Synced with client in weekly 1:1s to co-create on additional probes, stakeholders to collaborate with, and initial playbook framework

✔️ Developed client workshop structure to leverage outputs for playbook framework

✔️ Conducted desk research on customer segment trends, preferences, innovative solutions

✔️ Gained LT buy-in for 8 external hires to launch digital marketing office

✔️ Delivered program framework

✔️ Gained marketers’ buy-in by developing external case studies of “digital marketing success”

✔️ Enabled client to launch in US - developed launch strategy, recommendations on target stakeholders and geographies

✔️ Identified top 3 compelling product features to highlight in messaging / marketing materials

✔️ Sales teams initiated discussions with key customer segment; 5 enterprise exploratory calls initiated

✔️ Strengthened sales team confidence through shared stories / outcomes from leveraging our playbook

✔️ Enabled client to successfully roll-out & begin scaling process for 8 customer-centric MVP/pilots

✔️ Drove alignment of sales & marketing stakeholders through value realization / change management materials

Know your target stakeholders. Before we were able to develop a detailed launch strategy (market specific, recommendations on messaging, timing considerations, etc.) - we had to know which stakeholder group we needed to focus on. Payers put drugs on formularies; doctors prescribe drugs; pharmacies and PBMs act as intermediaries. The stakeholder group heavily influenced how we would position the product; thus, we needed to decide who to focus on - which leads to my next point.

Allow your objectives to inform your target stakeholders. For many products, there is no inherently “right” target stakeholder (unless it is, say, a hair growth product for men). Thus, target stakeholders can vary based off product maturity, company growth objectives, and shareholder expectations.

On our project, we had to align with the client to determine if the goal was to gain product awareness, capture leading market share immediately, reduce overall disease prevalence, or a combination of the above. Based off this, our strategy and stakeholders we would focus on would drastically change. By aligning on the 2-year objectives early on in our project, we were able to focus on the right stakeholders and ask the right questions in interviews.

Your greatest pain points are also your greatest opportunities. Sounds cliche, right? However, on this project, I resonated with this message beyond the cliche when I saw it in full-force. Sales teams had been apprehensive about how to even begin engaging with this stakeholder group and as a result had been avoiding one of their potentially strongest customer segments. Thus, once we were able to present our playbook framework, teams felt like they finally had new and exciting leads. The level of excitement we saw across these sales teams speaks to the idea that pain points are so frustrating because they present a barrier to something that otherwise could be very valuable.

I find that this frame of mind is useful whenever any team is in the planning phase of a sprint. The question, ‘What more can we do?’ may not require some grandiose visioning exercise; it may just require us to candidly reflect on what some of the neglected opportunities are due to the level of frustration / pain caused in the past.

Always focus on customer value. When building our playbook, it was important to acknowledge that our target stakeholder had been neglected for a reason (difficulty learning how to partner with them, access considerations, etc.). We found that sales teams were more receptive to reaching out to the customers when we positioned the process as something that would directly benefit the customer (e.g., helping them stand up community partnerships, developing patient education materials, etc.). They felt as if they had a better chance of then getting a “second” phone call to learn how they could partner.

In the context of sales teams, I believe this means that the “first prospective call” should not always be about specific product sales - it should be about crafting what true value looks like for the customer. Sales will then flow organically.