Real Sales and Marketing – Connections and Conversations

January 3, 2018 by bobyurkovic

Being a sales rep is like being a doctor. First, you have to win the confidence of the person. You have to understand their pain – feel their pain. This makes an initial connection. Once you have earned trust by building confidence, they can talk about what ails them. A deeper connection develops through a conversation. Good doctors focus on the person and not on what meds they can push (one of their products). The doctors that see you and in 5 seconds and then prescribe meds have a bad track record. They do not take the time to understand the person. No connection – no warm fuzzies. No coming back to you!

Conversations take time and time is rushed in this crazy world so we must step back and yield to a more thoughtful approach. Marketing and sales is about making an investment in time and developing connections. So, instead of hawking your product with an “in your face” approach, invest time to build a conversation.

Sales and markeeting is really like a weird courting ritual. It is not about love but it is connected to it. What?? It is a human connection that can grow deep, loyal customers. Dating takes time and connections grow as you invest time and understand the person. If someone is courting a person and just talks about themselves (their product), there is little chance of a second date. Doctor, pursuer of love, or sales, it is about making a connection and having a meaningful conversation.

People really don’t NEED your product. There are always alternatives. So sales is driven by more than just need. In a B2B world, they really want a connection – human interaction is more important in an industrialized, technology driven society. So sales is about something much deeper. Good sales people and marketing folks understand this. So the conversation – not the message – has to be (1) well crafted and (2) timed. Yes, conversation. Not just an assault of sound bites. A conversation is needed to build a connection.

So for marketing folks, how can we initiate a conversation and allow it to blossom into a deep connection? Be thoughtful in your approach.

Thanks Zach Messler – you are the inspiration for this piece.

Engagement Happens When We Work Together

March 27, 2015 by bobyurkovic

What would it be like to attend a customer engagement conference where the presenters, panelists, and audience were truly engaged and shared what they know? I chaired the Customer Analytics and Engagement in healthcare conference in Chicago this week and I found out. It was not like an ordinary conference with fancy slides and polished speakers. It was about real professionals working in the healthcare trenches with a desire to make significant changes and learn from others. I witnessed the walls of silos disintegrate.

Experts shared their points of view on issues facing healthcare. Topics for discussion included predictive modeling, readmissions, B2C market shifts, behavioral trends, social media, customer experience, engagement strategies, ACOs, provider strategies and more. We had presentations, interviews, and panel discussions on the hottest topics facing the healthcare industry. The audience was truly engaged as tough questions were given to experts on our panels.

This conference was extremely useful as influential companies in healthcare worked together. Payers, providers, ACOs, and health services companies attended. Humana, Cigna, Aetna, and Anthem represented from the top 5 payers with many Blues attending as well. Dr. Furno represented CMS and talked about the work CMS is doing around readmissions. Stuart Hanson at Citi attended to share what they have learned about B2C in banking and if their experiences could translate to healthcare. Thomas Sondergeld, from Walgreens, shared his insights on engaging the employee workforce with corporate wellness programs. Vijay Murugappan, VP from HCSC, delivered a keynote and shared his thoughts on analytics and technology. Kimberly Higgins-Mays, VP from Aetna, shared her views on Accountable Care Solutions and how Aetna is changing their thinking to adapt to the market shifts in healthcare. Bryan Bennett, predictive analytics adjunct professor, from Northwestern University lit up the panel with insights on predictive analytics. Jim Tincher, customer experience expert, provided insights and an education around persona development and journey maps on Thursdays morning session showing us that a just creating a journey map with bubbles is not enough. These are professionals with diverse perspectives but with one common goal .. to help healthcare get better.

The conference actually turned into more of a workshop since collaboration, interest, and expertise within the group was so strong. It is what made this gathering unique and a blueprint of how a conference for change should look like. I am convinced that collaboration such as this is the best way to bring together Payers, Medical Providers, and Pharma together to define what healthcare should be in the future … and with the consumer in mind.

Well done to those that attended and contributed. You are the movers and shakers that are changing healthcare for the better. Everyone showed passion for making healthcare relevant and useful for consumers. It is time to remove what is complex and listen to our consumers … not an easy task.

Hats off the FC Business Intelligence for putting the conference together.

Consumerism and Trust in Healthcare

February 1, 2015 by bobyurkovic

Brian Solis talks about Connected Consumerism and Generation C in his book “What’s The Future of Business”. I believe connected consumerism in healthcare is an investment in product relevance and meaningful relationships to improve the state of a consumer’s health throughout their life cycle. In order to engage your consumers, trust is a required element before consumers will engage with you. The concept of providing health care is about being connected and remaining connected with your consumers and offer services that integrates with their lifestyle. However, a relationship needs to be developed in order to build trust. Why? Health is personal. The best examples of engagement in health are personalized services. Services should be local and embedded in the community since the community is a natural support group for people reaching for health goals or trying to change a behavior to fight a chronic disease.

Health is Special

Remember that health is very personal unlike many consumer product goods so the connection should be real and meaningful. Decades ago, doctors had genuine relationships with their consumers. They knew the consumer as they followed them along their life cycle. With increasing medical costs, doctors built larger practices and focused on cost efficiency and service speed. Consumers don’t visit the same doctor every time due to availability and scheduling in larger practices. As doctors lost the personal connection with their consumers over the past few decades, trust eroded and consumers left those doctors and chose their doctors from a list of provided by healthcare insurers. Consumers also began to obtain health advice on the Internet instead of from doctors since they were difficult to get a hold of and expensive if an office visit was required. In the consumer’s mind, doctors could be replaced easily as long as they could get a doctor covered under their medical plan. Keeping costs down instead of a continued relationship with a doctor was now a higher value to consumers. Most consumers with plans have to pay more to go out of network.

Commoditization

Commoditization for primary care was taking hold as consumers were sacrificing quality over cost and convenience. This was exacerbated as many employers switch health plans during renewal periods and with that; a consumer received a list of different in-network doctors. Now doctors are fighting to regain the trust once earned and grow their customer base. For a doctor, it is like pushing mud uphill as regional health practices form to manage operational costs and drive consumers to large practices. To lower costs, some doctors practice defensive medicine to avoid malpractice issues and push more consumers in a tight schedule. This is not an environment that nurtures and grows trust. Doctors are no longer connected to their consumers as consumers are now connected through social channels. Searching for health information is a top search category on Google and consumers also reach out to others seeking advice on a procedure or condition, or references about a doctor.

New Entrants

Some companies are trying to earn the consumer‘s trust so doctors have much more competition now. New entrants such as Google and Apple have entered the market and while they are not providing diagnostic services, they are providing information and acquiring health data from devices that support healthy lifestyles. These companies understand consumerism and how to deliver a great experience; qualities that are little used in established medical businesses. Other companies, such as Walmart and CVS are offering local, affordable basic health care services once provided by primary care physicians. Local urgent care centers are providing care services without the wait and cost issues associated with emergency departments. Doctors and hospitals are left with specialized health services as general health services move to other businesses.

Path to Trust

For a consumer, who do you trust? Trust is a key component to retention and consumer engagement so we know it is of upmost importance. What are the connections between trust, relationships, engagement, and behaviors?

Behaviors drive consumer engagement
In order to influence a behavior, you need to build trust
In order to have trust, you need a meaningful relationship … a connection worthy of the consumer’s attention
In order to build a valued connection, you need to interact where the consumer lives while combining a great experience with useful services and information that supports the consumer’s lifestyle and goals

For consumers trying to manage their health, they need tools and information to make informed decisions. Communications plays an important role in making this occur as a conduit for exchanges between the consumer and the business.

Payer Situation

Healthcare Payers operate in a transaction mode such as when a health transaction, such as a claim, occurs for the consumer. At that point, an interaction is started with the consumer. An example of this is an Explanation of Benefits (EOB). A claim is placed and an EOB is sent to the consumer explaining the transaction that occurred. Better communications during the claim processing phase with create a better experience such as sending an email to a consumer saying, “Your claim was received on January 3, and is being processed.” Interactions and communications could include additional suggestions for improving the consumer’s health around an existing condition or personal objective for health. Extending the interaction with useful and relevant content helps the consumer manage their health issue and learn more about their health. A relationship starts to develop as content is exchange with the consumer. Relevant, trusted content is essential to a dialog between a Payer and consumer.

Coordinated, Consistent, Relevant

Coordinated, consistent communications that are relevant supports a valuable dialog and the relationship begins to form. This is much the way a doctor communicated with their patients many decades ago. The desired goal is to be embedded in a relationship that impacts the consumer’s lifestyle and daily living. The consumer is able to better manage their health and make proper decisions when equipped with relevant information and tools. The triad of healthcare, Payers, Providers, and Pharma, must work together and share consumer information and speak to the consumer in a coordinated manner; speak in a singular health voice. This approach offers the consumer a superior experience and the value of the combined effort would be multiplied as opposed to speaking as 3 separate voices. Relationships can grow as Payers, Providers, and Pharma jointly build relevant interactions around consumer’s lifestyle. What could the next C level position be? Perhaps it could be a Chief Alliance Officer responsible for making the connections between businesses, leading joint initiatives, and readying technology systems and processes to be able to exchange information readily and support a singular voice.

More about consumer behaviors, trust and building relationships, and consumer engagement in my new book titled, “Commercializing Consumer Engagement” at http://www.commercializing-consumer-engagement.com/

Engagement Begins in the Mind

January 6, 2015 by bobyurkovic

When interacting with a consumer regarding health care, it is important to remember that health is personal and consumer’s emotions will be a major influence their decision-making around health engagement. Engagement starts on an emotional level as the consumer learns and seeks to validate value of a health program. The mind moves from thought to action as the consumer tests to see if the health program is worthy enough to be adopted into their lifestyle. Often we see health programs pushed to consumers only to observe that their use decays quickly. Enthusiasm wanes even though continuing its use is the right thing to do. It is possible that engagement may be adopted and sustained as the emotional and analytic sides of a consumer’s mind agree to justify the action for engagement with each side of the mind validating the other.

Consumer Engagement Stages

Four stages occur in the path to engagement. It starts with an awareness of a health condition or situation. At this stage, curiosity is stimulated by the emotional side of the mind. We then begin to analyze information with the analytic side of our mind and then include the emotional side of the mind as we test to see if it will work for us. When both sides of the mind are in agreement, we usually take action. At this point, it becomes a matter of prioritization in the mind’s queue for which actions are taken.

Engagement Stage What happens in this stage

Recognition What is it? Does it affect me?

Internalization How does it affect me? What are ways to fix it?

Validation Does this fix or solution work for me?

Authorization Should I do it?

Understanding the consumer is paramount to any planned interaction. Building experiences around consumer understanding with enable a business to communicate in a relevant, consistent manner. Engagement programs can then be created that target a consumer’s needs and personality for adoption and sustained use.

Partners in Health Care

Consumer centricity in healthcare requires useful interactions with the major players in the health industry. Key players include Payers, Providers, and Pharma, or the health triad. There are more partnering opportunities to support better health for consumers beyond the health triad. I am seeing new players enter the health market and making significant improvement in consumer’s health. One such business is the supermarket. Supermarkets are employing Registered Dietitians, RDs, in their stores to help consumers make healthy choices. RD’s are also involved with local education, YMCA, elder care with VNAs, and the local library, and provide an array of services to people, families, and kids. The health triad would do well to coordinate their consumer interactions and partner with businesses providing local health services that are already embedded in the community such as supermarkets. Health is personal and engagement has a larger effect when localization is considered.

Culture and Trust

Businesses in health care would benefit from working together to build internal trust among them. Instead of thinking of the consumer with ownership in mind, it would be far better to share information and offer programs to consumer with the consumer’s health in mind. To do this, companies need to shift their business model to B2C and nurture an internal culture to support the consumer. Without the proper culture and B2C mindset, a business will probably witness disconnects in their journey mappings, product offerings, and in their communications to the consumers.

Consumer Centric Points

Twelve points should be considered for the maximizing the value for the consumer.

Realize that consumers are in control
Create a company culture and values that focus on the consumer
Understand the consumer and what motivates them
Build relationships and trust for stickiness/loyalty
Provide coordinated services across business
Generate consistent experiences across preferred delivery channels
Offer usable tools and content/information to consumers
Deliver relevant communications and interactions
Partner, do not collide with other health services and their offerings
Health is personal, trust is earned and required for engagement
Support comes from a local community
To be truly engaged with a consumer’s health, you must interact with them in such a way that it affects and supports their lifestyle

To explain more of these concepts, I published a book in January 2015 titled, Commercializing Consumer Engagement. It dives deeper into consumer behaviors, methodologies, and approaches to help people live a healthy and satisfying lifestyle through consumer engagement techniques.

Consumer Insights: Profiling Consumers to Target Personalized Communications and Sustainable Health Programs

September 18, 2013 by bobyurkovic

The healthcare climate has changed, and consumer centricity in healthcare is now more important than ever. In order to better serve consumers, enact more personalized healthcare communication programs and develop more sustainable health programs that influence the lives of consumers for the better in the future, it is necessary for health providers and payers to leverage big data in new and innovative ways. There are huge stores of data available for healthcare industry insiders to take advantage of in order to profile consumers and ultimately better serve them through programs such as digital dashboards that are easily accessible to consumers, employers and healthcare payers.

What Kind of Data is Most Useful?

Successful healthcare consumer centricity programs take many different kinds of information into account. Healthcare payers and providers can better serve consumers with tailored communications and personalized programs by first obtaining the following types of data in a central repository:

Behaviors – Information about lifestyle choices and behaviors that pertain to diet, exercise, activity, sleep patterns and other habits can be very helpful. These may be obtained through information from various databases, surveys and other records of interactions with consumers.
Claims – All claims tell a story, and can be used to tailor more personalized experiences for and communication with consumers in the future. A well-managed electronic records database is essential here.
Rx – Tracking and measuring pharmacy metrics can be very beneficial to healthcare payers, not only because it provides an opportunity to streamline cost initiatives, but also because it provides another opportunity to see what health choices consumers are making and where they’re spending their healthcare dollars.
Biometric Devices – Since the dawn of the digital age, many advances have been made in the healthcare world, including the development of biometric devices that identify doctors and staff and gather vital information about patients. Statistics from these data records can be used to pinpoint trends, develop more customized healthcare products and services and make better predictions about healthcare outcomes.
Tests (Blood) – The records of blood tests can also be used to develop better products and services for consumers. The more information that healthcare payers and providers have about the unique populations they serve, the more personalized communications, experiences and programs they can provide.
Master Data (PHR, ethno-, techno-, socio- and demographic) – Perhaps the most useful chunk of data for profiling healthcare consumers is a master data file that includes demographics, personal health records, ethnographic information, socioeconomic information and all varieties of useful digital information about the group of consumers that a given healthcare organization serves.

What Can We Do With All This Data?

The goal of any successful consumer-profiling program should be to achieve the kind of strategic analytics that will support better health initiatives. Analytics can fuel tailored dashboards for consumers, employers and payers, which epitomize the new drive toward consumer centricity for healthcare payers. Such a dashboard provides a more convenient way for consumers to receive information from and communicate directly with healthcare payers and providers, which allows payers in particular to foster relationships with consumers that were not always possible in the past. These dashboards can also be used to gather more information about consumers in the future, and do so in a more organized, cost effective and streamlined way. In the end, the more insights a healthcare payer and/or provider can gain about the consumers they serve, the better prepared they will be to target personalized communications and develop more sustainable health programs in the future. It’s a win-win-win for the healthcare payer, the consumers who use their products and services and the employers who help provide health plans to their employees, when applicable.

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