A different model. A stronger story.
How we turned a differentiated healthcare model into a commercial growth story
Ideas
A health organization built unlike any conventional insurer still sounded like one. Leading with their difference changed how they went to market.
Think about how you made the biggest choices in your own life. You didn't pick a spouse because they were exactly like everyone else you'd met, and you didn't buy a house because it looked like every other house you toured.
You chose based on the differences that made them special.
Everyone knows that. Yet when healthcare organizations sit down to tell their story, sameness is almost always where they end up.
It doesn’t have to be that way. We recently worked with a client organization to elevate their very real differences. About 18 months after their new story went to market, they had more RFPs in the pipeline than at any point in the previous 15 years.
A different model that sounded like everyone else
The client is a legacy healthcare organization with an exceptional reputation. They bring financing and care delivery together so the two operate as one system, which sets them apart from any conventional insurer. It’s a model more people are starting to notice, but few employers understood what it could actually do for their company and their people.
The client’s market-facing story wasn’t helping. It leaned on the same traditional claims every health insurer makes. They sounded like a conventional plan when in reality they offer benefits no conventional plan could.
So we asked a simple question: if your model already solves many of the problems traditional health insurance is struggling with, why isn't your story leading with that fact?
Employers want proof that the system works together
This is where an idea we use with a lot of clients became very real for us. Your operating model isn’t your value proposition, and talking about the “machinery” on its own rarely moves a buyer.
Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking they really want an integrated healthcare model. Employers want lower costs, better care and an easier experience for their people, and every health plan they talk to already promises those things. What few plans can show is that coverage and care actually work as one, with the plan and the people delivering care working from the same picture of an employee’s health. That connection is what makes the other promises believable.
Evidence of that connection is the hardest to find in healthcare. This client could provide it, and they weren’t telling anyone.
Your operating model isn’t your value proposition, and talking about the “machinery” on its own rarely moves a buyer.
Four steps from a different model to a growth story
We worked closely with the organization for about six months, following the same four steps we use to build every growth narrative:
1. SEE THE TENSION.
Employers needed to bring costs down, but they were tired of piecing together care that didn't connect.
2. FIND THE ADVANTAGE THAT ANSWERS THE TENSION.
This client's advantage was built into their model, but nearly every organization has some kind of advantage. Bringing financing and care delivery together let them meet their audience’s need in a way no conventional insurer could.
3. PROVE IT.
We assembled a clear body of evidence a sophisticated employer would believe.
4. MAKE IT TRAVEL.
We shaped all of it into a compelling story the whole business could tell.
Their model gave them something few health plans can claim. Part of our job was helping the team see that and feel confident leading with it.
How we knew the growth narrative was working
The first sign was that the story stopped belonging to marketing and started showing up in how the business went to market. The sales team adopted it as their own, and brokers were trained on it. It became the guidepost for their B2B work.
At one of their events, I watched the CEO stand at the podium and announce the organization had a new way to judge whether its decisions are the right ones: does it fit this story and who we are? They've since asked us to build their next annual commercial growth platform on top of it.
In the 18 months following the launch of their new story, the company reported roughly 40% more RFP activity.
When employees see themselves in the story
Later, at a conference they held for their key brokers and sales leaders, a woman from their team came up to me and said the work made her incredibly proud of where she worked. She said it described who they had always been and always known themselves to be. They just hadn’t had the language to say it to the market.
That's the other way you know a growth narrative is working. It connects to something fundamental in the organization’s DNA and becomes part of the culture. People inside the company recognize themselves in it. That’s the holy grail.
The difference this client led with had been there all along. Our work together gave them the language to say it — and a reason for the market to choose them.
If your organization is different in ways your story isn’t saying yet, we’d love to help you find the language for it.
Shannon Langrand
Founder, CEO
Shannon is dedicated to helping senior leaders in highly dynamic industries to innovate and solve problems in the face of change.
Curious what’s next?
Let’s talk about it.
Doing great work is never a solo act.
.png)
RELATED
