You can not force your Big Idea on the healthcare marketplace.
That’s the definition of a Dumb Idea.
Lots of healthcare IT folks think the market needs IT. This is a recipe for failure.
It’s only when you identify what the market wants that you have a chance.
Do not create any product until you are sure that you can sell it. Do people really want your product, or do you just think they need it?
If you answer yes to the former, then it could be a success. However, if the answer is no and it’s just something you think people need, then nothing I can tell you about branding and positioning will help you sell the product.”
What people need and what people want to buy are often worlds apart. (Even in healthcare IT.)
Don’t make the mistake of forcing your needed product on an uninterested marketplace that doesn’t truly WANT what you have to offer.
Here’s the thing…
The world needs a lot of things.
People need more discipline.
People need to take more personal responsibility.
People need to eat less and exercise more.
People need to spend more time with their kids.
Yet…
Nearly everything people buy is based on what they want, not what they need. Our real needs are simply food, water, and shelter.
Even these food, water, and shelter needs turn into wants. We want gluten free bread, Fiji water, and a house in a gated community.
As a healthcare IT business, when you recognize that you are in the ‘want’ business, it will help you become a better marketer and salesperson, because you will recognize that you have to create ‘want’ in your customers’ hearts. Many technically oriented marketers make the mistake of creating marketing and sales campaigns that are logical and rational. Your healthcare IT solution is better in X number of ways than the competition. If your product truly is a necessity, like heating oil, perhaps this pitch would work. But that won’t work for most IT products and services, even operational critical IT, because when you’re selling wants – you gotta stimulate emotions.
You attract potential buyers with cheese. You scare potential clients away when you show your whiskers.
This podcast from Dean Jackson and Joe Polish is probably the most elementary, straight-forward, non-BS explanation of how branding and positioning really works in the mind of your potential buyer. You see, as humans, our brains operate much like mice. That’s why mice are used in experiments.
When you are trying to get a potential buyers to know, like, and trust you, it boils down to two directives:
Give cheese. No whiskers.
“When you look at that, that is really parallel to what our human drives are.
If you look at it for the mouse, the cheese is pleasure. We’re all kind of motivated by pain and pleasure, and the cheese would be the pleasure and the cat would be the pain.
So, we’re very similar, as humans. We’re driven to focus on the cheese, if you
want to call it that, for our life, which are all the pleasurable things, the good things that
we want, the things that we are attracted to, and to avoid the cats, which would be the
painful things; getting ripped off or getting hurt, or losing money, or taking risks. All
those kind of things, we’re naturally averse to risk and we’re naturally attracted to pleasure.”
What’s the branding and positioning lesson for healthcare IT?
Everything… all your marketing messages… must be focused on what your potential buyer wants (the cheese) without scaring them, raising doubt, or adding risk. (no whiskers) When you show up as the cat- we can help solve your healthcare IT challenges… we have experience in training your staff in healthcare IT… when your marketing talks about you- you’re showing your whiskers.
If you can initially present your thing only focused on the cheese of what it is that
your prospects really want, the better off you are
Finally an exercise:
Get a piece of paper. Divide a line down the middle. Look at every message component, everything that you’re doing. The left side is cheese. The right side is whiskers. Look at every marketing message- all messages on your website, in your emails, how you answer the phone, your client follow up, every single piece of your brand messaging and positioning- and determine if it’s cheese, or if it’s whiskers.
Here’s a hint: Anything about you and your experience and your competency, and your interest is whiskers. Anything about the result and about their desires and their hopes and their dreams, that’s the cheese.
Do this “cheese” audit on all your marketing materials.
While Dean and Joe’s podcast isn’t the usual slick, polished piece (in fact, it has the tone of a home spun good ‘ol boys bar chat), please don’t dismiss the wisdom of the branding and positioning message. Download and listen to the audio. Print out and take notes on the transcript. Do the cheese audit exercise on your marketing materials.
Do you want to open more doors for your healthcare IT solutions? Could your business handle 5 or 6 new healthcare system clients? You… and only you can tell your story and deliver the “cheese” to your potential buyers.
Here’s a free resource page on how to use storytelling to build your brand and create the positioning you need to open doors with potential healthcare organization buyers.
photo credit: Chiot’s Run via photopin cc
