Healthcare is the only market that I know (probably someone will disprove me here) where the one who pays, the one who uses and the one who benefits are clearly three separate individuals. It is important to bear this in mind when launching a start-up, because it affects how products or services enter the market.
The “one” who pays is usually governments or hospital CEOs. This payer will likely be ready to buy when there is proof of some cost reduction or some efficiency gain. The useful pitch becomes then something like “if you introduce this in your center or in the National Healthcare System, you will save costs, you will gain efficiency or speed, you will provide a faster service”, etc… any of those will do).
The “one” who uses or prescribes the product is usually the physician, and he/she is certainly looking for things that save him time or bring excellence to his work (“if you use this you will do things faster and safer, your patients will do better, you will be on the leading edge of medicine”, etc.)
And finally, the “one” who benefits from it is clearly the patient, the citizen, and he will value things that provide comfort, convenience, efficacy, or things that empower him/her (“if the doctor uses this in your case you will get better, you will feel more comfortable, you will be more in charge, you will need less waiting”, etc.).
Some of the projects that I see fail to address this, and market their products or services paying attention to just one of the stakeholders. The truth is in most healthcare products or services all three stakeholders need to be interested at the same time. So, if you are planning to bring a product or service to the healthcare market, you should start thinking on how will you pitch its benefits to the three stakeholders. Each one of them needs a different message.
In retail healthcare (and that’s the beauty of it), this triple stakeholder structure collapses, and the one who buys (pays), the one who uses and the one who benefits become the same person, the patient.
The “one” who pays is usually governments or hospital CEOs. This payer will likely be ready to buy when there is proof of some cost reduction or some efficiency gain. The useful pitch becomes then something like “if you introduce this in your center or in the National Healthcare System, you will save costs, you will gain efficiency or speed, you will provide a faster service”, etc… any of those will do).
The “one” who uses or prescribes the product is usually the physician, and he/she is certainly looking for things that save him time or bring excellence to his work (“if you use this you will do things faster and safer, your patients will do better, you will be on the leading edge of medicine”, etc.)
And finally, the “one” who benefits from it is clearly the patient, the citizen, and he will value things that provide comfort, convenience, efficacy, or things that empower him/her (“if the doctor uses this in your case you will get better, you will feel more comfortable, you will be more in charge, you will need less waiting”, etc.).
Some of the projects that I see fail to address this, and market their products or services paying attention to just one of the stakeholders. The truth is in most healthcare products or services all three stakeholders need to be interested at the same time. So, if you are planning to bring a product or service to the healthcare market, you should start thinking on how will you pitch its benefits to the three stakeholders. Each one of them needs a different message.
In retail healthcare (and that’s the beauty of it), this triple stakeholder structure collapses, and the one who buys (pays), the one who uses and the one who benefits become the same person, the patient.
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