Creating Creating the Wowthe Wow

2013 Executive Leadership ConferenceRichard Currier

The breakthrough rules:1. Real customers with clear, pressing needs2. Listen to customers to learn how to lead them3. Showcase theme-based problem-centric stories 4. Change the game to win5. Only leaders thrive

The “must do’s” for selling breakthroughs• Thought lead your market• Thought lead accounts• Obliterate obstacles

Wows/Breakthroughs: Getting There

#1 Real customers/ clear pressing needs

Populations

TargetMarkets

Needs:UrgentImportantUseful

Recognized urgent needs

#2 Listen to Customers to Lead Them Ta

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olum

e

Talk

Pas

sion

Need Categories

Useful Important

Urgent

The formula for great stories:

•They need to be crisp, clear and compelling

•They are problem-centric• The problem is compelling, easily understood, quick to tell and highly empathetic

•Story artifacts make them more compelling• Name dropping (especially people/ peers)

• Numbers (especially numbers about the problem)

• Visual or metaphorical

•You should build a compendium of stories• Multiple stories are needed to accommodate different situations

#3 Showcase Thematic Problem Stories

• It starts with a visionUsually focusing on a different problem

• It requires high impact sales/ marketing•Thought leadership for accounts/ markets•Change the way you sell and market•Change the way they buy

• It is anchored in compelling product attributes

• Sometimes new product is required

#4 Change the Game to Win

#5 Only Leaders Thrivere

venu

e

time

Breakthrough apps that wow!

Where to Start

Goals, objectives, aspirations

Goals, objectives, aspirations

Problems, barriers to success

Long, medium and short term

Target Markets Buyer Needs

Key strategies, themes, stories,…

Ensemble’s underwhelming resultsA great product loved by customers with a mixed market reception

Ensemble’s missed market positioning•Composite apps•Messaging engines

HealthShare’s slow start•Great product but slow uptake•Questionable market (buyer viability, only needed: “simple”?)

HealthShare Needed a Breakthrough

Re-positioned product, re-targeted market:

•Key benefit: HealthShare rapidly delivers high-payback (breakthrough) benefits to some of the most pressing, vexing healthcare problems

•What sets HealthShare apart: HealthShare is an innovative strategic healthcare informatics platform that efficiently delivers far greater value than tactical point solution alternatives

•The three keys to the HealthShare breakthrough:•Strategic interoperability

•Engaged communities

•Analytics in the active dimension

HealthShare: A Wow / Breakthrough

• Market targeting

• Sales training

• The Roadshow

• Targeted thought leadership programs

HealthShare: Driving the Wows

Creating Creating the Wowthe Wow

2013 Executive Leadership ConferenceRichard Currier