nih sbir - commercializing health it products

8/14/2019 NIH SBIR - Commercializing Health IT Products

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By Shahid N. ShahCEO, Netspective Communications LLCBlogger at http://www.HealthcareGuy.com


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CEO, Netspective (http://www.netspective.com)

15+ years of entrepreneurship experience 9+ years of executive technology management experience as CTO,

Chief Architect, etc. in healthcare IT firms Lead/Analyst/Consultant on numerous consulting projects in the past

9 years. Sample clients: Executive Office of the President U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (I train them and I have a patent) Northrop Grumman CardinalHealth NIH

American Red Cross Read my blogs to learn more:

http://www.HealthcareGuy.com(healthcare IT) http://www.FederalArchitect.com (government IT) http://shahid.shah.org (general technology)

2www.HealthcareGuy.com
http://www.netspective.com/http://www.healthcareguy.com/http://shahid.shah.org/http://shahid.shah.org/http://shahid.shah.org/http://shahid.shah.org/http://shahid.shah.org/http://www.healthcareguy.com/http://www.netspective.com/


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Product

MarketOpportunity

Pricing andSales Strategy

Marketing

Execution

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Pick one and focus

Enterprise SMB Consumer Government



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Find the right search terms for yourcategory and dont be esoteric

Use search

terms to locatecompetitors

Call up yourcompetitors

and ask fortheir clients

Interviewtheir clients

about whatneedsimprovements



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Whos got themoney?

Whos easy toreach?

Whosbuying?

Is there adecider? Who do youmatter to? Who will geta promotion?



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Target Prospects

Be precise

Be specific

Dont kid yourself

Come up with options Easy to understand

Easy to justify

Convenient to customer

Conduct Interviews Ask for help

Be open minded

Dont assume anything

Compare withCompetitors

Dont dwell on them,though



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Customer Objectives

Why would the customer work with you?

Customer Objections

What are all the reasons they wouldnt?

Business Case

How does the customer convince their boss?

How does the decision maker personally benefit?



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Direct

Resellers

Integrators

Affiliates



11/22Source: Brand Autopsy Blog 11www.HealthcareGuy.com


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Product positioning

Brand-building and increasing visibility

Advertising

Product launches

Lead generation

Sales communications

Maximizing events and trade shows

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Conversations

Engagement

Grass RootsMessaging,Loyalty &

Credibility

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Sponsored PatientCommunities

Wikis and CMS Blogging through others (as

guests) Blogging on your own

Corporate Blogging Microblogging Social Networking

Video Sharing & ScreencastsPodcasts & Radio Shows Social Documents Virtual Worlds


Video Games Online Advertising Search Advertising Social Media Contests

Social Bookmarking Listservsand Online

Discussion Boards E-mail Newsletters Online Calendars

Google Mashups & APIs


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Pull customers at theirconvenience, not push

Nurture leads withsuperior targeting

Immediate Feedbackallows you tofail fast

Lower costs, scalebased on success

ReachCustomers

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Social Media inHealthcare is stillat an early stage

but its the righttime to start.

If youre trying toreach customers

through socialmedia, make surethey are online.

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EstablishGoals

IdentifyResources

Experimentwith Free

tools

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Conversations and passion

Corporate image

Engagement and satisfaction Loyalty and interaction

Trust and authority

Brand awareness

Qualitative

Traffic (increase in PageRank) Sales ranks (new vs. existing)

Leads generated

Mentions on other sites

Minutes per day customerspeaks to us

Quantitative Whats relevant to your

business?

Will you be able to setmeaningful goals and measurethem?

In the end what do you wantout of social media?

Results

If youre trying to sell something, the primary objective is to get people to yourwebsite. Any campaign not focused on getting click-throughs is flawed.

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Close!Be wellprepared

Ask for theorder

Buildrelationships

Set priceexpectations

Dont beafraid of no



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Healthcare folks are neither technicallychallenged nor simple techno-phobes (theyrebusy saving lives)

Most product decisions are no longer made byclinical folks alone, CIOs are fully involved

Complex, full-featured, products are much harderto sell than simple, stand alone tools that have thecapability of interoperating with other solutions

Hospitals will not buy unless one proves value. Selling into doctors offices is really, really hard.

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