As a healthcare marketer, a better understanding of the buyer’s journey is important because it helps in crafting targeted campaigns and customer engagement strategies. So, in this Healthtech Marketing podcast, Melanie Turner, Associate Vice President (AVP) at Health System Information Services(HSIS) at UAB, Medicine Enterprise, shares valuable lessons based on her perspective as a healthcare customer.
Melanie talks to Adam Turinas who is, the CEO & Founder of healthlaunchpad. The podcast is brought to you in partnership with HIMMS.
We hope you find the lessons in the podcast video below valuable and applicable as you focus on developing and optimizing your organization’s ABM strategy.
Video Podcast: Key Highlights Timestamps
0.16 – HIMMS Partnership, & Guest Speaker Introduction
1: 52 – Introduction: Melanie Turner & UAB Medicine Enterprise
4: 30 – About UAB Medicine Enterprise’s IT Department
6: 10 – Melanie Turner – The Healthcare Technologies Used & Approach
9: 33 – How Technology Purchasing Has Changed Operations
10:38 – UAB – How Purchasing Process Is Organized
11:55 – Lessons Learned During The COVID Pandemic
13:33 – Projects & Decision-making Approach | Department’s Funding
17: 44 – Vendors Identification Sources & Connection Channels
21:08 – What Marketers/Vendors Get Right or Don’t
25:56 – The Buyer’s Journey: Vendors’ Information Resources
28:02 – Pet Peeves: What Marketers/Vendors Should Stop
30:54 – Tips On How Marketers Can Reach & Engage Buyers
33:05 – Melanie Turner’s Final Advice
The Buyer’s Journey Podcast Video: Melanie Turner AVP, HIS UAB Medicine Enterprise
Melanie Turner’s Buyer’s Journey: Podcast Briefs With Time-stamps.
0: 16 – Podcast Introduction
Adam Turinas, CEO of healthlaunchpad, starts with a welcome note and Introduces the guest speaker, Melanie Turner, AVP, UAB Medicine Enterprise
1: 52 – Melanie Turner – Introduction & UAB Medicine Enterprise.
Melanie then begins by introducing herself and talking about her career with UAB. She also explains what their organization does.
4: 30 – The UAB Medicine Enterprise: IT Department’s Size & Roles
In the video, Melanie highlights the following regarding their organization:
- Size: 400 in large departments & over 200 Clinics
- IT Services: Desktop support, Enterprise System Management, Data Analytics, etc.
- How they serve & partner with affiliate hospitals
6: 10 – Melanie Turner – The Healthcare Technologies Used & Selection Approach
Melanie further explains the following as some of the modern healthcare technologies that they focus on in order to enhance their brand awareness and company growth:
- Electronic Health Record(EHR) from a vendor
- Integration of other 3rd party tools in order to improve patients’ health
- Focus on seamless solutions through interoperability and API development
9: 33 – How Technology Purchasing Has Changed Operations
- Being able to adapt based on technological changes
- Ability to make some decisions a little quicker than before
- Need to focus on understanding the problems in order to focus on developing or proposing solutions
- Being clear on the technology solutions that customers need.
10:38 – Melanie: How Their Purchasing Process Is Organized
- Adopting a budgeting process after consultations with key stakeholders
- Urgent purchases for critical needs. For instance, Remote Patient Monitoring solutions during the pandemic
11:55 – Lessons Learned During The COVID Pandemic
- The need to focus on solutions that improve efficiency has been enhanced
- Improvement in the streamlining of activities.
13:33 – Melanie Details Their Projects’ Scope, Decision-making Approach, & Funding of Departments.
- Identifying the needs and assessing both their sizes and complexities
- Effective understanding of the targets
- Understanding the budget
- Developing Business proposal: resources, efforts, and ROI
- Evaluation by the Leadership Team
- Board Approval depends on the costs.
Departmental Decisions and Funding
- Research Departments get research funding
- Ground-funding through federal or state agencies
- Different departments reach out to be assisted
17: 44 – Melanie Reveal- Sources For Vendors’ Identification, & The Connection Channels Channels They Use
- Assessing class reviews of vendors in order to make the right selection
- Using Gartner to acquire critical data
- Talking to people we know and who understand what we do to ensure we get the right guidance
- Large academic people who fit our profile
How To Connect With Vendors
- Consortiums
- Professional Societies
- Various Organization venues that talk about Technology tools
- Presence in LinkedIn
- Using Twitter in order to market and talk about what we do
21:08 – How Marketers/Vendors Can Get It Right Or Not
- Vendors interested in partnership appeal to us because we value collaboration
- Companies that don’t know what we do or our mission get it wrong
- Marketers who are pushy or salesy drive customers away also don’t get it right.
- Those who understand our needs and communicate attract our interest
- Vendors ought to be transparent and clear on what they can or cannot deliver
- Vendors who during contracting want to nickel-and-dime you are discouraging
- Those who come with more passion than the desire for large payments are cherished
25:56 – Melanie: The Buyer’s Journey Insights: The Most Amazing Information Resources That Some Vendors Provide(That Others Don’t)
In the podcast, Melanie highlights the following as some of the best information that some vendors provide, and which facilitate their engagement with vendors and purchase decisions.
- Comprehensive Websites: Allow you to get the information you need in order to make a purchase decision
- Online Marketing Presence:- Clear short videos on what their products do so that you are well-informed
- Webinars of Vendors & customers because success stories and plans create more awareness and enhance buyer confidence.
28:02 – Pet Peeves: Tendencies That Marketers/Vendors Should Stop
- Over-promising: Vendors who always accept they can do everything but have no proof.
- Marketers like using a lot of buzzwords like Artificial Intelligence(AI) instead of highlighting the kind of AI solutions they offer and, their target beneficiaries.
- Vendors should also stop cold-calling or cold-emailing tendencies. This is because it discourages potential customers
30:54 – Advice To Sales People: The Best Approach To Reach & Engage Customers
Melanie Turner further advises vendors or the Sales team to make and share a lot of information about their solutions and presence through multiple channels such as websites, social media, or events in order to create room for recognition and engagement.
33:05 – Melanie’s Final Advice: Reflections On Past Experiences
Finally, reflecting on her past experiences as a perfectionist, Melanie Turner advises that whatever you do as a marketer, you should not be hard on yourself.
And so, if things don’t go as you expect, take it easy! Do not push yourself
Podcast Subscription
You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple or Spotify podcast and other places
You can also view the video of this podcast through a link in the show notes.
We have got a great program of guests coming up.
So do subscribe so that you do not miss out
Thank you for listening.
If you have a topic you would like me to cover, please, let me know by emailing me at adam@healthlaunchpad.com. You can also reach me through LinkedIn here
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