Thursday, July 2, 2009

When you talk to people who don't need any CI

I was "prospecting" for business today in the healthcare provider industry. A business planner explained their market to me effectively and efficiently and specifically why they didn't really have much in the way of competition. Made a compelling case. It was a quick conversation. Ever had one of those. I've had many.

Yet, at a high level today's conversation was a curious one:

US healthcare dollars are about to be squeezed as never before. Somewhere in that mix will emerge more competitors as pricing/reimbursement drops, care is managed in more restrictive algorithms, more standardized metrics on best outcomes/dollar are around the corner. In short the same number of players with high fixed costs will be competing for less dollars. In this case CI is should be about foresight in terms of how that will evolve and perhaps running all of those scenarios to net out which things you can/should do now regardless of which specific outcome eventuates. This provider even acknowledged that they are making as much per patient now as they probably ever will...only place to go is down.

Moral of the story: I should have known that a 30 minute conversation would never accomplish my objective and stated that upfront - even if it meant the call never happened. I likley could have used that time better on other things. I spoke with someone else in this industry earlier in the week who said there was no one he knew specializing in CI in this part of the industry. And, I landed a gig with another national level player in this space (because they get it).

CI & analysis sells when there is pain (aka surprise). CI sells when there is time for exploration and story telling and analogy development. CI sells when key decision maker is tired of being lied to. CI is a partnership. CI is not a project. It's a process. People don't know what they don't know. Haven't ever found that to be untrue.

Have a great 4th everyone.

No comments:

Post a Comment