The medtech market is swimming in undifferentiated products, bloated value propositions, interchangeable messages, and unprecedented numbers of medical device competitors in all categories.

Try attending the RSNA or HIMSS annual trade shows. You’ll be assaulted by sameness on a colossal scale. The sales process is longer and costlier than ever, and margins are dropping. Start-ups are getting crushed with a near 100% failure rate. Never has there been a more urgent need for medtech CEOs to invest in marketing and begin reversing this trend.

The medtech device marketing discipline has become devalued

• Many CEOs see marketing as overhead. As a cost center. As a waypoint you rotate in and out of as you climb the company ladder to bigger and better things
• They don’t see it as a strategic differentiator, a business driver, or a competitive advantage
• Many CEOs come from sales. They see sales as a strategic leader, and they expect marketing to play a supporting role, instead of the other way around

Medtech Marketing revaluation action plan
Pilot a new approach—one in which your marketing department and CEO elevate their commitment to each other—and to your organization. Document your progress. Establish momentum. Go horizontally across your organization. Hone your process along the way. Follow this model to revalue your marketing department. Over time, after consistent success, a CMO role might emerge. Even better, your next CEO might emerge from it.

step 1

Sell the CEO on the difference-making potential of marketing. Commit to performance that:

• Nullifies your medical device competitors’ agendas
• Drives demand for what you uniquely offer
• Shortens the sales cycle
• Improves close rates and margins
• Attracts top talent
• Nurtures customer and sales rep loyalty
• Creates a quantifiable ROI
• Becomes a competitive advantage that competitors recognize as a threat

step 2

In order to get the performance outlined in Step 1, the CEO must commit the following to marketing:

• Expectations of a multi-year strategic plan
• Culture change (e.g., more planning, less reacting)
• Up-leveled staffing (e.g., more strategic marketers, fewer tactical marketers)
• Appropriate marketing budgets
• Investment in digital
• Accountability to both the top and bottom lines

MAKE SHIFT HAPPEN

It all starts with building a marketing plan – presented to the CEO – for your organization’s future performance with strategic marketing leadership. It’s a big undertaking that you need to get right, but you don’t have to go it alone. As a specialized medtech marketing agency with fourteen years of industry experience, VIVO is here to help,

Reach out today – and start making your shift to being a marketing-led organization.