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How to Successfully Pitch Your Marketing Plan and Budget to Leadership

By The SHSMD Team posted 06-19-2019 12:26 PM

  
If you're a marketing leader, when was the last time you made a pitch to the C-suite for a budget request or to propose a new idea or campaign?

Marketing consultant Rob Rosenberg, president of Springboard Brand & Creative Strategy, Ltd., in Chicago said these situations can be challenging because “there often is a disconnect between what marketers provide and what CEOs want.”

Paul A. Szablowski, an independent consultant and former senior vice president of brand experience at Texas Health Resources in Dallas, agrees. "Seventy-five percent of CEOs want their chief marketing officer (CMO) more focused on return on investment and new customer acquisition," he said, referring to findings of an Accenture survey of global companies in 2016.
Szablowski and Rosenberg indicated the biggest mistake they see health care marketers make is focusing too much on marketing and not enough on the hospital or health system's vision and strategic goals."

Here's how they recommend winning over the C-suite.

Focus on the big picture. "Selling ideas or plans to CEOs and other senior leaders today has to reflect growth goals and new patient acquisition," stated Rosenberg. Szablowski added, "Stop being obsessed with the selling process and start being obsessed with the buying process. It doesn't matter what you believe, it matters what the buyer believes, and the buyer is top management."
That means concentrating on service line growth is not enough. "It's not about your product or service," Szablowski said. "It's about the space where it exists, the experience it creates, the opportunity it exposes and the value it realizes."

Appreciate the numbers. Szablowski recommends focusing on profit margin, customer retention and the lifetime value of a customer to your system and your market. These are the “dashboards” your C-suite is most interested in versus digital metrics they typically don’t understand and/or appreciate.

Understand the language of business. Success requires a new perspective complete with a new language, said Szablowski. For instance, instead of presenting a marketing budget, you're asking for a marketing investment; your presentation isn't about dollars, it's about the hospital or health system's growth goals and the kind of investments required to make those goals a reality. "Words are our business," Szablowski said. "It matters how you use them, especially in the C-suite."

Reimagine your role. "You don’t just do marketing," Rosenberg noted. "You're a growth-oriented marketing leader; someone who is instrumental in helping the organization expand. This is how you need to be positioned and perceived in your organization to sustain growth and respect. Ditch the pitch during annual planning and budget meetings. Instead, think ‘interactive consultative selling.’ If we do all talking and they're not asking questions it's just a pitch and you risk losing the marketing budget you worked for," he said.

Differentiate your brand and articulate the value proposition. "It's not enough to describe your features and capabilities," emphasized Rosenberg. "As part of your value proposition, you have to identify who your customer is and the relevance and value you bring in their life. Adds Szablowski, “terms such as ‘comprehensive’ and ‘we care’ just don’t cut it as brand levers – you have to create your own set of key words that describe the experience and benefit your brand provides.”

Align your responsibilities and accountabilities. If you want to gain a seat at the table you have to be aggressive, not wait for it to happen, stated Szablowski. “Make appointments with the CEO and chief financial officer and ask them about your organization's vision and strategic plan, where the revenue is coming from and where you need to focus geographically; then use that information to come up with a game plan." Said Rosenberg, “If you feel as though your responsibilities don’t align with their expectations, you need to say something then, not after the fact.”

Follow these recommendations, the marketers urged, and you can set yourself up for success with the C-Suite.

To learn more...

SHSMD members, read the article “Lessons from the Shark Tank: How to Pitch Your Marketing Plan and Budget to Leadership” published in a recent issue of Spectrum, SHSMD’s newsletter, with monthly articles on hospital marketing, strategy, communications and business development.

Nonmembers, for more content like this, join SHSMD!

This blog features interviews with:

Paul Szablowski
Principal
Paul Szablowski Consulting
Phoenix, Arizona

Rob Rosenberg
President
Springboard Brand & Creative Strategy, Ltd.
Chicago, Illinois
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