AGENCY: Healthcare Demand Generation
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Our Methodology

A demand problem disguised as a sales problem.

73% of healthcare launches miss forecast. Not because the product is bad - because go-to-market hasn’t adapted to how healthcare now buys: value-analysis committees of 12-24 stakeholders, 24% rep access (down from 80% in 2008), and a clinician who has researched the alternatives before you walk in.

Start with one diagnosis we walked end to end (anonymised at the client’s request). Then the framework behind it, and two named, public engagements where the same chain ran a different way.

What a diagnosis looks like

They were sure the dashboard needed a redesign. The dashboard was not the problem.

One engagement, walked end to end: the presenting symptom, what the chain walk revealed, the prescription, and the outcome. Anonymised at the client's request.

Marketing measurement · Commercial alignment

Pharma marketing team

Anonymised. Named reference contactable on the triage call under MNDA.

Presenting symptom

Beautiful 42-metric dashboard tracking impressions, reach, engagement, open rates, click-through rates. The CFO ignored it. Budget conversations were going badly and marketing couldn't answer the only question that mattered.

What the chain walk revealed

All 42 metrics measured activity. None connected to commercial outcomes. The CFO's one question - what did marketing contribute to pipeline? - couldn't be answered with any of them. The dashboard was a display, not a measurement system.

Prescription

Rebuild the framework around three numbers: marketing-sourced opportunities, marketing-influenced pipeline, and cost per qualified lead. Everything else became supporting detail, available but not foregrounded.

Outcome

47 qualified opportunities the following quarter (23% of pipeline). Cost per qualified lead fell from £520 to £340. The CFO started engaging with marketing results for the first time.

The macro framework

The 3 E’s: Empower. Evolve. Equip.

One target audience: the patient, the clinician, the commissioner you need to reach. Three touchpoints where that audience encounters your product: the rep meeting, the digital research that happens before the rep walks in, and the peer-to-peer conversations in rooms you cannot enter. The 3 E’s coordinate those three touchpoints into a single demand engine.

Sequence matters: Empower before Evolve, Evolve before Equip. The sales force is the touchpoint you can equip from day one. The digital presence is what you build as the product gains traction. Advocates are the touchpoint you only earn once clinicians have used the product enough to want to talk about it. When all three compound, demand stops being something you chase. It becomes something the system generates.

01

Empower your sales team

The touchpoint: the rep meeting. 12 minutes per HCP per week, post-COVID access permanently constrained. Tested messaging, a playbook reps actually use, objection responses that work, and materials that support rather than burden them. Good marketing cannot compensate for a bad pitch. We fix the pitch, then amplify it - so when the rep is in the room, they convert the meeting they fought to get.

02

Evolve your digital presence

The touchpoint: the research phase before the rep walks in. 83% of HCPs prefer digital channels for initial product information. SEO, content, LinkedIn, owned channels - so the same audience encounters you EARLIER in the buying cycle. Content working while reps are asleep. By the time the meeting happens, the clinician already knows the category, the evidence, and your name.

03

Equip your advocates

The touchpoint: the peer-to-peer conversation in rooms you cannot enter. Your best salespeople are not the ones you pay - they are the clinicians who already use your product. We equip them with the data, talking points, and case examples that make those conversations accurate, positive, and compelling. The same audience hears you here too - via the people they already trust.

The diagnostic lenses behind it

Four named frameworks from the book.

Three Layers

Awareness, Demand Generation, Lead Generation. Most companies have layer one and layer three. The revenue gap lives in the middle layer they skipped.

CIPSS

Challenge, Issues, Problems, Symptoms, Solution. Stops reps pitching against the wrong target. Issues annoy. Problems drive purchase.

The Elastic Band

Stretch the message too far from what you can credibly claim and it snaps. Push the fingers too close together and it goes limp. Tension is the point.

SAFE

Substantiated, Accessible, Focused, Engaging. Compliant creativity. Built with the University of Bath. Regulation is a creative parameter, not a wall.

Below, the same chain walked on two named, public engagements.

The same chain, named and public

Two more engagements. Different shapes, same framework.

Patient acquisition across three markets, and NHS market access. Both named, both with public case studies, both running the framework above against a different commercial problem.

Patient acquisition · International

Contura · Arthrosamid

UK, DE, SE. Live direct-to-patient programme.

Presenting symptom

They came in convinced their paid-media partner was the problem and wanted to retender the account. CPA had drifted to £79.56. The commercial team felt the leads weren't qualified.

What the chain walk revealed

The media partner was buying clicks against the right intent. But the ad copy was pitching the product, the landing pages were pitching the condition, and the lead form was capturing browsers, not buyers. The problem was one layer up.

Prescription

Restructure the campaign around regional cost disparity (the North West was carrying London), and rewrite the form sequence around the qualification criteria the clinic network actually uses at intake. Keep the media partner.

Outcome

285 enquiries at £29 blended CPA across three markets. 12.8x ROAS. Meta CTR 4.75% vs sub-1.5% healthcare benchmark. UK market hit 14.4x ROAS against a private consultation price point.

Read the full case study →

Market access · NHS commissioning

BCB Medical · HepCARE

Hepatitis cohort management platform. 29 NHS Trust existing footprint.

Presenting symptom

Clinical evidence was strong. The NHS Trust footprint was real. But NHS commissioners weren't approving the engagement. The team thought the pitch deck needed a redesign.

What the chain walk revealed

The pitch was technically correct but written for clinicians, not commissioners. NHS procurement evaluates against system burden, population need, pathway outcomes, and cost efficiency. HepCARE was being pitched to the wrong frame entirely. The deck wasn't the problem - the messaging architecture was.

Prescription

Build the claims and messaging matrix for NHS procurement first. Three iterations of the proposal deck moving from product-led to problem-led. Reframe the pitch around the NHS's problem, not the client's product.

Outcome

NHS London approved the engagement following the rewritten pitch. Top-tier strategic pharma partnerships followed. The NHS launch that had been stalled became active.

Read the full case study →

The data behind the diagnosis

The market changed. The model didn’t.

Three published, citable shifts in how healthcare now buys. Each one sits behind a different broken link in the commercial chain.

80% → 24%

Rep access to UK healthcare professionals has collapsed since 2008.

The model your launch plan was built for assumes a number that no longer exists. Field investment cannot solve a structural access problem.

Source: ZS Associates, Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Access Study (2008-2021).

12-24

Members of a typical Value Analysis Committee for a major procurement.

‘Win the clinician, win the deal’ describes one vote on a committee of twelve to twenty-four. The decision moved. The pitch usually hasn’t.

Source: WHX Insights, Value Analysis Committee Study (2025).

73%

Of healthcare product launches miss their forecast.

Not because the products are bad. Because go-to-market was built for the old buying behaviour. Predictable, structural, and fixable - with the right diagnosis.

Source: Veeva Systems, Veeva Pulse Field Trends Report (2023).

Sources documented in “It’s Not a Sales Problem.” The diagnostic chain we use on every engagement maps to these three shifts and four further frameworks set out in the book.

How we work with you

Four stages.
Fees begin at stage four.

The process is the same whether you are a startup founder or a global enterprise. The depth changes. The honesty doesn’t.

01

Triage

Free · 30 minutes · With the founder

You tell us where you are. We ask questions about your market, your team, your numbers, your competition. Some will be uncomfortable. By the end of the call, we will both know whether there is a genuine fit. If there is not, we will say so and point you somewhere better. No follow-up emails from a sales team.

What you get

Clarity on whether we can help, and if so, which part of the chain is most likely broken.

02

Diagnosis

Free · Delivered within one week

We assess your market positioning, commercial situation, competitive landscape, and digital presence. Then we tell you what we found: where the chain is broken, what is working that you should protect, and what we would prioritise if it were our money. Many clients tell us the diagnosis alone was worth the conversation.

What you get

A written diagnostic summary. The honest picture.

03

Prescription

Free · Delivered within two weeks

One proposal. One price. Clear scope. No hourly rates that expand. No phases to be scoped later. A document you can take to your board, your procurement team, or your co-founder with confidence. We agree what success looks like at this stage, not after the work starts.

What you get

A board-ready proposal with fixed pricing and agreed success metrics.

04

Treatment

Fees begin here, against the metrics agreed at stage three

The work starts. Every engagement includes measurement. We agreed what success looks like at stage three and we hold ourselves to it. No black boxes. No ‘we need another quarter to see results.’ Live dashboards where relevant, monthly reviews as standard, quarterly strategic check-ins on longer engagements.

What you get

The work, the measurement, and the accountability. The same senior team from triage through to delivery.

Book a Triage Call

30 minutes. No fee. No pitch.

The book

Methodology in print, so the thinking is on record.

It’s Not a Sales Problem: Why Healthcare Innovations Fail to Reach the People Who Need Them.

The 3 E’s, CIPSS, Three Layers, the Elastic Band, SAFE, and the four-stage diagnostic process are not proprietary claims. They are documented, published, and testable. When a methodology is in a book, clients can read it before engaging, interrogate it during, and hold us to it throughout. That accountability is the point.

Read more about the book

See the chain walked on your situation.

The triage call is thirty minutes with the founder. You describe the symptom; we walk the chain on a real call. By the end, we both know which broken link to prioritise - and whether AGENCY is the right team to fix it.

Book a Triage Call

Or see the methodology in action across nine engagements at the case studies, read the book for the thinking on record, or join the newsletter for the longer-form evaluation.

Healthcare innovations deserve recognition. We help them get it.