Situations
Find your
situation.
We don’t name clients on a website in healthcare. What we can do is describe the situations we walk into. One of these will sound familiar. That’s the point.
Assessment · 4 quick questions
Which situation is yours?
Four questions. Thirty seconds. We'll point you at the one of the eight that fits, then you decide whether to keep reading.
What’s your role?
Where is the product?
Biggest pain (pick one or two)
0 of 2 selected
Next 90 days: biggest priority
Answer all four and we'll surface the match.
01
“We built something brilliant. Nobody knows it exists.”
Audience
Founders and startups
The hero
A founder. Two years of R&D. A product that works. Regulatory clearance in hand. A small team that believes in what they've built. Savings spent. Investor runway ticking. Everything riding on what happens next.
The problem
They'd told the story a hundred times to investors but couldn't explain it in thirty seconds to a surgeon. The first three clinicians they approached didn't return the call. Not because they weren't interested. Because they'd never heard of them. No messaging. No playbook. No digital presence. No plan for how to create demand beyond 'get out there and sell.'
Every founder in healthcare hits this wall. The science got you here. The science won't get you further. The gap between regulatory approval and commercial traction is where brilliant products go to die quietly.
Two paths from here
What most try
Hire a commercial lead from the biggest name on their shortlist. Brief them on the science. Hand them a pitch deck built by R&D. Ask them to 'get out there and sell.' Assume momentum will follow a good hire.
What happens
The new hire spent four months learning the product instead of selling it. The deck didn't survive first contact with a procurement conversation. Clinicians said they'd think about it and never called back. Quiet. Then quieter.
Where it ends
Another twelve months of the founder doing all the selling. Runway burning. Investors asking traction questions nobody could answer with numbers. A brilliant product reaching patients two years later than it should have. Or never.
The guide
A thirty-minute triage call. Uncomfortable questions about their commercial readiness. An honest assessment that most of their messaging was built from the inside out. How the R&D team described the product, not how a clinician would describe the problem it solves.
The plan
Messaging architecture built from how clinicians actually talk about the problem. A founder handover pack so the first hire could be productive in weeks, not months. A digital presence that meant surgeons had heard of them before the first meeting.
What happened
The new hire was productive in six weeks instead of the usual four to six months. The messaging survived first contact with a procurement committee. Clinicians started returning calls. Within twelve months, the product was in use and the revenue curve was bending upward.
The transformation
The founder stopped being the only person who could sell the product. They went from pitching in corridors to having surgeons call them. The company went from 'promising idea' to 'credible commercial operation.' The investors saw traction, not just potential.
In this case
First hire productive in 6 weeks. Revenue curve positive within 12 months.
If this sounds like where you are, the next step is a 30-minute triage call. No pitch. We ask questions, you ask questions, and we tell you honestly whether this is a problem we can fix.
Talk to the team about this situation →02
“The launch missed forecast. Nobody can explain why.”
Audience
Growing companies
The hero
A commercial director at a mid-size MedTech company. Twelve reps. A product that won every clinical evaluation. Strong evidence. Good relationships with key clinicians. Everything pointed to a successful launch.
The problem
Six months in, the revenue curve was flat. The best rep was at 180% of target. The worst was at 40%. Same product. Same training. Same territory structure. The variance was enormous and nobody could explain it. Marketing had produced content the sales team didn't use. Events had generated badge scans sitting in drawers. The distributor was sending optimistic reports and requests for more brochures.
The board was asking what went wrong. The honest answer was that nothing had gone wrong, specifically. Everything had gone wrong, structurally. The product was ready. The messaging wasn't. The sales team was trained on features, not situations. Marketing was treated as a department, not an infrastructure. Finance had never modelled what the launch should return, so nobody knew whether it was actually working or not.
Two paths from here
What most try
Add reps. Run another sales kick-off. Brief the agency for more content. Book a bigger stand at the next congress. Every lever pulled is a sales lever, because the problem is labelled 'sales.'
What happens
Twelve more months of activity without leverage. The best rep stayed at 180%. The weakest drifted toward 30%. Marketing produced content the sales team still didn't use. The next congress generated another 400 badge scans and four qualified meetings.
Where it ends
The board concludes the product isn't viable. It was always viable. Nobody set it up to succeed. Pricing pressure arrives. The reposition gets expensive.
The guide
A diagnosis that walked the entire commercial chain: positioning, messaging, sales enablement, digital presence, advocate programme, measurement. Not fixing one link. Finding the weakest one.
The plan
The full 3 E's programme. Messaging architecture built from customer research, not internal assumptions. A sales playbook with the Five Ps toolkit: what every rep says, how they say it, what they leave behind. Digital content strategy so clinicians had heard of them before the twelve-minute meeting. An advocate programme with eight key clinicians who were already using the product and willing to talk about it.
What happened
Conversion improved from 18% to 31%. The sales cycle shortened by three weeks. Qualified enquiries increased by 47%. The variance between best and worst rep narrowed by 60%. Not because the reps changed. Because the system changed.
The transformation
The commercial director walked into the next board meeting with a dashboard, not a slide deck. Marketing went from cost centre to the department that could prove pipeline. The sales team stopped telling twelve different product stories and started telling one that worked. The company went from 'the launch that missed forecast' to 'the playbook we use for every launch now.'
In this case
18% to 31% conversion. 3-week shorter sales cycle. 47% increase in qualified enquiries.
If this sounds like where you are, the next step is a 30-minute triage call. No pitch. We ask questions, you ask questions, and we tell you honestly whether this is a problem we can fix.
Talk to the team about this situation →03
“We hired a distributor and nothing is happening.”
Audience
Growing companies and enterprise
The hero
A VP of International at a European MedTech company. Product proven in the UK. Regulatory clearance for Germany, France, and Benelux. Three distribution partners appointed. Contracts signed. Expectations set.
The problem
Nine months in, the distributors were underperforming in all three markets. They'd been handed a bag and told to sell. No playbook. No claims guidance. No co-branded materials. No accountability framework. No training beyond a two-hour product session over Zoom.
The distributors were doing what distributors do. They were selling whichever product in their bag was easiest to close. It wasn't this one. Because this one required a conversation about changing clinical practice, and nobody had given them the tools or the confidence to have that conversation.
Meanwhile, the company was choosing markets based on which distributor they knew, not which market was most viable. Nobody had modelled the regulatory burden, reimbursement potential, or competitive density. The 'tour guide trap' was in full effect: a single local contact who knew people but couldn't build a market.
Two paths from here
What most try
Trust the distributors. Send more brochures. Ask for quarterly updates. Assume the deal is the work. Chase the optimistic report. Extend the contract because replacing a distributor is harder than keeping one.
What happens
Eighteen months of activity reports without pipeline. The distributor's best reps selling the easier products in the same bag. First-customer pilots that never converted to orders. Competitors establishing positions nobody had scouted.
Where it ends
The territories get quietly written off, or the distribution contract gets terminated at cost. A country manager is hired to 'fix it.' Twelve more months burn while the company rebuilds the commercial model from zero.
The guide
A market diagnostic that scored each country across regulatory burden, reimbursement potential, competitive density, and operational feasibility. An honest assessment that the messaging didn't translate. Not linguistically. Culturally. What resonates with a UK surgeon doesn't land the same way in Munich.
The plan
Market diagnostic per country. Localised messaging built for each buying culture. Distributor enablement with the Five Ps toolkit adapted for each partner. Claims frameworks per regulatory environment. A launch event strategy per market. Quarterly distributor reviews against agreed targets.
What happened
First customers in all three markets within nine months of the programme starting. Distributor onboarding reduced from six months to eight weeks. Clear attribution from marketing to pipeline across all markets. The distributors went from passive order-takers to equipped partners who could tell the story.
The transformation
The VP stopped chasing distributors and started managing a system. Each market had a dashboard. Each distributor had targets, tools, and accountability. The company went from 'we're in three markets' to 'we're growing in three markets.' The next market entry took half the time because the playbook existed.
In this case
3 new markets activated. Distributor onboarding from 6 months to 8 weeks. First customers in 9 months.
If this sounds like where you are, the next step is a 30-minute triage call. No pitch. We ask questions, you ask questions, and we tell you honestly whether this is a problem we can fix.
Talk to the team about this situation →04
“We spent £200K on congresses. The CFO wants to know what it delivered.”
Audience
Enterprise
The hero
A marketing director at a global MedTech subsidiary. Four major congresses per year. Six-figure annual events budget. A stand that looked impressive. Badge scanners that worked overtime. 'Great conversations' noted in the post-event report.
The problem
The CFO asked a simple question: what did the events budget deliver to pipeline? The marketing director reached for proxies. Booth visitors. Badge scans. 'Conversations with key opinion leaders.' Social media impressions from the congress hashtag. None of it was pipeline. None of it was revenue. None of it answered the question.
The truth was that nobody had defined success before committing the budget. Nobody had identified the twenty people in the room who actually mattered. Nobody had tracked whether those people had been met, what was discussed, or what happened next. The events were moments in time, not campaigns. Sixty-five thousand on a congress booth, four hundred badges scanned, seven converted to qualified prospects. Nine thousand three hundred per meaningful conversation. Nobody measured this because nobody set up the measurement.
Two paths from here
What most try
Defend the budget with the numbers you have. Badge scans. Booth footfall. Social impressions. Claim the event was 'great for brand.' Add a second symposium to prove commitment. Hope the CFO asks someone else next quarter.
What happens
The CFO asked again. Then ran the maths. The events budget got cut by 40%. The stand shrank. The team lost the congresses that actually mattered alongside the ones that didn't, because nobody could tell them apart.
Where it ends
Presence at tier-one congresses is conceded to competitors. The events function is absorbed into generic marketing. The pipeline those events were quietly generating evaporates before anyone realises it was there.
The guide
A question that reframed everything: 'If you knew in advance that 60% of the people at your stand have no buying authority, would you change how you run the event?'
The plan
Beyond the Badge Scan methodology. Define success before committing budget. Identify the twenty decision-makers in the room by name. Build the environment that makes those conversations happen naturally. Staff training on qualification: knowing within ninety seconds whether this person can buy. Pipeline tracking from first meeting through to close. Post-event follow-up within forty-eight hours, not three weeks.
What happened
340% ROI demonstrated: for the first time in the company's history, they could prove what events delivered. Decision-maker meeting rate increased 3x. Marketing earned an increased budget allocation as a direct result. The data showed which events were worth attending and which weren't. The portfolio was restructured around evidence, not tradition.
The transformation
The marketing director stopped defending the events budget and started directing it. They walked into the budget meeting with data, not hope. The CFO went from sceptic to advocate. The events team went from logistics coordinators to pipeline generators. The company discovered that fewer, better events with proper measurement outperformed a busy calendar of untracked appearances.
In this case
340% event ROI demonstrated. 3x decision-maker meeting rate. Budget increased as a direct result.
If this sounds like where you are, the next step is a 30-minute triage call. No pitch. We ask questions, you ask questions, and we tell you honestly whether this is a problem we can fix.
Talk to the team about this situation →05
“The product is in 50 clinics. Utilisation is inconsistent.”
Audience
Growing companies and enterprise
The hero
A commercial leader at a MedTech manufacturer. Orthopaedic implants sold through surgeons. The product was in fifty clinics. Some clinics were thriving. Others were barely using it. The company was entirely reliant on clinician referral networks for patient volume. If the surgeon had a quiet month, so did the company.
The problem
The product existed. The clinical evidence was strong. But patient volume at the clinics dictated utilisation, and the company had no mechanism to influence patient volume. They were selling to clinics but the clinics needed patients. Private healthcare was growing: 10% year-on-year in UK self-pay. Patients were choosing their own treatments. 77% were researching online before booking. But the company had never marketed to patients because everyone assumed it was too regulated.
It is regulated. It's not impossible. It's the fourth revenue lever most healthcare companies haven't pulled.
Two paths from here
What most try
Add more clinics. Run more KOL dinners. Push the sales team to chase utilisation in the lowest-performing sites. Assume patient marketing is 'too regulated' and park the conversation for another year.
What happens
New clinics added. Utilisation stayed inconsistent. The best clinics stayed busy because they were already a destination. The weakest clinics stayed quiet because nobody was sending them patients. The gap widened.
Where it ends
Continued dependence on surgeon referral networks that can't be scaled. A competitor figures out compliant patient marketing first and locks in the category story. The company knows the product is underutilised but has no lever left to pull.
The guide
A legal assessment first: not to prove it was possible, but to define exactly where the boundaries were. A framework for working within regulatory constraints creatively, not recklessly.
The plan
Co-marketing programme across the clinic network. Co-branded patient content that was compliant, not timid. Find-a-clinic functionality. Real-time analytics per clinic so the company could see which clinics were generating patient demand and which weren't. A feedback loop that turned marketing data into clinic-level insight.
What happened
23% increase in procedure volume within twelve months. Clinics actively requesting marketing support: the relationship shifted from transactional to partnership. The competitive moat deepened because competitors hadn't figured out how to do this compliantly. Patient enquiries at enabled clinics up 31%. Clear attribution from content to bookings.
The transformation
The commercial leader discovered a revenue lever nobody in the organisation had considered. The clinics became partners, not just customers. Patient volume became something the company could influence, not just hope for. The board saw a new growth pathway that didn't require more sales reps.
In this case
23% procedure volume increase. 31% increase in patient enquiries. Clinics requesting support.
If this sounds like where you are, the next step is a 30-minute triage call. No pitch. We ask questions, you ask questions, and we tell you honestly whether this is a problem we can fix.
Talk to the team about this situation →06
“We’re entering a new market and we’re guessing.”
Audience
Growing companies and enterprise
The hero
A CEO of a 40-person diagnostics company. Product established in the UK with strong adoption. The board wanted international expansion. Three markets identified based on a conversation at a congress and a contact who 'knows people in the Middle East.'
The problem
The market entry strategy was built on relationships, not data. Nobody had scored the target markets across regulatory burden, reimbursement potential, competitive density, or operational feasibility. The contact in the Middle East turned out to know people, but couldn't build a market: the 'tour guide trap' that derails more international expansions than any other single factor.
The messaging that worked in the UK didn't land. Not because it was wrong: because it was British. The way a UK surgeon talks about a clinical problem is different from how a surgeon in Dubai or Singapore describes the same issue. The company had translated their materials. They hadn't localised them.
Two paths from here
What most try
Sign all three distribution deals. Attend six regional congresses. Translate the UK collateral. Run a launch event in each market. Trust that activity equals traction and wait for the numbers to catch up.
What happens
Nine months of travel and spend spread thin across three markets. Leads in none of them. The Middle East contact's relationships turned out to be friendships, not buying authority. The competitor who picked one market properly took the category.
Where it ends
Twelve months of runway burned with nothing to show a board. Territories closed quietly. The international strategy rewritten from scratch. The CEO explains to investors why the expansion story slipped a year.
The guide
A market prioritisation framework that ranked options by data, not gut feel. An honest assessment that two of the three target markets weren't viable in the near term. The regulatory burden didn't justify the reimbursement potential.
The plan
Focus on the one market where the numbers worked. Localised messaging built for how clinicians in that market actually make decisions. A distribution partner selection process based on capability, not just connections. The Five Ps toolkit adapted for the local team. An event strategy designed around the two congresses that mattered, not the six the company planned to attend.
What happened
Partnerships with major hospital trusts established within six months. The focused approach delivered faster results than the scattered one would have. The second market was entered twelve months later with a proven playbook. The third market was deprioritised entirely based on the data: saving a year of wasted investment.
The transformation
The CEO stopped making market entry decisions at congress dinners and started making them with a scorecard. The board saw a disciplined international strategy, not an optimistic spreadsheet. The company learned that entering one market properly was worth more than entering three markets hopefully.
In this case
Major hospital trust partnerships in 6 months. Second market entered with proven playbook. One market deprioritised, saving 12+ months of investment.
If this sounds like where you are, the next step is a 30-minute triage call. No pitch. We ask questions, you ask questions, and we tell you honestly whether this is a problem we can fix.
Talk to the team about this situation →07
“The clinical evidence is there. Procurement doesn’t speak clinical.”
Audience
HealthTech and NHS-facing companies
The hero
A Finnish healthtech company. Twenty years of clinical data. 10.5 million integrated NHS test results. Active in 420 clinics. Trusted by 29 NHS Trusts. A cohort management platform that solved a genuinely difficult problem: tracking blood-borne virus patients across fragmented NHS infrastructure. The clinical case was overwhelming. The commercial case didn't exist yet.
The problem
The existing materials were written for clinicians and data teams. Integration architecture, cohort analytics, multidisciplinary team workflow documentation. All technically correct. None of it in the language an NHS London commissioning room needed to hear. Procurement decision-makers needed system burden, population need, pathway outcomes, and cost efficiency. The pitch wasn't failing. It was speaking to the wrong audience.
The underlying need was real and urgent. NHS BBV testing had identified over 3,600 new hepatitis patients in 21 months, creating an unfunded burden on clinical infrastructure across five ICS regions. The case for a platform that managed this cohort at scale was unanswerable. Nobody had framed it that way.
Two paths from here
What most try
Refine the product demonstration. Add more clinical case studies. Extend the pitch deck to seventy slides. Chase individual champions inside trusts and hope one of them can carry the argument into commissioning.
What happens
Three more rounds of technical presentations to commissioning rooms that needed a different conversation. The clinical champions loved it. The commissioners didn't have language to defend it in the budget meeting. Budgets closed without it.
Where it ends
Two decades of clinical proof reaching the final procurement step and failing there. A simpler competitor arrives with a cleaner commercial argument and takes the commissioning line. The platform stays trusted by clinicians and unfunded by the system.
The guide
Start with a messaging matrix, not a slide deck. What does NHS London actually need to say yes to? Not a product demonstration. The question is: what problem is procurement already trying to solve, and how does this become the logical conclusion to that question?
The plan
A claims matrix mapping every substantiated assertion against evidence type and regulatory standing. Messaging hierarchy built for three stakeholder layers: clinical leads, system managers, and commissioning bodies. Three iterations of the proposal deck. The final version moved from product-led to problem-led, positioning the platform as the answer to a question NHS London was already asking.
What happened
NHS funding secured. Multiple large strategic pharma partnerships followed as a direct result of the engagement. A platform with two decades of clinical proof finally had the commercial architecture to match.
The transformation
The team walked into NHS London with a commissioning argument instead of a product demonstration. The platform already trusted by 29 NHS Trusts got the backing to grow. The clinical case was always there. The commercial translation was what was missing.
In this case
NHS funding secured. Multiple large strategic pharma partnerships. One pitch deck.
If this sounds like where you are, the next step is a 30-minute triage call. No pitch. We ask questions, you ask questions, and we tell you honestly whether this is a problem we can fix.
Talk to the team about this situation →08
“Two million patients need this treatment. None of them know it exists.”
Audience
MedTech manufacturers with private-pay treatments
The hero
One of the world's largest medical device manufacturers. A non-surgical knee treatment available at over 50 private clinics across the UK. Two million people in the target patient cohort. The product was available. The clinical evidence was strong. The clinics were ready. Almost none of the patients who needed the treatment knew it existed.
The problem
GPs had limited awareness of non-surgical options for early-onset knee OA. The default referral pathway went to pain management or knee replacement. All existing product messaging was written for orthopaedic surgeons: procedure codes, mechanism of action, clinical trial data. The language that convinces a surgeon tells a 52-year-old who just wants to keep running nothing at all.
The entire commercial system was oriented toward clinicians. Patients who might benefit were searching online and not finding the product. GPs who might refer didn't know it existed. Fifty clinics were open, ready, and underutilised. The gap between available and utilised was costing the company revenue every single month.
Two paths from here
What most try
Sign up more clinic partners. Run more KOL dinners. Produce more clinical collateral aimed at surgeons. Accept the regulatory framing that patient marketing is too hard and park it for another planning cycle.
What happens
More clinics onboarded. The same two million patients continuing down the default pathway into pain management or knee replacement. Appointment slots at the fifty existing clinics still unfilled. The commercial team still entirely dependent on GP referral habits that hadn't moved in a decade.
Where it ends
A competitor figures out compliant patient marketing first and owns the category conversation. Clinics that were sitting idle become the reason a different product wins the market. The treatment stays available. The patients stay unaware. The gap stays open.
The guide
Build the infrastructure that connects patients to the product. Not a campaign. A system. With compliant messaging, attributed tracking per clinic, and a channel strategy built around how patients actually search when they are in pain and considering their options.
The plan
Five distinct patient personas developed with geographical mapping and lifestyle profiling. Patient-facing messaging built compliantly with the Centre for Pain Research at the University of Bath. A full digital ecosystem including a Find a Clinic locator, with tracked landing pages per clinic so every referral was attributable by clinic, keyword, and campaign variant. National PR including a Daily Mail feature with a patient ambassador from Strictly Come Dancing.
What happened
128 clinic referrals from the Find a Clinic page in a single month. £18.66 cost per acquisition against private consultation prices of £200 and above. 157% uplift in conversions versus the prior period. 50.9% improvement in conversion rate against the benchmark. The campaign expanded to broadcast and lifestyle media in the following quarter.
The transformation
The company discovered that their biggest growth lever wasn't more clinic partners or additional clinical evidence. It was connecting patients who were already searching to the clinics where the treatment was already available. The patient acquisition system built from scratch became the model for every direct-to-patient programme that followed.
In this case
128 patient referrals in one month. £18.66 cost per acquisition. 157% uplift in conversions.
If this sounds like where you are, the next step is a 30-minute triage call. No pitch. We ask questions, you ask questions, and we tell you honestly whether this is a problem we can fix.
Talk to the team about this situation →
These are real journeys.
Every situation on this page happened. The problems, the outcomes. All real. We can share the full details on a triage call: who, where, the therapy area, the complete numbers. We just can’t put client names on a website in healthcare. You understand why.
The pattern repeats. The situations look different on the surface: a stalled launch in the UK, a failing congress strategy in Germany, a patient marketing programme that generates awareness but no bookings. Underneath, the same handful of structural failures appear again and again. We’ve probably seen your problem before. Just wearing different clothes.
30 minutes. No fee. Bring your situation.
Read the campaign-type guides
What good looks like, by campaign type.
If your situation matches one of the stories above, the campaign-type guide is the next layer down. Each one names a single buyer decision and gives an opinionated read on the right answer for healthcare.
Pick what suits you.
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