Winning tricky NHS relationships with ASSETS

Many companies that I advise and know often feel at a loss in how hard it is to engage with the NHS at the early stages of a relationship.

In this quick (ish) article I'd like to expose the problem, share some high level insights into my obsession with assets, and finally some principles that I have formed over the years and will play a starring role in my up-coming course.

Back to the challenges...

Whilst there may be a degree of British-ness, people in the NHS are often particularly reluctant to engage, and don't really like being sold to. 

But the NHS can feel like another level, and I’m curious how many of the following really resonate with you dear reader if you’ve tried to pitch to them to them:

• The NHS is very reluctant to engage in sales processes, and efforts to get them into one-to-one demos and the like can often be very unsuccessful. Actually throughout the whole process the NHS can feel quite disengaged and distanced. 
• The NHS are culturally natural lurkers, for a range of reasons, and throughout the process. This can be very difficult to know whether it's the right time to follow up after a contact or engagement, and gauge interest and readiness with the NHS giving very few buying signals.
• The NHS can be incredibly slow compared to the ideal timescales and targets set by private sector companies, yet chasing them and being pushy or following up too quickly can lead to reputational damage. It’s not the ‘done thing’.
• One of the long-standing challenges that many companies face is that each NHS organisation thinks it's entirely different to every other NHS organisation, which can make it very difficult for those companies to do templates or repeatable processes. Generalisation can leave a bad taste with NHS stakeholders. 
• The NHS can be quick to disengage because of perceived risk or difficulty, which can be a real chicken and egg issue if you rightly seek to start with value and shift to assurance, not overwhelming with information.
• Folks in the NHS can be very cautious giving away emails and other such details, and there is very little information in the public domain. There are of course areas to get information and ways to get information, but GDPR can make that very difficult, and direct contact can feel more abrupt than the NHS likes.

Putting all the other environmental challenges aside, that’s a bloody hard audience for any business.

Build and💗Assets

If you talk to any of my past and present clients you’ll hear that I’m obsessed with assets (along with a number of other things!).

By assets what I mean is creating things that will work for you, and in the right kind of way. I’m not just talking about a website or a cheeky video explainer or LinkedIn post (although these are of course useful assets), but the things that you can build and use proactively to invite, intrigue, empathise, validate, assure, comply, prepare and support those who will help carry you further into being part of the NHS.

Proactive organisations create assets.

And true to the word assets are things that work for you, and hopefully produce compound benefits.

Reactive organisations service debt.

The NHS is full of messy, time and energy sapping, reductionist processes and needs that can feel like a debt you need to service, and in turn sap your time and energy and create problems down the road.

Yes sometimes you have no choice but to service them, but a proactive asset driven approach will make everyone’s life easier.

But shouting CREATE ASSETS is easy, knowing how, when and where to finesse them is where the real works starts.

I'm not going to give you the kitchen sink today, but here are 11 principles that I would say underpin my philosophy of developing and leveraging assets with the NHS. They're an excerpt from my "MIND BENDINGLY COMPREHENSIVE COURSE"* coming next month.

ONE - Always Build Collateral (aka the ABC)

As someone who has done reviews for MANY healthtech companies I can’t understate how little collateral I usually find, and that to be candid is focused on the wrong things in the wrong way.

Whilst you will hopefully know where you are as a business, what you may not have considered is whether in the context of these areas your assets and collateral are mature and sophisticated enough to help you pass the next threshold.

TWO - Level up like you’re in an RPG

You’re only as strong as your weakest area, so you’ve got to spread your energy to make sure your assets cover the main touchpoints you’ll need to successfully engage.

THREE - Focus on where you need to get to next

Don’t sell the biggest vision and go for general scattergun. It’s a poor strategy, and results in weak assets. Focus on the next thing you need to achieve in your assets and keep it clear and strong.

FOUR - All roads lead to the narrative

Your core narrative should be clear and consistent across your collateral and assets, with a strong central narrative that really defines your value proposition. We’ll cover this load in the course.

and...

FIVE - All narratives lead to the problem

Meet people where they are and expose the problems you solve. Don't jump in for the snog with a solution, always bring it back to them and their problems. Relationships come with trust and trust comes with you really showing you understand their needs.

SIX - Best validation possible

Validate as much as you can in the narrative in your assets, and build this up over time as you’re more able to validate more.

SEVEN - Sell the peer not the product

The biggest influencer of an NHS organisation is another, ideally similar, organisation. If you can promote their success and outcomes then others will be more likely to want to replicate them, and commission you.

EIGHT - If you can then personalise

When and where possible try to make targeted assets personalised, so they can see that you fit them.

As I noted above - many NHS organisations think they're entirely different to every other NHS organisation. Generalisation fails <> personalisation wins.

NINE - Purpose, repurpose, repurpose

If you can create an article, then consider a brochure, if you can get a quote try to get a video. Different formats are useful for different scenarios, and taking a modular approach (e.g. case study videos you can slot in to a proposal to do the work for you) can help you to strengthen your story and your NHS relationships.

TEN - Build for behind closed doors

Some of your assets will need to go and work for you behind the curtain of the NHS, as colleagues pass them around.

You want this and for them to work for you, when you can’t be in the room.

Think about who is behind the veil of engagement, hidden from view, and build assets to inform and assure them.

ELEVEN - Investors and customers mix poorly

Many orgs try to compromise between what the next investor wants to see on your collateral and what the NHS commissioner wants to see. Compromise kills opportunity.

Either focus on those who give you contracts when you can OR find a way / place that you can put across the full value proposition for the NHS audience.

They don't have the time and patience to read between the lines and jump through hoops.

On preaching NHS readiness... (and big plans)

As I've come to realise over the years, there are many many more things that need to weave together, and no matter how many of these articles I do - and I do a fair few - there's always the risk that these feel like soundbites rather than a meaningful joined up philosophy.

That is why over the last few months I have downed tools with clients, and put my heart, soul and best crap jokes and analogies into an online course for self learning called:

Are you ‘NHS Ready’ - a 10 part review to supercharge working with the NHS

I'm going to put the usual humble aside for a moment.

It's my Middlemarch - actually wait that was hugely long and dense...

Iliad and Odyssey? Same.

OK it's my Sistine Chapel - but less religious...

Look... it's going to be an EPIC for the times we're in, for those looking to elevate their NHS propositions above the noise from the baying crowd.

And my personal 'Epic', now it's finally drafted and in recording mode, will be out this August 2024.

But I'm not going to tell you any more for now...

More coming soon!!!

Yet...

👇👇👇👇

UPDATE - THAT WAS THE PAST BUT WE'RE NOW IN THE FUTURE! WELCOME!

The course is out and it's the most comprehensive and insightful course available on how to understand and get into the NHS 👇

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Liam Cahill is a trusted adviser to frontline providers and national bodies on all things digital, with nearly two decades experience of doing tech stuff in the NHS. He has mentored and advised some of the best known names in Healthtech, and they've usually said some nice things about his work. He regularly posts content, ideas and advice on LinkedIn. Check out his other numerous articles and videos here, and subscribe to his LinkedIn newsletter here.