Selling to Employers: A Conversation Between Define Ventures, Willis Towers Watson, and Centivo
Employer sales is complex, convoluted, and confusing; yet, collectively employers are the largest buyers of healthcare in the country and routinely purchase dozens of solutions for their employees. While much of employer sales is nuanced and specific to each account, the process does have a rhythm and order — if you know where to look. Define Ventures Partner Chirag Shah recently joined seasoned commercial leaders Cecile Chang and Vinnie Antonelli from Willis Towers Watson, and Ashok Subramanian, Founder/CEO of Centivo, to share insights into segmentation and targeting, clarifying opaque buying cycles, and listening for what brokers and consultants are really saying.
Synopsis
So how do you crack employer sales? Segmentation, segmentation, segmentation. Even though we talk about “employers” as a whole, in reality they represent four distinct markets, each with unique decision makers, buying patterns, channel partners, and interests. Broadly speaking those are fully insured, small group, mid-market, and large/jumbo. Fully insured employers buy their entire benefits stack from a health plan and take no risk (largely due to size), so for the purposes of this we’re focusing only on the other three markets, which are collectively referred to as the self-funded market, i.e. they bear the risk for the medical spend of their populations. Most of them have budget and experience buying solutions for their populations, but each has a unique set of circumstances, constraints, and interests based on the nature of their individual businesses.
As an entrepreneur, the job is ultimately to keep your customer (the employer) happy, but don’t forget that getting to them isn’t always simple. Because of the complexity of benefits, nearly every employer irrespective of size utilizes brokers or consultants to help them with plan administration, benefits selection, enrollment, and often much more. These are trusted entities within our ecosystem that entrepreneurs can and should bring into their sales processes. They can quickly become allies if they see the value in your solution, offering invaluable insight into an employer’s mindset — and potentially connect you with other employers in their rolodex who would be interested.
Once you get in front of the account, there are a few key things to keep in mind: budget, timeline, and ROI. Employers typically draw on two sources of funds to pay for digital health solutions — medical and admin budgets — which are generally delineated by whether or not the product you offer is covered under the employer’s health plan. Timelines matter because while there’s never a bad time to start a relationship, there are definitely more and less optimal times dictated by natural buying cycles; with open enrollment starting in Q4, you can usually work backwards into how to apply that to your own strategy. And finally, know what your ROI is — and what it isn’t; be honest about the value proposition your product delivers and to whom it matters. For example, if you’re in-market with a cost containment product like ICHRA, it may theoretically apply to all employers, but smaller, more regionally based employers will likely be the earliest adopters. Conversely, if your KPI is happy and engaged employees, nationals and jumbos may bite faster than small group since the former is constantly competing for talent.
Suffice it to say, the employer market isn’t easy! Define’s conversation with Ashok, Cecile, and Vinnie dove deep into all of these topics and more, so we hope you’ll join us for the next one.
