Human Capital as Brand Strategy

Welcome back to the Health Marketing Collective where strong leadership meets marketing excellence. I'm your host, Sara Payne and I'm bringing you fascinating conversations with some of the industry's top marketing minds. Today we're talking about how human capital shows up in brand credibility, customer loyalty and even market momentum. Especially in B2B healthcare, where trust isn't just earned by products or platforms, but by the people behind them. My guest today is Melissa Prusher, a full stack marketing leader with 25 years of experience in B2B professional services with a special focus on healthcare IT. She brings a deep understanding of the B2B buyer journey, sales cycles and the marketing technologies that support them, always grounding her work in the power of perspective. Melissa, welcome to the show.

Hey Sara, thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here today.

Yeah, I'm so glad you're here. You are someone who has spent your career really navigating the complexity of B2B health care. Where the sales cycles are long, the decision making process can feel very rational and data driven. But what's often overlooked in all of that is this human factor, the trust, the credibility and the connection that people bring to the brand. So let's start there. Why do you think so many B2B companies underestimate the impact that their own people have on brand trust and loyalty?

You know, I think a lot of times that the reason that, you know, it's underestimated the power of people is that people are so focused on their brand, their brand logo and what that tells or stands up for, what they want it to stand for the market. Not really thinking about the basics of people are the greatest asset and that people buy from people. I think it's really starting back at that core foundation of whether it's your employees, your partners, your business advocates. There's that human element that really drives brand momentum, makes a difference and enables an innovative culture for problem solving.

Yeah, absolutely. And I'm curious what you've witnessed in terms of how people, whether that's employees, leaders, customer facing teams, directly influence how a brand is perceived. Can you give some more specific examples around that?

Yeah, I mean, a lot of it starts with the delivery and the experiences that the clients are having and the alignment between the sales, you know, what happens during the sales cycle and what happens during project execution when there's misalignment, you know, it's hard to be able to establish that firm credibility and market leadership because people say, hey, what's going on here? But you know, when it's the people who are really delivering on the excellence, doing what was set up from the beginning, you know, showing up, whether it's through outcomes, results, collaboration. That really speaks to how work can get done and how that can be a competitive differentiator.

Yeah, absolutely. And I love the word you use there, alignment, because I think it's so important, and you're absolutely right that buyers are going to pick up on the fact that if the messaging story they hear through the sales process is this way, but then you start an implementation and it feels drastically different than what they were promised or what they were told during that sales process. I'm curious your perspective, Melissa, on how involved marketing leadership should be in that customer experience as it transitions from sales to the teams actually implementing the work.

I mean, you know, marketing has to be involved. There's so many touch points, you know, beyond the meeting, beyond the, you know, bringing the buying committees together, you know, for example, the company website, you know, making sure that that's reflecting the same type of messaging. I think the alignment also in terms of bringing the success stories from inside the organization out, you know, customers aren't just customers, they're partners. So being able to share the success stories and the work that's happening through their voices or through, you know, shared experience, whether it's, you know, co presenting at a speaking engagement or something, enables that real world visibility into how the work gets done, how the partnership happens, how the organization shows up for their partners as well. So marketing being able to be aligned with both sales and delivery, you know, make sure that what's being told before someone chooses to work for an organization is aligned with what the experience that they can expect, expect to have once they enter into an engagement. And then also from there, making sure that there's alignment between what's actually happening now, between what's promised, and then also capturing what's happening to be able to be used for future storytelling, for future credibility, for even just future historical for the organization. I think the number one question, you know, sales teams I've worked with have been asked is where have you done this before? So being able to answer that through the work that's being done, both how it's being presented in the sales cycle and how it's being delivered. Extremely valuable, you know, for marketing to be involved in.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think marketing's role is to ensure continuity. Right. Because the larger the organization, right, a very enterprise organization, the more challenging this can be because you've got implementation teams coming from maybe different service offerings and just ensuring alignment across, you know, These, these cultural core values aligned around the customer experience, aligned to the sales team. I think marketing plays an important role to, to check and challenge that, to audit that, to make sure that it is in fact a experience that's consistent from one side of the business to the other.

Exactly. You know, when organizations are small, it's easy to achieve that consistency because people do collaborate and work in more tightly integrated teams. But as the organization grows, as the complexity of service offerings expands, that becomes even more challenging. So having those central points that can of both serve as gatekeeper and advocate, you know, is really valuable in terms of both building the brand, creating customer engagement and you know, building that future forward voice.

Yeah, absolutely. I mentioned earlier that, you know, trust is so important in B2B in general, but healthcare specifically, you know, buyers are often clinicians, sometimes IT leaders, procurement teams, finance, and they're making pretty high stakes, pretty high stakes decisions. From your vantage point, what makes a brand credible in the eyes of these types of decision makers making such important decisions? You mentioned an important one I imagine you're going to mention again already, which is sharing these partner success stories. But let's unpack this. What makes a brand credible in the eyes of these types of decision makers?

Yeah, I mean, especially in healthcare, right. When you think of the healthcare buyer and you're thinking of the clinicians, physicians, IT leaders, this is an evidence based group, right. They want to see things that can deliver upon that. Don't just tell me, but show me. So being able to really have concrete examples, both, again, whether it's something you're presenting or how you show up, you know, you have to kind of put some facts behind your claims, especially when you're dealing with people who, you know, naturally operate from a position of evidence. So I think that's one thing, you know, that's super important to look at is, you know, are you backing what you're saying, you know, through your actions and then being able to communicate that effectively. So that's probably one of the bigger things when I think of that health care buyer and how we, you know, stand up from a credibility and mark messaging perspective. I think another thing too is, you know, people buy from people.

So you know, having the relationships, you know, marketing on its own isn't enough. You have to have those relationships to extend, you know, what you're trying to put out to market as well and to be able to create advocacy, you know, a community of advocacy, if you will, so that it's not just you, there's that peer support and peer messaging. As well. You know, one of the things about healthcare, it's such a networked industry as well. So people really do, you know, trust their friends and their peers and people they've worked with before. So being able to, you know, do the right thing even when no one's looking so that you've got that strong reputation in market or that people find you credible through your actions is really important how you advance as well.

Yeah, you use this phrase community of advocacy and I absolutely love that. And really thinking about an entire marketing strategy around how are we going to link arms with our partners and other like minded thought leaders in a very visible public way, Right? Like yeah, we might ask them to provide a recommendation or testimonial or take a call from a prospective customer during the sales process. But how do we also make that more, more visible on an ongoing basis? And I think that's such an important piece of what many brands are leading into right now. What, which is building an entire thought leadership program around the problems that they solve in the industry, but doing it together with these partners. Right. So it is this true commitment to. This isn't just our brand, our products, right. From XYZ company.

This is broadly problems that we're trying to solve from all different stakeholder products perspective inside of healthcare. And we're actually going to tell those stories together. Maybe we get on a webinar together and we, we're talking about these issues. Maybe we byline an article together. What's your take on how you take this idea of community of advocacy and really put it into action in a very external way, externally visible way.

I mean, in some cases, right? I mean there's the earned media and authentic reach which comes out of doing that. I mean, you know, you're in PR and you know, you pitch company stories and a lot of times the response is okay, that's great. But where's the client example? Just being able to, you know, have that partnership where people are proud of the work and the successes and goals that they've achieved through that partnership, you know, allows for that earned media and authentic reach, which of course extends the brand, brand credibility and brand reach as well. I think even for, you know, paid opportunities, you know, whether you're putting a placement into, you know, say a, you know, Becker's or somewhere like that, being able to, you know, have that network of people who are willing to take their time, who believe in the partnership, who are willing to share those stories. You know, it allows the marketing team that's making an investment in those Avenues also get greater value out of that, that they're not just, you know, kind of navel gazing, but really, you know, showing to the market too, that we have people that, you know, believe enough in our service and our product and our partnership that they're willing to go ahead, you know, and go out through these channels, whether it's, you know, a webinar, an event media or whatever, and share as well. So I think it's extremely powerful to do it because, you know, whether it's earned or a paid placement, you're going where people are, right? So you're not necessarily forcing them to go to your corporate website or forcing them to visit your booth at a trade show, but they're, you're engaging where they are, which also gives that added layer of credibility as well, because they're already there consuming. So again, it's, you know, can they see themselves? Can they see their peers? You know, it's a way of extending that advocacy. I think too, the employee advocacy component of it shouldn't be overlooked.

You know, if you look at your internal network and going back to what I said earlier about people buying from people and not logos, you know, know, empowering your team to share, whether it's on social or putting a review on Glassdoor or, you know, any of the other platforms, it extends that voice, it extends the people and the network, the power of your network's network, you know, to also benefit from those stories.

Yeah, you, you just went where I wanted to go, which is, it's one, you know, on the one hand, we've got to activate the partners, right, in, in a authentic, credible way. Link arms have a strategy around that. But there's this other piece of it which is activating and mobilizing the employee base themselves to be storytellers and messengers of this important work that you're doing. So it isn't just this perfectly crystallized message that is being pushed out via the brand social media channels, via the marketing team, but there's this whole other very powerful halo effect that happens when individual employees are sharing their own version of that. Would love to talk to you a little bit more about how do you do that effectively? Practical ways to really encourage elevation of those internal voices and, you know, when some might fear losing control or losing the polish that comes through that, that.

Process, you know, before, you know, it was a social media world. And even at the start of that, you know, I think companies focused a lot on the designated spokesperson. And you spent time as a media relations person of, you know, training that Singular voice who was going to tell the corporate stories. And of course, you know, over the years it's become that everybody has a voice and that there's, you know, plenty of people to kind of add different angles and commentary to the stories. Having the control over it and making sure that you've got the message and consistency and, you know, brand experience across all of your ambassadors. That's really where the challenge is today. You know, I think some of it is setting up both formal and informal policies and programs, right? Like, have some guidance that people can understand what it is that is acceptable and allowable and encouraged to do. And also maybe some guidelines of, you know, we never do this or say this so that you do have some control over it.

But from there too, thinking of how you're packaging your information internally, sharing it, you know, even rewarding or motivating people to participate, participate in that engagement and advocacy program. You know, there's platforms too, you know, for organizations that have budget and look at investing tools. Like HootSuite, you know, has their own employee advocacy solution as well. So being able to formalize a program where you've got both your content, your graphics, your messaging packaged up and really easy for people to, you know, hit the easy button to share it to their networks. You know, a lot of people, they like to write, they have a lot of thoughts, they're able to read something and real quickly come up with a cogent thought to post on social. Other people, you know, they want to engage and they're busy, that, you know, they don't necessarily have the time to say, I've got to read this and come up with a two sentence, you know, point of view. So being able to have, you know, the marketing team or the social team work together to create that content and then put it in a shareable platform that others can share it is a great way of, you know, really sort of bringing that to life. And it's important, right? Because again, there's the power of your network's network.

So while your corporate, you know, social footprint is important and absolutely, you know, put some care, intending and nurture that, you know, getting your employee advocacy program off the ground and creating a network of people who are, you know, adding to that symphony of voices about your platform, your services, your customer connections, where you're showing up in the industry, you know, is just start, right? A lot of people say that they're waiting for their perfection. Just start and build from there.

And how do we as marketing leaders be able to measure and express the value of doing that to executive leadership who might have questions about really kind of collecting and mobilizing the employee base in this way. What have you seen work? Well, in terms of expressing the importance and the value of doing this work to executive leadership?

Yeah. I mean, it comes down to trust, right? You can convert trust into contracts, but it's hard to say, hey, I made a social post on a Tuesday. What's the result? Right. It doesn't work like that, but it is being able to sort of establish that trustworthy voice and buyers make decisions before they're ever picking up the phone and saying, hey, I've got a problem. I'm trying to sell solve. So, you know, the way that you measure that, you could look at things like your utilization rates, you know, what do those look like? Or, you know, are we recruiting better talent? You know, are our customers staying with us longer? Do we have media interests that we didn't get before? So there's different ways of measuring it, but I think a lot of times, and again, I mean, I've heard this in my own experience as a marketing leader, hey, we had three posts go up yesterday. What happened with that? And, you know, it's a slow build, right? It is that every day, getting up and doing it again. Because it's about trust, it's about credibility, it's about being present.

But there's other things that you can look at from the business thing, isolating it on its own. It's super hard to say, but I had a CEO once tell me, you know, I'm not quite sure, but I know before we did this, we had a recruiting challenge and since we've done this, you know, our talent pool is full and we've got plenty of talent within the industry who comes to us and says, oh, well, I saw you on LinkedIn, so some of it too. Is that anecdotal support as well? You know, I think sometimes that the soft results get overlooked, but they can lead to real dollars and real revenue by being consistent and, you know, leveraging your team to establish that credibility, trust and presence within the industry.

Yeah. And I think part of what you're talking about here, in my perspective, has really been the blessing and the curse of performance driven marketing. Right. It's like we have loads and loads of data and analytics we didn't used to have in dashboards that say we did X and we got Y. And we're constantly improving those metrics over time. And yet there are, you know, we need, we need to get the executive leadership to understand that These softer things that you're talking about, the relationships, the trust, are things that are built over time and require, you know, consistency in showing up in a certain way. And so it's, it's being able to balance those things of. There are things that we're going to do under this very specific sort of performance driven metrics, and there are these other things that we're going to say all line up together to contribute to.

Right. And then we're going to look at things like, do we not have a recruitment problem anymore? Right. Are we filling these job openings faster? Are we, you know, in the longer run converting more of these RFPs based on this investment we're making in building trust and deepening relationships with customers and prospects?

That's exactly it. Right? That's, that's exactly it. So, so it is definitely a challenge. And I'm sure, like, you know, every marketer faces that. Right. Why are we doing this? Oh, I don't know. We spend a lot of time on it. Is it worth it? But again, you can look at some of those things.

You know, the last organization I was with, you know, we grew our LinkedIn followers 55% in a year. So even if you can sell, say, right, like, what does that mean? But now you've engaged with it doubled your audience, that's more eyeballs that are looking at the content that you're putting out. It's more people who can say that they've had at least a touch point or an experience. You know, we looked at engagement rates that also doubled. So, you know, is your content resonating? Well, if people aren't engaging it and giving it a like or a share, probably not. But if they are, you know, it's another indication that you can look at and say, this is a topic that resonates with our audience. So there's other things that you can glean from it. Not necessarily, you know, what's happening now, but what do we need to do next to continue to create that engagement, to create those followers, to, you know, build upon the industry presence that you already have?

Absolutely. Do you, have you shared a number of really great examples here. Do you have any other real world examples of how this, you know, internal alignment, strong culture helped a brand or company gain traction faster or open new doors in the market?

Yeah, I mean, one of the consulting firms I worked with entered into a new space, so they acquired an organization that supported a different platform and, you know, how to kind of go in and almost rebrand themselves, you know, to show up as an expert in another sort of, you know, area of the market. So initially, you know, the thought was, well, nobody's going to know us as anything but this initial organization. So, you know, one of the first things was creating that internal advocacy and an external client program of, you know, highlighting, you know, here's the changes, here's what it means, here's what it matters to you, you know, and the ask to share. So being able to do that helped shift the perception of the business that allowed it to stand up as really an industry leader in a short period of time. Because it wasn't just the organization, you know, in a silo chipping away at what this messaging mean, but really engaging with 400, you know, reps to be able to do that. So it was challenging internal. Right. Because getting people to be willing to, you know, do the work for it.

But I think it's also, and much like pr, we used to say that PR begets pr. I think employee advocacy and advocacy in general begets other advocacy. So I think when you see your peers doing creates a. Almost competitive and, you know, momentum fueled experience to be able to drive things forward. So that was one of the things that we definitely saw in terms of living by example and then highlighting those that are doing it to create that sort of friendly competition where others want to do it as well. And of course, it did enable the organization to progress what it needed to do, really, through a grassroots word of mouth program.

Yeah, I love that the context of the example you shared, because I think it's so common where there's an acquisition that triggers an entry into an entirely new offering and maybe it's an entirely new set of decision makers even. Right. So you can't even necessarily, maybe you can, maybe you can't leverage existing relationships that you might have and you have to really figure out how you're going to smartly leverage equity you have in a different space.

Yes.

To use that in a credible way to, to build this and live up to the same reputation in a new space.

Yeah. And I think the internal culture plays a big role in that too. Right. When you've got senior leadership that's supportive of it and encouraging the team to engage that way and understands the value of it, that extends throughout the organization as well. You know, there's, there's thrill in building the culture that achieves that as well. But you know, when it starts at the top, it's just a faster path to getting people on board and creating the, the energy and enthusiasm around it.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, if you're game for this, Melissa, I'd love to have you join me for a few quick fire questions. Just whatever comes to your mind first. The first one is name a brand that you admire for how it shows up through its people.

Brand that shows up through its people. Oh, that's a good one, Sara. Let's see. Brand that shows up through its people. You know, I don't want to go back to an organization I worked for in the past because I feel that that's in the, an easy shot. But I definitely worked for an organization in the past that did that. You know, one of the, the organizations that I always look at that I admire in terms of how they sort of leverage their people around it is slack. I actually see a lot of their employees both, you know, sharing both, you know, how the tool is used, the successes that come from organizations that are using it.

So I know when I was, you know, looking at it in a former organization from a decision making perspective, there were a lot of good stories and ways of, of the tool being used that we hadn't even thought of, you know, whether it's creating communities or chat threads or stuff, you know, for internal uses and stuff. So I think they do a good job of getting their people to, to engage and share. I don't know. Yeah, sorry, not healthcare related, but I do when I think of a company that does a good job at that, that's what comes to mind first.

Yeah, no, I think it's important that in B2B and in healthcare, we look outside of B2B and healthcare for inspirational examples of, of brands and companies that are leaders that we can aspire to. Next question is, what's a marketing myth you wish would just go away?

Absolutely. I think a lot of our listeners would agree with you on that one wholeheartedly. What's one piece of advice you'd give to a B2B health care marketer trying to build trust in a crowded space? And I admit this one's a little bit less of a quick Fire question. But one piece of advice you would give to someone trying to build trust in a crowded space.

So if you're trying to build trust in a crowded space and even in an uncrowded space, do the right thing, right? Do the right thing by your customers, by your employees, by your team, by your partners, by industry analysts. You know, when you do the right thing and you show up authentically, you build trust by, by how you live and how you execute and how you, you know, show up.

Great advice. And that's what makes you a great leader. Melissa, my last question is, what's the best advice you've ever gotten from a leader? And it doesn't have to be marketing specific.

Best advice I got from a leader, you know, I don't know if it was an actual advice, but more of a mindset and that is really to don't sweat things, you know, do the best you can, you know, with what you have available. But, you know, things sometimes don't go the way that they've planned and you've got to be able to pivot and adjust and not, you know, break down as a result of it. And when things, you know, go swimmingly, you know, don't get too caught up in the hype either. Right. So, you know, keep yourself even cool and even keeled rather, and stay cool is probably the best advice that I got. You know, things change, things happen. And, you know, being able to be resilient and being able to pivot I think is probably one of the best things that I've been told and has brought a lot of peace to me both in my career and professional life.

I love that, and personal life too, for that matter.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Well, thanks, Melissa. Thanks so much for joining me today. We've, we've had the privilege of working together in the past and you're just such a fantastic leader. I just feel really fortunate to be able to have this conversation today and share so much of your wisdom with our listeners. How can folks get in touch with you?

Yeah, I mean, the, the best way I think is just right through LinkedIn, you know, whether it's, you know, through a connect or a direct message. You know, I, I make it a daily habit of checking in on the platform, trying to get my own social media presence going and post a little more frequently. But I love the one on one exchanges that I have and you know, building my network and engaging with other people who are interested in the topic of marketing, sales, B2B and healthcare. It awesome.

Well, folks, definitely reach out to Melissa on LinkedIn Melissa Prusher and connect with her there. Absolutely. It was a real pleasure. And to our listeners, if you enjoyed the show today, do us a favor and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for being part of the Health Marketing Collective, where strong leadership meets marketing excellence because the future of healthcare is depends on it. We'll see you next time.