Last week, the Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled “Drug Reps Soften Their Sales Pitches.”  In it, Jonathan D. Rockoff reports that several drug companies (including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck& Co and Eli Lily & Co) told sales reps to stop “detailing” doctors with aggressive, tightly-scripted sales pitches and instead provide information that doctors really want [...]

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In late November, our healthcare group – BlissHealth – hosted a panel discussion on personalized medicine with speakers from industry, clinical practice and finance.  The discussion coalesced around four key themes:   Small is the New “Big.”  Pharmaceutical companies can shrink the market by 95 percent and still produce positive returns, due to higher margins [...]

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Today, it’s easier than ever to publish and spread digital content.  But it’s as hard as ever to figure out what to say – and how to say it.  According to our survey of professional services firms conducted earlier this year, “time commitment” and “concerns about refreshing online content” are what B2B communicators fear most [...]

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I was in San Diego on business last week and was told by colleagues that I must eat at In-N-Out Burger.  As someone who grew up on fast food, I was surprised.  Why travel 2,500 miles to get a fast food burger? If In-N-Out is so remarkable, why don’t they have restaurants on the east [...]

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If you scour the headlines, Americans are hungry for change.  We rail against gridlock in Washington.  We fear that regulation has stymied expansion.  But – if like me — you work with companies in historically “conservative” sectors such as healthcare and finance, you know that the pace of change is brisk.  The IPO market is [...]

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I’ve been thinking a lot about relationships – work relationships, client relationships, personal relationships.  What makes some so rewarding?  Others so difficult? There are many answers.  But one predictor is how a person shares information.  Are they flexible and collaborative? Authoritative and secretive? Often, secretive people (and companies) have a “scarcity mindset.”   If someone else [...]

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Most B2B organizations have an x-factor – i.e., something you know (or do) that others don’t (or can’t).  Our job as marketing/PR professionals is to find that x-factor and put it on display.   That’s what thought leadership – white papers, speeches, articles, videos, blogs, stories, analyses – is all about. At its most basic, thought [...]

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When it comes to content consumption, we live in an on-demand world. We can access video, editorial, audio and broadcast content whenever, however and wherever we want.

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Over the past month, I’ve heard the same question from multiple healthcare and insurance clients: “how do I make my product or service a ‘must-have’ rather than a ‘nice-to-have’?”

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Last weekend, I (like many Wall Street Journal subscribers) read Amy Chua’s article “Why Chinese Mothers are Superior.” The article, an excerpt from Chua’s book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, has raised a storm of mixed opinions – some supportive, others downright angry. What’s interesting to me is not so much the debate over Chua’s ‘extreme parenting’ techniques, but rather, the questions that she raises about motivation and excellence – issues that have equal relevance in the boardroom and the playroom.

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