4ways

Rifle-shot account-based marketing support boosts market growth for NHS teleradiology supplier

Summary
Pioneering teleradiology company 4ways Healthcare turned to Elemental to grow market share by taking an account-based marketing approach to NHS organisations. Elemental undertook extensive market research, a rigorous contact data build and detailed competitor analysis for the whole UK market, and identified a series of target accounts and potential differentiators for each. Elemental then used its deep knowledge of healthcare technology to carry out a highly-effective rifle-shot sales acceleration campaign that generated high rates of engagement and has helped the UK-based radiology outsourcing provider become the one of the leading teleradiology providers to the NHS.

“Every healthcare provider takes a different approach to outsourcing radiology support. It was crucial for us to partner with a company that understands the intricacies of the sector and can tailor its service to target individual accounts,”

Craig Quilter, Marketing Manager

Challenge

Teleradiology pioneer looks to expand in UK using account-based marketing.

4ways is a teleradiology service provider to the NHS and private healthcare organisations. Offering a diverse and flexible mix of elective, urgent and specialist reporting services, as well as third party audit, 4ways’ growing network of UK-based radiologists deliver over 1.5 million diagnostic reports a year for modalities such as x-rays and CT, MRI, and PET scans.

4ways already held around a third of the NHS acute market and wanted to increase its footprint among the remaining two-thirds of NHS trusts. The company approached Elemental in 2018 to undertake an account-based marketing exercise that would help it achieve its ambitions to grow its market share.

Service and directorate managers can see the benefits of outsourcing but have huge pressures on time and resources. Clinical leads were keen to be assured of the clinical expertise of any third-party provider before considering the external provision of such a key service.

Each has a role to play in the purchase decision-making process, and each would need careful handling if they were to engage with any technology provider.

Approach:

Market research and competitor analysis identify optimal target accounts

Elemental first worked closely with 4ways to understand its business model and what set it apart in the market. It then undertook detailed market research into the use of outsourced radiology reporting services across the whole of the UK. The research provided a breakdown of the size of the UK market for outsourced radiology, as well as trust-specific details on overall annual spend and how this was shared between specific suppliers. A parallel contact data build identified the most likely person to engage with at each organisation.

From this list, 4ways and Elemental identified a number of target accounts as potential sales opportunities, together with details on who would be the best person to contact.

“Elemental’s market research and competitor analysis gave us an excellent insight into how to approach each prospect. Frequent dialogue between the Elemental team and us then ensured we were working in harmony on developing these contacts, ultimately leading to results that surpassed our expectations.”

Craig Quilter, Marketing Manager

Elemental supplemented this with a detailed competitor analysis which identified the services that set 4ways apart from its competitors, such as its ability to support mammography or cardiology, as well as the functionality and security offered by each.

These differentiators formed a central plank of the subsequent sales acceleration campaign. Elemental highlighted the specific trusts in those areas where 4ways held a distinct advantage over current suppliers, such as its compliance with medical device regulations.

Impact:
Using sales acceleration to generate opportunities and a healthy sales pipeline.

Using this account-based marketing approach delivered impressive results for 4ways. Using its tried and tested model of looking to close each call with an appointment or time to call back, the Elemental team secured significant opportunities from the initial accounts engaged – a 43% hit rate which included guaranteed appointments and fed the sales pipeline.

Precision lies at the heart of successful account-based marketing. Elemental’s research and competitor insight, coupled with regular communication between Elemental and the 4ways business development team, ensured a suitably nuanced approach.

Next steps:

Elemental and 4ways continue to work closely together. A similar campaign in 2020 saw Elemental generate opportunities from 25 target accounts. Another recent project saw the radiology provider ask the team to contact 32 ‘hard-to-reach’ prospects. Elemental has secured nine opportunities – a 28% success rate with organisations that had previously not wanted to engage.

The successful collaboration has led 4ways to increase its radiologist community. Elemental played a pivotal role in supporting a successful radiology engagement campaign and delivered numerous qualified leads to join its network, and identified many more individuals who are interested in further contact.

“Elemental’s support for our account-based marketing campaign has been a game-changer for us. They play an important role in our business development efforts,” continues Craig. “We can now rely on Elemental to assist us in building a robust pipeline of high-quality qualified leads with confidence,” he added.

4ways

Rifle-shot account-based marketing support boosts market growth for NHS teleradiology supplier

“Every healthcare provider takes a different approach to outsourcing radiology support. It was crucial for us to partner with a company that understands the intricacies of the sector and can tailor its service to target individual accounts,”

Craig Quilter, Marketing Manager

Challenge

Approach:

sales acceleration

data

consultancy

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