Check out our ready-to-use slide deck to jump start your pitch for team-based primary care
What we've learned is that no matter who you're pitching to—health system executives, private payers, or philanthropic organizations—the case is fundamentally the same. However, there are some nuances that can help you tailor your pitch to the individuals sitting across the table. Here are the key components to making an effective case:
1. Develop relationships with champions and potential funders to gain buy-in before the pitch.
Individuals are more likely to support people and programs they're familiar with. Cultivate internal and external relationships through dialogue. This approach prepares your audience for what they'll be seeing in advance of the pitch.
2. During the pitch, contextualize the conversation, provide high-level operational details, and quantify expected impact of the investment.
- Set the stage. Recognize that your audience may have little expertise on population health and primary care. Contextualize the national and/or market-specific move toward population health and demonstrate the value of primary care in advancing those goals.
- Hot tip for pitching to health system executives: Know your executives to gauge the level of your pitch. It may seem elementary to provide this type of background to a c-suite level audience. Keep in mind that a CEO's responsibilities are broad and he or she may not be up-to-speed with the most recent landscape for population health management and primary care.
- Hot tip for pitching to health system executives: Know your executives to gauge the level of your pitch. It may seem elementary to provide this type of background to a c-suite level audience. Keep in mind that a CEO's responsibilities are broad and he or she may not be up-to-speed with the most recent landscape for population health management and primary care.
- Paint the picture. Provide a high-level overview of the role you're advocating adding to the primary care team. Your audience doesn't need the nitty-gritty on their every responsibility, but you should show how this individual will work within and enhance current operations.
- Hot tip for pitching to private payers: Specify the impact on the payer's beneficiaries. Payers supporting care team expansion will likely want reassurance that their investment will enhance—and therefore lower the total cost of—care for their beneficiaries. Whether you guarantee a baseline amount of the FTE's time will be spent with the payer's patients or find another avenue, show how their beneficiaries' care experiences will be affected.
- Give the impact. Regardless of who you're pitching to, they'll want to see an estimated ROI, especially around total cost savings and reduced admissions and readmissions. You should also include projections as to how your proposal can help advance their strategic priorities. In most cases, a patient story can help supplement the numbers and provide a tangible example of how your proposed team member will influence patient care.
- Hot tip for pitching to philanthropic organizations: "Heartstring pitches" won't suffice. Detailed patient stories can play an important role for philanthropies that bring your pitch to the donor market, but don't stop there. Philanthropies are judicious about how they allocate their dollars and efforts. Make sure to include cost projections, ROI estimates, and anticipated impact on the local community to engage these funders.
3. Continue to communicate impact to financial stakeholders after investment.
Getting the upfront investment is step one, but maintaining funding is an iterative process. Set up an infrastructure—whether it's a monthly data report, a quarterly meeting, etc.—to communicate the impact of the investment on an ongoing basis. When it's time to think about renewing funding, your funder will have a clear track record of impact.