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The 3 E's Framework, A Unified Approach to Healthcare Demand Generation
- Michael Colling-Tuck
- 14 hours ago
- 7 min read
Updated: 6 minutes ago
Most healthcare companies treat sales and marketing as separate problems.
Sales needs better access. Marketing needs better content. Both need more budget. The solutions get siloed. The results stay flat.
After twenty years in healthcare commercial roles, I've come to believe this fragmentation is the problem, not the solution. What's needed isn't more activity in each silo. It's a unified approach that treats demand generation as a single system.
We call it the 3 E's Framework: Equip, Evolve, Empower.
The Problem Worth Solving
Before I explain the framework, let me explain why it exists.
Healthcare commercial teams face three interconnected challenges that most approaches address separately.
Challenge 1: Demonstrating the value of complex products
With limited time and rising pressure, HCPs often deprioritise engaging with new ideas and complex products. Demand generation must be established to ensure sales conversations happen at all. Product information must be clear, concise and compelling to convey the essential value of innovations that can enhance patient care.
Your product might be genuinely better. But if you can't convey that value in the moments you get, it doesn't matter.
Challenge 2: Accessing the right audience
Traditional face-to-face sales channels alone no longer suffice. According to ZS Associates, pharmaceutical sales representatives' access to physicians dropped from 80% in 2008 to 44% by 2021.
Accenture research shows 83% of healthcare professionals now prefer digital channels for information about new products and services.
The meetings that do happen carry more weight because there are fewer of them. And the research that happens before those meetings shapes whether they happen at all.
Challenge 3: Standing out in a crowded marketplace
In a saturated market, it's harder than ever to differentiate. Standing out requires more than just a great product; it demands a brand presence that engages and builds trust with HCPs. With face-to-face consultations reducing, online information must work harder to encourage adoption.
Without addressing these challenges, countless healthcare innovations remain in the shadows, unable to generate demand that will enable them to reach their full potential and impact patient outcomes.
These aren't three separate problems. They're one problem with three symptoms. And they require a unified response.
The 3 E's: Equip, Evolve, Empower
EQUIP: What Your Sales Team Actually Uses
The first E is about giving your sales team what they need to make every conversation count.
Empowering your sales team with the right tools and messaging is essential. When salespeople are equipped to deliver concise, impactful conversations, each interaction becomes a consistent, high-calibre representation of your brand.
This means:
Playbooks that capture what your best reps know, not tribal knowledge that walks out the door, but documented approaches that everyone can use.
Pitch tools that tell stories, not feature lists. Presentations that work in the room, not just in the boardroom review.
Leave-behinds that do the selling after the meeting ends. Materials that HCPs actually keep rather than bin.
Proposals that win tenders. Templates and frameworks for navigating complex procurement.
(I've seen companies spend six figures on sales enablement that sits unused while reps build their own slides from scratch. The test isn't whether materials exist. It's whether they get used.)
When your team is properly equipped, the gap between your best rep and your average rep closes. Conversion becomes consistent rather than dependent on individual talent.
EVOLVE: How You're Found Before You're Called
The second E is about your digital presence, not as a brochure, but as a demand generation system.
In today's online-driven world, digital channels are no longer optional. They're essential. Evolving your digital strategy enables you to reach healthcare professionals where they're most receptive, providing them with relevant, accessible information that resonates.
This means:
Website strategy that generates demand, not just describes your products. Being found when prospects search for the problem you solve.
SEO that positions you for problems, not just product names. Appearing in the research phase, not just when someone already knows your brand.
Content that establishes thought leadership. Articles, guides, and resources that position you as the answer before the question is formally asked.
Social presence that builds familiarity. LinkedIn strategy that makes your name familiar to your target audience over time.
The companies doing this well create a cohesive digital presence that supports sales efforts. They're building familiarity that makes sales conversations warmer from the first moment.
77% of buyers research before engaging sales. What they find shapes the conversation, or whether there's a conversation at all.
EMPOWER: Who Extends Your Reach
The third E is about leverage, specifically, the people who can advocate for you without being on your payroll.
Trusted voices make a lasting impact. By empowering HCPs and key opinion leaders with the materials and platforms they need, they are enabled to advocate effectively for your innovations. When respected professionals champion your product to their peers and patients, they extend your reach and reinforce your credibility.
This means:
Advocate programmes that give happy customers reasons and tools to refer. Not hoping for word-of-mouth, but systematising it.
KOL engagement that builds structured relationships with key opinion leaders. Borrowing credibility from people your prospects already trust.
Reference sites that sell for you. Case studies with outcomes data that prospects can verify.
Champion cultivation that identifies and nurtures internal advocates within target accounts.
Empowering these groups generates demand in ways only authentic, peer-driven advocacy can achieve. Third-party credibility is more powerful than first-party claims.
Why Unified Matters
Each E reinforces the others.
When your sales team is properly equipped, they create better customer experiences. Better experiences create more advocates. More advocates generate more inbound interest. More inbound interest means warmer conversations. Warmer conversations mean higher conversion. Higher conversion means more customers to equip your team to serve.
It's a system, not a checklist.
The companies treating these as separate initiatives, with different teams, different budgets, different metrics, are leaving value on the table. The companies treating them as one integrated approach are pulling ahead.
What This Looks Like in Practice
Let me give you a concrete example.
A medical device company, around £8m revenue, twelve salespeople. They came to us with inconsistent conversion. Some reps hitting target, others struggling with the same product. Marketing materials existed but nobody used them. Each rep had developed their own pitch.
When we dug in, the problem wasn't the reps and it wasn't the product. It was a systems problem dressed up as a performance problem.
Applying Equip: We built messaging architecture around outcomes rather than specifications. Created sales playbooks that captured what the best reps actually did in conversations. Developed proof assets showing customer results in language that procurement teams and clinicians could both understand.
Applying Evolve: We rebuilt their digital presence around the problems they solved, not just the products they sold. Content positioned them during the research phase, before prospects ever reached out. When buyers searched for their category, they started appearing.
Applying Empower: We systematised their reference programme. Identified their happiest customers and gave them reasons and tools to refer. Built structured KOL relationships in their target specialties. Happy customers became active advocates.
The results after twelve months:
Metric | Before | After |
Conversion rate | 18% | 31% |
Average sales cycle | Baseline | 3 weeks shorter |
Material adoption | Minimal | 100% |
Messaging consistency | Each rep different | All 12 aligned |
The product didn't change. The market didn't change. The system did.
How to Implement Each E
Starting with Equip:
1. Audit what your sales team actually uses in customer conversations. Watch them, don't just ask.
2. Identify the gap between what exists and what gets used.
3. Interview your best performers about what makes them effective.
4. Build tools around actual customer conversations, not internal assumptions.
5. Test materials in the field before finalising.
Starting with Evolve:
1. Search for the problem you solve. Where do you appear? Where don't you?
2. Map the research journey of your typical buyer. What do they find?
3. Identify the content gaps between what exists and what's needed.
4. Build a content calendar around the questions prospects actually ask.
5. Measure what generates enquiries, not just what gets views.
Starting with Empower:
1. List your happiest customers. When did they last refer you?
2. Identify why referrals aren't happening. Is it awareness, willingness, or tools?
3. Build a simple system for asking and enabling referrals.
4. Map your KOL relationships. Who could advocate but doesn't?
5. Create materials specifically designed for advocates to share.
Where to Start
If you're wondering which E needs attention first, here's a simple diagnostic:
Ask your sales team what they wish they had. If the answer is better tools and messaging, start with Equip.
Ask where your closed deals came from. If most started cold, start with Evolve.
Ask how many customers have referred you in the past year. If the answer is "not many," start with Empower.
Most companies need work on all three. But starting with the weakest link creates momentum for the rest.
The Outcome
73% of healthcare launches miss forecast. Not because products aren't good. Because go-to-market hasn't adapted to how healthcare decisions actually get made now.
The 3 E's Framework isn't complicated. It's just unified. And in a fragmented market, that unity might be the only differentiation that matters.
The companies implementing this approach are seeing:
Conversion improvements as all reps perform closer to top-rep level. Sales cycles shortening as conversations start warmer. Referral pipelines building as advocates are systematically empowered.
The difference isn't working harder. It's working on the right things, together.
DOWNLOAD: The free 3 E's Implementation Guide
A practical framework for auditing your current state and building a plan for each E.
One click, one guide, lots of actionable insights.
Michael Colling-Tuck is the founder of AGENCY, a healthcare marketing consultancy focused on demand generation for life sciences companies. He spent 20 years in healthcare commercial roles before founding the agency.
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References
1. ZS Associates. (2016). AccessMonitor Report: Physician Access Trends. Retrieved from https://www.zsassociates.com
2. Accenture. (2020). Healthcare Provider Survey: Digital Engagement Preferences. Retrieved from https://www.accenture.com