How to capture a beachhead market

Clinical entrepreneurs are confronted with many obstacles. One is how to capture a beachhead market.

The term beachhead is derived from a military strategy that advocates that, as you are approaching an enemy territory, you should plan and focus all your resources on winning a small border area that becomes a stronghold area from which to advance into the enemy territory.

The term references the 1944 invasion of Normandy where allied troops focused their attention on the Normandy beaches, which they used to stage a counter-invasion of Europe and win the Second World War. The concept was first presented in Geoffrey Moore’s book, Crossing the Chasm.

Geoffrey Moore made the point that getting buy-in from innovators and technology enthusiasts is different from getting traction with the pragmatic early majority and the even more conservative late majority, both of which comprise 2/3 of the market. Ries stressed creating a minimally viable product and discovering early “prosumers” interested in further developing and refining the product.

Enter digital health. Not only are Health IT digipreneurs confronted with these product-market fit challenges, but they also must deal with the unique health regulatory, legal, social, security, intellectual property, confidentiality, privacy, professional, reimbursement and political issues that burden sick care.

If your objective is to win the war, then you should start with conquering a beachhead market and then use it to advance deeper into enemy territory.

Suppose you have created a virtual care product or service. How do you pick and invade a beachhead market segment and what should be your strategy (business model canvas)? B2C? B2B? Enterprise? Specific clinician segments?

Your innovation to market strategy to invade a beachhead market should be defined by:

1. Picking a specific market
2. Segmenting the market
3. Focusing, focusing, focusing on the serviceable obtainable market not the total addressable market The riches are in the niches.
4. Deploying your digical marketing capabilties
5. Landing with the right people and weapons
6. Business intelligence prior to the invasion
7. Spies and operatives (networks) behind enemy lines (innovation champions and decision makers)
8. Understanding the persona of your target customers
9. Picking the right invasion strategy whether it be land, sea or air or some combination of the three and the right time to launch it

1. Preparatory psychological operations that get into the hearts and minds of your targets
2. Having a deep understanding of your enemy’s capabilities (competitive analysis)
3. Building an allied coalition (strategic partnerships)
4. Using cyberoperations to track your progress (data analytics)
5. Answering who cares, so what, who pays, how much
6. Changing your tactics when your battle plan does not survive the first shot and you find yourself in the fog of war and you are running out of ammunition. Here’s what to do when the dog won’t eat the food.
7. Understanding how to improve not just the patient experience, but the doctor experience as well
8. Make the digital health technology QWILT SET
9. The startup marketing check list

Successfully invading a beachhead market depends as much on leadership and the morale of your troops as the resources you bring to bear. Sometimes replacing the generals or a strategic retreat is the best option before you launch the next counteroffensive.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs

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