Welcome to the While You Were Working podcast, presented by Rogue Marketing. When you're responsible for revenue, it's hard to look up from the work. But while you're doing your day job, the market shifts. Shifts. While You Were Working is where we turn today's trends into tomorrow's strategies. Welcome to While You Were Working. Welcome to While You Were Working, the podcast for revenue accountable business leaders wanting to stay ahead of the curve. I'm Chip Rosales, managing partner of Rogue Marketing. Now Rogue is a strategic marketing agency that helps clients defend their marketing spend. We're business builders who carry a marketing toolbox, And I'm so glad that you're joining us. You know, it's hard to keep up with the trends and the insights that are shaping business when you're busy driving growth. That's why we regularly sit down with revenue accountable leaders, unpacking their experience and sharing actionable insights. The world moves fast while you're working, and today's guest is at the forefront of growing revenue in an extremely targeted, highly competitive space of health care. I'm joined today by Rhonda Quintana. She is the revenue officer at Seresti Health, and she has assembled a team of compassionate professionals that assist families of patients dealing with Alzheimer's and other dementias. I'm excited to talk with you because I think you're sitting at the forefront of a growing business in one of the most highly competitive and, unfortunately, growing areas of, this dementia work. So so, Rhonda, how how would you describe what Seresti Health does? Well, Seresti Health is a dementia care provider with a differentiated model of care. I would call it a next generation, model of care for dementia. And we really do this by enabling caregivers to have the education, the skills, and the confidence to be able to detect an early change in condition. And we do this through kind of a high-tech and high touch approach, with a very dynamic and personalized, program that really covers the full spectrum of dementia, while patients are still aging at home. And so we are really proud of the fact that we have built this program, where we can do this at scale nationally. And we're really one of the only, companies that has proven results in terms of reducing hospitalizations and significantly reducing medical costs. It's a very, very dementia is such a personal thing right now, so it's gotta be highly rewarding to be able to sit in the the chair as the revenue officer. I'm I'm interested in hearing how you got to that revenue chair and then maybe the purpose and the value that you find in doing that work. Man, it is really rare when I talk to somebody on a day to day basis that isn't touched by dementia in some way. Right? Either their grandparents had dementia or, you know, their parent they're currently caring for their parents and maybe they're we call them sandwich caregivers where they're caring for an aging parent and they're also raising their kids at the same time. So the the mission is clear, right? There is so much suffering, inside. And if you've never taken care of a loved one or seen somebody take care of a loved one with dementia, it is devastating for families. And so, really, there was an opportunity for me to come to this company and I think feel the work in a very different way than I have in my healthcare, growth career, if you will. And so I get to hear every day about the impact that we're making really at the patient level and at the caregiver level in terms of how transformational this is for them in terms of we hear things like, I've learned more from your program, in three days than I have in potentially three years in working with, you know, my, my healthcare system or my, you know, my provider. So and it's it's not because the provider doesn't want to provide some of that support and, in education, they're just not well equipped to do that. And so I'm really excited about the fact that I've been invited to be a part of this journey. I have my own personal experiences around that. I watched my parents take care of my grandparents that had Alzheimer's and, and it was a devastating journey. So the fact that I have an opportunity to impact positively the the outcome of some of these families and make that journey, that difficult journey a little bit easier, it's, it's it's very easy to get up every day and go to work. CMMI actually launched a program, last year called Guide. Guide stands for Guiding and Improved Dementia Experience. And because Seresti has done this work in dementia care for over a decade in Medicare Advantage, we were able to really take a look at this new program coming out in CMMI and applying for that, getting approved to be a participant this year, and really being able to translate a lot of this really important work, in into traditional Medicare, populations versus just Medicare Advantage. And so all of that's very exciting for us in terms of us being able to expand our lens into not only Medicare Advantage, but really taking care of the entire Medicare population at large. How do companies in your space need to measure return on investment with their sales, their marketing, their operations programs? How are how how do people need to be thinking about that in your space? I think I mentioned earlier that, you know, I think that we can't do the things that we've always done, specifically in health care sales. I think we have to really get outside of the ways that we've tried to message. I think that these teams, or at least the way that I'm thinking about it, is we have to generate things like what we're doing right now is generating thought leader leadership, you know, content that people really care about. We need to educate folks on really what the problems are. And, you know, there's lots of ways that you can solve a problem. It's just about is that way the way that your, your buyer or your audience really is going to, lean into, I think, the work that you're doing. I'm a big believer also in making it, like tying an emotion. I think that so many times we talk about in health care, we talk about super important around cost savings, super important about improving quality, super important around, you know, patient satisfaction and, and provider satisfaction. I will tell you, if you can't tell stories, like, for example, in my space, if you can't tell stories that resonate with people at an emotional level. And so, for example, if I told you this story about, you know, let me let me put this, this this problem kind of in perspective for you. Imagine it's your mother and she's starting to forget things. She's starting to forget her keys. She's forgetting her doctor's appointments. And all of a sudden, you hear this word dementia. And guess what? Now you're a caregiver. Right? Yeah. And you have a face for it. You didn't sign up for it. You didn't train for it, but you have the job now. Right? And so if you can't reach people in a way that really brings it home for them, I think storytelling is incredibly important. And we I'm not sure that we do enough around that. I was recently at an event where there was a physician, on a panel discussion, and he kinda described those things. He described those things as in, you know, we talk a lot about the cost savings. We talk a lot about the data. We talk a lot about the mechanics of, you know, what we're trying to do, but families are suffering. I mean, he brought it home like, wow. I mean, it really took me back in my seat to a to a place where I was like, that's the kind of storytelling that I wanna do. Right? And so when I think that you can reach people at that level where they go like this in their seat, I think that's the kind of ROI, marketing, storytelling, something that people are really gonna remember. And it's not just one way. I think you have to find multiple ways of reaching your audiences, and it's the sky's the limit. I think you're right. You know, I I I had it in my mind. I might even ask you. Healthcare is one of those places where the acquisition costs to find new targets and to be able to reach out to the people that you wanna talk to is astronomically high. But what you just said there really is a way for breaking through. Right? It's a how do you deal with that? How do you deal with these acquisition costs? You've gotta target them. You've gotta grow with them. They take time to mature, and the sales cycles are, you know, you don't you don't hear a podcast and necessarily do something the next day. It takes a while. I was gonna ask you about that. But even as I was just listening to you, it sounds like the storytelling, the thought leadership, the how do you arrest somebody's attention and take them off of their you know, put them back on their heels just a little bit like you just said. Those are probably the answers. Did I leave anything out? Is there anything you know, I to me, I feel like you might have answered the question, but anything else I'm missing on how you're dealing with acquisition costs and how you're growing, these companies that have long sales cycles? I can tell you that we are leaning in heavily to automation. We're leaning heavily into really trying to optimize and get the most out of our systems. We're trying to get creative with some, different ways to produce content that is snackable, that's digestible, that's in the format that we all want to see and listen to right now. Right? And try to also balance that with a level of information and credibility, and again, thought leadership that people wanna lean into. They wanna hear more. And so I think that for us, really, it's about finding those different and interesting ways. I mean, it sounds really silly, but even as simple as and one of my my my personal, you know, goals is to really every day try to learn something new in my technical environment. And I've had the opportunity to talk to different leaders about even differences between, you know, using CHAT GPT and using GROT3 and using CLOD and all these different, you know, different ways that, kind of surface information differently. Somebody just recently, I mean, this is probably not new for a lot of the folks on your podcast, but people explaining to me why they like to use perplexity, which is really helping if you do a lot of research, you know, it's it's designed to do certain things. And so for me, I think our challenge and opportunity is for us to really understand how to make all of these new tools. It's moving at the speed of light, by the way. How do you use all these tools in the right way and invest in the right way to make all of that create an environment where one plus one equals ten. Well, congratulations on that experimentation. I'm so excited to hear that. That that that warms me, my heart. You know, my marketing heart is just warm when I hear that people are playing around and experimenting and doing all those things. I'd also say that on those tools, if you're not using the latest versions, you're you're really far behind too. So if you're if you're on that free chat gbt version, then you've you're missing out on what's really possible with, you know, all the all the latest versions. I if I say a number, they'll have changed it by the time this airs. So whatever the latest version is, get on that for sure. I really appreciate you just, again, educating us and taking time out of your day to to to spend with us. I'm gonna make sure that everybody has all of your socials and how to get with you how to get in touch with you. Also, that that website link for, the guide program so that if they've got a loved one who is in the midst of that, definitely want them to know how to get that. What's one thing you make sure to do every day as a leader? I try to learn one new thing every day. Right now, it's around artificial intelligence and tools, but that is, one intention that I have every day is to spend fifteen minutes learning something new in my technical environment. Yeah. Fifteen minutes is like dog years. Could be you can do so much. Great. What about a metric that you think matters the most? Man, there's so many. Probably the one that companies and investors and leaders care about is conversion, and, in really close rates. So, that's kind of a basic one, though. Right? Are you looking for something that's a little bit kind of off the cuff? Or No. Quick takes. Great. So but, like, just from a even from conversion perspective, like, what is it about the conversion? Are you seeing something that that indicates it's gonna be a conversion? Is there any sort of, indicator? Here's what's really interesting. We are developing a proprietary kind of go to market. We're calling it well, internally, it's a it's a scoring mechanism. Right? It's for me to score and prioritize the types of opportunities that where we should be spending the most of our time. And so when I think about conversion rates and I'm trying to obviously have the best conversion rate that I can in terms of, let's say a closed rate, for example, the way I'm gonna do that is if I know what deals I should be working on. So we've actually created kind of this priority scoring system in order for our teams to get better at understanding where are, where should we spend the most time and where the opportunities are gonna yield the the best, and, yeah, fastest way for us to get to a yes. Yeah. And I can see the passion and and and excitement for that. So that's really, really great. Alright. Last one. What's a book, a podcast, or a resource that you swear by? Oh, my favorite book is a book called The Power of Moments by Chip Heath, I think. Oh, he's one of my favorites, but I don't know that book. The Power of Moments. I am a big believer in, in creating moments that really impact folks. And this book talks a lot about how to do that. And I like it because it's not exclusively business focused. It's not exclusively personal focused. It's really things that you can use in any aspect of your life, and it will really make you pause and think about the little things that you can do to make a lasting impact on folks. So absolute favorite book. Well, Well, thanks for adding a new one to my list. That's awesome. I really appreciate you being here. Thanks for, spending time with us. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much. Today's conversation touched on something deeply personal, helping families navigate the most difficult health care decisions of their lives. And while the mission is noble, the economics, they're challenging. Health care has some of the highest customer acquisition costs of any sector, which makes a recent infographic I saw on quality data especially relevant. The piece highlights that bad data isn't just inefficient, it's expensive. In fact, poor data quality increases acquisition costs by as much as sixty percent. That's a tough pill to swallow no matter what industry you serve. Here are a few of the standout stats from the piece. Contact data decays seventy percent every year. Businesses could be losing nearly thirteen million dollars a year to bad data. Sales teams increase sales by twenty three x with good data. And here's the kicker. Only thirty five percent of companies are very confident in their own data quality. It's not just about waste. It's about trust. When your data is wrong, you're targeting the wrong people, sending the wrong message, and showing up at the wrong time. That's not just bad marketing. That's lost impact. A link to this article is posted in the show notes, and we'd also invite you to follow us on social media. You can search Rogue Marketing on Facebook and x or Rogue Marketing Agency on LinkedIn. We're regularly sharing insights and articles that you might have missed, you know, while you were working. See you next time.
