Selling simultaneously to payers, employers, and members means most growth strategies are actually three plans competing with one another. We create a growth strategy that selects the channels your economics can support, positions you for the GLP-1 era, and sequences the work so you are not financing all three fronts at half strength.
The Challenge
You are pursuing payer, employer, and DTC motions with one budget but no clear priority
Diabetes and cardiometabolic companies almost always sell through multiple channels – health plans, self-insured employers, and direct to members – and each has a different buyer, sales cycle, and CAC. When leadership refuses to sequence them, you end up funding a 12-month payer contract cycle, a benefits-broker motion, and a paid-DTC funnel simultaneously, all underfunded. The result is three mediocre channels instead of one strong one, and a board that cannot tell which is working.
GLP-1s transformed the market, but your positioning stayed the same
The GLP-1 wave changed what members, employers, and payers expect from a cardiometabolic company overnight. Some buyers now want you to wrap around the drug, some want an alternative, and cost-conscious payers want proof you bend the trend. A growth strategy written before that shift is now aimed at a market that has moved, and companies that have not repositioned are watching messaging that used to convert fall flat.
Your CAC model relies on a channel that cannot scale
Many cardiometabolic companies built their early growth on a single warm channel – a founder's payer relationship, one anchor employer, one efficient paid pocket. The strategy assumes that channel scales linearly, but it does not: the payer pipeline is lumpy and slow, the employer channel is gated by benefits cycles, and paid gets expensive fast in a regulated category. Growth stalls when the one channel taps out and nothing was built behind it.
Clinical outcomes are your moat, yet your growth story fails to use them
In cardiometabolic, real A1C or blood-pressure outcomes and payer-grade evidence are the hardest thing to build and the most valuable thing you own. Yet most growth strategies bury the outcomes story in a clinical appendix and lead with generic wellness language that any competitor could write. The moat exists; the go-to-market is not built around it, so you compete on features and price instead of on the proof only you have.
How We Support You
We begin with the economics, not the ambition. For every channel you are pursuing – payer, employer, DTC – we build the true CAC, payback, and LTV picture, including the real cost of lengthy sales cycles that most models gloss over. This is often the first time leadership sees all three motions evaluated on equal terms, making sequencing evidence-based rather than political.
From there, we make the difficult call the organization has avoided: which channel leads, which one supports, and which gets paused. In cardiometabolic, this is the highest-leverage strategic decision, because focusing budget on the channel your economics genuinely support outperforms spreading it across three you cannot fully fund. We do not select the fashionable channel; we choose the one that compounds for your particular stage and evidence base.
Next, we reposition for today's market, not the market that existed before GLP-1s. We determine where you stand relative to the drugs – wrapper, alternative, or cost-bender – and rebuild each buyer's story around that position. The member message, employer ROI case, and payer trend-reduction argument become distinct expressions of one coherent position, rather than three disconnected pitches.
Critically, we center the entire go-to-market on your clinical outcomes, because that is the moat competitors cannot quickly replicate. We make payer-grade evidence the backbone of the growth story – the leading argument for employers and plans and the trust anchor for members – instead of burying it in an appendix. Evidence becomes positioning.
What sets us apart is that we are operators who help execute the plan, not a strategy firm that simply delivers a deck. We tie the strategy to the experimentation, product, and lifecycle work required to carry it, remaining embedded through the first execution phase so the plan survives contact with reality. The result is a sequenced growth roadmap with owners, budget, and a channel priority your board can support.
What we deliver
- Channel-level CAC, payback, and LTV model across payer, employer, and DTC
- A sequenced channel priority – what leads, what supports, what pauses
- GLP-1 era repositioning for each buyer built on one coherent stance
- Go-to-market rebuilt around your clinical outcomes as the lead argument
- Sequenced growth roadmap with owners, budget, and board-ready rationale
The toughest growth choice in cardiometabolic is not which channel to add – it is which one to pause. Focusing on the motion your economics support beats three underfunded fronts every time.
Our Methodology
We deliver a focused 90-day engagement. Days 1-30 focus on diagnosis: building channel-level economics, mapping your evidence base, and pressure-testing where you truly sit in the post-GLP-1 market. During days 31-60, we decide and design – making the channel sequencing call, repositioning for each buyer, and rebuilding the go-to-market around your outcomes. In days 61-90, we turn the strategy into an actionable roadmap with owners and budget, then help launch the first moves so the plan is validated rather than theoretical.
This approach differs from traditional strategy consulting in two respects. First, we start with economics and compel the sequencing decision instead of offering three equally weighted options and asking you to choose. Second, we do not leave after delivering the deck – we remain embedded in execution, connecting the strategy with the experimentation, lifecycle, and product work needed to deliver it. A McKinsey deck explains that the market changed; we rebuild your go-to-market for that change and help you operate it.
The engagement is designed to make you self-sufficient. You retain the model, roadmap, and repositioning, while your team operates the plan. We prefer to establish your direction and hand you the wheel rather than sell you an indefinite retainer.
Our Approach
The initial 30 days are rigorous and analytical – we dig into your CAC data, contract pipeline, and clinical evidence to build the channel economics and market view. At the end of month one, you will have the single artifact most cardiometabolic boards are missing: a comparison of all three channels using the same economics, along with a defensible sequencing recommendation.
Our side provides a senior growth strategist and analytical support to develop the model. From your side, we require access to finance and channel leaders plus clinical or outcomes data, because the strategy can only be as sound as the inputs are honest. This leadership-level engagement works best with direct CEO or founder participation, since channel sequencing is a company-wide bet.
The cadence includes weekly working sessions throughout the diagnosis and decision stages, shifting to roadmap and launch support in the final phase. We are not producing work for you from the sidelines; we build it alongside you, ensuring decisions are owned internally and withstand the inevitable resistance from the channel that is deprioritized.
Most strategy engagements last three to four months, occasionally continuing into an execution phase in which we help establish the prioritized channel and connect it with experimentation and lifecycle work. At the end, you have a sequenced roadmap, refreshed messaging, and a channel bet your board understands and supports.
- Channel concentration and CAC efficiency
- Repositioning aligned to the post-GLP-1 market
- Outcomes-led go-to-market
- Board-backed growth roadmap
If your diabetes & cardiometabolic health company needs growth strategy leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
What does a growth strategy engagement cost for a cardiometabolic company?
A strategy engagement usually carries a fixed monthly fee over three to four months, set below what a top-tier consulting firm would charge for comparable market and channel analysis and well below the cost of a mis-sequenced go-to-market funding three channels at half strength. Any extension into an execution phase is scoped separately.
How soon will we see results from a growth strategy engagement?
Strategic clarity comes quickly – within the first month, you will have the channel economics and sequencing recommendation. Revenue impact follows during execution: focusing budget on the right channel and repositioning for today's market appears in pipeline and CAC over the next quarter.
How will the strategy team work with our current leadership?
Because this is a leadership-level engagement, we collaborate directly with your CEO or founder as well as your finance, channel, and clinical leaders. Channel sequencing is a company-level decision, and developing it with your team instead of imposing it is what helps it endure when a deprioritized channel resists.
What distinguishes Winston Francois from a traditional strategy consultancy?
A traditional consultancy delivers a deck containing three balanced options and leaves the choice to you. We begin with economics, drive the sequencing decision, and remain embedded to support execution – linking the strategy with the experimentation, lifecycle, and product work required to carry it.
How is ROI measured for a growth strategy engagement?
We evaluate ROI through decision quality and the downstream results: CAC efficiency and payback as spending focuses on the right channel, pipeline quality within the prioritized motion, and whether repositioning improves conversion for every buyer. Since much of the value often comes from the channel you stop financing, we also measure the waste avoided.
How are GLP-1s incorporated into our growth strategy?
We begin by establishing your place in the post-GLP-1 market – whether your strongest position is wrapping around the drugs, providing an alternative, or demonstrating that you bend the cost trend for payers. That position then guides coherent messaging across all three buyers, making your member, employer, and payer messages one unified argument rather than three separate ones.
What kind of cardiometabolic company is best suited to this service?
The ideal fit is a Series A through growth-stage diabetes or cardiometabolic company with roughly $5M to $100M in revenue, operating across multiple channels and feeling the pressure of funding all of them. If you are a single-channel company that has not yet exhausted that channel, execution is more urgent than strategy, and we will say so.
