Digital health companies often shape positioning, pricing, and go-to-market plans around the person who's easiest to reach – typically the end user – while the true economic buyer, whether a payer, employer, or health system, is never researched firsthand. We conduct buyer research, competitive landscape studies, and voice-of-customer programs that reveal what matters to the people who actually sign the check, so GTM decisions rely on evidence rather than internal assumptions.
The Challenge
GTM plans are built around the patient persona even when the payer, employer, or provider is the true economic buyer
Digital health teams naturally gravitate toward researching the end user because that's who the product is designed for and easiest to recruit for a study. But in most B2B2C digital health models, the patient doesn't sign the contract – a benefits manager, a health plan procurement team, or a provider system's clinical and IT leadership does. When positioning is built entirely around patient research, sales discovers the gap only after months of pipeline that never closes.
The competitive landscape changes every quarter, while internal teams lack the bandwidth to monitor it properly
Digital health categories attract new entrants and incumbents repositioning faster than most internal marketing teams can monitor while doing their day jobs. Positioning built against last year's competitive set stops working the moment a well-funded entrant redefines what the category means to buyers, and nobody notices until win rates start slipping. The first signal is usually a lost deal where sales asks why the competitor's story sounded more current.
Voice-of-customer data is gathered everywhere but synthesized nowhere
Support tickets, sales call notes, occasional user interviews, and churn survey responses all contain real signal, but they sit in separate systems owned by separate teams with no process to pull them together. Product hears one version of the truth from support tickets, marketing hears a different version from win-loss notes, and nobody has the full picture because nobody owns synthesizing it. The insight exists inside the company – it just never reaches the people making decisions.
Pricing is set by guessing at willingness-to-pay among payers, employers, and direct consumers rather than researching it
A digital health product often has multiple potential buyers with wildly different budget structures – a payer evaluating cost offset against clinical outcomes thinks about price completely differently than an employer buying a wellness benefit or a consumer paying out of pocket. Setting one price without researching how each buyer type evaluates cost either leaves money on the table or prices the product out of reach for a segment that would have converted at a different structure.
How We Help
We begin by determining who the true buyer or buyers are for your specific GTM motion – not the people who are easiest to interview, but those who control the budget and approve the purchase, whether that's one economic buyer or a committee across clinical, IT, and procurement. We then design and conduct structured buyer research: interviews and surveys focused on real purchase decisions, allowing us to understand what actually led a real buyer to say yes or no instead of what they claim they'd theoretically want.
In parallel with buyer research, we develop a competitive landscape study that goes beyond a feature-comparison chart. We map how competitors position themselves to each buyer type and where the category narrative is moving, creating a living reference your team can revisit rather than a one-time deck that becomes outdated within a quarter. This shows you how the ground is shifting beneath your current positioning.
For voice-of-customer, we consolidate the signals already spread across support tickets, sales call notes, win-loss data, and existing user research, then synthesize them into structured themes connected to specific business decisions – not a summary that simply repeats what everyone already believed. We also create a lightweight, ongoing VoC process so the work doesn't need to restart from scratch whenever leadership needs an answer.
When pricing is an active question, we conduct willingness-to-pay research segmented by buyer type – payer, employer, provider, or direct consumer – using methods designed specifically for pricing decisions rather than generic satisfaction surveys. This provides an evidence-based range for every segment instead of one guessed number applied across the board.
Each research initiative concludes with a positioning and GTM brief that turns findings into decisions – which messaging to test, what buyer segment to prioritize, where the competitive narrative must change, and what pricing research means for deal structure. Research that fails to influence a decision isn't worth conducting, so synthesis is incorporated from the beginning rather than handed off for someone else to interpret.
What distinguishes this from a generic market research firm is that every study centers on a specific GTM decision, not a broad market-sizing project. We embed with your marketing, product, and sales teams to ensure the research is put to use, and we apply digital health-specific experience to interview design so discussions reflect the regulatory, clinical, and payer dynamics that generic B2B researchers overlook.
What we deliver
- Buyer identification and structured research program targeting the real economic buyer – payer, employer, provider, or consumer
- Competitive landscape study mapping positioning by buyer type, tracked as a living reference rather than a one-time deck
- Voice-of-customer synthesis pulling scattered signal from support, sales, and win-loss data into decision-ready themes
- Ongoing lightweight VoC process so synthesis doesn't require rebuilding from scratch each time
- Willingness-to-pay research segmented by buyer type for pricing and deal-structure decisions
- Positioning and GTM brief translating research findings into specific messaging, segment, and pricing decisions
Most digital health market research asks, 'what does the user want.' Research that truly affects revenue asks something different: 'what does the person signing the contract need to see before saying yes.'
Our Methodology
We deliver market research and insights through a 90-day sprint centered on a defined set of GTM decisions your team must make, rather than an open-ended research project. The first 30 days focus on scoping and fieldwork design: we determine the true buyer or buyers, create interview and survey instruments around actual purchasing decisions, and start mapping the competitive landscape. Days 30 to 60 cover fieldwork and synthesis: buyer interviews and surveys take place, voice-of-customer data is consolidated, and the landscape study develops. Days 60 to 90 convert findings into decisions: we provide the positioning and GTM brief and, where relevant, turn willingness-to-pay findings into pricing recommendations.
This approach differs from a traditional market research firm in two respects. First, each study is structured around a specific decision – which buyer to prioritize, how to price a segment, or where positioning should shift – rather than a general market-sizing report. Second, we address the buying dynamics unique to digital health, where the end user, economic buyer, and sometimes a clinical or IT approver are separate people with distinct concerns, something generic B2B research methodology misses completely.
How We Work
The first 30 days focus on scoping and design. We collaborate with your team to determine the true buyer or buyers for the decision in question, build interview guides and survey instruments around real purchasing behavior, and begin developing the competitive landscape framework. Before fieldwork starts, you receive a research plan connected to specific decisions.
Days 30 to 60 center on fieldwork. We conduct buyer interviews and surveys, extract and synthesize voice-of-customer data from your current systems, and develop the landscape study in depth. We need your team to provide introductions to buyer contacts when direct access is required, along with access to existing customer information such as support tickets and CRM notes.
Days 60 to 90 translate research into decisions. We provide the positioning and GTM brief, share findings with marketing, product, and sales leadership together, and help convert willingness-to-pay research into pricing recommendations. Most programs are structured as a defined 90-day engagement for each major question, followed by ongoing VoC synthesis on a lighter quarterly cadence.
Throughout the sprint, our cadence includes a biweekly working session to review fieldwork progress and developing themes. We present the final brief to the owner of the GTM decision because the research is intended to change how the entire go-to-market team operates.
- Positioning validated against the real economic buyer, not just the end user
- Competitive landscape clarity tied to current buyer perception, not last year's category map
- Synthesized voice-of-customer themes applied to product and messaging decisions
- Evidence-based pricing and willingness-to-pay ranges by buyer segment
If your digital health company needs market research & insights leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
What does a market research engagement cost for a digital health company?
Cost varies based on the number of buyer segments requiring research, whether buyer access involves recruiting through your sales or partner relationships, and whether the work includes pricing research alongside positioning. A single-segment positioning study is scoped differently than a multi-buyer willingness-to-pay program covering payer, employer, and consumer segments.
How quickly can we get usable findings from a market research engagement?
Voice-of-customer synthesis using existing data sources can uncover early themes during the first few weeks because the data is already available within your company. Buyer interviews and competitive landscape research require the complete 90-day sprint to establish a reliable sample and create an actionable positioning brief.
How does the research team collaborate with our marketing, product, and sales staff?
We require introductions to buyer contacts for direct interviews, typically through your sales team, as well as access to existing customer data in support and CRM systems. We conduct the research and synthesis ourselves, then share findings jointly with marketing, product, and sales leadership so the entire go-to-market team operates from the same evidence.
How is Winston Francois different from a traditional market research firm?
A traditional market research firm will often provide a broad report and leave you to interpret it. We structure each study around a specific GTM decision, address the multi-buyer model common in digital health where the user and economic buyer are separate people, and provide a brief that converts findings directly into action on messaging, segmentation, or pricing.
How is the ROI of a market research and insights engagement measured?
Research ROI appears through higher win rates when positioning aligns with the real buyer's priorities, shorter sales cycles when messaging addresses objections uncovered by research in advance, and stronger pricing capture when deal structure matches actual willingness-to-pay by segment. We measure these downstream metrics against your baseline during the quarters after the engagement because research value becomes visible in sales and pricing results.
What type of digital health company is best suited to this service?
This service suits companies in the 5M to 100M ARR range that face a specific GTM decision – moving into a new buyer segment, repositioning against an evolving competitive set, or establishing pricing across payer, employer, and consumer channels. It delivers the most value to companies with a multi-buyer sales motion where the end user differs from the economic buyer.
