CASE STUDY · MEDTRONIC · MEDTECH
From Portfolio to Pipeline: How Medtronic Built an ASC Strategy That Grew 19% with Outcomes Rocket
Outcomes Rocket partnered with Caitlin Mayer and the US marketing team for Medtronic's Acute Care and Monitoring division to enter the ambulatory surgery center market, using primary research, positioning, podcast and webinar production, and field enablement to move from product-level selling to a portfolio strategy that grew the business 19% in a year.
19%
YoY Growth in the ASC Space
4,972
Podcast Downloads, Episode One
46
Qualified Profiles Captured
Introduction
6,500 ASCs. A couple hundred sellers. The coverage math doesn’t work without a strategy.
Caitlin Mayer leads the US marketing organization for Medtronic’s Acute Care and Monitoring division, which sells respiratory and perioperative monitoring solutions across the hospital and post-acute settings, plus digital and connected health. She’s been at Medtronic 15 years, most recently downstream with the field organization and close to customers.
The ambulatory surgery center market was the opportunity. It was also a market Medtronic could not cover the way it covers hospitals. There are roughly 6,500 ASCs in the US and Medtronic has a couple hundred sellers. Getting in required deciding which ASCs mattered, which procedures mattered, and what the pitch was once a rep walked in the door.
“Our go-to-market strategies, in partnership with Outcomes Rocket, we’re going broader but very educational… rolling out podcasts, webinars, digital marketing, and creating marketing resources that our inside sales team can launch out to the market.”
Challenges
What stood in the way
Complex customer problems and a single-product conversation.
ASC and hospital customers were describing staffing shortages, throughput pressure, and limited access to capital budgets. A single-device conversation is binary. It either matches the problem in the room or it doesn’t. Leading with the portfolio and the services around it keeps the conversation open.
Clinical value alone doesn’t differentiate.
Every device in the category clears FDA. Leading with clinical data puts Medtronic on the same footing as everyone else. The differentiating argument had to be workflow value and economic value.
An ASC buyer that runs on throughput.
ASCs are focused on patient throughput above almost everything else. Winning there means showing how the technology integrates into their workflow, not walking in with an individual device.
Coverage math that doesn’t work without focus.
6,500 accounts and a couple hundred sellers. Without segmentation and procedure-level targeting, the field spreads thin across a market it can’t serve.
Watch
Solutions
Research first. Then positioning, targeting, and the channels the buyer actually uses.
Strategic Research and Insights
Outcomes Rocket interviewed leaders across USPI, ASCA, AmSurg, and HCA to find the real needs rather than confirm an existing story. Built ASC buyer personas, a competitive assessment, and the go-to-market roadmap. Three themes rose to the top: operational and cost effectiveness, HCP satisfaction, and value beyond product outcomes. With fewer anesthesiologists available, keeping the ones you have satisfied became a purchasing consideration.
Positioning
Repositioned the portfolio around workflow and economic value, with clinical data supporting rather than leading. In ASCs, the economic argument is the one that moves.
Targeting
Segmented the market and narrowed to mid-size, physician-led ASCs. They hold more purchasing power and move faster. Focus tightened further to the procedure level.
Content, Channels, and Field Enablement
The research asked ASC leaders where they get their information. The answer pointed to podcasts, webinars, and clinical studies presented inside conference panels. Outcomes Rocket built against that: the ASC Insights podcast, webinars, customer case studies, on-site activation at ASCA, quarterly anchor reports, ABM campaigns against the target list, and the enablement toolkit for sales.
Outcome
A focused ASC strategy drove 19% year-over-year growth.
Episode one of ASC Insights pulled 4,972 downloads. The campaign drove 1,271 sessions at a 17% bounce rate and reached 1,153 new users. The commercial proof came next: 46 qualified profiles captured and 3 key distributor activations.
“The research that we did in collaboration with Outcomes Rocket helped us shape a go-to-market strategy that’s led to 19% growth in this space last year. It’s an effective strategy. We’ve been doing really well.”
CAITLIN MAYER · SR. DIRECTOR OF US MARKETING FOR ACUTE CARE & MONITORING, MEDTRONIC
The market keeps moving. CMS added 500 newly covered procedures to the ASC setting in January, including complex cardiac and orthopedic cases. More complex procedures mean more demand for advanced monitoring, and a strategy that has to keep evolving with it. The research, positioning, targeting, and channel programs stay with Caitlin’s team.
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