Beyond the Obvious: How "Buyability" Transforms Healthcare Branding into Measurable ROI

The brands that win are the ones that mean something

At Sweep & Co, we've always believed that winning brands aren't built on clever taglines, they're built on trust, nuance, and relevance delivered with precision and purpose. In healthcare and healthtech, this isn't just a philosophy; it's a necessity. But here's the challenge: how do we prove that investing in brand isn't just about awareness, but about driving real, measurable return on investment?

The answer lies in understanding a concept that emerged from a combined research effort between Mimi Turner (head of marketplace innovation at LinkedIn), Jann Martin Schwarz (senior director of marketplace innovation at LinkedIn and founder of the B2B Institute), and Dr. Marcus Collins (clinical assistant professor of marketing at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and cultural scholar) around the question "What makes B2B buyers confident to buy?" - distilled into one term, set to reshape B2B marketing in general and in healthcare: buyability.

The Hidden Truth About Healthcare Purchasing Decisions

Traditional healthcare marketing has focused on reaching the obvious stakeholders, the physicians, department heads, and C-suite executives who sign off on technology purchases. We create buyer personas for the Chief Medical Officer, develop content for the VP of Operations, and measure our success by how many of these "target buyers" engage with our campaigns.

But recent research from LinkedIn's B2B Institute reveals a startling truth: hidden buyers, people from legal, procurement, HR, and finance often have as much, if not more, influence than the people marketers typically target. These stakeholders rarely fill out lead generation forms. They don't attend your webinars or download your whitepapers. Yet they hold approximately 50% of the decision-making power in healthcare technology purchases.

This is where buyability becomes critical.

What is Buyability?

Buyability is a new model for B2B growth that focuses on how organizations decide what, when, and who to buy from - it's about becoming the safe choice. In the $19 trillion B2B purchasing economy, buyability represents a fundamental shift from traditional demand generation to creating collective confidence within entire buying groups.

Here's what makes this revolutionary for healthcare: when choosing from a list of vendors who already meet basic requirements, traditional sales and marketing dimensions, like product features, price, and big brand recognition, fall away, and buyers look for cultural and social signals to validate their decision-making.

In fact, the research shows that recommendations from customers like themselves, or colleagues whom they trust, are 3X more likely to tip the balance than products that are cheaper or promise to perform better.

The Emotional Economics of Healthcare Decisions

The most decisive factor in B2B buying today isn't price or performance, but fear - specifically, the fear of not being able to defend a buying decision if it turns out to be the wrong one. This is particularly acute in healthcare, where purchasing decisions directly impact patient outcomes and organizational reputation.

What this means is that what B2B buyers really want isn't the best product or the best price, it's a decision they can defend two years from now if everything falls apart. They're buying a career-proof rationale.

This insight fundamentally challenges the ROI models most healthcare marketers use. If decisions are driven by emotional validation and cultural fit rather than pure product superiority, then brand investment isn't a "soft" metric, it's the hardest metric of all.

The Integrated Brand Marketing Imperative

So how do we build buyability in a way that drives measurable ROI? The answer is integrated brand marketing that reaches the entire buying ecosystem, and not just the visible, obvious decision-makers.

1. Build Trust Across the Entire Buying Group

Healthcare technology buyers are 70% through their decision-making process before they ever reach out to vendors, and 85% already have a shortlist in mind. This means your brand must be present and trusted long before active evaluation begins.

At Sweep & Co, we advocate for what we call "ecosystem branding", creating brand presence across every touchpoint where buying group members might encounter your company:

For target buyers: Clinical evidence, peer recommendations, thought leadership

For hidden buyers: Risk mitigation content, compliance frameworks, financial models

For the entire organization: Cultural alignment, shared values, social proof from similar organizations

2. Create Defensible Decision Frameworks

Your brand must give buyers the language and evidence they need to defend their choice. This means:

• Case studies that emphasize risk mitigation, not just innovation

• Peer testimonials from similar organizations facing similar challenges

• Content that addresses the concerns of legal, finance, and compliance teams, not just clinical benefits

• Brand narratives that align with organizational culture and values

3. Measure What Matters

Traditional healthcare marketing ROI focuses on metrics like cost per lead and conversion rates. But buyability requires us to track different indicators:

• Buying group coverage: Are you reaching all stakeholders, not just target buyers?

• Share of consideration: Are you on the shortlist before active evaluation begins?

• Peer validation: Are you generating trusted recommendations within your target accounts?

• Velocity through buying stages: When multiple stakeholders are engaged, deals close faster

• Win rates in competitive situations: Multi-stakeholder strategies improve closing rates

Healthcare marketing budgets have declined by 8% in recent years, with the average health system now investing just 6-9% of revenue in marketing. In this environment, proving ROI isn't optional, it's existential.

The ROI of Brand Investment: Making the Business Case

Here's where Sweep & Co's philosophy intersects with hard business metrics. 71% of buyers will go with the product that was first choice on their shortlist. If your brand isn't known, trusted, and recommended by the entire buying group at the beginning of evaluation, you're probably not going to close the deal, no matter how sophisticated your demand generation tactics.

Consider the economics:

• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) drops significantly when buyers come to you already convinced

• Sales cycles shorten when the entire buying group has collective confidence in your brand

• Win rates increase when you're addressing both rational and emotional decision criteria

• Lifetime value grows when brand alignment creates true partnership, not just transactional relationships

The most successful healthcare technology companies aren't choosing between brand and demand, they're recognizing that buyability is the bridge between the two.

In Summary: This is a Turning Point in B2B Marketing

Citing Paul Coxhill, COO of Cannes Lions, commentary in The Drum article "LinkedIn's new B2B playbook shows ability to defend bad decisions drives B2B buying decisions":

"Creativity isn't just for consumer brands, it's the key to unlocking B2B's full potential,"

The Sweep & Co Approach: Branding What Matters

Our methodology for building buyability in healthcare centers on three principles:

1. Strategy First, Always

We start by mapping the complete buying ecosystem, not just the org chart, but the informal influence networks. Who are the hidden buyers? What keeps them up at night? What would make your solution defensible to each stakeholder?

2. Integrated Execution

Buyability requires orchestration across every brand touchpoint:

• Brand identity that conveys trust and sophistication

• Content strategy that addresses the full buying committee

• Thought leadership that builds peer validation

• Digital presence that reaches buyers during self-directed research

• Sales enablement that arms your team with defensibility arguments

3. Measurable Outcomes

We help clients track the metrics that matter for buyability:

• Buying group engagement rates

• Share of voice in key decision-maker networks

• Peer recommendation scores

• Velocity improvements in sales cycles

• Contribution margin by campaign and service line

The Future of Healthcare Marketing ROI

B2B accounts for nearly $20 trillion in annual global purchasing and is growing at a compound annual rate of over 17%. In healthcare specifically, the global B2B healthcare market is projected to reach $536.6 billion, yet most marketing strategies remain rooted in rational appeals that no longer match how decisions are actually made.

The healthcare organizations that will win in this environment are those that understand a fundamental truth: brand isn't what you say about yourself, it's what the entire buying ecosystem says when you're not in the room.

This is where buyability meets ROI. When your brand creates collective confidence across target buyers and hidden buyers alike, you don't just generate leads, you generate shortlist positioning. You don't just create awareness, you create defensible preference. You don't just market solutions, you become the safe choice.

Conclusion: The Brands That Win Mean Something

At Sweep & Co, we believe the brands that win are the ones that mean something. In healthcare and healthtech, that means more than clever positioning or feature differentiation. It means building the trust, nuance, and relevance that gives an entire buying group the confidence to choose you, and the ability to defend that choice.

This is buyability. This is how brand drives ROI. And this is how healthcare marketing evolves from a cost center to a growth engine.

The question isn't whether you can afford to invest in building buyability. In an environment where 71% of buyers choose the first option on their shortlist, the real question is: Can you afford not to?

Ready to build a brand with measurable buyability? At Sweep & Co, we help healthcare and healthtech innovators move faster, scale smarter, and lead with conviction. Let's talk about transforming your brand into your most powerful revenue driver.