Situation
Cedars-Sinai maintains strong relationships with senior executives at many of Southern California's largest employers. While these relationships provide significant strategic value, traditional outreach methods make it difficult to consistently access new executive decision-makers within target accounts where Cedars-Sinai has limited or no existing relationships.
At the same time, employer healthcare purchasing decisions are increasingly influenced by executive stakeholders seeking innovative healthcare solutions, employee wellbeing initiatives, cost containment strategies, and access to world-class specialty care.
The challenge was not identifying ideal target accounts but in gaining meaningful access to executive decision-makers within those organizations.
Objective
Develop an Account-Based Marketing strategy that would:
-
Expand Cedars-Sinai's executive relationship network.
-
Increase engagement with high-value employer prospects.
-
Generate qualified opportunities among target accounts.
-
Leverage existing executive relationships to gain warm introductions to new decision-makers.
-
Strengthen Cedars-Sinai's position as a trusted strategic healthcare partner.
-
Create a repeatable pipeline generation model for enterprise business development.
Actions
-
Identified strategic target accounts and executive personas aligned with Cedars-Sinai's employer growth objectives.
-
Developed an executive engagement strategy centered around a highly curated leadership roundtable designed specifically for C-suite audiences.
-
Positioned the event as an exclusive peer-to-peer discussion focused on healthcare innovation, employee health, executive wellbeing, and workforce strategies rather than a traditional sales presentation.
-
Collaborated with executive leadership and business development stakeholders to identify influential existing clients capable of introducing new executive prospects.
-
Designed a referral strategy encouraging current executive clients to invite peers and colleagues from other large organizations within their professional networks.
-
Created personalized executive outreach materials, invitation packages, and supporting communications tailored to senior decision-makers.
-
Applied Account-Based Marketing principles to prioritize high-value target organizations and personalize engagement efforts.
-
Coordinated event planning, executive communications, attendee experience design, and post-event follow-up strategies.
-
Developed a relationship-nurture framework to support ongoing engagement with referred prospects after the event concluded.
-
Established measurement criteria to evaluate executive participation, referral activity, relationship development, and pipeline contribution.
Before: Limited Access to Executive Decision-Makers
-
Outreach relied heavily on traditional business development tactics.
-
Access to senior executives at target organizations was difficult to secure.
-
New relationships often required lengthy prospecting cycles.
-
Existing client relationships were underutilized as a source of executive introductions.
-
Pipeline development depended largely on direct outreach and networking efforts.
After: Executive Relationship Ecosystem
-
Existing executive clients became advocates and relationship accelerators.
-
Warm introductions replaced many traditional cold outreach efforts.
-
High-value prospects engaged through trusted peer relationships.
-
Cedars-Sinai expanded visibility among executive audiences at target accounts.
-
Business development teams gained access to previously unreachable decision-makers.
-
Executive networking events became a strategic component of the ABM program.
Results
-
Established a scalable executive referral model for enterprise pipeline development.
-
Expanded engagement with C-suite leaders across strategically targeted organizations.
-
Increased access to executive decision-makers through trusted peer introductions.
-
Strengthened Cedars-Sinai's positioning as a strategic healthcare partner among employer leadership audiences.
-
Created a repeatable Account-Based Marketing framework that combined executive relationship-building, referral marketing, thought leadership, and business development.
-
Developed a long-term approach to generating qualified opportunities through executive advocacy and relationship expansion.
Key Competencies Demonstrated: Account-Based Marketing (ABM), Executive Engagement, Enterprise Marketing, Pipeline Development, Relationship Marketing, B2B Healthcare Marketing, Employer Strategy, Thought Leadership, Executive Events, Referral Marketing, Strategic Partnerships, Business Development, Stakeholder Management, Go-to-Market Strategy, Demand Generation, Customer Advocacy