Insights

The Next Level Is Great. Breaking What Already Works Is Not

Everyone wants to take their company to the next level.

Then you remember you're in healthcare.

Suddenly, growth means more customers, more contracts, more regulations, more integrations, more stakeholders, and more acronyms.

And just when you think you understand the ecosystem, someone changes the rules.

Welcome to growth in healthcare.

The good news? Complexity usually means opportunity. The challenge is choosing the right opportunities, getting the right people in the room, and growing without damaging the company you've already built.

That's one of the reasons I created Zimmer Advisor.

I've spent more than 20 years working across health plans, pharmacy, healthcare technology, startups, and growth-stage organizations. I've led revenue-generating functions, worked through major periods of growth and change, participated in minority recapitalizations and strategic sales, and presented to private equity organizations and banks.

I've seen growth from inside the organization, not just from the conference room. And one thing I've learned is this: the next level usually requires more than doing more of what got you to the current one.

More Sales? Maybe

When an organization wants to grow, one of the first answers is often, "We need more sales."

Maybe.

But before hiring three more salespeople and increasing everyone's quota, I'd ask a few more questions. Are we pursuing the right markets? Is our value proposition clear? Are we selling the right products to the right customers? Are we pricing appropriately? Can we actually deliver what we're selling? And are we protecting the customers and revenue we already have?

Growth is not just a sales issue. Sales, service/account management, marketing, and product all see growth through a different lens. IT, Operations, and Finance see another set of realities entirely.

They all need to be in the conversation early.

Sales shouldn't be promising something Product can't build. Product shouldn't be building something Sales can't sell. Marketing shouldn't be telling a story that Service doesn't recognize. And Service really shouldn't learn what Sales promised during the implementation call.

The same goes beyond the commercial team. Can IT support it? Can Operations deliver it? Can Finance make money on it? If the answer is, "We'll figure that out later," it may be worth having another conversation.

Because adding revenue is fantastic. Adding revenue your organization can't support? Slightly less fantastic.

Don't Lose Today's Revenue Chasing Tomorrow's

One of the easiest mistakes to make during rapid growth is becoming so focused on the next customer that you stop paying enough attention to the customers you already have.

I've always believed growth and retention belong in the same conversation. You can celebrate signing five new customers, but if you lose your largest customer at the same time, the math becomes considerably less exciting.

Leadership should know which customers represent the greatest revenue, which relationships are vulnerable, which contracts are approaching renewal, where there are expansion opportunities, and whether pricing still reflects the value being delivered.

Those aren't simply account-management questions. They're enterprise-value questions.

Retention protects what you've built. Expansion creates more value from existing relationships. New sales add growth. You need all three.

Your Next Growth Opportunity May Already Be Inside the Business

Growth doesn't always mean selling more of exactly what you sell today.

Sometimes the next opportunity is already sitting inside the company.

You may have technology, data, relationships, infrastructure, expertise, intellectual property, or a capability that could create value for a completely different customer or market.

Instead of only asking, "How do we sell more of what we already sell?" I also like asking, "Who else could benefit from something we already do really well?"

That question can uncover new markets, strategic partnerships, channels, products, and revenue streams. Sometimes the next growth opportunity doesn't need to be built from scratch. It just needs to be recognized.

Healthcare Is an Ecosystem. Act Like It

This is where healthcare gets especially interesting.

A seemingly straightforward opportunity can involve a health plan, PBM, employer, consultant, pharmacy, manufacturer, technology company, specialty network, or some combination of all of them. Each may see the opportunity differently. Each may have a different economic interest. And the person who influences the decision may not be the person you expected.

So I'm usually asking: Who benefits? Who pays? Who might resist it? Who influences the decision? What does each stakeholder need to hear? And who actually needs to be part of the conversation?

Sometimes a great healthcare idea struggles not because the idea is bad. It simply hasn't found the right path through the ecosystem.

Relationships can help open doors, and I've built a broad network across healthcare and pharmacy over the course of my career. But introductions alone aren't a strategy. Before making a connection, I want to understand the business, the value proposition, the economic opportunity, why these organizations should be talking, and what should happen if the conversation goes well.

A relationship may open the door. Strategy gives people a reason to walk through it. Execution determines what happens next.

Think Like an Investor Before One Is in the Room

I've participated in minority recapitalizations and strategic sales, including presenting to private equity organizations and banks as part of those processes.

It's an interesting experience. Suddenly, people want to know everything: revenue concentration, retention, pipeline, margins, leadership, product strategy, contracts, market opportunity, competition, growth projections, scalability, and approximately 4,732 other things.

It taught me something that matters whether you are preparing for a transaction or simply trying to build a stronger company: the questions investors eventually ask are questions leadership should be asking long before there's an investor in the room.

How predictable is our revenue? How dependent are we on a few customers? How strong is retention? What does the pipeline really look like? What differentiates us? Where will future growth come from? Can we scale? What are the risks? What could make this company significantly more valuable two or three years from now?

Thinking like an investor before you need one can make you more transaction-ready. More importantly, it can help you run a stronger business.

And if you are in the middle of a recapitalization, investment process, or strategic sale, there is one small complication: you still have to run the company.

Your customers do not receive a memo saying, "Please be patient. Management is currently in due diligence."

You still have to sell, retain customers, deliver, lead employees, and keep the pipeline moving. I've lived through that. Protecting the core business while preparing for what's next matters just as much as the transaction itself.

This Is Usually Where I Come In

I created Zimmer Advisor to help healthcare companies navigate growth, change, and new opportunities with an operator's perspective. I bring commercial experience, healthcare and pharmacy ecosystem knowledge, transaction experience, relationships, and a willingness to get into the work.

I work with founder-led, investor-backed, private equity-backed, and established healthcare organizations on commercial growth, customer retention and expansion, new markets, strategic partnerships, organizational alignment, and positioning.

The exact challenge varies. The common thread is helping leadership see the opportunity more clearly and turn it into action.

The engagement does not need to be complicated. Not every challenge needs to become a giant consulting project.

Sometimes a CEO needs an experienced thought partner. Sometimes a founder needs help deciding what has to change. Sometimes an investor or PE team wants another perspective on a portfolio company, or a fractional growth officer. And sometimes there is one specific opportunity that needs the right strategy, relationships, and execution.

I don't walk in believing I have all the answers. I don't. The leadership team knows the company, its customers, its people, and its history. I bring another perspective, ask questions, spot issues, make connections, and help move the work forward.

I'm not there to replace leadership. I'm there to strengthen the team around the opportunity.

I Like Strategy. I Like Execution More

I don't believe in creating strategy that sits in a presentation.

Don't get me wrong. I appreciate a good PowerPoint as much as the next executive.

But eventually somebody has to do something.

That's the part I enjoy: understanding the problem, talking with the teams, evaluating the opportunity, sharpening the message, and figuring out what should happen next.

I like getting my hands dirty. Not literally. This is healthcare consulting, after all.

I want to be close enough to the work that the strategy actually turns into action.

A Simple Way to Find the Real Problem

One of the reasons I created the Zimmer Advisor "Next Level" Checklist was to give leadership teams a practical way to start these conversations.

• What must we protect?

• Are IT, Operations, and Finance involved early enough?

• Do we really understand our revenue?

• What should we stop doing?

• What would an investor ask us?

And ultimately: What has to change to reach the next level?

There's another question that may be even more revealing: Does the leadership team agree on the answers?

Have your leaders answer the questions independently and compare responses. If everyone is mostly aligned, great. If eight people have eight completely different ideas about where the organization is going? Well, you just figured out where to start.

Want to use these questions with your team? Download the Zimmer Advisor Next Level Checklist.

So, What's Your Next Level? 

Maybe it's building a commercial organization that can scale. Maybe it's protecting your largest customers before chasing aggressive new growth. Maybe it's moving into a new market, diversifying, finding the right strategic partners, or preparing for outside investment or a strategic transaction.

Or maybe you've built a really good company and know there's another level, but you haven't figured out exactly what needs to change to get there.

I've spent my career working through these challenges from inside healthcare organizations. That's what I bring to Zimmer Advisor: an operator's perspective, the right questions, useful connections, and a willingness to roll up my sleeves and help turn opportunity into action.

If your organization is at an inflection point and you're asking, "What needs to change to get us to the next level?" let's have a conversation. 

We can start with what's working, what isn't, and where the biggest opportunity may be hiding.

And I promise not to show up with a 100-slide strategy deck.