Expecting (and Delivering) Excellence: The Devil is in the Details

Twelve years ago, I took a flier on a company called WCG. I was living in Austin, Texas, and had just left my previous company following a merger. When I joined WCG, it employed only about 200 people and it specialized in healthcare. Although WCG’s core offering was PR, it was working hard to grow its analytics and social media business with existing healthcare clients. I joined as a hybrid senior account lead/strategist with an agreement that I would tap my past experience as a marketing leader to help with marketing efforts.

Fast forward to today where that 200-person PR agency is now a 2,000+ person firm that offers many services beyond PR including advertising, media buying, medical affairs, payer marketing, advanced patient and HCP identification, and much, much more. We are now called Real Chemistry, and I am now the chief marketing officer. It has taken thousands of hours of patience, planning, communication and follow up from me to help us get there. But that’s a common theme here at Real Chemistry, and it’s what I strive to teach my team day in and day out.

Working at the same (although continuously evolving) company for the last 12 years has given me the unique privilege and insight to the direction and vision that has spurred our growth. As you can imagine, with significant growth comes a greater need for a cohesive culture and common corporate touchstones, which many of us know as “corporate values.” What stands out about Real Chemistry is that, as much as things have changed, our values really haven’t. Yes, they’ve been updated, and we use some different words to describe them, but the essence is the same.

One value that I am particularly drawn to is “Excellence Expected,” which is described as:

Excellence Expected: of yourself and those around you. To create a future where everyone has an excellent healthcare experience, we have to be excellent ourselves – in our work, our results and our ability to make those around us better.

As the head of marketing for our company, I have found that this value applies to many aspects of my job – whether it’s sending out our monthly e-newsletter to several thousand clients and partners, updating our corporate website or hosting one of our many in-person events at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, SXSW or ASCO.

When it comes to events, I’m sure many of you are thinking, “How hard can it be to serve drinks, food and have a little music on in the background?” But these events are a critical part of what we do at Real Chemistry as it gives us a chance to thank our clients, meet new prospects and reconnect with colleagues that we often only see via Zoom. And while a good party or event might seem straightforward, I can tell you from experience that the devil is definitely in the details – and taking care to ensure the most logistical of tasks is done well can have an impact on the overall experience.

A recent example of this was the client welcome reception we hosted at ASCO in 2022. It was the first time this behemoth of a medical conference was held in-person in three years, so we weren’t really sure what to expect. Not only did we have over 300 clients show up, but we were told that our party was “THE” party at ASCO that year. That was specifically because we had a great plan and a perfect venue, and we executed the event with precision.

Our ability to deliver excellent events requires an experienced team – people who have produced hundreds of events, know how to execute on a “high wire,” and are trained to look around corners for potential issues. It also comes with a lot of up-front planning and ends with flawless execution from email invites to the all-important postmortem where details of what went right and what could be improved are vigorously discussed. Last year, this approach resulted in a 20X return on our spend in topline revenue growth – a number we are very proud of.

Because we count on such happenings to help us with important aspects of our business, including client satisfaction and revenue growth, it’s critically important that we expect excellence with each of them. We pride ourselves in never letting the clients see us sweat. In many ways, it’s like the proverbial swan who looks graceful gliding through the water while vigorously paddling its feet below the surface. It means we order extra food, have extra badges ready for walk-ins and create extra signage at the last minute to guide people.

So how do you bring “Excellence Expected” into your work life? Step one: Hire the right people who you know you can trust. Step two: Develop a well thought through plan. Step three: Don’t just execute on your plan, but measure and optimize as you go. Whether it’s an event, an e-newsletter or just a team meeting, these simple steps will go a long way in effecting the right outcome. Most of all, make sure your team knows what “Excellence Expected” looks like and coach them through the beginning, middle and end of the process.