For over ten years I’ve helped healthcare, health tech, and life sciences companies clarify their messaging and get their customers to listen. And time after time, I’ve seen the same thing happen.
Companies fall in love with their own features and benefits.
It’s understandable — they’ve worked hard to build them. But here’s the problem: features and benefits aren’t a story. They don’t create stakes. And without stakes, no one cares.
The “Hero” Mistake
Let’s take a fictional example. Meet Acme Revenue Solutions, a company in the revenue cycle management (RCM) space. Here’s how they might describe themselves:
“Acme Revenue Solutions helps hospitals streamline billing, reduce claim denials, and accelerate reimbursements. Our platform uses AI-driven automation to handle coding, compliance, and collections. With Acme, you can save time, lower costs, and maximize revenue.”
Not bad, right? In fact, it’s how many healthcare companies present themselves. It lists the features, highlights the benefits, and checks the right boxes.
The problem is, it’s also forgettable.
Why? Because Acme is playing the hero, talking about their own superpowers. Meanwhile, the customer — the hospital CFO, the director of revenue cycle, the VP of finance — is left as a spectator in their own story.
And here’s the thing: your customer is not looking for a hero.
Your customer is the hero. You are the guide.
When you forget that, they tune out.
Enter StoryBrand
Six years ago, I had the chance to attend a three-day StoryBrand workshop, and it completely changed the way I thought about messaging. If you haven’t heard of it, StoryBrand is a simple, seven-step storytelling framework developed by Donald Miller. It helps companies stop confusing their audience and start clarifying what they actually offer.
The framework boils down to this:
- A Character — your customer.
- Has a Problem — the thing that keeps them up at night.
- And Meets a Guide — that’s you.
- Who Gives Them a Plan — a simple, clear path forward.
- And Calls Them to Action — tell them what to do.
- That Ends in Success — paint the picture of the win.
- And Helps Them Avoid Failure — don’t skip the consequences.
In this framework, the customer is always the hero. You’re the guide.
The reason so much marketing feels flat is because it’s upside-down. Instead of putting the customer at the center of the story, companies hog the spotlight.
That’s why I like to bring in another concept — stakes. When you define what the customer stands to gain or lose, you put urgency and meaning back into the story. And that’s what makes StoryBrand so powerful.
Reframing With Stakes
So how do we make Acme’s message actually matter? We switch the lens. Instead of rattling off features and benefits, we frame the stakes — what the customer stands to gain or lose.
Here’s a rewrite, StoryBrand-style:
“Every day a claim is denied, hospitals lose critical revenue that should be funding patient care. Billing teams are overwhelmed, clinicians are frustrated, and patients get caught in the middle. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Acme Revenue Solutions gives your hospital the clarity and control to stop revenue leakage before it happens. With automated claim scrubbing, real-time alerts, and expert support, you can finally focus on care instead of paperwork. Hospitals should be thriving, not drowning in denials. We’ll help you get paid what you’ve earned — so you can put resources where they belong: in patient care.”
Notice the difference?
- External stakes: Denied claims, lost revenue, overworked staff.
- Internal stakes: The frustration of “drowning in denials” and the relief of “finally focusing on care.”
- Philosophical stakes: The belief that hospitals should be thriving and resources should support patient care.
Now, the customer is the hero. They’re the one solving the problem and reclaiming their story. Acme’s role? The guide who gives them the plan and the tools to succeed.
How Writers Make the Switch
When I write for clients, this is the mental shift I’m making. If I catch myself listing features, I stop and ask:
- What’s really at stake for the customer?
- What happens if they don’t solve this problem?
- How will they feel if they do?
- What’s the bigger “should” at play here?
That’s when the copy comes alive. That’s when it stops sounding like every other vendor in the healthcare space. And that’s when customers lean in — because they see themselves in the story.
One other thing: every company truly is unique. Most of the time, that uniqueness is baked into the reason the company exists in the first place — a founder who was fed up with the status quo, a team who saw a better way, or a conviction that something in healthcare just shouldn’t be this hard.
The trouble is, those origin stories often get buried under layers of jargon. My job as a writer is to dig them out and bring them forward. Because yes, two companies might sound alike on the surface — but they aren’t alike. And those distinctions are part of the stakes. They show what’s broken in the world, and why the company exists to fix it.
That’s where the most compelling stories live.
The Bottom Line
If you want your marketing messaging to land, stop trying to be Luke Skywalker. Be Yoda. Be Obi-Wan. Help your customer win their fight.
Because at the end of the day, they don’t want to hear about your features. They want to know what’s at stake — and how you’ll guide them to success.