Jayme Sanchez (00:01):
Hello, and welcome to the SymphonyRM Employee Spotlight. I’m Jayme Sanchez, and today I’m very excited to be speaking with Ann Stadjuhar, our VP of Sales. Hi, Ann. Thanks for joining me today.
Ann Stadjuhar (00:14):
Thanks for having me.
Jayme Sanchez (00:15):
Definitely. Ann, can you start us off by describing your role within the company?
Ann Stadjuhar (00:22):
As the VP of Sales, I ultimately lead a lot of the growth initiatives in the team here at Symphony as we expand and grow the market. We’re in a really fascinating position of having some substantially good clients. And now I think it’s time to make the market aware that we’re here, and we’re here to serve them and help them take next best actions with their clients or their patients.
Jayme Sanchez (00:46):
Nice. So can you tell me a little bit about your background and what made you decide to join SymphonyRM?
Ann Stadjuhar (00:56):
I’ve spent the last several years of my career and the majority of my career, actually in the customer experience and engagement space. Starting out, I spent time in pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical marketing. Then I had a career at Healthgrades that was over a decade long, so really kind of functioning as one of their growth leaders there, working with multiple healthcare clients. After the stint at Healthgrades, I was also involved with Tea Leaves as well and some of the succession planning there, and then went on to the advisory board where we were acquired by Optum but was also the lead on digital consumer engagement. Through the process, I’ve come from the origins of the beginning of CRM and really moved through its evolution. And ultimately, I believe Symphony is truly the next evolution of where healthcare intelligence and CRM is ultimately going. At SRM, we’re taking that next step in shifting the healthcare marketer from just product and service line centric marketing to really being customer-centric. And we’re providing the most relevant proposition for the patient to increase conversion and engagement and improve their healthy interventions and lifestyle.
Jayme Sanchez (02:24):
Great. Awesome. So, given your experience with CRM, what would you say is the main reason that CRM initiatives have been so difficult in healthcare specifically?
Ann Stadjuhar (02:36):
Well, I think the challenge is even in defining what CRM is. For so many, CRM is really the pipes and the trunk in which you can put all of your data and all of your information and everything like that. But that takes time. And if an enterprise CRM solution is what’s needed, obviously it’s got to be piped and fitted into multiple pieces of the organization that have different requirements and have different questions that they might want to ask for it. At the end of the day, though, it’s really just pipes, and you still need the intelligence, and you need the action that tells you exactly what to do with that data and that information. I think sometimes that might be overlooked, and people take on certainly the long journey of getting all of the pipes laid, and then the next step would be like, “what do we do with all of the data that we have? ”
Ann Stadjuhar (03:31):
It’s definitely, I think, coming at the expense of not necessarily clearly defining what you really want your CRM to do and making sure that those requirements are hit across the organization. And everybody, too, having very different goals for their CRM solution. We know that a lot of people are very hopeful, and as Sheetal says here, we’ve had this Spruce Goose analogy where there is a hope to be build something that is very visionary, but at the end of the day, there’s baby steps to be taken. And, what is the real goal that you want to accomplish with your CRM? Hopefully, it’s really, again, taking care of and managing your patient and your customer the best.
Jayme Sanchez (04:21):
Nice. Got you. Okay, so what would you say makes SymphonyRM special?
Ann Stadjuhar (04:28):
Oh, it’s always the people. I mean, certainly the people. And it is so fun to be at a very smart Silicon Valley startup, again with such intelligent, bright people. Having gone from my career… I began at Healthgrades very, very early stage and was on a trajectory there. I worked for the advisory board, which was triple the size. Obviously Optum, a very, very large organization. It’s kind of nice to be back in a very smart, fast-moving company that can be nimble and respond to the needs of the clients rather nimbly and to all be accountable. And that is truly what I like about SRM is we’re at this early stage too, but not too early. I think we’re ready to really take off and have a rocket ship here, so excited. But always the people.
Jayme Sanchez (05:27):
Nice. I like that answer. And it’s definitely exciting, definitely fast-paced. Yeah.
Ann Stadjuhar (05:33):
For sure.
Jayme Sanchez (05:35):
Awesome. Well, thank you, Ann. I really appreciate you joining me today on the Employee Spotlight. And for those watching, be sure to check back in next month for the next edition of the Employee Spotlight. Thanks.
Ann Stadjuhar (05:49):
Thank you.
Jayme Sanchez manages People, Company & Team Operations at SymphonyRM. In addition to handling the day-to-day of office operations and administration, she’s the company culture champion, and assists with social media content creation.
