+ Who is the ideal Fertility Bridge Client?

The ideal Fertility Bridge client:

• Is the managing partner of a fertility center or the chief executive of a company in the fertility field.
• Is determined to grow, either by volumes, patient and staff satisfaction, or by profit.
• Works directly with our principal, Griffin Jones, not through an office manager or marketing director, before our teams come together to work on execution.
• Is open to allow us to (1) decide which challenges are relevant, (2) diagnose the problem accurately and (3) suggest the solutions that will have the greatest impact and the least disruption.
• Views their challenge as a need, something that has either caused their business to suffer or is standing in the way of their growth.
• Is concerned more with the return on investment than the investment itself.
• Is humble enough to recognize there is always room for improvement and their competitors aren’t all slouches.
• Hires us because of our expertise (we are the only marketing and business development firm exclusively devoted to the fertility field) and not because they need a vendor to check off items from a to-do list (there are hundreds of thousands of those).

We cherish our ideal clients. We talk to each other about how much we adore them. We spend extra time strategizing on their accounts because we really want them to win. They allow us to do our best work and bring them significant results. Being told that we fundamentally improved their business meets the tippy top of our hierarchy of needs.

+ How do we work together?

In the same way that you work with patients. (No, we don’t help with any clinical outcomes; we are a business development consultancy and marketing firm. These are simply metaphors.):

1. “Diagnosis and prognosis”: Goal Diagnostic
2. “Treatment plan”: Fertility Marketing Blueprint
3. “Initial application of treatment”: Execution, Oversight, Training or Advisory
4. “Ongoing application of treatment,” if necessary

For an overview of the entire system, read here.
For how we execute your strategy or train, oversee, or advise your team, read here.

+ What should our expectations be?

You’re not secretly hoping for the false promises that many marketers have to fudge to win your business. You’re not unloading important positioning decisions that only the principal can make onto an office manager or marketing director. You’re committed to solving a business challenge and reaching a goal. You understand that it takes time and resources, and that your organization may benefit from another’s expertise.

You’re not looking for deliverables for the sake of deliverables. You appreciate that given the high variance in fertility centers’ workflow and personnel, your strategy will likely require more diagnosis and be more customized than a turnkey solution.

You appreciate that we’re not asking you to marry us without dating, and that we don’t want to take much of your money or time before defining and validating the likelihood of success, and you want our expertise in making that decision.

+ What services does Fertility Bridge provide?

Find a table of some of the services we provide here.

Fertility Bridge performs every function listed in both columns of this table. We only perform the services in the second column in strategic combination to serve the needs of the first column.

If your primary concern mostly falls within the second column, you may not need Fertility Bridge: there are hundreds of thousands of free-lancers and agencies that offer some version of these services.

If your primary concern mostly falls within the first column, we are the only firm that exclusively solves these challenges for fertility businesses.

+ Is business with Fertility Bridge Confidential?

Yes. As soon as you sign up for your Goal Diagnostic, we send you a signed NDA. We take our reputation of being extremely trustworthy, extremely seriously. After a successful engagement, we will ask your permission to share a case study, and we may ask you to do a video or podcast interview to share your experience, both are at your discretion. And that is it.

Not even our multi-lab, major city, coastal groups with very different challenges than our 1-4 doctor small market clients know what’s going on with each other. When you hear us give examples on the podcast or in an article, you’ll notice that the name, location, and any identifiers, usually down to the gender of the individuals, are completely removed.

+ Will Fertility Bridge work with my competitors?

The fact that we only serve the fertility field is the reason that you hire us. The more markets that you or your competitors are in, the more likely it is that we have worked with them, do work with them, or will in the future.

Please see our above policy on confidentiality. We take great measures to keep all client information confidential. Please do not expect any inside information about your competitors if we work with them. You will not get it. The same protection is provided for you.

Each strategy is built upon the needs and goals of the client. We can’t give you someone else’s strategy, or vise versa. Your strategy has to be for you.

Fertility Bridge can either help only your competitors, or we can help your organization as well, but you should know up front that it is not exclusive.

+ I know the initial offer is small, but I’d just like to feel a bit more comfortable before starting the Goal Diagnostic. Can I talk with Griffin before engaging?

Griffin is happy to have a 15 minute phone conversation for your comfort level, provided that you are a managing partner or chief executive. Please do read through these FAQs and other information on the site, including the Fertility Marketing System. And don’t overthink it--the Goal Diagnostic is designed so that it is valuable for you whether we move to the next phase together or not.

+ What size fertility organizations do you work with?

We work with publicly traded, multi-lab, multi-national, multi-physician groups, all the way to single REI practitioners, and everyone in between. Smaller groups often need a complete business development strategy and help with execution. Larger groups with marketing teams sometimes need a segmented strategy and help with advisory or training.

+ Do you work with all fertility businesses or only clinics?

We work with fertility pharmacies, genetics companies, surrogacy agencies, egg banks, testing companies, IVF device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, fertility tech solutions, and others.

You should know that while we help fertility centers with every aspect of sales and marketing, we specifically help other fertility companies by connecting their sales and marketing pathway and building the content and offers therein.

Read about how we help business-to-business fertility companies.

Read about how we help direct-to-patient fertility companies.

+ Do you work with start-ups in the fertility and IVF space?

This is a hard one because we know what it’s like to be new to the field and to not have any money. We will engage with start-ups the same way we will any other business in the fertility field, provided there is a budget and they are hiring us for our expertise. We get emails and messages every week from start-ups interested in “partnering” or “seeing how we might be able to help each other.”

We’re sorry--Griffin simply can’t take meetings for these purposes. We put out free content about fertility business at least once a week and hope you’re able to take advantage of it. Every now and again, Griffin makes an exception because we believe in being helpful and growing relationships. When he does, it’s when the founders are upfront and honest about their situation.

+ How much does fertility marketing cost?

Fertility marketing budget = value of desired future state, discounted for uncertainty.

This question is typically a sign that marketing is categorized as an expense which is a predictor of failure. Marketing cannot be an expense, it must be an investment to develop the business and the investment must be returned. The better judgement is whether the strategy will achieve a profitable goal and to what extent. Which is more expensive? The ad in the Sunday Bugle that costs $200 but does nothing to impact business? Or the $4 million Super Bowl Ad that brings in $70 million in sales?

Goal precedes budget, always. Similar to the question, “how much does IVF cost?”: You don’t know if the person will need to spend six figures for a gestational carrier, donor egg and a three cycle guarantee, or if they need to do timed intercourse after the first consult.

Should the single REI that wants to retire in two years be expected to have the same budget as the group that wants to scale their model across the country?

+ We’re evaluating Fertility Bridge by their ability to solve our challenge and meet our goal. What is Fertility Bridge evaluating us on before moving on after the Goal Diagnostic?

1. Is there big enough upside? A new profit goal of at least $350,000.
2. Do we see the future the same way?
3. Are you able and excited to implement change?

+ Do you work with our marketing team?

If and when Fertility Bridge engages with your company, our team happily works with your marketing team in ways further detailed on this site. The conversation starts, however, between the principals of your group and our principal, Griffin Jones. Because Fertility Bridge will only engage if it will be absolutely beneficial for you, we need assurance from the managing partners of your organization that they are committed to a successful outcome.

+ What patterns guarantee a fertility company’s success in generating greater patient and staff satisfaction and more profit--no matter who’s helping?

1. The managing partners are aligned and committed to solving a business goal or challenge. They are deeply involved in the beginning, and periodically involved as the strategy is implemented
2. Benchmarks are in place and mechanisms of measurement are sufficient
3. Strategy is established prior to execution to ensure that time and resources are proportional to the goal
4. One person (who can be helped by others) is accountable for implementation
5. One person (usually different from the implementor) approves all milestones on behalf of the organization
6. Strategy is adapted if capacity is reached before goal

+ How does Fertility Bridge help if we already have an agency or marketing team?

If you have an-in house marketing team or an agency that you already work with, you’re here for one of four reasons. Only one of them isn’t a good fit for Fertility Bridge.

1. Overflow. Your current team is at capacity and you’re looking for an outside agency that can take on the excess work. This is the only one that doesn’t make sense for us.
2. Challenge. Push or even supplant the in-house team. Sometimes we replace existing teams, oftentimes we do not.
3. Lead: Set the creative, strategic or technological framework of the work to come.Just as you have expertise that we couldn’t possibly have because you’re in house, we have expertise that you couldn’t possibly have because we’ve worked with dozens of fertility businesses from all over the world.
4. Knowledge transfer: train or grow your team. We offer formal training modules for most of our services.

+ Does Fertility Bridge execute strategies that you didn’t work on?

No. Not every client needs a complete Fertility Marketing Blueprint, but you let us make that call in the Goal Diagnostic. If we aren’t engaged to thoroughly evaluate and potentially challenge your strategy,it wouldn’t be valuable enough to you to hire Fertility Bridge. It would be like having a generalist come up with a treatment plan and then coming to the REI to have them apply it.

+ Who will we be working with?

Our principal, Griffin Jones, in the beginning, and our Director of Client Success and Project Manager, for sure. The rest depends on what your strategy requires. You can read about the team here.

+ How often will we be working with Griffin?

Very much in the beginning, and then episodically. You would typically hire an expert advisor for pressing problems or initiatives at different periods. You may hire an agency, coaches, technicians, and managers for on-going needs or help with implementation. If your needs include both, you will work with Griffin on the former and the Fertility Bridge team on the latter.

+ Before engaging Fertility Bridge, does it make sense to work on some things ourselves?

In some cases it would, particularly if clinical or lab operations are preventing you from focusing on the business. Where we’d strongly urge you to engage us first are in areas like positioning, opening a new center, branding, and hiring of any marketing or patient relations (receptionist, call center, new patient navigator) personnel. It is also better to engage us before selling all or part of your practice because you will lose on the multiple if you haven’t improved your EBITDA. Also, we don’t work for any private equity firm (though sometimes they engage us for the same reasons you do), so we can give you a balanced perspective before you make that gigantic decision.

+ How long will we engage for?

50% of prospective clients benefit from moving on after the Goal and Competitive Diagnostic. After that, average client engagements are 4 years, but that is an average. Some will be longer, others just need a strategy for their team to implement.

+ How do we pay?

Projects are paid in 1-3 payments over the course of the project, depending on project size. Annual agreements are paid on the first of each month. There is a 5% ACH discount for paying electronically from your business checking account. If you do not have your bank account on file to receive the ACH discount, you must have a credit card on file.

+ Do you come to visit our office during the Goal Diagnostic or Blueprint?

No. All Fertility Bridge business is done over video call. We may visit ongoing clients once a year.

+ Do you give references?

As a matter of policy, we do not give references, though you may not even need us to. Fertility is a very small field. You likely know the principals of many of the organizations we’ve worked with. You may even have their phone numbers. We put their logos on our website with pride.

This is policy because it isn’t fair to ask our clients to do our selling or advising for us. They don’t know your situation and they have busy businesses. We ask many of them to do a long or short video to share their experience with us, and they’re peppered throughout our website, so they don’t have to do it over and over again.

+ I’m not ready to hire you yet. How can I stay in touch?

The best ways are in this order

• Subscribe to our emails about fertility business that doesn’t appear anywhere else
• Subscribe to the Inside Reproductive Health podcast
• Read the Ultimate Guide to Fertility Marketing
• Connect with Griffin on Linkedin