How to Sell Wellness to C-Suite

Leadership support and buy-in to workplace wellness programs is essential for program success. This blog outlines how to sell wellness to the C-Suite with a helpful presentation template to get you started.

C-Suite Support is Essential to Success

As we discussed in our last blog post Does Sustainability Relate to Wellness?, it is essential to get senior leadership support in order for wellness programs to succeed. 

Some organizations are lucky enough to have a champion in the C-Suite; however, many are not so lucky. That usually leaves it to the “Chief Wellness Person” to “sell” wellness to senior management. CoreHealth works with thousands of wellness providers so we know first-hand how important the 'pitch to leadership is. 

Challenges to Getting Leadership Buy-In

Selling employee health and wellness programs to leadership can present a few challenges:

• Not Sales Experts - Typically the person in charge of wellness is trained in wellness - not sales. This can be intimidating and nerve-wracking to say the least! Think of the positive, the fact that you are responsible for wellness in your organization means that, at some level, management supports it.

• Working the Right Channels - Another big stumbling block is whether the wellness lead has access to the senior executives through a direct channel. Quite often, he or she may have to go through the ‘proper’ channels; often times, through Human Resources. While this isn’t always a bad thing, it’s ideal to have a direct relationship with executives.
  

  If Human Resources is the route you need to go, work with them closely to understand the leadership personalities, what specifically they like to see in a presentation (they probably have some first-hand experience and tips – leverage their knowledge!) and discuss any current internal issues/challenges/initiatives that could pose a potential roadblock to launch (and come prepared with solutions to overcome).

• What to present - If and when you do get the opportunity to present to executives, what will win their support? Do your homework! Lack of data, confidence, or opportunity is definately not the cornerstone to winning executive buy-in.

This blog will give you some tips on getting the attention you deserve.

Know Your Audience

If you are fortunate to have senior executives that workout every day and drink Spirulina for breakfast, you’re one of the lucky few!  You will probably have an easy time getting an audience to talk about how you plan to grow your wellness program and help employees get healthy!

But If you’ve got a C-Suite that has no time for health and wellness, it’s time to get creative.

What are less health-minded execs most interested in?

Work and Performance

Likely work and performance are the names of this game. How about engaging them with ideas about achieving better performance?

• Outline how a wellness challenge or program will help ‘tune-up’ people, just like we do equipment, to get optimal results with fewer breakdowns.

• Identify how this will add up to competitive advantage and grow the business.

• Reference any existing resources (e.g. employee surveys, annual reports, company mission statement, customer satisfaction surveys, etc.)  that can help you to link this initiative back to business goals and objectives.

• Paint a mental picture of how your program helps employees to be more engaged and contribute to organization success!

It's also important to know these 3 Tips to Selling Corporate Wellness to C-Suite – Know Your Strategy.

To get prepared, create some concise slides that present your business case. You can either memorize them as talking points, turn them into an email or download the sample presentation template below.

The key is to get the main points ready to pitch whenever and whatever the forum

As mentioned above, get to know your stakeholder(s). Are they open to experimenting? Are they keen to be viewed as leaders and early adopters? Once you know their business and personal objectives, you can get to work on your slides.

Good Luck!

About CoreHealth Technologies

CoreHealth Technologies Inc. is the leading corporate wellness platform trusted by more than 1000 organizations, ranging from medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 enterprises. At CoreHealth, we believe that developing the best employee wellness programs is all about giving wellness companies the right code, design and access to the latest innovations. With the most customization, integrations and reliability of any software in its class, CoreHealth’s powerful platform lets users focus on growing great companies. For more information, explore the CoreHealth website.