Translate Complex Science into Memorable Messaging | Elizabeth Lumpkin

LifeSci Continuum with Bill Schick

Connect with Bill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/founderandcdo/
Discover how an on-demand Fractional CMO can sharpen your story and accelerate growth—visit https://meshagency.com/fcmo-fractional-cmo-fractional-marketing/
Follow Elizabeth: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethnoellumpkin/

00:00 Intro
02:30 Miscommunication in Medicine
06:40 Founders Miscommunication
11:35 Assumptions in Language
14:25 Identifying Your Audience
16:40 Communicating Painpoints & Needs
20:32 Credentialing
23:05 Founders Communicating to Customer
31:00 Methods for Sharing Ideas with your Founder
35:30 Trade Journal Ads
37:00 Problem vs Product
40:52 Avoiding Revolutionary Language
41:32 Advice for Founders
Medicine brims with life-saving innovation, yet audiences still tune out because the language feels alien. Today I sit down with Noel as she outlines a three-step playbook for breaking that cycle. First she shows how to pinpoint exactly who you are talking to and strip away insider shorthand that sabotages clarity. Next she demonstrates the power of storytelling—why a short patient vignette sticks long after a bullet list of specs. Finally she maps features to stakeholders’ true pain points, from clinicians starved for time to hospital CFOs bleeding cash on readmissions.
The result is messaging that earns trust, overcomes change resistance, and moves products off the brochure page and into everyday practice.
With that in mind, here are some recommendations to better connect with your audience.
Name the Listener, Tell the Story, Pinpoint the Pain
Start every project by writing a single sentence that defines exactly who you are talking to. A sentence like “We help over-worked oncology nurses reduce charting time” forces you to picture a real person, not a demographic blur. Once that sentence is on paper, read every headline, slide, and web page aloud using the words your audience would use in a hallway conversation. Terms that sail through an R-and-D meeting often stall when the same words land in a clinic lobby. If a phrase raises eyebrows or needs a footnote, swap it for something plainer before it leaves your desk.
Next, turn your glossary into a library of short stories. Replace abstract benefits with moments your audience can feel. “Reduces post-op hypothermia” is a statistic; “Your patient wakes up warm instead of shivering” is a scene everyone remembers. Collect these scenes in a living archive so your sales deck, social posts, and regulatory summaries draw from the same human moments. Familiar stories travel farther than flawless jargon, and they build the trust that complex data alone rarely earns.
Finally, translate each feature into a tangible pain point. Show how shaving five minutes off an intubation saves two operating-room turnovers a day, or how a single avoided readmission keeps thirty thousand dollars in the hospital’s budget. When you frame benefits in time, money, or quality metrics that already keep stakeholders up at night, your pitch stops feeling like a nice-to-have and starts reading like an urgent line item.
#LifeSciences #HealthcareInnovation #ProductMarketing