Imagine a common go-to-market failure. A company invests heavily in a powerful new technology, only to watch it stall due to low user adoption and internal resistance. Why does this happen even when the product is clearly better than the alternative?
To answer this, Amy Osmond Cook, Ph.D., Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Fullcast, sat down with Dr. April Larson, Medical Director for the Division of Dermatopathology at Sonic Healthcare USA and Co-Founder at PathologyWatch. While leading a major shift to digital tools, Dr. Larson learned a critical lesson. Successful product implementation is only 20% about the product itself. The remaining 80% is all about effective change management.
Their conversation offers practical lessons in applying GTM principles to overcome internal adoption hurdles. This article breaks down Dr. Larson’s playbook, translating her experience from medical labs into a universal framework for any leader driving organizational change. Her story shows how to master the “internal sale” and turn resistance to new tools like AI into a strategic advantage.
The 20% Problem: Why A Superior Product Is Just The Starting Line
A great product can’t overcome the friction of changing human behavior on its own; that requires a deliberate change management strategy.
From Weeks To Seconds: Solving An Obvious Problem With Digital Pathology
Before PathologyWatch, pathology operated on a manual, slow process that seems almost archaic today. When a dermatologist performed a skin biopsy, the tissue sample was processed into a glass slide and then physically shipped across the country to a specialist. This workflow created turnaround times stretching from days to weeks.
Dr. Larson experienced this frustration firsthand during her 20 years in private practice. “In order to have a specialist, I would send my slides to Salt Lake City,” she explained. “They would get the skin biopsy, process it, create the slide, and then send me down a copy. Oftentimes by the time I would get that slide I had already given results to the patient.”
“Bringing a product to market in healthcare is 20% the product… 80% of the rest is change management.”
Dr. April Larson, Medical Director, Sonic Healthcare USA
PathologyWatch’s digital solution represented a clear 10x improvement. By digitizing slides, the platform offered instant access to specialists anywhere in the world, direct EMR integration, and dramatically better patient outcomes. Dermatologists could now review pathology alongside the pathologist in real time. The technology also gave pathologists easy access to clinical images and patient history within a single system, a major leap forward for the field.
Uncovering The 80% Gap: The Real Barriers To Adoption
Despite building a solution that was clearly better, Dr. Larson quickly discovered that product excellence alone guarantees nothing. “I will be honest, I definitely was not prepared for how difficult that would be,” she admitted about the post-acquisition transformation at Sonic Healthcare.
Her experience led to a simple framework: “Bringing a product to market in healthcare is 20% the product, which in your mind you’re thinking that’s the whole thing. And then I got introduced to the concept of change management. So 80% of the rest is change management.”
That 80% encompasses integration, alignment, adoption, and reimbursement. Even with a demonstrably better solution, the human and systemic friction of changing established workflows remains the real challenge. Many GTM rollouts fail because they overlook this human element. A structured framework is essential for achieving lasting adoption and alignment.
The Universal Lesson For Go-To-Market Leaders
This healthcare example translates directly to broader business contexts. Whether you are implementing a new CRM, deploying a sales planning tool, or rolling out an AI assistant, the challenge is identical. The initial excitement over features quickly gives way to the reality of disrupting routines, and this is where GTM leaders must focus their energy.
This failure to account for human and systemic friction is one of the most common challenges GTM leaders face. Understanding this dynamic transforms how you approach every technology implementation.
Mastering The “Internal Sale”: A Framework For Driving Buy-In
To succeed, you must treat your internal users with the same strategic care you give your most valuable customers.
Treat Your Users Like Your Most Valuable Customers
Dr. Larson’s breakthrough came from recognizing that internal users deserve the same thoughtful strategy typically reserved for external clients. She calls this the “internal sale,” and it fundamentally changed her approach.
“We kind of consider these people clients, right?” Dr. Larson explained. “The physicians who are the gatekeepers, they cannot be slowed down, they cannot have a lot of disruption to their workflow. They’re already so busy and overworked, and they’re just trying to get home to their family.”
“The physicians who are the gatekeepers, they cannot be slowed down… They’re already so busy and overworked, and they’re just trying to get home to their family.”
Dr. April Larson, Medical Director, Sonic Healthcare USA
At PathologyWatch, this translated into providing personalized, high-touch support to dermatology clients. The goal was simple yet profound: minimize disruption and prove value immediately, building trust from the start. Just as Dr. Larson did with her internal teams, Fullcast helped Sonic Healthcare unify fragmented operations to drive adoption and create a single, reliable view of operations.
Lead With Empathy: Listen First, Address Concerns Second
Dr. Larson’s primary tactic is to genuinely listen to understand the root of each user’s concern. Is it a fear of inefficiency? A fear of being replaced? Something else entirely?
“I think a lot of it is really just listening to their concern and understanding first what is their concern,” she said. “Is it that it’s going to slow them down, which is very common in healthcare? Is it that they have these kind of deeper fears that it’s going to replace them?”
Her background as a physician gave her credibility, but the principle is universal. Shared experience builds trust. You must “hear them” before you can help them. Once concerns are understood, you can provide real answers that directly address their specific fears.
“I really genuinely cared,” Dr. Larson emphasized. “Because I’m a physician, I understand what that’s like to have so much to do in such a short time. And so I valued their time, I valued their concerns and their questions.”
Build A Shared Vision, Not Just A Rollout Plan
Perhaps Dr. Larson’s most powerful insight is creating alignment around purpose instead of process. “When you can center on your vision and what you’re really trying to accomplish, if they feel like you have that same vision and that same goal also, it makes it a lot easier,” she explained.
Frame technology adoption not as a top-down mandate but as a collaborative journey toward a shared goal. Whether that goal is better patient outcomes, less administrative work, or increased sales, the principle is the same.
As Nicole Farina noted on The Go-to-Market Podcast, true adoption requires “partnership and buy-in from the leaders themselves whose employees are actually going to receive this… it is much better received when their sales manager is sitting down with them having the discussion.”
Building this shared vision requires a structured plan with communication templates and stakeholder alignment guides. Download our Change Management Toolkit to get started.
Reframing AI Resistance: Turn Fear Into An Efficiency Advantage
Instead of selling the power of AI, build trust by being transparent about its limitations and framing it as an assistant, not a replacement.
Demystify The Technology By Revealing Its Limitations
Dr. Larson developed a surprisingly effective strategy for overcoming AI resistance: educate users on what the tool cannot do.
“That technology, that diagnostic assist tool, is not better than the physician at this point,” she explained. “When you as a physician know your own limitations, and you say, ‘Oh my gosh, here’s this tool,’ that in your mind you’re thinking it’s going to be 100%, right? And you know that you can’t be 100%. You think, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be better.'”
Users often assume new technology is perfect, which creates both fear and unrealistic expectations. By transparently discussing the tool’s limitations, you build trust and properly frame its role. This approach helps users see the technology as a fallible tool rather than an infallible replacement.
This transparency is crucial, as most AI project failure stems not from the technology itself but from a broken operational framework and misaligned expectations.
Position AI As An Enabler Of Expertise, Not A Replacement
Dr. Larson’s reframe is essential: the diagnostic tool exists “to make them more efficient,” not to be “smarter” than them. This is about augmentation, not replacement.
“We just had to educate them to say, ‘This diagnostic tool has limitations as well,’ and help them understand what those limitations are and that they are actually assisting them to move more quickly, but it’s not replacing,” she said.
“The real advantage isn’t automation: It’s decision integrity. AI amplifies. Architecture differentiates.”
The AI handles repetitive, time-consuming tasks, freeing up human experts to focus on high-level analysis, strategy, and patient care. This principle applies directly to RevOps, where AI can automate territory design or data analysis, allowing leaders to focus on strategic GTM planning.
This aligns with a key finding in our 2026 Benchmarks Report: “The real advantage isn’t automation: It’s decision integrity. AI amplifies. Architecture differentiates.”
A Pragmatic Strategy For AI Implementation
The approach breaks down into three clear steps. First, listen to fears without dismissing them. Second, explain limitations to build trust and set realistic expectations. Third, demonstrate how the tool augments, not replaces, valuable human skills.
This human-centric approach is the key to a successful AI implementation strategy, ensuring teams feel empowered by new technology rather than threatened by it. Tools like Fullcast Plan embody this principle by using AI to accelerate planning, empowering RevOps leaders to design and deploy strategies faster and more effectively.
Final Thoughts: Your GTM Success Is 80% Human
Dr. Larson’s 80/20 rule offers a powerful lens for any leader driving change. Your technology is only 20% of the equation; the real work lies in mastering the human dynamics of transformation. The most effective GTM leaders don’t just deploy tools, they guide people through change with empathy and a clear, shared vision.
Driving successful technology adoption change management requires a robust operational foundation. Just as Dr. Larson built a system to support her physicians, Fullcast for RevOps provides the planning and execution platform that enables your entire GTM team to adopt change and drive growth together.
