From “We Use It” to “You Need This”: How to Build Clinic Champions That Market for You
You’ve earned the demo. You’ve guided the trial. You’ve made the sale. Now what?
Welcome to Part 4 of the Speak Vet series—where we move beyond belief and into behavior that spreads.
Over the last three issues, we’ve unpacked how to make your message land inside a clinic, not just in a pitch.
Part 1: They’re Not Buying It—Because You’re Not Speaking Their Language Why tone, clarity, and empathy are your most strategic tools.
Part 2: Veterinary Messaging Mistakes That Break Trust How to earn attention and belief from burned-out, decision-fatigued teams.
Part 3: From Trust to Traction Why most post-demo messaging fails and how to build momentum after the meeting.
Today, in Part 4, we’re focusing on what happens after adoption, when the real magic begins. Because it’s one thing for a clinic to use your product. It’s another for them to talk about it.
This is where your message needs to evolve one more time. Not to drive the next sale. But to empower your customers to drive it for you.
In Practice: What Actually Works
Each edition, we bring you insights from industry leaders shaping the future of veterinary innovation and just as importantly, from the people living it every day: veterinarians, practice managers, and veterinary technicians.
In this issue, we're once again joined by Mark Massaro, DVM, The Digital DVM Consulting. Mark has walked this road, as a practicing veterinarian, a multi-site systems leader, and now a strategic advisor for tech companies navigating adoption and growth.
His perspective in Part 4 is especially powerful because he understands the final leap founders need to help teams make: from using the product to sharing it.
Where most companies stop at retention, Mark sees the untapped opportunity in advocacy and the real-world trust it takes to earn it.
“I love this series so much because it really does remind me of real-world experiences I’ve had. The first that comes to mind again is implementing an AI scribe across multiple hospitals. In fact, just the other day someone was asking me ‘What did you do if you had someone who just didn’t want to use it?’ - a question I get quite a lot.
And this happened! Quite a bit! Vets and techs would tell me ‘Listen Dr. Mark, I’m just against AI’ or ‘I have no problem with my SOAP notes’ or ‘Please leave me alone’ in so many words… so I did! And focused on others at that same clinic that were more open to the idea of trying the software. And guess what… those same vets and techs would text me a few weeks later ‘You know what Dr. Mark, I think I’m ready for you to show me that AI thing again’. Why? What happened? What changed?
They saw others at their same clinic using it. And heard them say ‘You really gotta try it, it’s amazing’. People they knew and trusted. I love this term that Fotine used and I’ve heard others in the industry use- a ‘champion’. It’s so, so important. At times I’ve been that champion, others I’ve been the one identifying potential champions at different clinics for different programs I’ve been looking to implement.
And it’s not just within their same clinic! As Fotine points out, word of mouth is everything in vet med! As we often say, it is such a small world. Everyone knows everyone! There is no better marketing than hearing someone you went to school with or used to work with rave about a certain product or medication or software program. Especially software, again which is where my experience is, since we so often hate our programs!
I saw this firsthand at Instinct, my first true software job. People LOVED our digital treatment sheets. So much so that they would rave about them in Facebook groups, again another thing Fotine mentions - I’ve really seen this! In real life! And come up to our booth at conferences and tell us and the potential customers we were talking to how much they loved the program. I saw this at Digitail as well! Unprompted! It was SUCH a powerful marketing tool!
And I’ve heard the same thing about other PIMS. When I’ve asked “what made you want to try this program?” I’ve often heard “I read a post about it on Facebook from someone who said they really like it.” I’ve heard about this “DVM Moms” Facebook group more than once in this way!
And that same AI scribe I was talking about earlier- VetRec. They approached me after I had successfully implemented it across our clinics and asked if I could get some testimonials from some of our team members using it and loving it. So I went back to those same champions! And they were happy to do so. In fact, I saw VetRec re-post one of those same testimonials on LinkedIn just the other day! They also have an entire section on their website dedicated to testimonials, and not just written- people putting themselves on video. Again, such a powerful marketing tool! I’m telling you- reading these articles from Fotine at times really feels like she is in my brain / referencing my true life experiences!
Ok, again I feel my quote has probably run a little long, but I just get excited talking about these things. As always, I’m happy to discuss my experiences further with anyone who is interested, but again, Fotine is SPOT ON with everything she is saying here. Champions, word of mouth… everything. SO IMPORTANT!!!
How to Turn Adoption into Advocacy
Advocacy doesn’t happen by accident, it happens by design.
By the time a team has adopted your solution, they’ve already said yes. They’ve tested it, trained their staff, and made it a part of daily operations. That’s a huge win.
But adoption and advocacy are not the same.
Just because your product is being used doesn’t mean it’s being recommended.
So what does it take to move from satisfied customer to vocal supporter?
Here’s what advocacy really requires:
1. Consistent Wins That Are Easy to Name
If your product is saving team time, reducing errors, or making life easier, they need language to describe it. When results are visible and simple to share, people do.
✅ “We cut handoffs by 40% in the first month—without any extra training.”
✅ “It flagged two dosing errors last week. That alone paid for the month.”
If you’re not helping your customer name their wins, they can’t repeat them to others.
2. A Clear Origin Story
Your champion needs a short, simple version of how they found you, why they said yes, and what’s changed.
This isn’t about a formal case study. It’s about an easy-to-repeat narrative that sounds like relief.
✅ “We were buried in whiteboard notes and task confusion. We started using this in surgery and now it’s the only system our techs trust.”
When their story becomes the bridge for someone else’s curiosity, you’re no longer selling. You’re scaling belief.
3. A Way to Make Sharing Easy
Your happiest users aren’t going to cold-call other clinics on your behalf. But they will:
Mention you in a Facebook group
Text a friend a link
Bring you up during a webinar
Say your name during a team meeting
But only if the lift is light and the story is clear.
Give them resources they can forward. Templates they can tweak. One-pagers that summarize the experience.
Don’t ask for a favor. Make sharing feel like a win, for them, too.
What Advocacy Looks Like in Real Life
Referrals don’t always look like a formal introduction. Sometimes, they look like a hallway conversation.
When startup teams think about customer advocacy, they often picture logos on their homepage or big name drops in pitch decks. But the most powerful referrals happen quietly, between peers, in private messages, and inside moments of trust.
Here are a few real examples of how advocacy actually shows up and what sparked it:
A text thread between two practice managers "Do you still like that new inventory tool?" "We do. Saved us 15 hours on reorders last month. Want me to intro you?"
✅ Why it worked: The win was easy to describe. The tool made the manager’s job easier. Sharing it felt helpful, not salesy.
A technician brings it up during a shift huddle "This new system cut our charting time by half. I can finally finish my notes before lunch."
✅ Why it worked: The benefit was felt personally and immediately. She didn’t need a script, just a genuine experience.
A regional leader talks about it during a hiring meeting "We implemented this across three locations to reduce onboarding chaos. Our new techs ramped up in half the time."
✅ Why it worked: They weren’t selling software. They were telling a story that positioned the tool as a leadership decision that worked.
A clinician mentions it on LinkedIn "Small win: used this to streamline our surgery flow and it worked better than expected. Shoutout to [company name] for making it painless."
✅ Why it worked: The post was honest, specific, and personal, making it both credible and shareable.
The through line in all of these?
Clear value. Real emotion. No ask required.
If you want advocacy, don’t just chase testimonials or logos. Build experiences people want to talk about. Then give them the language and tools to do it.
Turning Belief Into a Message Worth Sharing
You’ve earned trust. You’ve supported adoption. Now comes the most powerful stage of the Marketing Hourglass: Refer.
But here’s the truth about referrals, they don’t happen just because someone likes your product.
Referrals happen when someone can easily explain why your solution works, feels proud to share it, and knows that doing so reflects well on them.
So if you want your message to travel, it can’t just live in your sales deck. It needs to live in their words, their workflow, and their wins.
Here’s how to make that happen:
✅ Give Them the Words
Create simple, clinic-ready language they can share without sounding like a pitch.
Instead of: “This PIMS platform increases operational efficiency.”
Try: “It cut down our handoffs by half and we haven’t lost a callback since.”
Real-world phrases > product positioning.
✅ Make Sharing Feel Natural
Don’t ask for testimonials or intros before they’ve seen value. Focus first on moments of success:
“Your team cut onboarding time by 30%, want us to help turn that into a quick case story?”
“Would it be helpful if we wrote up how you did this for your regional leads?”
Advocacy is an outcome, not a favor.
✅ Equip, Don’t Script
Your internal champion already knows how to influence their peers. Your job is to reduce friction NOT dictate what they say.
A 1-pager they can tweak and use.
A slide that tells their story in their voice.
A short Loom recap they can send to leadership.
Give them flexible tools. Then get out of the way.
From Messaging to Movement
If you’ve followed this series, you’ve done more than upgrade your messaging.
You’ve started shifting how your company shows up.
You’ve seen how language earns trust. How clarity drives adoption. And how real-world relevance turns users into advocates.
In Part 1, we made the case that your message isn’t connecting, because it’s not speaking the clinic’s language. In Part 2, we unpacked how to build trust through tone, empathy, and clarity. In Part 3, we tackled the post-demo drop-off and what it takes to turn interest into action. And now in Part 4, we’ve focused on what advocacy really requires: a message people can own, share, and stand behind.
Because when a practice team starts repeating your words as their own? That’s when you stop marketing and start mattering.
Here’s what I want you to walk away with:
Trust isn’t given, it’s earned and re-earned at every stage.
Adoption doesn’t start with features. It starts with belief.
Referrals don’t happen by chance. They happen by design.
Your message isn’t a marketing asset. It’s the backbone of how your solution gets shared, scaled, and remembered.
So speak clearly. Speak with empathy. Speak like someone who’s been in the room.
Speak Vet.
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Let’s connect on LinkedIn: Fotine A Sotiropoulos
