Through strategic market management, an organization can identify opportunities and risks and avoid knee-jerk reactions that cause stakeholders to ask, What were they thinking? According to Aaker (2001), "To cope with strategic surprises and fast-developing threats and opportunities, strategic decisions need to be precipitated and made outside the planning cycle." Strategic market management is proactive and future oriented. Rather than simply accept the environment as given, strategic market management requires that managers be proactive. This approach not only scans and interprets the current environment for trends, opportunities, and threats but can change the environment in which an organization is operating, helping to create a niche for the services provided by the new technology.
The initial step in strategic market management is to conduct a strategic marketing audit. The strengths and weaknesses of the current and future health environment, and telehealth's role, need to be examined. Factors such as long travel time (for clinicians and patients) and reductions in reimbursement are environmental challenges that can be partially addressed through the use of telehealth. Customer needs, such as quality care, convenient caregiver consultations, and active roles in their medical care, need to be identified to shape the strategic objectives for the technology. Overall market factors will have a strong influence on the use of the technology in the environment. The increasing market of elderly patients, current shortage of nurses, and shrinking reimbursements should steer the behavior of healthcare organization managers.