If you work in eyecare, you’ve probably felt it: the push-pull between busy clinics and enthusiastic industry partners. At OWL’s Leadership Summit, Hayley Boling (CEO, Boling Vision Center), led a candid, solutions-oriented conversation with Cynthia Matossian, MD, FACS (founder and medical director of Matossian Eye Associates), and Carrie Jacobs, COE (Executive Vice President of Operations, Chu Vision Institute), on how to move beyond transactional sales and build real partnerships that work in patient care and on the P&L.

Below are the key themes clinic leaders and industry partners can put to work—shared practices that align goals, co-design solutions, and set both sides up for success.

First things first: focus beats “feature creep”

Carrie opened with a friendly reality check: practices can lose themselves by adding too many services at once. When the service mix gets bloated, both the patient experience and staff performance suffer. 

The fix isn’t a new gadget. It’s clarity. 

Know what you do best and double down on it. Industry can help by aligning to that focus, not diluting it.

Takeaway: Before talking about what’s new, align on what matters. If a proposed solution doesn’t strengthen your core, it’s probably noise.

Name the pressures and then lead with empathy

Shrinking reimbursements, rising expenses, compliance, staffing fatigue: these are real. A “no” might be a “not yet.” When partners listen first and acknowledge constraints, trust goes up, defensiveness goes down, and timelines make more sense.

Takeaway: A respectful “not now” today can be a confident “yes” next quarter.

Mind the business know-how gap (without judgment)

There’s wide variation in practice sophistication. Many stellar clinic leaders came up through care delivery, not finance. That’s not a problem; it’s an opportunity for partnership. Industry can share simple models (margin, break-even, capacity planning) and checklists. Practices can ask for mini-sessions on KPIs and implementation. No MBA required—just a shared willingness to learn.

Takeaway: Demystify the business side together. Confidence follows clarity.

From vendor to collaborator

Cynthia challenged both sides to reframe the relationship. Instead of leading with product features, start with a sit-down: 

• What are your pain points right now?
• Patient flow?
• Staffing?
• Training?
• Margins on a specific service line?

When industry and clinic co-diagnose the problems, they can co-design the solution. This rewiring of the relationship better enables adoption and improves ROI.

Takeaway: Replace “pitch decks” with discovery conversations. If the fix isn’t operationally feasible, it’s not a fix.

Before partnership can pay off, the mindset shift has to show up in daily habits. That means turning a good discovery conversation into clear goals, shared metrics, and a simple plan for who does what and when. Here’s how to make that collaboration real.

Practical next steps

Kick off with a 30-minute alignment meeting. Use it to agree on the goal, success metrics, timeline, and who owns which tasks. A short, focused huddle prevents long email chains later.

Run the numbers together. A simple break-even view is enough: expected case volume, pricing, staffing impact, and ramp time. When both sides can see the economics, decisions get easier and adoption goes smoother.

Put the SOPs on paper. Document the workflow, training plan, and patient-facing materials before new tools go live. Clarity keeps the launch from stalling after the first busy clinic day.

Conclusion

Partnership beats pitching. When clinics and industry set shared goals, align on the business case, and support teams with clear playbooks and quick feedback loops, new solutions take hold and patients benefit first. Start small with one alignment meeting and one shared roadmap. Then repeat. Over time, those steady habits turn into trust, better outcomes, and a healthier business on both sides.