Part 2 of 2 - What happens when you take an experienced digital health buyer and an experienced digital health seller and have an honest conversation about the process of bringing new innovations into a health system? You get lots of not-so-obvious, but tremendously valuable insight into how to cross the moats successful health systems have been forced to build to keep you out.

Co-host Shahid Shah recently published a post with Brian Van Winkle on The Healthcare Blog titled: Perspectives on Working with Healthcare Systems for Digital Start Up Companies | Part 2. Shahid, an experienced digital health innovator played the role of the seller. Brian Van Winkle, an expert on bringing new technology into hospitals, played the buyer.

On this episode, Shahid and I discuss the key points from that interaction and tie them back to the principles we’re always talking about on The #HCBiz Show!

In part 2 we explore topics including:

Getting the right people in the room
Consultative selling
Having a clinician on your team (and how to find one if you haven’t already)
How to reach out to experts for help
The importance of having a documented integration plan and the Triple F (“flat-file fallback”)
Preparing for failure-based and success-based objections (i.e. you go out of business or you get bought)
Selling innovation to people who want hard proof and low risk.
The importance of knowing what you are trying to prove and having a plan to prove it.
Health Systems are not technology-averse, but they are risk-averse.

Selling into health systems is complicated, but it is possible to differentiate yourself from the flurry of innovators that are competing for their attention. With the proper perspective and a sound strategy, digital health startups can address the health systems unique needs and constraints to close deals. This conversation (along with the guidance in Part 1) will provide you with tools to get it done.

Check it out and let us know what’s worked for you by hitting us up on twitter: @The_HCBiz

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Links and Resources:

Society of Physician Entrepreneurs (SOPE) – A global community of change makers and entrepreneurs transforming the future of healthcare

PubMed – PubMed comprises more than 29 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

NODE.Health (Network of Digital Evidence in Health) is the home for evidence based digital medicine that brings together a network of societies, organizations and innovators dedicated to digital transformation in health. NODE.Health builds and explores the knowledge base now required to lead global healthcare systems and industry into the value based era.

The Health Care Blog – Everything you always wanted to know about the Health Care system. But were afraid to ask.

Perspectives on Working with Healthcare Systems for Digital Start Up Companies | Part 1 – This is the article that part 1 was based on.

Perspectives on Working with Healthcare Systems for Digital Start Up Companies | Part 2 – This is the article today’s episode was based on.

Let’s Get Real or Let’s Not Play: Transforming the Buyer/Seller Relationship A tremendous book that’ll take you deeper on many of the concepts we discussed in this series.

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This episode is brought to you by Patchwise Labs. They’re a creative strategy firm focused on social innovations in health.

If you’re interested in the social determinants of health (SDOH), then you absolutely need to sign up for their newsletter, the Dispatch. It’s a weekly roundup and analysis that separates the signal from the noise in key topics across policy, business, and technology. Everything you need to know related to SDOH, in your inbox each week. I’ve been recommending the Dispatch to my clients and friends for months. They all love it and you will too.

And while you’re there… Listeners of The #HCBiz Show! can also use the code ‘HCBiz’ for a massive discount on Patchwise Labs’ 2018 Buyer’s Guide: Social Innovation Technology for Healthcare.

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For full show notes: https://thehcbiz.com/selling-to-health-systems-part-2/