Few sales teams have to deal with as many buyer personas as med device reps.
A single sales conversation may involve clinical staff, procurement officers, and finance leaders, each with their own unique pain points and priorities. When committees and networks enter the equation, your job gets even harder. Instead of working with one buyer, these decision-makers represent a group of individual stakeholders; each individual has the power to make or break a deal that could be worth huge revenues for your organisation.
Multiple groups are involved in healthcare purchasing decisions:
Group Purchasing Organisations (GPOs) pool the purchasing power of their member hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare providers to negotiate contracts and secure volume-based discounts. When working with a GPO, your reps should focus on attractive pricing models and demonstrate the cost-saving impact of your product.
Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs) are organisations that own and operate a group of healthcare facilities, like hospitals or imaging centres, and coordinate patient care. IDNs also aggregate purchasing volume to negotiate lower prices with supplies, just like GPOs. To sell to an IDN, your sellers need to demonstrate how the device is a must-have across the entire network.
Value Analysis Committees (VACs) evaluate the clinical and economic value of new medical technologies before purchase. The committee reviews evidence and examples to determine whether a product enhances patient care, while also considering the total cost of ownership. Sellers need the right clinical trial data and real-world case studies on hand to get VACs over the line.
Every conversation is a balancing act. While surgeons are interested in how equipment improves patient outcomes, GPOs and VACs want to hear about the financial benefits and pricing tiers. Your sales reps and distributors need to understand these priorities and deliver messaging that lands with every persona, while also ensuring compliant messaging in a highly regulated industry.
Let’s look at how med device sellers can move past one-size-fits-all messaging to deliver a tailored sales pitch to every buyer.
Challenge: One-size-fits-all content and messaging
When you’re dealing with multiple buyers, a one-size-fits-all sales approach can do more harm than good. By trying to engage every stakeholder with a single sales deck, you’ll end up with generic content and weak messaging. Even attempts to tailor your pitch can backfire. Lean too heavily on the clinical data, and you won’t have enough firepower to convince the VAC that your equipment is a sound financial investment. On the other hand, focusing too much on the economic impact will alienate surgeons and clinical leaders who are focused on delivering the best possible care to their patients.
It takes more than just sales skills to get med device deals over the line. Your reps need a solid grasp on clinical trial data, cost benefits, and the regulatory landscape to handle each buyer’s objections and answer technical questions on the fly. For reps supporting surgeons in the operating room, highly specific training and resources are non-negotiable. Clinical reps need to understand medical procedures and explain how devices work in pressurised field environments.
At every stage in the med device sales process, sellers need to deliver compliant messaging and product information. Trial data is updated regularly, and sharing out-of-date information can put your organisation at risk. Even as reps and distributors balance tailored messaging, they need to ensure the core information is accurate and compliant.
Solution: Precise preparation for precise results
Scaling personalised content and training is essential for med device sales teams. Your reps need to create content tailored to each buyer persona and know exactly what to say at what moment to get everyone on board. Every sales touch requires precision, so your training needs precision to match.
Highspot’s AI-powered sales enablement tools give your sellers the solutions they need to execute with precision.
- AutoDocs allows reps to quickly generate proposals, PDFs, and presentations tailored to each buyer. By dropping a single, generic deck in favour of personalised content, reps can focus on what matters most to each stakeholder. Automating content creation also lifts the burden off busy sales teams — it’s quick and easy to customise charts, text, and images with a simple form linked to your CRM. Highspot helps reps show cost savings in seconds with AI-tailored proposals, striking the right note for finance-focused GPOs.
- There’s no such thing as too much practice for clinical reps that have to sell in the operating room. With AI Role Play, reps can simulate interactions with surgical teams and practise delivering product demonstrations under pressure. The rest of your sales team can use Role Play to find the messaging that works best when dealing with GPOs, IDNs, or VACs. Every audience needs to hear a different script, so effective rehearsal is crucial.
Buyers expect med device reps to answer questions related to patient outcomes, trial data, and pricing, often in the same meeting. Without the right tools, your sales reps will get overwhelmed by the details and miss out on opportunities to convert. New breakthroughs in AI help your sellers get back on a level playing field.
- AI deal agents instantly identify accurate information from your GTM collection, allowing reps to respond quickly and confidently every time. Reps can surface trial data and case studies instantly, ensuring every clinical question from a surgeon or VAC has a confident answer. Copilot also helps reps keep track of what was said with automatic summaries, making it easy to keep track of the details when working with multiple buyers.
- Help your sales team deliver relevant resources to every buyer with Highspot’s content management platform. Instead of wading through multiple, siloed libraries, reps can find everything from Instructions for Use (IFUs) to pricing guides in a single, intuitive space. AI-powered content search makes finding the right sales collateral for every persona even easier, which means you’re delivering the right message, faster.
Dealing with a range of buyer personas is just one of the challenges facing med device sales teams. Explore our full guide to find out how Highspot helps reps stay compliant and keep pace with new products and data.
Ready to see how Highspot can help your organisation precision sell at scale? Contact us for more information or to arrange a demo.
