Hi Reader,

It's been a while. A long while.

Life got busy... in the best way. I've spent the past year-plus working on some cool stuff: mentoring founders in the Techstars health tech/AI community, running my own accelerator program, and working with a handful of health tech companies that kept me learning as much as I was teaching.

Worth it. But I missed doing this.

What’s Ahead

Going forward, the Health Tech Sales Briefing sits at the intersection of three things I care about: healthcare, health tech, and sales. Market observations, emerging trends, and practical tips... specifically for people selling into or within this space.

If that's you, stick around. (And weigh in.)

What I've Been Working On

Three things I'm especially proud of from the past year:

• A talk on running pilots: How to structure them, close them, and keep them from becoming permanent free trials. I've given it to several different audiences now. The questions never get old.
• Let's Chat Health Tech: A podcast I launched to learn from smart people and break down what it actually takes to sell in this market. Great excuse to ask questions I'd otherwise have to pay a consultant to answer.
• Was recognized as a Techstars All-Star mentor late last year. And am again part of the accelerator curriculum as a guest speaker this year.

Some Quick Observations

I recently attended a session where Dr. David Langer, neurosurgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital (yes, that Dr. Langer from Netflix) said something that stuck with me: autonomous surgery is coming. You’ll see surgeries without surgeon intervention in the next couple of years. Needless to say, AI will become pervasive in healthcare. And despite the industry’s tendency for slow innovation adoption, it’s moving faster than you might think.

At the same event, the CEO of (Baltimore-based) Longeviti Neuro made a different kind of observation. Jesse Christopher is a sales guy by background, and he said roughly 90% of his job right now is raising money. Exaggeration or not, the point remains: founders who can't sell don't last long. Doesn't matter whether you're selling to investors, customers, or clinical partners. It's all selling.

Speaking of health plans — five major insurers and their repricing vendor Zelis just failed to get antitrust claims dismissed, with a federal judge ruling they must face allegations of suppressing out-of-network provider payments (sometimes by as much as 98 cents on the dollar!?) If you're selling into health plans right now, expect greater procurement and compliance scrutiny. And if you're on the provider side selling RCM, billing analytics, or revenue protection tools, this ruling validates the pain your buyers have been absorbing for years. (Sometimes the timing works out...)

Quick Sales Tip

Thinking about hiring more reps to fix a slow pipeline? Don't... not yet. Scaling a broken sales process just scales failure. Figure out how to get your current team performing first, or why they’re not. Then grow. (But again, AI will likely allow you to ramp up with the team you’ve got.)

Before You Go...

I'm planning the next few issues and lining up podcast guests. What topics do you want me to dig into? Who should I get on the show? Hit reply — I read everything.

And thanks for reading!

Best,

B.