Why Your Healthcare Sales Team Keeps Missing Their Number(Hint: It's Not Them)

Why Your Healthcare Sales Team Keeps Missing Their Number(Hint: It's Not Them)

Heather Lodge

Founder & Fractional Chief Marketing Officer | The Hybrid CMO

Heather Lodge

Founder & Fractional Chief Marketing Officer
The Hybrid CMO

Your sales team is talented. They know how to navigate complex healthcare deals. But they’re constantly working the same handful of target accounts, and every quarter feels like a scramble to close enough large deals to hit the number. 

My guess is your sales reps are probably pretty darn good at their jobs. They understand healthcare. They can navigate complex buying committees. When they get into a major health system or payer opportunity, they know how to work it.

But there’s a coverage problem that’s killing them… and you.

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      The Healthcare Pipeline Math

      Let me paint you a picture…

      You identified 50-100 high-value accounts. Your average deal size is significant, maybe $250K-$500K annually. It usually takes 13+ months to close. Your close rate is probably around 20-25% if you’re honest about it. And each rep is working 8-12 major accounts at any given time.

      Do the math with me:

      • 12 active deals x 25% close rate = 3 closed deals per rep per year
      • With a 13-month sales cycle, that means 13+ active, engaged opportunities for each person at any given time
      • But only 3-4 of their assigned accounts are actually “in-market” at any given time

      That means 70% of their accounts aren’t even ready to buy yet. Minimum.

      Your reps aren’t bad at selling. They’re trying to force deals with accounts that aren’t ready.

      Why Founder Relationships Don't Scale

      When you started, you knew exactly which health systems to target. You had the relationships to get the meetings that mattered.

      But, at around $5-10M ARR, your target account list grew faster than your network.

      Sure, you can still open doors at 10-15 accounts. Maybe your advisors can help with another 10-15. But what about the other 50 enterprise accounts on your target list? What about the health systems you don’t have connections into?

      Healthcare organizations are actively looking for solutions like yours, but they’re not finding you through your personal network anymore. They’re doing research, asking peers and evaluating options. If you’re not systematically engaging them throughout their buying journey, your competitors are.

      The Cost of Reactive Selling

      When you only engage target accounts after they’ve raised their hand:

      • You’re playing catch-up while competitors have been nurturing relationships for months
      • The buying committee has already formed opinions (without your input)
      • Requirements have been written (possibly to favor your competition)
      • Your win rate drops dramatically
      • Deals take even longer because you’re trying to change minds, not shape thinking

      When you’re systematically engaging target accounts BEFORE they’re in-market, everything changes.

      Three Things You Can Do This Week

      You can’t transform your entire sales engine overnight. But you can start building systematic account engagement.

      1. Audit Your Target Accounts: List your top 50 target accounts. For each one, ask: Are we actively engaging multiple stakeholders? Do we know their strategic initiatives? When did we last provide value (not just “check in”)? If more than 60% have no systematic engagement, you’ve identified your problem.

      2. Map the Invisible Buying Committee: Pick your top 10 accounts. Map out the typical buying committee – CIO, CMIO, CFO, VP of Strategy, Clinical Leadership, IT Directors, etc. How many of these people are you actively engaging at each account

      3. Start One Systematic Engagement Play: Don’t boil the ocean. Pick one play. Maybe it’s executive briefings, maybe it’s clinical ROI studies, maybe it’s peer roundtables. Run it consistently for your top 25 accounts for 90 days. Measure engagement, not just leads.

      Predictable pipeline = predictable revenue = higher valuation. 

      Why? Because investors see a repeatable growth engine, not just founder hustle.

      The Bottom Line

      Your sales team has a coverage problem, not a closing problem. Only 30% of your target accounts are engaged before they’re in-market, and that’s why every quarter feels like a crisis.

      This is fixable. Not overnight, but systematically.

      How many more quarters do you want to leave to chance before you build a predictable pipeline?

      If you’re struggling to build predictable pipeline instead of crossing your fingers every quarter hoping the numbers work out, I can help. Reach out to learn more.

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