Have you established how this customer can actually buy and implement what you sell?
Some familiar GTM advice skips that work. “Find the decision-maker.” “Get a pilot.” “Send more outreach.” Each can help in the right circumstances. None should replace understanding the account.
Here are eight assumptions I would challenge when selling to organizations operating in U.S. healthcare, and what I would do instead.
“Just get to the decision-maker.”
Which decision? Agreeing to a demonstration, approving an evaluation, releasing funding and accepting a change to a clinical workflow are different decisions.
A physician might recognize the problem and support your product without controlling its purchase. An executive might approve the business case while relying on other teams to assess implementation. In a small practice, one person may hold several roles.
What to do instead: identify who needs to make each decision and what evidence they require.
“If you wanted to proceed, who else would need to agree, and what would each person need to see?”
Build that map with your champion. A contact’s seniority alone does not tell you the approval path.
“Same specialty, same size, same ideal customer.”
Imagine two hospitals with 300 beds. One has local purchasing authority and an implementation team available. The other needs system approval and cannot take on another project this year. This hypothetical example illustrates the limits of defining fit through size and specialty alone.
The AMA reported that 42.2% of physicians worked in private practices in 2024, compared with 60.1% in 2012. These are physician employment figures, not percentages of practice locations or purchasing units. Source: AMA, May 2025
What to do instead: add purchasing structure, the problem, available resources and implementation readiness to your account assessment.
“Can this organization make the purchase locally, and does it have the people to put the solution to work?”
Ownership gives you a reason to investigate authority. It does not prove where authority sits.
“Show a strong ROI and the deal will close.”
A spreadsheet can show value without establishing a reason for this buyer to spend. Who pays for the solution? Who receives the benefit? Does the improvement support the budget owner’s objectives?
Even “we save staff time” needs explanation. Will the buyer use that time to handle more work, reduce overtime, avoid outsourcing or improve the working day? Those outcomes have different implications for the business case.
What to do instead: use the buyer’s numbers and separate financial savings from capacity and other benefits. Reducing time spent on a task does not automatically reduce payroll.
“Which outcome would justify this purchase to the person approving the budget?”
Include implementation costs and effort. If the benefit is additional capacity, explain how it could be used and what must happen to realize its value.
“Get a pilot. The rollout will follow.”
A pilot can work technically and still end without a purchase. Perhaps nobody agreed on success. Perhaps the sponsor can fund an evaluation but not a rollout. Perhaps the results arrive after the next budget decision.
What to do instead: define the decision the pilot is intended to support. Agree on the baseline, success criteria, evaluator, prospective funding route and decision date.
“If we meet these criteria, what decision will you be ready to make, and who will make it?”
An exploratory research pilot may have different goals. But if you forecast commercial expansion, you need a commercial decision path. “Let’s see how it goes” is not enough.
“Keep procurement and IT out until the champion is sold.”
Discovering a required review late can invalidate the close date you have been working toward.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s published new-product process identifies budget responsibility, financial review, supporting clinical evidence and committee evaluation. That is one institution’s process, not a universal checklist. Source: Vanderbilt supplier information
What to do instead: work through your sponsor to identify the relevant reviewers and sequence. Avoid turning every first conversation into a meeting with every possible stakeholder.
“Which purchasing, technical or operational reviews apply to this scope, and when should we involve their owners?”
Prepare the evidence as the opportunity develops. Do not wait until a verbal yes to discover a required review has no owner or available date.
“An intent signal means they are ready to buy.”
An intent signal gives you something to investigate. It does not, by itself, confirm an approved project, available budget or purchasing authority.
Activity associated with an organization may relate to a team that uses your category but does not select or purchase it.
What to do instead: check the organization, the likely use case and the people responsible. Use intent to make your research and outreach more relevant.
“Is improving this workflow an active priority, or are you still exploring the options?”
Avoid telling an individual that you know what they are researching when the signal does not support that claim. The buyer’s answers establish whether there is an opportunity.
“Lead with AI. Everyone has an AI budget.”
Interest in AI does not establish funding for your use case. Buyers still need to understand what changes, what evidence supports the claim and what it takes to use the product in their setting.
Hospital predictive AI research distinguishes adoption from evaluation and governance. Its findings concern that category, not every form of AI across healthcare. Source: ASTP/ONC, hospital predictive AI research
What to do instead: explain the current task, proposed improvement, work required from users and how performance will be assessed.
For an HCP, that could mean a focused workflow example. For an executive, it could mean an evaluation plan with costs, responsibilities and acceptance criteria.
“What would you need to verify before trusting this in your workflow?”
“If pipeline is weak, increase outreach.”
More outreach can help when targeting and conversion are working. First, identify where progress stops.
| Where deals stall | What to investigate |
|---|---|
| Few relevant responses | Account selection, contact relevance and the initial ask |
| Meetings without a next step | Whether the buyer has confirmed a meaningful problem |
| Evaluations that drag on | Success criteria, evidence and ownership |
| Pilots without purchases | Funding and the agreed next decision |
| Verbal approval without a contract | Purchasing, legal, technical and delivery requirements |
What to do instead: review recent opportunities for recurring obstacles. Change the part of the process the evidence points to. Increasing activity before doing that can make an unresolved problem more expensive.
Understand the decision before you ask for it.
Before your next pipeline review, choose one important account. Identify who experiences the problem, controls funding, influences the choice and approves implementation. Then establish why the customer would act now.
Mark what the buyer has confirmed and what remains an assumption.
This is the thinking behind Intent.Health. Organization, executive and HCP intelligence, Decision Network, intent and Ishi contextual AI help teams investigate the account and prepare more relevant conversations.
The research still needs to meet the buyer’s reality. An affiliation does not prove authority. Interest does not prove funding. A successful demonstration does not establish an implementation plan.
Hope is not a strategy in Healthcare GTM.
Frequently asked questions
What is healthcare GTM?
Healthcare go-to-market strategy defines which organizations and buyers a company serves, what problems it addresses, how it reaches those buyers and how customers can evaluate, purchase and adopt its offering.
Who is the decision-maker in a healthcare sale?
It depends on the organization and purchase. Users, clinical sponsors, budget owners and approval teams can hold different responsibilities. Confirm the decision roles for the specific opportunity.
How should a healthcare sales team use intent data?
Use it to prioritize investigation and develop relevant questions. Validate the need, authority, funding and timeline through the buying process before treating the account as purchase-ready.
Why might a successful pilot fail to become a contract?
Technical success may leave funding, procurement, implementation capacity or sponsorship unresolved. A commercial pilot should have clear success criteria and an agreed route to the next buying decision.
What is Intent.Health’s Decision Network?
Decision Network shows relationships between healthcare organizations and explains how they connect, why the relationship matters and the decision roles associated with it. Depending on the relationship, the context may include ownership, financial, referral, clinical or reference connections. Use it to investigate how an account fits into the wider healthcare ecosystem.
How can Decision Network help with healthcare account planning?
Start with the target organization and investigate its connected entities, such as a health system, corporate owner, IDN or GPO. Use the relationship context to identify questions about funding, purchasing influence and implementation. Confirm with the buyer which relationships apply to your specific purchase; a network connection alone does not establish authority.
Does a Decision Network connection identify the final decision-maker?
Not by itself. A relationship or associated decision role helps you investigate who may influence a purchase. The final approver can vary by product, scope and organization. Ask your sponsor who evaluates, funds, approves and implements the proposed solution.
How is Decision Network different from a contact list?
A contact list helps you identify people to reach. Decision Network adds organizational relationship context so you can investigate where decisions and influence may sit. Use executive and HCP intelligence alongside that context to prepare relevant questions and validate the buying path.
What are HCP affiliations?
HCP affiliations connect a healthcare professional to the facilities and organizations where they practice. Intent.Health covers active affiliations across healthcare facilities, including primary, secondary, visiting, rotating and procedural locations. The affiliations available vary by provider.
Why should a GTM team look beyond an HCP’s primary affiliation?
A provider may practice at several locations with different workflows and organizational relationships. Reviewing those affiliations helps you identify which setting is relevant to your offering. Confirm where the problem occurs and where the proposed solution would be used before deciding whom to approach.
Does an HCP affiliation prove employment or purchasing authority?
No. An affiliation may reflect a practice relationship rather than employment, ownership or purchasing authority. A clinician can influence evaluation without controlling the budget. Verify their role in the relevant organization and the specific purchase.
How can HCP affiliations improve outreach?
Combine the relevant affiliation with the provider’s specialty and the workflow your solution supports. Use that context to frame a concise question about a possible need. Avoid assuming that a provider works full time at every affiliated site or wants a separate sales message for each location. Coordinate outreach at the account level.
How should a team use data to build a healthcare GTM strategy?
Start with the customer problem and define which organizations could benefit. Assess relevant organization attributes, ownership, technology and operating context, then identify executives and HCPs connected to the use case. Use Decision Network to investigate relationships and intent to develop timely questions. Validate the need, funding, authority and implementation capacity with the buyer.
Which data attributes matter most for healthcare account targeting?
Choose attributes that relate to your offering. Examples include organization segment, location, ownership, size, service mix and technology environment. For HCP outreach, specialty, credentials, affiliations and relevant procedure or prescribing context may help. For executive outreach, role, seniority and department matter. Availability varies, and no single attribute establishes fit.
How should intent and propensity inform account prioritization?
Use intent to investigate relevant activity and propensity to help prioritize accounts for further assessment. Combine both with account fit, relationships and buyer conversations. Neither a signal nor a score confirms budget, approval or a commitment to purchase.
How can Ishi contextual AI support healthcare GTM research?
Use Ishi to explore available account intelligence, prepare a contextual summary and develop questions about the organization, technology, signals or relevant people. Review the supporting information and validate important assumptions with the buyer before using an answer in outreach or a business case.
How can teams use healthcare intelligence in their CRM?
Intent.Health offers API access and integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot and other major CRMs. Define which information belongs in the account, contact and opportunity records, how it maps to existing fields and who owns updates. Confirm the supported scope for your implementation and keep research separate from buyer-confirmed qualification.
How do you measure whether healthcare data is improving GTM?
Track whether the data helps your team reach relevant roles, confirm account fit and progress through evaluation and purchasing. Compare results for similar account groups and record changes in targeting or outreach that could affect the outcome. Useful measures include qualified conversations, accepted next steps, stage progression and conversion. Higher activity alone does not demonstrate better results.
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