Selling to the NHS
Ian Sandison
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Selling to the NHS
• Purchasing Landscape
• Buyer/User/Influencer mix
• Defend and Grow
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Product Types
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• Mass Market
Across a hospital site, in all hospitals, on a regular basis
High Volume , low to medium cost
• Specialist
Specific hospitals and depts, smaller volume, medium
cost
• Capital
Can be across hospital site or specialist, regular or
occasional use
Medium to high cost, can have lower cost consumable
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
The Purchasing Landscape
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Nationally – www.supplychain.nhs.uk
Manages Procurement
Manages Physical Logistics
Hosts E-Cat 500,000 lines
Used by most trusts
Operated under 10 year contract by DHL
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
The Purchasing Landscape
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Nationally – www.supplychain.nhs.uk
Categories of products include
Theatre/Surgical
Medical
Clinical, orthopaedic, cardiology,
pathology, imaging
• Food, office and other items
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Blood Gas Analysis
Analyser Equipment, Associated
Reagents and consumables
Pathology
M Roberts
Launched
Full Blood Count
Analysers and Associated Equipment
Pathology
M Roberts
01-Jul-09
Pathology
M Roberts
15-Jun-09
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Pathology M Roberts
01-Jul-09
Neonatal Screening
Liquid Based Cytology
The Purchasing Landscape
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Nationally – www.supplychain.nhs.uk
Categories of products include
Theatre/Surgical
Medical
Clinical, orthopaedic, cardiology,
pathology, imaging
• Food, office and other items
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
The Purchasing Landscape
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Nationally – www.pasa.nhs.uk
Strategic Purchasing
Primarily Pharmaceuticals and Services
Centre for Evidence Based Purchasing
– Links to Horizon Scanning Centre
– Nat Innovation centre
– Nat Tech Adoption Centre
• PS Magazine – online
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
The Purchasing Landscape
• Regionally – www.pasa.nhs.uk go to
Collaborative Procurement Hubs (CPH)
• 10 regional purchasing groups covering
the UK and with about 75% of trusts as
members
• Specific regional purchasing, do offer a
volume commitment and do have more
exclusivity in their contracts, often only 1
or 2 suppliers per product group
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
© Crown Copyright 2009
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
The Purchasing Landscape
• Locally - each hospital trust has its own purchasing
team, they can choose the product and route based
upon price, performance, service and delivery
• Can agree volume commitments, easily managed locally
and can be large customers.
• Departmental – NHS Business Managers also have the
power to purchase products dependent on their local
need and autonomy, they will not necessarily use local,
regional or national agreements.
• Buyer Details of all English NHS Trusts on www.pasa.nhs.uk
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
The Purchasing Landscape
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National
Regional
Local
Departmental
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Buyer/User/Influencer
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Make it easy for the customer
Conservative, busy, targets, understaffed
Recruit internal champions and advocates
Feed them the data required to put
forward a business case for your product
• Ensure they can ‘sell on’ your product to
others
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Buyer/User/Influencer
• Know your Unique Selling Point
– Differentiator Vs competition
• Understand the care pathway and touch points
of your product
– Where does your product touch a HCW or patient and
how does it impact on their role, patient care and
pathway
• Patient or Cost Benefit of your product
– Sharper, quicker, safer, easier, more complete ?
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Buyer/User/Influencer
• Identify key centres for your product
• Know your KOL types and specifically job
titles, these will differ from by trust.
• Map the product use path and decide who
are your Influencers and Users.
– Theatre manager/ Surgeon/ward clerk
• Develop a sales story for each user type
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Buyer/User/Influencer
• What campaign, initiative can you align
yourself to.
– Darzi - tackle Obesity, reduce smoking and
alcohol harm, drug addiction and mental
health
• Others include
– HCAI reduction, 18 week referral, early
discharge
• NSF- Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Disease
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Buyer/User/Influencer
• Go for smaller, easier, confidence and
experience building initial wins, the larger
the opportunity, the longer and more
complex it will be to secure.
• Be aware of peer rivalry
• Be tenacious and persistent
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Defend and Grow
• Very Conservative customers
• Change averse
• Once you are incumbent it is challenging
to remove
• This works against newcomers
• Regular customer visits, questions,
learning, feedback to NPD, upgrades.
• Re-inforce value added
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Summary
• Research the various purchasing groups
• Research current initiatives
• Understand your product/HCW usage
pathway
• Understand your User/Buyer/Influencer
mix
• Decide on initial target accounts
• Develop your sales story
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com
Ian Sandison
07968-303457
www.iansandison.co.uk / iansandison@hotmail.com