CHALLENGE 06
Underestimating How Many People Actually Participate in the Buying Decision
Health IT companies sometimes enter a provider organization through one enthusiastic clinical, operational, or innovation leader and assume they have found “the buyer.”
In most hospitals and health systems, there is rarely one buyer.
A single technology decision may involve clinical leadership, operations, finance, IT, cybersecurity, legal, procurement, supply chain, executive leadership, and the people who will ultimately use the solution.
Each stakeholder may evaluate the same technology through a different lens.
One may care about clinical impact.
Another may focus on financial value.
Another may evaluate security risk.
Another may be responsible for implementation.
Another may control the contracting process.
And someone else may ultimately have the authority to approve the investment.
A strong champion can open the door. A mapped buying process is what gets the company through it.
Seller’s Lens vs. Buyer’s Lens
Health IT companies often organize the sales process around their primary contact. Providers organize buying decisions around the stakeholders who must be confident enough to support—or at least not block—the decision.
Seller’s Lens
“We have a strong champion.”
The seller sees:
- an enthusiastic internal advocate;
- frequent meetings;
- positive product feedback;
- access to users;
- strong clinical or operational interest;
- willingness to arrange introductions;
- momentum toward a pilot or proposal;
- and confidence that the opportunity has internal support.
From the seller’s perspective, a strong relationship can make the opportunity feel well positioned.
Buyer’s Lens
“Who else needs to agree before we can move forward?”
The provider is asking:
- Who owns the clinical or operational outcome?
- Who controls the budget?
- Who evaluates the financial case?
- Who approves technology architecture and integration?
- Who evaluates cybersecurity and risk?
- Who must approve contracting terms?
- Who will implement and support the solution?
- Who has final authority to make the investment decision?
The person who loves the solution may not be the person who can approve it—and the person who can approve it may depend on several others before saying yes.
Why This Becomes a GTM Problem
When the buying committee is not mapped early, an opportunity can appear healthy until a previously unknown stakeholder enters the process and changes the criteria, timeline, or decision entirely.
One Relationship Carries the Entire Deal
The seller depends on one contact for information, access, and internal advocacy.
New Stakeholders Appear Late
Finance, IT, security, procurement, or executive leadership enters after the opportunity has already advanced.
The Value Story Changes by Audience
What persuaded the original champion does not address the priorities of the next stakeholder.
“Everyone Likes It” Replaces Decision Evidence
Positive feedback is mistaken for organizational alignment and real evidence of buying commitment.
The Economic Buyer Remains Unknown
The sales team has strong contacts but cannot identify who ultimately authorizes the investment.
The Decision Process Is Assumed
The seller knows the next meeting but not the sequence of approvals required to reach a final decision.
An opportunity can have strong relationships and still have a weak understanding of how the organization will actually buy.
Provider Perspective
Gary S. Chan
Chief Information Security Officer, SSM Health
Robin Damschroder
Chief Financial Officer, Henry Ford Health
Marisa Farabaugh
Chief Supply Chain Officer, AdventHealth
James Ludwig
Former Premier Executive
Gary S. Chan
Chief Information Security Officer, SSM Health
Business Interest Does Not End the Buying Process
A clinical or operational team may conclude that a technology is valuable before cybersecurity and risk teams have evaluated whether it can safely enter the organization.
Those teams are not simply late-stage approvers. They bring their own decision criteria, evidence requirements, and responsibilities.
The GTM implication
Do not mistake operational support for organizational approval. Map the stakeholders who still need to evaluate the solution.
Robin Damschroder
Chief Financial Officer, Henry Ford Health
Finance Evaluates a Different Decision
The person who experiences the operational problem may understand the value immediately.
Finance still needs to determine whether the investment makes sense relative to competing uses of capital, total organizational cost, financial risk, and timing of value.
That means the financial stakeholder may need a different evidence set from the clinical or operational champion.
The GTM implication
One value proposition rarely answers every stakeholder’s definition of value.
Marisa Farabaugh
Chief Supply Chain Officer, AdventHealth
Enterprise Decisions Require Cross-Functional Alignment
Large health systems frequently need to evaluate whether a local solution can work across a much broader organization.
That may bring supply chain, value analysis, operations, finance, contracting, clinical leadership, and other stakeholders into the decision.
A local advocate can create momentum, but enterprise adoption requires broader confidence.
The GTM implication
Map the stakeholders required for enterprise adoption before treating a local win as an organizational decision.
James Ludwig
Former Premier Executive
Contract Access Is Not the Same as Buyer Alignment
GPOs and contracting structures can make a vendor easier to purchase from, but they do not replace the internal buying process.
Provider organizations still need stakeholder agreement that the technology solves an important problem, creates sufficient value, satisfies required criteria, and deserves organizational resources.
The GTM implication
A contracting path can facilitate the purchase. It cannot create the internal consensus required to make the purchase happen.
How to Diagnose Buying-Committee Readiness
Separate the Champion From the Buying Committee
A Champion is enormously valuable.
But the Champion is one role within a larger decision process.
A strong Champion can:
- provide internal intelligence;
- help navigate the organization;
- explain political dynamics;
- introduce stakeholders;
- clarify priorities;
- and advocate for the solution when the vendor is not in the room.
What the Champion cannot necessarily do is independently approve the purchase.
Champion strength matters. Buying-process visibility matters too.
Identify the Economic Buyer
MEDDPICC® distinguishes the Champion from the Economic Buyer for a reason.
The Economic Buyer has the authority to commit the resources required for the decision.
That person may not attend early discovery.
They may not participate in the demo.
They may not even become visible until the opportunity is well advanced.
The sales team should understand:
- who has ultimate financial authority;
- what matters to that person;
- how they evaluate investments;
- when they enter the process;
- and how the team will gain access or influence.
Knowing who supports the purchase is different from knowing who can authorize it.
Map Decision Criteria by Stakeholder
Clinical / Operational
- Does it solve the problem?
- Does it improve workflow?
- Will users adopt it?
- Does it improve outcomes?
Finance
- What is the investment?
- What is the payback period?
- What assumptions drive the business case?
- What happens if results are slower than expected?
IT / Security
- Can it integrate?
- What data does it access?
- What risks does it introduce?
- Can the vendor support it responsibly?
Procurement / Legal
- Is there an approved contracting path?
- Are the terms acceptable?
- What commitments and liabilities exist?
- Can the organization actually purchase it?
Executive Leadership
- Does this support organizational priorities?
- Is the value meaningful enough?
- Is the risk acceptable?
- Does this deserve resources relative to other initiatives?
There is rarely one Decision Criterion. There is a collection of criteria distributed across the buying committee.
Map the Decision Process, Not Just the Next Step
A CRM may show:
Next step: CFO meeting.
That is not the same as understanding the Decision Process.
A mapped Decision Process should answer:
- What evaluation occurs next?
- Who participates?
- What evidence is required?
- Which approvals occur in sequence?
- Which can occur in parallel?
- What could stop the process?
- When does the Economic Buyer engage?
- When does procurement begin?
- What event constitutes an actual buying decision?
A calendar of meetings is not a Decision Process.
Diagnostic Content — Bottom Line
Buying-committee readiness means knowing who matters, what each stakeholder needs to believe, how those people influence one another, and what sequence of decisions must occur before the provider can say yes.
Better Discovery Questions — Don’t Ask / Ask Instead
Good stakeholder discovery goes beyond asking who else should attend the next meeting. It helps the sales team understand how the organization reaches a decision and whose confidence must be earned along the way.
DON’T ASK
“Who else should we include?”
ASK INSTEAD
“Which stakeholders will evaluate this differently from you, and what will matter most to each of them?”
DON’T ASK
“Are you the decision-maker?”
ASK INSTEAD
“Who ultimately has the authority to commit the resources required for this investment, and how do they typically evaluate a decision like this?”
DON'T ASK
“What’s our next step?”
ASK INSTEAD
“Can you walk us through the approvals and decisions that would need to occur from here through a final purchase?”
The objective is not simply to find more contacts. It is to understand how the organization makes the decision.
From Champion Strength to Commercial Readiness
Before treating strong internal advocacy as evidence of commercial readiness, the sales team should understand the full buying committee, the decision criteria each stakeholder applies, who controls the investment, and how the organization moves from interest to approval. The Buyer’s-Lens Test helps distinguish relationship strength from buying-process clarity.
1. Questions Health IT Companies Should Be Able to Answer
☐ Who is the Champion?
☐ Why is that person personally invested in the outcome?
☐ Who is the Economic Buyer?
☐ Who owns the clinical or operational problem?
☐ Who evaluates the financial case?
☐ Who evaluates IT, security, and technical requirements?
☐ Who participates in procurement and contracting?
☐ Who could block the decision?
☐ What Decision Criteria matter to each stakeholder?
☐ What is the sequence of required approvals?
☐ When does the Economic Buyer enter the process?
☐ What evidence shows that the buying committee is actually moving toward a decision?
If the sales team knows the Champion well but cannot map the rest of the buying committee, the opportunity may be less qualified than the relationship makes it appear.
The Buyer’s-Lens Test
A well-mapped buying opportunity should allow the sales team to answer “yes” to each of the following:
✓ Yes, the right stakeholders are involved.
The people responsible for value, risk, implementation, funding, and approval are visible.
✓ Yes, we understand what matters to each of them.
The Decision Criteria are not assumed to be identical across the organization.
✓ Yes, the Economic Buyer is known.
The sales team understands who can ultimately authorize the investment.
✓ Yes, the Decision Process is mapped.
The sequence of evaluation and approvals is understood.
✓ Yes, our Champion can help navigate the process.
The Champion has influence, access, and the motivation to advance the decision internally.
When those five answers are present, the sales team is no longer relying on one strong relationship. It understands how the organization is actually going to buy.
David's GTM Takeaway
Health IT sales are rarely won by convincing one person.
The person who first recognizes the problem may not own the budget.
The person who owns the budget may not evaluate cybersecurity.
The person who evaluates cybersecurity may not control contracting.
And the person who ultimately approves the investment may depend on evidence gathered from all of them.
That is why a strong Champion matters—but it is not enough.
Map the stakeholders.
Understand their Decision Criteria.
Identify the Economic Buyer.
Learn the Decision Process.
Know who can help the deal move—and who can stop it.
A strong champion can open the door. A mapped buying process is what gets the company through it.