How to get the attention of members of the sick care buying group

The annual HIMSS conference is one of the rising numbers of healthcare IT megaevents.

For an updated list of 2025 events, click here.?

Among the thousands of registrants, are vendors vying for the attention of customers, collaborators, and investors.

The sick care sales cycle is notoriously long, complicated, and involves satisfying the needs and wants of not just one decision maker, but multiple members of the buying group and other stakeholders.

But what are some ways to get the attention of those members?

REACH out to them by:

Researching who they are, their personas, and their role in the buying group

Engaging them at meetings and events, professional associations, as a result of a warm introduction, competing in pitch fests or Shark Tanks, or referral via an internal clinical champion or other members of your network

Approaching them by pacing the speed to a relationship

Practicing innovation process Cultural Competence. How does your potential buying group solicit, vet, finance and choose vendors?

Focus on Helping you understand their problems and objections. At first, be a problem seeker, not a problem solver.

It’s well known that understanding your boss’s priorities is crucial for career success. Yet many professionals find themselves guessing what their manager really wants or needs. The result? Misaligned efforts, wasted time, and missed opportunities for both you and your leadership. The problem isn’t just busy bosses or poor communication — it’s that we often don’t ask the good questions to get inside our manager’s head.

The same is true for healthcare IT vendors trying to get into the customer's head.

Here are 10 questions designed to uncover your customer’s true priorities, pressures, and preferences:

1. What are your goals or the most pressing problems you are trying to solve? What are your strategic priorities?
2. What keeps you up at night when thinking about your team or projects?
3. What actions or changes would allow you to look back in 90 days and say “Wow, that really made a difference?”
4. What do you wish you had more time to work on?
5. What are your objectives and key results? How are you measuring return on investment and speed to value?
6. What emerging trends are you mindful of and potentially capitalize on, like artificial intelligence, regulatory and reimbursement rules, value-based care and manpower shortfalls?
7. What are your priorities and why?
8. Who else is in the buying group and are they likely to be replaced?
9. What is the best way to communicate to explore whether there is a good fit?
10. What are your objections to similar products?

The next time you attend a conference, come prepared to ask the right questions instead of incessantly pitching your wares at the innovation theater.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack