Medical Device Sales Today, What Actually Closes Deals
From Clinical Perspectives · 38:04
Show by Stephanie Stover
A surgeon can love your product and still never use it. Twenty five years ago a rep could get a new product into the next procedure with a nod from the surgeon. Today GPOs, IDNs, formulary committees and hospital CFOs decide, and Christopher J. Borsa, VP of Sales and Marketing at Vitasora, explains what it takes to sell into that system. In this episode Access has collapsed. Reps once needed only the surgeon, the OR director and materials management. Now GPOs, IDNs, formulary committees and hospital credentialing all stand in the way. No code, no sale. Christopher recalls Kyphon reimbursement shifting on whether a patient stayed 23 hours or went home the same day, and why products without a code are dead in the water. Employed physicians follow formulary. Many surgeons are now hospital employees who earn a bonus for staying on the approved product list. Hospitals want one or two vendors. Standardization, better pricing, fewer reps in the OR and volume rebates push systems to cut the shelf down. Cold outreach rarely works. For every thousand messages Christopher might get one or two leads. Warm handoffs from trusted connectors get the meeting. Distributors are deep, not wide. Large companies moved to direct sales forces for control, accountability and growth, and few distributors hold direct GPO contracts. AI is the axe, not the tree. Products that win will fit the hospital formula of outcomes, cost, reimbursement and length of stay. Chapters 00:00:05 Welcome and introductions 00:00:57 From Boulder runner to warehouse to regional VP 00:03:50 What changed in 25 years of MedTech 00:08:31 The user is no longer the buyer 00:10:40 Patient care, prehab and better informed patients 00:13:42 Exparel and getting patients off opioids 00:15:13 What creates commercial traction today 00:19:52 The changing role of distributors 00:22:30 Warm handoffs and connectors 00:26:24 Landing the first customers from zero 00:28:17 Where AI fits in MedTech 00:33:01 MedTech ten years from now 00:36:08 Final advice for listeners About the guest Christopher J. Borsa is VP of Sales and Marketing at Vitasora. He started in the warehouse of a durable medical equipment startup and worked up to sales rep and regional VP. He went on to roles at Stryker Endoscopy, in spine, at Kyphon and at Pacira Biosciences, and now works in remote patient monitoring. Follow Christopher J. Borsa LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopher-borsa-b3530079/ Would you rather see Christopher and Stephanie talk it through? The video version is on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XLgn6ORKiew If your medical device company has a strong product but keeps stalling at formulary and value committees, book a discovery call with us here: https://api.leadconnectorhq.com/widget/bookings/md-pm-discovery
More episodes of Clinical Perspectives
More episodes
- Ultrasound AI Built in a Basement Won FDA De Novo Approval
- This Technology Could Change What Surgeons Know Before Leaving the OR
- Red Light Therapy Explained by the CEO of THOR Photomedicine
- How an Early-Stage Startup Made Its Way Into the NFL
- They Squished Cells at High Speed and Changed Cell Engineering
- Can a Genetic Test Predict Your Addiction Risk?
- Why Most MedTech Companies FAIL to Get Funded (And What to Do About It)
- Why One MRI Expert Could Soon Support 10 Hospitals with AI & Remote Imaging
- What Most MedTech Companies Don't Understand About Cancer Care
- Making MRIs Less Terrifying, Inside the Technology Changing Patient Care
PodSearch is a free, independent podcast search engine. Read about PodSearch, the privacy policy or contact us.