Knowing the head of department is not the same as knowing the hospital.
Many reps treat a key account like a big clinic. They build one strong relationship and assume the rest follows. Then a formulary decision goes the other way and nobody in the rep's contacts was in the room.
The Miller Heiman framework for complex selling describes several buying influences behind every decision. In a hospital, I map them like this:
- The budget holder. Has the final say on money. Often the medical director or the procurement head.
- The users. The doctors who prescribe and see the results in their patients.
- The gatekeepers. The formulary committee, the hospital pharmacist and procurement. They can say no, but not yes alone.
- The coach. Someone inside who explains how decisions are really made. Never ask him for confidential information.
- The gap. Who on this map have you never met?
Keep one map per hospital. Update it every cycle. The gap is where decisions surprise you.
“You do not sell to a hospital. You sell to the people inside it.”
Lesson 10 of 12 in Step 1: Planning your territory, with the full guide and a checklist for this week. Discuss this lesson on LinkedIn.