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Relationship selling has been an effective tactic in MedTech sales for decades, and many reps have long-term, mutually beneficial connections with providers. Reps keep providers updated on the latest medical technology breakthroughs, and the providers give these reps a reliable customer, guidance on product development, and influence over their colleagues to adopt their technology.
But the foundations of healthcare are changing faster every year. The impact of relationship selling is tapering off as the sales cycle becomes more complex. Integrated delivery networks (IDNs) continue to expand through mergers and acquisitions, which shifts purchasing power away from providers to value analysis committees (VACs) and health systems administrators.
At the other end, rural hospitals continue to close or reduce available services, limiting the number of patients MedTech companies can serve. Although acute cases will shift to distant hospitals or ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), some of that procedure volume will be permanently lost – particularly preventative or elective procedures.
MedTech companies that have been strategically targeting independent providers or physician’s groups to avoid long VAC reviews now face a different challenge. A new report shows that more physicians are leaving independently-owned groups and either returning to a hospital setting or private-equity backed practices. While 60% of physicians were in a private practice in 2012, that number dropped to 42% in 2024. Over the same span, hospital-owned practices increased from 23% to 34%, and the percentage of hospitalists doubled to 12%.
This trend, combined with the fact that nearly 10,000 physicians are retiring every year, means that even veteran reps who know their territories inside and out have to work harder than ever to stay current and effective.
Tribal knowledge still has value in MedTech sales. But as AcuityMD’s Brian Gabriel recently pointed out, “Tribal knowledge is no longer about waiting—it’s about accessing the right resources and knowing how to apply them strategically.” Whether they’ve been in MedTech sales for 2 or 20 years, the reps that are using powerful tools like AcuityMD’s AI platform for MedTech have a big advantage over the competition in the face of these changing trends.
AcuityMD Targeting, for example, doesn’t just show an individual physician’s procedure volume. That data can be parsed by the different sites of care where they perform procedures, and even shows quarter-over-quarter changes in volume by location. These trend lines can indicate where a physician is moving the bulk of their business in minutes, instead of weeks of facility visits and guesswork.
Beyond showing MedTech reps where a physician’s procedure volume is moving, AcuityMD also helps reps plan for a meeting with AI Call Plan. With one click, our proprietary AI analyzes data from a wide range of sources to create a pitch that directly addresses a physician’s distinct needs and breaks through the noise.
Physicians that leave private practice for a hospital are also likely to change their inbound and outbound referral patterns, especially if they move inside a large IDN. AcuityMD Care Journeys provides the most complete view of referral networks available, and can show exactly how existing referral patterns may have changed. Have their upstream referrers started sending patients somewhere else? Have their downstream referrals changed to keep their patients within the network they just joined?
At the other end, MedTech companies working with IDNs that have acquired private practices can use referral data to show how those practices receive and direct patients and compare them to in-network benchmarks. Since IDNs often lack visibility into these patterns, reps can use this data to help these IDNs strategically integrate new physicians.
Physician relationships and tribal knowledge still matter in MedTech sales, but today’s fast-changing healthcare landscape demands more. Reps need AI-driven tools to get insights in minutes – not after days of research – so they can spend less time chasing information and more time actually selling. That’s how they’ll gain a critical edge.
