Why most HealthTech Go-To-Market plans fail

Most HealthTechs don't fail because the product wasn't good enough. They fail because the Go-To-Market (GTM) plan never really had a chance. It looks good on a slide but doesn't match the reality of a regulated market, long sales cycles, multiple stakeholders and a short runway.

After 25+ years bringing diagnostics, digital health and scientific instrumentation to market, I've seen the same patterns in large organisations, and early-stage startups.

Here are five common ways HealthTech GTM plans fall over - and what you can do instead to build a plan that leads to real traction

The hard truth about HealthTech GTM

The story is often the same: strong science, solid tech, early interest from customers and then... not much progress.

In my experience, it's rarely because the team is lazy or the product is bad. It's usually because the company:

• Targets the wrong buyers in the wrong order.

• Talks in features instead of outcomes.

• Treats regulation and procurement as "later problems".

• Jumps straight into tactics without a real plan.

• Doesn't understand the sales cycle.

Mistake 1: Chasing the wrong customer

A familiar pattern: a startup builds something genuinely useful but doesn't fully understand where it creates value, or decides to go straight after the biggest customer it can find.

On paper, targeting big marquee customers sounds good. In practice, you've probably just committed to an 18-month (or longer) sales cycle with people you don't really understand yet.

You'll see this when:

• you pitch to "everyone" with the same deck.

• That one big logo gets more attention than segments where decisions can be made quickly.

• Early "this looks interesting" noise is treated as real buying intent.

How to fix it

Start narrow. Instead of asking "who could use this?", ask "where can we get meaningful wins in the next 6-12 months - and why?". That might be:

• A specific care pathway (e.g. urgent care, outpatients, community settings etc).

• A particular type of organisation with a clear pain you can solve.

  
  

This is where methods like "Bullseye" (Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares) helps, though there are similar: treat customer segments as "rings" you can test quickly rather than one big gamble. Start with segments that are likely to move faster, win there, use those wins to build evidence, and only then go after larger, slower buyers.

Your GTM gets much stronger the moment you can finish this sentence clearly:

"We help this specific customer solve this specific problem better than any other option they have today because of X."

If you can't clearly define this yet, you don't understand what your product is really worth to anyone - and you're not ready to chase the big names.

Mistake 2: Vague value propositions and "feature soup"

Teams often love their product a bit too much. Marketing and pitch decks fill up with long lists of features, but not enough about the outcomes that matter to the person signing the contract.

You'll see this when:

• messaging leans on words like "innovative", "disruptive", or "cutting edge" instead of stating what problems you solve.

• You're listing features but can't explain why the product is a "must have" rather than a "nice-to-have".

• You struggle to describe the impact on time, cost, risk or outcomes.

How to fix it

Shift from "feature-first" to "problem-first" communication. Your value proposition should answer three simple questions:

• What problem do you solve?

• For whom?

• How will things be better - and by how much?

So instead of:

"We provide an AI-driven workflow platform for radiology departments"

You might say:

"We help medium-sized radiology departments cut reporting delays by around 30% without adding headcount, by automating low-value tasks and making sure the right studies reach the right clinician."

Back this up with simple proof points: pilot results, before/ after metrics and a basic business case.

Don't wait for perfect data. Use the best evidence you have now, flag assumptions and tighten the numbers and you learn more.

Your buyer doesn't need a thesis; they need a believable reason to think you can help them fix a problem that's already costing them time and money.

Mistake 3: Treating regulation and procurement as an afterthought

Deals often fall apart because procurement, IT, Information Governance or legal weren't involved early enough.

You'll hear phrases like:

• "Everyone loves it, but procurement is blocking the contract."

• "We just got hit with last-minute questions about data protection/ cyber security/ integration."

• We're stuck because the buyer doesn't have what they need to push us through their internal process."

How to fix it

Regulatory and commercial thinking can't sit in different silos. They have to be considered together from the start.

Practically this means:

• Mapping the procurement journey early: who needs to approve what, in what order, and what evidence they need to see.

• Pulling together a basic" procurement pack" as part of your GTM: data protection information, security posture and policies, certificates, reference sites and short evidence summaries.

• Making it as easy as possible for your internal champions to explain and justify your solution.

Instead of treating these requirements as an annoying hurdle, treat them as a apart of the product experience. The easier you make it to buy and implement your solution, the more you stand out from competitors who haven't thought this through.

Mistake 4: Jumping into tactics without a strategy

Another common pattern: a burst of disconnected activity. A bit of LinkedIn, a conference or two, some outbound emails, maybe a webinar.

The team is very busy, but if you ask "what is working?", the room goes quiet.

This is what happens when you jump straight into activity without any GTM structure. You end up with:

• Constantly shifting messaging and target segments.

• No clear funnel stages or conversion benchmarks.

• A lot of movement but not much progress.

• More internal meetings than customer conversations.

How to fix it

Two simple frameworks can combine to work well here; the Bullseye method and elements of a system like EOS (Gino Wickman) or OKR (John Doerr).

The Bullseye framework gives you a way to handle channels:

• Brainstorm potential channels (e.g. direct sales, pilots, KOLs, conferences, partners, content, communities).

• Shortlist the most promising based on your ICP and product.

• Run small tests in each.

• Put time and money into the 1-2 that show real traction and stop spending energy on the rest.

  
  

At the same time an execution framework keeps everyone aligned:

• Set a handful of quarterly priorities for the GTM - three to four, not twenty.

• Choose a small number of key metrics to tract weekly.

• Run a regular commercial meeting with consistent agenda: metrics, key issues, decisions, next steps and who owns them.

When you combine these two frameworks together, you get a GTM approach that experiments on purpose rathe than jumping from one idea to the next. You know what you're testing, why you're testing it, and how you'll decide to keep or kill a channel.

Mistake 5: Underestimating the long sales cycle

Many HealthTech plans look like generic SaaS forecasts: short ramp, quick wins and a neat revenue curve.

Healthcare and Life Sciences doesn't work like that.

Sales cycles of 9-18 months (or longer) are common, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved.

Founders often:

• Over-forecast revenue based on a handful of early conversations or pilots.

• Hire sales reps before they have a clear ICP or repeatable process.

• Lose deals in the gaps between stages because nobody is managing momentum.

How to fix it

You can't shorten every sales cycle, but you can make them more predictable and less chaotic.

Start by designing your sales cycle around your ICP and the stages you know exist:

• Discovery - understanding the problem, stakeholders and constraints.

• Validation/Pilot - proving clinical and operational value.

• Procurement/Approval - contracting, legal, IT & IG.

• Expansion - additional sites, departments or use cases.

For each stage, define:

• Who needs to be involved.

• What evidence or documentation they need.

• What a "good" next step looks like.

Then build "momentum anchors" into the process: scheduled check-ins, pilot reviews, milestones and clear timelines. Instead of "waiting to hear back", you're either moving the opportunity forward or learning that it isn't going anywhere - which is critical information.

A simple GTM plan with a regular rhythm - reviews, clear priorities, a shared view of the pipeline - helps the team stay on top of a complex set of deals rather than being buried by it.

A simple blueprint for a GTM that works

If you strip it back, a solid GTM plan doesn't need to be clever. It needs to be honest. Honest about who you are serving, how you create value and how you win.

Here's a straightforward blueprint you can use as a sense-check:

1. Pick a narrow ICP and niche - start where you can realistically win in the next 6-12 months.

2. Craft a problem-first value proposition - lead with the pain you solve and the results you deliver, backed by the best evidence you have today.

3. Align regulatory and procurement with your GTM - don't treat them as separate tracks; build them into your customer journey.

4. Use a process like Bullseye to find channels that work - test a few, double down on the ones that actually produce conversations and opportunities, and stop doing the rest.

5. Bring some discipline to how you work - set clear goals, track a small number of meaningful metrics, and keep a regular cadence to review, decide and act.

Is this perfect? No. But it's a solid foundation - and, in my experience, already ahead of what many HealthTech GTM plans are built on.

If you want help fixing your GTM

If you recognise some, or all of these patterns, you're not on your own. I've seen them inside large diagnostic companies and starups alike.

I offer a focused 90-minute GTM Health Check where we:

• Map your current strategy and GTM against this blueprint.

• Identify your biggest risks and opportunities.

• Agree 3-5 concrete actions you can take in the next quarter to move from "activity" to real traction.

If that sounds useful, get in touch and we can see whether we can turn your GTM from a slide deck into something that actually wins you customers.