Selling to Hospitals Starts With the Supply Chain Leaders Who Now Sit Beside the CFO

Selling to hospitals now means winning over supply chain leaders, not only the surgeon who loves your device. Justin Poulin, who hosts the Power Supply podcast, says those leaders have a seat beside the CFO.

You have FDA clearance and a surgeon who wants the device. The trial goes well. Then the deal sits in a queue that nobody on your team mapped.

Key Takeaways

• Justin Poulin says hospital supply chain leaders now have a seat at the table with the CFO.
• Poulin put supply chain expenses at the number two cost in a hospital, behind human resources staffing.
• In my experience, a supply chain relationship you neglect early can hold a trial or evaluation up for a month or longer.
• Poulin watched hospital teams call a product a no-brainer and still say "call me back in a year" because it missed their primary objective.
• Poulin's advice is to promise support and three customer references, and never to call a switch easy.
• Going back to existing customers before a new pitch shows you why they chose you.

Selling to Hospitals Now Runs Through Supply Chain Leaders

Selling to hospitals now means winning supply chain leaders over, not only the surgeon who loves your device. Poulin says those leaders gained a seat beside the CFO, so a clinical champion alone no longer carries a deal.

I interviewed Justin Poulin, founder and CEO of Beyond Clean, First Case and Power Supply Media, on an episode about how to influence hospital supply chain.

Poulin is a registered nurse who moved into medical sales and spent years in his local hospital supply chain association. Poulin said:

"The number one thing you need to understand is they now have a seat at the table with a CFO."

That changes who you are selling to. A supply chain leader with the CFO's attention reads your device as a line in a budget before reading it as a clinical advance.

If your first meeting only covers clinical benefit, you've answered a question they aren't asking.

Poulin explained why the CFO cares so much about the department.

"If you look at supply chain expense, it's the number two expense behind human resources staffing."

So the department that buys your device is also the department the CFO watches. Poulin added that supply chain was never recognized for generating revenue in the past, and that is starting to change.

You're selling into a function whose standing inside the building has changed.

How Do You Get a Meeting With the VP of Supply Chain?

Start by learning what the VP of supply chain is measured on, then show how your device moves that number. Poulin says a rep who brings an efficiency that raises revenue or profitability gets attention, because the department is no longer only hunting line-item savings.

Too many reps spend their whole effort on the surgeon. When I was a clinical sales rep at Mazor Robotics, I had to learn how revenue and marketing worked inside the hospitals I sold to.

A hospital stops treating you like another rep once you understand that.

In the episode, I also described a move I've used with large health systems. Before you email the VP, call a supply chain manager or director and ask what has gotten products shot down before.

Then ask permission to mention that conversation when you write to their boss.

That call matters because those managers rarely get anyone asking them anything. In my experience, they're happy to hand over a cheat sheet, and some offer the introduction themselves.

Poulin explained why the VP's time is the scarce resource.

"Time is of the essence. The time demands on supply chain are outrageous with all the back orders that they have to manage."

So every request you make should cost them as little time as possible. Bring a short case, a clear ask and an answer to the question of how your device helps their strategic objectives.

The reps who read a hospital's mission and values page before the first call are rare, and CEOs bring that language up all the time.

For the committee side of the same journey, read my guide to selling to a hospital value analysis committee.

How to Prepare for the Meeting Where the CFO Joins

Prepare by asking someone inside the hospital what the CFO wants before you present. Poulin says a product can look like a no-brainer to every department and still get shelved if it does not serve the owning department's primary objective.

Most reps prepare for objections about clinical evidence or price. The harder objection is the one you don't see coming, because it comes from a goal you never asked about.

So do the data work yourself. If you have an existing account, ask the supply chain manager for last year's numbers and this year's numbers, then build the slide yourself. You'll be the one answering questions, so you should understand every figure on it.

Poulin described what happened when he launched a startup and kept hearing yes from every department.

"They looked at me and said this is such a no-brainer, except it doesn't help me achieve my goals, so it can't go on our initiatives this year because it's not going to hit our primary objective, so call me back in a year."

Poulin told me that kept happening until he rewrote his value proposition around the owning department's goals. The product never changed. The pitch moved from what the device does to what the hospital is trying to hit this year.

That's a market narrative problem. If you can state the hospital's objective in your own opening line, you've done the work most reps skip.

Promise Support and References Instead of an Easy Switch

Never tell a supply chain team a change will be easy. Poulin says nobody believes it, and every leader in the department already feels short on time. Promise concrete support and offer customers who can confirm you followed through.

Poulin gave reps the specific language to use.

"Don't try to tell them it's easy or it's not going to take any of their time."

He then described what belongs in its place.

"Here's all the support we're gonna provide, here's what we're gonna do, and I've got three customers you can call to fact check."

Those customers can confirm that you follow through.

I like that answer because it treats the buyer's fear as real. A supply chain team can only change so many things each year.

They are also afraid you'll vanish after the contract is signed, so a transition plan and reference customers answer that fear directly.

Poulin also told reps to return to existing customers before approaching a new account. Ask what you do well and how the product affects their organization today.

That conversation prepares you to speak honestly about value, and it keeps a current account from drifting away while you chase a new one.

What Does All of This Mean for Medtech Founders?

It means your commercial plan needs a map of every person who touches the purchase, and supply chain belongs on it from the start. A clinical champion helps, but one person rarely carries a purchase decision.

In my experience working with medtech founders, the gap shows up right after clearance. Clinical validation isn't commercial traction. FDA clearance is the starting line, not the finish line, and the hospital buying process is the first place that gap becomes visible.

Market engineering closes that gap. At MarketCraft, we build the market narrative that gives each buyer a reason to act, from the surgeon to the supply chain director to the CFO. Great companies don't wait for markets to form. They engineer them.

If you're launching this quarter, apply Poulin's advice in this order:

• Write down the hospital's strategic objectives before the first supply chain call.
• Ask a manager or director what has stopped products in the past.
• Build a transition plan and line up three customers who will take a call.
• Bring a slide with the account's real numbers, built by you.

For the broader picture, see how market access decisions set your real launch date and what a medical device commercialization plan has to cover.

On The State of MedTech, I keep hearing the same lesson from founders. The sale is only as strong as the buyer map behind it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who should a medtech rep contact first at a hospital?

It depends on who makes the decision. If the purchase is a C-level call, ask your champion to introduce you to the C-suite.

If you're selling to one department, start in supply chain. Poulin suggests a manager or director who fields the department's day-to-day calls, because that person usually understands the issues best.

Why does hospital supply chain matter for medical device sales?

Supply chain leaders now sit at the table with the CFO, and the department is a major hospital expense. That means they influence which products reach a purchase decision.

A clinical champion still matters. But a deal can stall for a month or longer when the supply chain relationship starts late, so the department deserves early attention.

How do you sell to a hospital supply chain team?

Learn what the team is measured on and connect your device to those goals. Respect their time with short, specific requests.

Promise concrete support during the transition and offer customer references who can confirm you follow through. Avoid telling them the change will be easy, because Poulin says nobody in supply chain believes that.

Do you need a clinical champion to sell to a hospital?

A clinical champion helps you earn trust and test the device. It rarely closes the deal alone.

Poulin and I discussed how the old advice was to get a champion and avoid supply chain. Hospitals now ask surgeons to account for cost and margin, so the buying process needs both the clinical and the financial voice.

Where Should You Go From Here?

If you're doing this yourself. Map every buyer on your next hospital account and start with the commercial plan in the medtech commercialization strategy guide. Pair it with episodes of The State of MedTech to hear how other operators handle the same accounts.

If you want it engineered with you. MarketCraft takes on a small number of medtech teams each quarter, starting with The Market Engineering Audit. We'd look at how your market narrative lands with supply chain leaders and the CFO, then close the gaps.

Listen to Justin Poulin's Full Story

Justin Poulin's full conversation with Omar Khateeb is available on The State of MedTech. Watch on YouTube. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

About Justin Poulin

Justin Poulin is a registered nurse who moved into medical sales and went on to found Beyond Clean, First Case and Power Supply Media. Beyond Clean covers sterile processing, First Case covers the operating room, and the Power Supply podcast covers hospital supply chain.

Learn more at powersupplymedia.net.

About the Author

Omar Khateeb is the founder of MarketCraft and host of The State of MedTech, the number one podcast in the medtech industry. He works with medtech founders and commercial leaders on market engineering, commercialization strategy, and revenue growth.

Visit marketcraft.ai or subscribe to The State of MedTech for weekly conversations with the people building the future of medical devices.