It’s not that Doctors are Hard to Sell to, It’s Just that We Entrepreneurs Suck

In general, we entrepreneurs like to think that doctors are hard to sell to. Venture Capitalists try to stay away from healthcare because doctors are hard to sell to. I had Union Square Venture tell me that they do not invest in any startup that sells directly to hospitals or clinics. Doctors are perceived to be technophobes, and change resistant (which is for the most part true). Then there’s always the fear and annoyance of big bad government regulations. Combine slow adopting physicians with heavy government regulations, and technology healthcare entrepreneurship almost becomes impossible, in America.

But that is exactly what’s so exciting about entrepreneurship in the first place, starting a company that tries to solve real world problems against all odds. Entrepreneurship is not supposed to be easy or a quick get rich scheme. It’s supposed to be hard.

We don’t need another social network. We don’t need another way to sell ads. We don’t need more startups in sectors where it’s perceived to be “easy.” We need startups in hard industries. Industries that are slow, plagued with problems, costs a lot to enter, and are full of incumbents who’s job is to squash your small sartup. Transportation, energy, space, healthcare, all badly need innovation.

It’s our job, as entrepreneurs, to be smart and figure out how to sell in these hard industries and thrive. In the case of doctors, in order to sell, we need to be able to fit the product into the lives and workflow of physicians and their staff. No one will adopt a product unless it directly solves him/her a problem, especially someone as busy as a doctor.

Many entrepreneurs try to push remote monitoring products, telemedicine products, diabetes this or diabetes that, but most of these products do not actually solve a real problem that a physician faces. Even if the product does solve a real hard problem, and does bring real benefits, it often does not fit into the workflow of a physician or his staff.

At the end of the day, physicians are people, just like us. And in order for them to adopt a technology, it needs to fit into their lives, and solve real problems that will make their lives easier, just like us. Imagine if Snapchat were on your desktop instead of your smartphone, would you adopt it? No. Same goes for physicians. The product has to fit into their lives.

Trying to develop a product that fits into the clinical workflow is difficult. It is extremely hard, since the clinic itself is really complicated. At NexHealth, it took us almost an entire year to tweak our CRM product into something that smoothly fits into the day to day work of a physician, and solves a real hard problem efficiently. It is hard, but that’s the fun of entrepreneurship and product development. Once you have it figured out, it feels damn good.

So, it’s not that physicians are hard to sell to, it’s just that we entrepreneurs suck at making a good product.