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Comment by carbocation | Hacker News Reader

Doctors have tons of shit, often important, to do all of the time. It's hard to imagine them getting so excited about a product (unless it's a snowmobile or a yacht, which I say from personal experience) that they'll drop something important to respond to your sales pitch.

It would help if I knew what type of medical product you were selling. Is it a device? A tool for front-office stuff? Billing or back-office?

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I sell cosmetic surgery visualization software that doctors (plastic surgeons) can use to tell patients how they might look like after a cosmetic surgery. It's more in the 'nice to have' than 'must have' realm for doctors, so maybe this is the issue as well.

OK, here's an idea (perhaps a really bad one, but whatever). Do what you normally do, but also add in the following: follow up with the office staff. Give them a free demo. Ask if any of them want to try the software. But don't let them do it live. Take their photo (or whatever you need) and ask them what they'd want done. Then do it at home (even though you could do it live, don't). Follow up in a few days by emailing the before and after images to that office member and CC the doc.

Again, not sure if this would be effective, but office staff, in my experience, would love to talk about this type of stuff.

Thanks, this is a creative idea. So you have experience selling to medical practices from before?

I'm a medical student. In college I worked in a private practice office for surgeons (though not plastics). On the wards, I rarely interact with people doing sales (I actively avoid them, no offense) -- though on surgery, it's impossible since they end up being in the OR.

The thing that has surprised me is how much influence the office workers have on the physicians. Since your product has the potential to be fun for the office workers, this could really be an in. If you can get a physician assistant on your side, you've pretty much won the game, IMHO.

If people are offended ("What, you think I need a nose job?") you could switch it up and let office workers modify other office members with consent ("Hah! I want to give John a calf implant!").

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