How to sell HealthTech to the NHS without objections

9 common objections when selling HealthTech to the NHS: 1. "We’re already piloting something similar." Someone got there first. NHS teams are rarely short of pilots - they’re short of proof. The mistake? Thinking pilots equal progress. They don’t. NHS staff know most pilots gather dust in someone’s inbox. 2. "We don’t have capacity to implement." Capacity is the real gatekeeper. Even if budgets are approved, if the team is drowning in other priorities, nothing moves. A deal killer, not a delay. 3. "How does this integrate with Epic/Cerner/EMIS?" If you’re not integrated - or at least API-ready - you’re noise. NHS IT doesn’t want another data silo. They’ve already got graveyards full of them. 4. "How does this help with our KPIs?" It’s not about shiny tech. It’s about whether you move the dial on things the NHS is actually measured on: RTT targets, readmission rates, discharge delays. Miss this and your ‘impact’ is irrelevant. 5. "Who picks up the ongoing costs?" Commissioning is a spaghetti junction of budgets. CapEx, OpEx, etc - if you can’t map the funding flow, procurement will stall fast. 6. "Our clinicians aren’t bought in." You don’t sell to the NHS. You win over clinicians. If your product adds admin, eats clinic time, or ‘improves care’ without frontline input, you’re toast. Clinician resistance is the death sentence for HealthTech. 7. "We don’t know what happens if this fails." Unlike SaaS, failure in healthcare doesn’t just mean churn. The risk profile is fundamentally different. The Trust needs to know: if this goes wrong, what’s the damage? 8. "Is this compliant with ... ?" Compliance isn’t a tick-box - it’s survival. If your answer isn’t airtight, they’ll move on. The NHS doesn’t buy promises. 9. "This sounds like a nice-to-have." If your product feels optional, it is. The NHS buys necessity - things that help them survive, not thrive. If you’re in the wrong quadrant, your sales cycle will feel like running through treacle. Each of these objections is predictable. Most founders hear them, nod, and walk away surprised when the deal stalls. The trick? Design your pitch around killing these objections before they surface. Make it impossible for them to say no. What would you add?