Selling diagnostics into the NHS is its own discipline. We teach it.
Sales training for the commercial teams behind diagnostics companies — built around how NHS diagnostics procurement actually works. B2B selling into a clinical-scientific audience, NHS procurement and tendering, and key account management, taught by someone who has worked both the laboratory side and the supplier side.
Good reps lose winnable diagnostics deals to the buying process, not the product.
A diagnostics company can have the better assay, the better instrument and the better service, and still come second. The reason is rarely the science. It is that the people selling it were trained for a market that buys differently from the NHS.
It is never one person
A diagnostics decision runs through biomedical scientists, consultant haematologists, lab managers, finance and a procurement function — each with a different test of "good". A pitch aimed at one of them stalls in front of the others.
The process is the product
Frameworks, tenders, specifications, scoring matrices, social value and whole-life cost. A rep who treats the tender as paperwork after the sell has already lost ground to one who shaped the specification.
Credibility is technical
A clinical-scientific audience reads bluster instantly. The rep who can hold a real conversation about method, evidence and limitations earns access; the one selling features gets a polite door.
Generic B2B sales training does not bridge that gap. It teaches a pipeline and a closing model, then leaves the rep to work out the NHS on the job — usually by losing a few tenders first. This training starts from the buying reality and works back to what the rep should do on Monday.
Three capabilities, taught for the diagnostics market.
The programme is modular. Take all three, or the one your team is weakest on. Every module is grounded in real diagnostics scenarios, not transferable templates.
B2B selling into clinical science
Selling to people who can check your claims. How to qualify a real opportunity, map a multi-stakeholder decision, run a technical conversation without overreaching, and present evidence honestly — including where a competitor's method is the fairer answer.
- Discovery that uncovers the clinical and operational pain, not just the spec
- Stakeholder mapping across the lab, the clinic, finance and procurement
- Handling the evidence conversation with a sceptical scientific buyer
- Objection handling that stays credible — no overclaiming
NHS procurement & tendering
How NHS diagnostics actually gets bought under the current regime — the Procurement Act 2023 (diagnostics are bought as goods; the Provider Selection Regime covers clinical services, not reagents and instruments). Frameworks, mini-competitions, full tenders and direct award where the rules permit it. Reading a specification, scoring your own bid honestly, writing answers that win marks, and engaging legally with buyers through early market consultation long before the tender drops.
- Frameworks, mini-competitions and the routes to market that matter
- Specification, scoring matrices, social value and whole-life cost
- Writing tender responses that score, not just read well
- Legitimate early market engagement within equal-treatment rules
Key account management
Keeping and growing the accounts you win. Building a genuine relationship across a pathology network or hub-and-spoke structure, planning the account, protecting it at renewal, and turning a satisfied lab into a reference that wins the next tender.
- Account planning across pathology networks and hub-and-spoke structures
- Mapping and maintaining relationships beyond a single contact
- Renewal and re-tender defence before the contract is in play
- Turning installed accounts into evidence and references
Practical, scenario-led, and shaped to your team.
No off-the-shelf deck delivered cold. We scope against your market and your team's real gaps first, then teach in the format that sticks — and stay close enough to see it land in the field.
1 · Scope
A short diagnostic of your market position, sales process and where deals are actually lost. We agree which modules matter and what "better" looks like for your team before anything is booked.
2 · Workshop
In-person or remote sessions built around your own products and live opportunities — worked through as cases, with role-play on the conversations and tenders your team will face next quarter.
3 · Field & 1:1
Optional field accompaniment and one-to-one coaching on live accounts and live bids — where the learning is tested against a real buyer, not a slide.
4 · Embed
Simple tools the team keeps — a qualification checklist, a stakeholder map, a tender-response framework — so the method outlasts the session and survives the next new starter.
Taught from both sides of the table.
elixir draws on both the laboratory and clinical-scientific side and years of hands-on experience selling and tendering diagnostics into the NHS — taught from experience, not theory. And where a competitor's method is the fairer answer in front of a customer, we teach reps to say so; credibility is the asset.
Tell us where your team is losing deals.
Send a short note about your team, your market and the tenders you are chasing. We will reply with how we would approach the training, which modules fit, and an honest quote — usually within two working days.