NHS Commercial Strategy

Most healthtech companies
don't fail because the
product isn't good enough.

They fail because nobody showed them
how the NHS commercial layer actually works.

Conduit Health delivers full-stack NHS go-to-market for early and mid-stage healthtech companies serious about long-term NHS presence. That means identifying the right Trusts, getting in front of them, and building the channel coalition that converts a pilot into an enterprise contract.

We are selective about who we work with. That selectivity is the point.

3 client slots available
We keep it this way deliberately. Focus demands it.
What we do

Two capabilities.
One outcome.

Most NHS sales partners do one or the other. Conduit runs both, simultaneously, because the intelligence gathered in outbound directly informs how the commercial architecture is built, and vice versa.

01
Targeted NHS Outbound
We manage the full outbound process directly into NHS Trusts, ICBs, and PCNs. Not generic outreach. Intelligence-led prospecting that identifies the right organisations, maps the right contacts, and books the right meetings before a single message is sent.
·
Trust analysis and account scoring: mapping the NHS landscape against your product's evidence base, identifying where the commercial opportunity is strongest and most urgent
·
Trigger-based targeting: using proprietary intelligence on CQC ratings, procurement signals, leadership changes, and strategic priorities to prioritise accounts with the highest conversion potential
·
Crafted outbound and meeting booking: messaging built around what each Trust actually needs, not a generic pitch. Discovery meetings booked with the right people at the right level
02
Commercial Orchestration
Once we're in the room, we build the commercial coalition that converts a promising pilot into a signed contract. Direct Trust relationships combined with channel partner activation: platform, integrator, reseller, each playing a specific role in the deal architecture.
·
Buying committee mapping: understanding who holds authority, who performs it, and who can block a deal from the inside, before we commit to a strategy
·
Channel activation: identifying which cloud partner, system integrator, and reseller already hold relationships inside the target Trust and orchestrating their involvement to build momentum
·
Pilot to contract conversion: multi-threading clinical, procurement, and executive stakeholders simultaneously so the deal has the coalition it needs to survive governance and close
The channel model

Getting in the room is only
the beginning. What happens
next is where deals are won.

The outbound gets you in front of the right person. But in NHS enterprise deals, one person is rarely enough. Behind every Trust purchase sits a buying committee: clinical, operational, procurement, finance. Rarely in conversation with each other at the same time.

Alongside the direct Trust relationship, we activate the commercial channel partners who hold real leverage inside that organisation. Each brings something different. Knowing how to use all three simultaneously, and how their incentives interact, is the skill that closes deals.

Step 01: Outbound
Identify, score and get in
Intelligence-led account prioritisation and trigger-based outbound. The right Trust, the right contact, the right message, booked into a discovery meeting before anyone else is in the conversation.
Step 02: Conduit
Orchestrate the commercial layer
Direct Trust relationship running in parallel with channel activation. Platform partner, system integrator, reseller: each engaged for what they specifically bring. Coalition building while the pilot runs.
Step 03: Convert
Pilot to enterprise contract
With the commercial coalition in place, the deal has the structural support to survive procurement, finance review, and governance sign-off. Pilots close. Contracts are signed.
The three channel partners and what each one brings
Cloud Platform Partner
The Badge
Strategic positioning and commercial legitimacy
Microsoft, AWS, Google Cloud: the platforms NHS organisations already operate on. A product associated with an existing NHS cloud relationship enters procurement with a fundamentally different level of institutional credibility than one arriving cold. Platform partners operate at the highest levels of the organisation and carry the strategic weight that opens the right doors.
System Integrator
The Map
Political intelligence and ground-level reality
Integrators are embedded in the day-to-day operation of a Trust's technology programme. They know which projects are genuinely live, which budget lines are real, and how the internal governance landscape actually operates. Their endorsement of a product carries weight that few other relationships in the process can match, because they are trusted precisely because they are already there.
Channel Reseller
The Compass
People intelligence: who moves things forward
Resellers operate closest to the transaction. They understand the human layer of a deal. Which contacts have real conviction and which are performing it, whose commitment holds under procurement pressure and whose doesn't. That intelligence, built through years of transacting in the same organisations, is often the difference between a deal that reaches the line and one that doesn't.
Why the NHS is hard

It isn't one market.
It's a hundred overlapping systems,
each with its own rules.

Clinical procurement. Digital transformation budgets. Workforce and education funding. Population health commissioning. Innovation grants. Framework agreements. Each sits with different decision makers, different timelines, different language. Most companies find one door. We find the right one.

01
National Level
Strategic & Regulatory
▶
Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC)
Sets health policy, allocates funding, and oversees NHS delivery at a national level.
NHS England (NHSE)
Provides unified national leadership, manages operations, and oversees commissioning of services.
Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Independent regulator. Inspection ratings directly drive Trust procurement urgency and budget prioritisation.
NICE
Publishes evidence-based guidance. NICE approval or alignment significantly accelerates procurement conversations.
02
System Level
Regional Planning
▶
Integrated Care Systems (ICSs)
Partnerships of NHS organisations, local authorities, and partners. 42 ICS areas across England, each responsible for population health planning.
Integrated Care Boards (ICBs)
The statutory NHS body within each ICS responsible for commissioning (planning and buying) health services for the local population.
Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs)
Committees bringing together the ICB, local authorities, and broader stakeholders to address population health and social care needs across the system.
03
Place & Provider Level
Service Delivery
▶
Primary Care Networks (PCNs)
Groupings of GP practices working with community, mental health, and social care providers. 1,250 PCNs across England.
Acute Trusts (Hospital Trusts)
Run hospitals, providing emergency, surgical, and specialist care. The most common entry point for digital health products.
Foundation Trusts
NHS Trusts with greater financial independence, with typically greater procurement autonomy and decision-making speed.
Mental Health Trusts
Specialist providers for mental health and community care with separate procurement pathways and clinical leadership structures.
Community Trusts
Provide community-based services: district nursing, physiotherapy, intermediate care. Increasingly central as NHS shifts care out of hospitals.
Ambulance Trusts
Responsible for emergency and non-emergency patient transport. Distinct procurement, operational, and clinical leadership structures.
Geography: Conduit Health operates across England, Wales, and Scotland, each with distinct commissioning structures, procurement frameworks, and regulatory environments.
How we work

Methodology over tenure.

NHS sales isn't a relationship game. It's an architecture game. Knowing the right people matters less than knowing how to build the right coalition and how to identify the right organisations before the first call is made.

3
Active clients at any one time.
Not a capacity constraint. A quality one.
01
Account scoring and prioritisation
Before any outbound begins, we map your product's evidence and use case against the NHS landscape, identifying which Trusts have the most urgent need, the most relevant procurement signals, and the highest conversion potential.
Intelligence-led targeting
02
Outbound and discovery
Crafted outreach into the right contacts at the right level. Messaging built around what each Trust actually needs, referenced against CQC priorities, strategic plans, and live procurement signals. Discovery meetings booked with decision makers.
Direct Trust entry
03
Channel activation and coalition building
Identify and activate the platform partner, system integrator, and reseller already operating inside the target Trust. Run the direct relationship and the channel simultaneously, each informing the other, while multi-threading clinical, procurement, and executive stakeholders.
Commercial orchestration
04
Pilot to contract
The only metric we measure ourselves on. Not meetings booked. Not pilots started. Enterprise contracts signed and revenue flowing. Every decision we make is oriented towards this single outcome.
The only number that matters
◈
Proprietary Intelligence
Every engagement is underpinned by purpose-built NHS intelligence infrastructure: Trust-level insight across CQC performance, procurement signals, leadership changes, and strategic priorities. We know the landscape before we make the first call.
Who we work with

We only represent companies
we'd stake our reputation on.

The NHS has been burned too many times by overpromised technology. The buyers we work alongside have long memories and short patience for products that don't deliver.

Conduit Health is selective in a way that most sales partners aren't. We turn down more than we take on. Not because we're precious, but because the commercial relationships we've built across the NHS are worth protecting. We will only put them behind companies we genuinely believe in.

Our criteria
Evidence-backed. Clinical evidence, pilot data, or NICE/CE marking. Not a deck and a promise.
Built for frontline impact. Designed around what NHS staff and patients actually need, not retrofitted for the market.
Committed to the long game. NHS sales cycles are 12–24 months. Companies that want a quick win are not the right fit.
Serious about the NHS specifically. Not treating it as an afterthought to a US or European primary market.
Early to mid-stage. Enough runway to navigate procurement properly. Enough ambition to scale across the system.