How to price your medtech solution: value, anchoring and models that scale
Pricing is on of the things we see our mentees struggle with most. You need to see it as part of your product. Leave it until after you build and you slow deals, confuse buyers, and end up in “let’s do a pilot” limbo. We often see smart teams with strong products, but a fuzzy number and an even fuzzier story behind it. We coach founders to price early, anchor well, and make pilots convert to paid contracts. Here’s our straightforward way to do that.
What matters and why
Start by treating price as a key piece of validation to experiment with before you build, not an afterthought. Putting a number in front of a real buyer tells you if you are solving a problem worth paying for. It also forces you to explain value in plain English. That is useful discipline.
Buyers in the NHS care about outcomes and total cost of ownership, and definitely not your engineering hours or overheads. When you talk price, talk results: time returned to staff, admissions avoided, backlog reduced, pathway targets hit. Keep the model simple and predictable. Surprise fees destroy trust and stall approval. A credible number, paired with a clear return on investment, is what you are aiming for.
The tone matters too. Very low prices can read as risky: “If it’s that cheap, what are we missing?” Aim for fair, transparent and defensible. Help the clinical lead explain your price to finance on one slide. If you can do that, you are already ahead of most pitches we see.
The anchoring play: set the floor and the ceiling
Use two anchors every time.
The floor is today’s existing alternatives. What does the trust spend right now to get the job done. Add up staff time, licences, agency costs, penalties, duplication, and the pain of manual workarounds. Put real numbers on it. If a band 6 nurse spends four hours a week pushing data around, that has a cost.
The ceiling is the value you create. What measurable savings or outcomes will you deliver. Be conservative with assumptions and leave obvious ROI on the table for the buyer. That gap between the floor and the ceiling is the room you have to price.
This is a point we cover in detail in our coaching sessions: set a floor from current spend and a ceiling from savings, then choose a price that leaves a clear 3x to 10x return. Do not be “too cheap to trust”. Buyers need to feel you understand their world and that your price is grounded in it. (If you want to go deeper on this google the concept of ‘prestige pricing’ – think a 50p bottle of water vs a £2 bottle of water – why do people buy the latter)
Make the anchors tangible. Start with the buyer’s specific numbers, not an industry average. Show the before and after workflow so people can picture the change. Put the ROI on one line, then show the price. The order matters, make them ‘an offer they can’t refuse’.
A quick example. Today a team runs a virtual ward on spreadsheets. Nurses spend hours each week chasing readings manually entering them and making calls. Readmissions are higher than they should be. Your product automates triage, flags risk, and standardises escalation. If that halves triage and admin time and reduces readmissions by a modest amount, there is clear value on the table. An annual licence that is only a fraction of those savings, plus a small implementation fee, would be easy to defend and easy to buy.
Pricing models that land with healthcare buyers
Choose a model a buyer can explain without a long meeting. These are the patterns we see working most often.
1) Tiered annual licence
Think bronze/silver/gold – map tiers to size and complexity: for example clinic, trust, system. Keep to three tiers. Say what is included (and what isn’t): support, upgrades, integrations.
When it fits: trust-wide deployments, platforms, multi-site roll-outs.
Mitigate risks: add sensible caps so usage spikes do not turn into surprise bills.
2) Per patient or per case, with caps
Useful for clinical services and digital therapeutics. Set a yearly cap or bandings (xx amount until 1000 cases then yy after) so it doesn’t feel like a taxi meter.
When it fits: defined cohorts, remote monitoring, digital therapy.
3) Implementation fee plus subscription
Covers integration, training and change. Moves to a predictable annual subscription fee after go-live.
When it fits: anything touching the EPR or clinical workflow.
Tip: make sure fees include costs to meet DTAC, clinical safety duties and other ‘must-haves’ before go live. Procurement teams want to see that you have accounted for this, done right it can build trust.
4) Outcome-linked bonus or guarantee
A base fee plus a success element tied to one clear KPI. Keep the metric simple and auditable, make sure its something reasonably in your control and attributable to your solution.
A variation on this is risk share pricing, this is where you don’t charge up front (or have low costs upfront) but you offer to share the savings generated by your solution, this offsets the risk for the buyer and aligns incentives, if you are confident in your product and its ability to generate savings it can be a great model.
When these fit: pathways with measurable outcomes where the buyer wants shared risk.
Pick and mix
You do not need to pick a single pricing model, you can use a combination of the above approaches to structure a deal. Many teams combine a modest implementation fee with a tiered annual licence and a small outcome bonus. A good test to see if it makes sense and landed well is checking whether a budget holder can repeat your model accurately after hearing it once.
From pilot to paid: make the path automatic
Free or poorly defined pilots drift and then stall. They also set the wrong signal about value. If you need a pilot, treat it as a short, paid proof of concept that converts to a full contract when success criteria are met. Put those criteria and commitments in the paperwork before you start.
Make the pilot contractual. Agree success metrics, timelines, and the price for the next phase up front. If KPIs are met, the licence starts on a set date at the pre-agreed price. No second negotiation on price. No “we need to find budget” loop. This may slow you down in the first instance and push back a start date, but in the long run you can save yourself the headache of sinking time and resources into a dead end pilot that goes nowhere.
Example pilot-paid structure:
“Pilot runs for 16 weeks with 250 patients across two clinics. Success is a 20 percent reduction in urgent appointments and a 10 percent fall in 30-day readmissions in the pilot cohort versus baseline. On achievement, contract converts on 1 April to a 24-month licence at £48,000 per year per trust, with the 90-day implementation plan as agreed.”
Fit the cycle. Align to budget timings. Use an existing framework where possible. Keep round numbers within delegated limits. It sounds boring, but done right it speeds things up in the medium to long term.
How to present pricing without getting stuck on the number
Lead with outcomes. Then show the model. End with the number.
A simple sequence works: restate the problem in the buyer’s language, state the single KPI you will move and the magnitude you expect, show the economic logic or health-economic justification in two lines, present the pricing model and the number, explain what is included and what is capped, then sanity-check it: “Is this in line with what you would spend to successfully solve this problem?”
Here is short copy you can lift and tailor:
“Our goal is to reduce unplanned respiratory admissions by 15 percent within six months. At current activity that avoids about 90 admissions a year. We have priced the annual licence at £48,000 with a £6,000 implementation fee. This includes integrations, training and support, and a cap that prevents overage. The outcome bonus only applies if we hit the agreed KPI.”
Notice the tone: calm, specific, and tied to outcomes the buyer already tracks.
Final checks before you present to a buyer
Run through this checklist before you share a proposal, do you have:
- A simple model, predictable bill. Tiers or per-patient with a cap.
- Anchors identified. Floor from today’s alternative, ceiling from value created.
- Evidence ready. Keep assumptions modest and the maths transparent.
- Compliance signposts. Confirm your price includes DTAC and clinical safety work.
- Pilot converts automatically. KPIs set, conversion date and price pre-agreed.
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Compliance note: This article is educational, not legal or commercial advice. Always check local governance and clinical safety duties when pricing and contracting, including DTAC, DSPT and DCB0129/DCB0160.
How we can help: Pricing is one of the most common sticking points we see in mentoring. If pricing is holding you back, book a short call. We will stress-test your anchors, tidy the model, and make sure your pilot terms convert to paid.