Building Access, Readiness, and Alignment for Your Contracts

Access to the right people is only the first step. What you do with that access determines whether your contract succeeds or stalls.

In this special episode, Dan Toomey joins PJ Valentini from IDN Directory to discuss how suppliers can combine quality data with strategic execution to maximize contract performance.

Access Without Strategy Is Just Noise

You can have the best contact database in the industry, but if you do not know how to use it, you are just making phone calls. PJ Valentini describes IDN Directory as "almost like a Swiss Army knife in your back pocket": organizational charts of purchasing leaders, parent-child relationships for large health systems, GPO affiliations, news updates, and even spend data by department.

But the platform is a tool. Your strategy determines the outcome. Dan frames it simply: "It's not just about that contract signature. It's about day one readiness and getting things moving forward afterwards, and how do you penetrate the contract and what tools are out there?"

Real value comes from pairing access with three things: strategy (who are you targeting and why), alignment (is your entire organization speaking the same language), and readiness (can you execute on day one).

Managing Your Contract at Three Levels

Dan emphasizes that contract success requires engagement at three distinct levels, each with different conversations and different touchpoints:

At the GPO level, you are working with contract managers and field teams: managing the relationship, sharing performance data, and staying visible between bid cycles.

At the IDN level, you are engaging supply chain, value analysis, and contracting: understanding each system's priorities and navigating their specific procurement processes.

At the clinical level, your sales reps are building relationships with clinicians and department heads: demonstrating product value and supporting adoption.

"It's not just aligning your sales structure," Dan stresses. "Your sales team, national accounts team, marketing, operations, and supply chain all need to understand the strategy. If everyone is speaking a different language to customers, you create confusion and erode trust."

Using Data to Target Intelligently

PJ explains how IDN Directory's spend data by department, Medicaid expenditures, and reimbursement patterns can help identify high-potential targets. "We can show where different departments are putting their money," he says. "We have access to inpatient and outpatient reimbursement codes. So we have some data that can give them a good indicator of where a facility may have needs."

The practical application: if you sell surgical supplies and you see a facility with high volumes of specific procedures, that is a signal. Reach out with a targeted message: "We noticed you're doing a lot of these cases. Our product fits directly into that workflow, and we can offer efficiency and cost savings."

Dan reinforces the point: "Having live data and real-time data is so important. How do I lump my accounts together and my targets together and my opportunities together? Being able to have some of those stakeholders readily available is great."

This is informed outreach, not cold calling. It positions you as someone who has done their homework.

Preventing Off-Contract Purchasing

Even committed program members may have local agreements or legacy relationships that pull spend away from GPO contracts. Dan outlines the approach for minimizing that leakage:

Know your pricing structure. Are customers on the right tiers? Are they aware of the rebates they qualify for? If a customer is $10,000 away from moving to the next tier, tell them. Show them the savings opportunity.

Engage the GPO field team. If you are struggling to convert a facility, bring specific information to your GPO contact. They can help navigate local objections.

Involve your distribution partners. They have relationships at the facility level and can reinforce the value of your GPO contract.

Aligning Sales and National Accounts

PJ raises a point Dan hears constantly: sales teams are often not well aligned when working with GPOs or health systems. The fix is communication: weekly or biweekly calls between your IDN director and regional sales managers, shared target lists, joint account planning, and clear rules of engagement about who leads what conversations.

IDN Directory helps here too. PJ notes that the platform's parent-child relationship mapping allows teams to "consolidate all the data and help them create good alignment because all the data is the same and they're taking it from the same spot."

When your sales team and national accounts team are working together, you present a unified front to the customer. That consistency builds trust.