In this presentation, Zach Selch provides a concise yet detailed overview of the German healthcare market and offers practical advice for medical device and healthcare companies seeking to enter or expand in Germany. He begins by highlighting the market’s scale—80 million people, high per‑capita spending (~$5 K), roughly 2,000 hospitals, and a hybrid insurance system (≈75 % public, 25 % private) that also embraces alternative therapies. Selch then outlines the commercial challenges: fragmented regional distributors, stringent local standards that can block tender participation despite CE/FDA compliance, and a strong preference for German‑made products. To overcome these barriers, he shares two tactics he has used over three decades: partnering with a major German manufacturer (e.g., Dräger) to leverage their brand and distribution network, and targeting niche customers who are dissatisfied with local suppliers to secure reference sites that boost global credibility. He emphasizes the strategic importance of the Medica trade show as the premier venue for connecting with clinicians, hospital managers, and health‑policy officials. The talk concludes with a call to action for companies ready to grow their international sales to engage his team for support.
Chapters
Hi, I'm in Frankfurt, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to talk about the German healthcare market. Everybody's heard about it. It's very exciting. 80 million people, high GDP, 11% spending per capita. That brings you almost $5K a head for 80 million people. A lot of money out there, right? Yeah. We're looking at about 2,000 hospitals spread out around Germany. Regional healthcare system is a hybrid between a government healthcare insurance system and private healthcare insurance, with about 75% of the money coming from the government, about 25% coming from private healthcare companies. Another very interesting thing is the German system accepts a lot of alternative therapies. So if you want Chinese medicine, if you want acupuncture, if you want hot baths, all sorts of different things that might not be orthodox Western medicine, the German system accepts them. What else can I tell you that's going to impact you in terms of selling here? First of all, because it's a big market and an attractive market, a lot of companies go direct. And what that means for you is you might have trouble finding a good distributor who handles the whole country because people are working directly for the manufacturers, right? What I found very often is I have to work with little regional distributors, which are fine. I found some really good people over the years, but where I'd like to work with one company that handles 80 million, sometimes what I'm dealing with is 7, 5 or 7 distributors handling the different provinces. And that's not, that's more work possibly than what I really wanted for the German market. Another thing is, even though you need the CE legally to get out of the airport, just to sell you need the CE, but they also put in place standards sometimes. And those standards are designed to keep you out. So you might find that even though you have CE and you have FDA and you're selling in other countries, the German standard makes it very difficult for anybody to buy you through a tender. Not legally, just the standard's in place. Nobody wants to be the first person to go against that standard. So that's something to consider. So you have to find somebody who really wants your product or who really doesn't like the local manufacturer. Another thing is Germans are very stuck to their local products. They really like buying German products, which might cause you a little bit of a problem getting past that. On the other hand, what I find is in any country like this where there's a virtual monopoly, about 10% of the people really would like to change with any, any good product they're given an option to take. So here are 2 tactics that I've used over the past 30 years to sell into the German market. First of all, The only time I was able to get really big market share in Germany, because frankly you're fighting with German manufacturers, it's difficult to get solid better than 10% market share. But once I was able to get a solid more than 50% market share, because I sold something that nobody in Germany manufactured, and I was able to partner with Draeger, one of the big German manufacturers, they put their name on my product, they put it in their catalog, they used their marketing arm to sell it, and I was able to get solid market share. Typically though, what you're aiming for is just to get a footprint, get reference sites, get a little bit. So if you can get a good distributor who can aim and find those people who don't like their local manufacturer, who have had a bad experience, who feel coerced, and as backlash they might want to work with something new, they want a new option, or maybe they're They're innovators and they want to try something that isn't available in Germany. Those are the people you try to find. And if you can get a few of those, you get some reference sites. And honestly, as much as I love revenue in Germany, if you can get reference sites, you can leverage those for credibility all over the world. If you're selling solidly in the United States and you have reference sites in Germany, you have credibility everywhere in the world. Now, Medica is the big show for the German healthcare market. Of course, everybody in Europe gets to Medica, but everybody from Germany, including clinicians, nurses, and doctors come to Medica. So it's an excellent place if you're selling in the German market and you want to talk to clinicians, you want to talk to hospital managers, you want to talk to people from the Ministry of Health, from the Krankenkasse, those type of people. They're all going to get to Medica, and that's your opportunity. Remember, when you're ready to grow your international sales, reach out to us. We can help. When you decide it's time to grow your international sales, call us.
