Why Great Health and Benefits Solutions Still Struggle to Sell to Employers
And what founders can do about it.
Part 1 of 3: Inside the Employer Buyer Map Series
If you’ve built a strong healthcare or benefits solution but aren’t getting traction with employers, you’re not alone.
We talk to founders every week who have strong products that are solving high priority problems, showing outcomes, and backed by great teams but still struggling to get traction with employers.
It’s not a product issue. It’s a system issue.
This post is the first in a three-part series unpacking key insights from our latest white paper, The 2025 Employer Buyer Map. Here’s what’s really going on—and what smart founders are doing differently.
Employers aren’t buying in a vacuum—they’re part of an ecosystem
Today’s employers rarely make decisions in isolation. They rely on an expanding network of brokers, TPAs, consultants, and platforms - all of whom act as gatekeepers.
These intermediaries don’t just advise. They actively filter, prioritize, and shape what solutions get attention—and what never makes it through the noise.
If your sales strategy doesn’t account for these ecosystem players, it’s very difficult to be successful in the employer market today.
This isn’t accidental - it’s a direct response to the vendor fatigue issue facing employers.
Point solution fatigue has elevated the role of gatekeepers
Employers are overwhelmed. Too many vendors. Too much complexity. Not enough time to evaluate every new offering.
To manage this overload, employers have increasingly leaned on trusted third parties - consultants, brokers, TPAs, and platform partners - to do the filtering for them.
As a result, gatekeepers are now asking:
What’s the business case for why an employer would be interested in this solution?
What’s the data on ROI, outcomes and utilization?
Does this vendor have referencable clients, pilots or partnerships we can share?
What’s in it for me and my organization?
Does this replace an existing vendor we already work with?
If your messaging doesn’t address those questions upfront -and account for the gatekeeper’s perspective - your solution may never make it to a decision-maker.
Even strong teams burn out without a plan built for the employer market
We’ve seen too many great teams enter the employer market with high hopes and a half-baked employer strategy, only to stall out. Not because of the product, but because they didn’t have a plan for how this market actually works.
Without the right narrative, sales plan, and ecosystem strategy, even great solutions lose steam. Teams lose momentum. Resources get pulled elsewhere. And the employer channel is abandoned too soon - not because the product failed, but because the GTM strategy wasn’t built for this market.
So what should you do differently?
If you're hitting roadblocks in the employer market, you’re not alone - and there are steps you can take on your own:
Refine your story to speak to both employers and the gatekeepers they trust. Messaging that works in other markets often falls flat here without the right framing.
Build a go-to-market plan that matches how employers actually buy—longer sales cycles, more stakeholders, and more pressure to consolidate.
Map the ecosystem so you know which consultants, brokers, and partners shape purchasing decisions in your target segment—and how to work with them, not against them.
This is the approach we take at Spark Health Advisors. We help healthcare and benefits leaders:
Test their employer value proposition with target customers
Build a go-to-market plan for how employers actually buy
Reach the right buyers faster through our network
Grow revenue with our sales coaching and employer playbooks
You’re building the solution. We help you navigate the system.
Want the full 2025 employer buying map?
We break all of this down along with the roles of key gatekeepers, how vendors get filtered, and what it really takes to build momentum in our latest white paper:
The 2025 Employer Buyer Map: Navigate Today’s Challenges
Coming next
In Part 2, we’ll explore the new power players shaping employer decisions—brokers, TPAs, aggregators, and platform partners—and what founders need to know to turn them from blockers into backers.