This one word can be your very best friend

Why do people buy elective healthcare services?

They are buying it because they hope to gain something, or to avoid continued pain.

Most people are in strong agreement that the reasons we listed are very powerful emotional motivators in our last post, and the reasons why people buy elective health services. Wouldn’t you agree?

These are what we call dominant buying motives. Dominant Buying Motives are considerably stronger than second-level preferences, and astronomically more powerful than first-level needs.

Well, if you can agree that people are buying for Dominant Buying Motives, you may want to ask yourself: how much time am I or my staff spending asking first level (fact-based, need-based) questions?

Questions like:

• “Have you read our literature?
• Did you see us on the TV?
• Are you familiar with the procedure?
• Have you tried wearing contact lenses?
• Do you like to golf or swim?
• And so on…

I’ve listened to hours and hours of recorded sales presentations and have heard only one question that started with the word “why” – often a clue that there is about to be a Dominant Buying Motive question asked.

If we only ask first-level questions, how do get to the emotional reasons that people would buy our product? If we don’t get to the Dominant Buying Motives, it’s just a crapshoot whether we figure out if they would buy.

That is why it is so imperative that we understand this distinction. We need to comprehend that people are indeed buying for dominant buying motives.

If you’d like more proof, read your testimonials. Skip the parts where they congratulate you for your bedside manner and your well-appointed amenities, and seek out the emotional reasons your patients cite as to WHY they had the procedure.

A major goal of the discovery then, is to not only get to the first-level, or even the second-level, but the third-level, Dominant Buying Motive. So how do we get there?

What are the four distinct methods for making sure we get to people’s emotional desires for purchasing?

1. To get the Dominant Buying Motive of our prospects we need to ask more “Why” questions

When we say “Why do you dislike your glasses?”, we are most likely eliciting an emotional response.

When they say: “Well, I dislike my glasses because they remind me of when a school mate nicknamed me Zoom Lens and said that I looked like I had two coke bottles on my face.” The Dominant Buying Motive would be “self-esteem”.

Or “They make me unproductive at work, it’s all I can do to just make it through to day without tossing them across the room.” The Dominant Buying Motive there would be “convenience”.

We may want to ask questions like: “why haven’t you had surgery sooner?”

We shouldn’t just ask first-level and second-level questions, but once we get a response, ask “Why?” Ask “Why?” every time you can during the discovery process. Be like a two-year-old child: Why are there stars? Why is there a sun? Why are there people there? Why is that a dog? Why, Why, Why?

2. Just listen

All too often, we ask a question in the discovery process and never really let our clients finish their train of thought. We’re too busy thinking about what we’re going to say next or jumping to the next first-level question instead of listening, and that’s one of the biggest mistake salespeople make.

We’ll ask something like: “How long have you felt you had this problem?” And just as the prospect answers the question, we’ll jump straight to “Have you heard of the latest advancements in XYZ treatments?” Instead of truly letting them speak.

It is when we truly let our prospect’s speak and finish their train of though, that they feel safe enough and comfortable enough with us, to tell us more.

Have you noticed that when we’re with a friend, that the more that friend listens, the more we end up telling them? Some people never interrupt; they just listen, and listen, and listen. It is amazing some of the things you may tell someone like that, because they’re just always there listening.

The same is true for our prospects. In fact, very often we will ask the prospect a question and if there is a long pause, we feel uncomfortable, so we quickly ask another question. But it’s very often after that long “pregnant” pause that the prospect tells us their dominant buying motives.

All too often the prospect is just using small talk, and when that pause happens, she has nowhere to go but the truth, and so she reaches deep and says something very valuable.

For instance, we may say to a prospect: “Do you do a lot of sports?” They might say: “No…” If we just quickly move on the next question without pausing, they might have continued by saying something like: “No… not since I’ve had to get these specs that are always getting in my way.”

The best way to realise how much we don’t listen in life is, just to realize how much we don’t listen in life. You’ll probably catch yourself, now that you have this distinction, in conversation with customers, friends and associates. You’ll catch yourself cutting them off or pushing on the next question, without really listening. You may even catch yourself saying “uh-huh”, “right”, or “yes” repeatedly after their every utterance – but are you really hearing and agreeing with everything they’re saying, or are you just rushing them along?

3. To use expressions like: “Tell me more” ask deeper and deeper questions about the same initial question

A series of questions like: “Do you wear glasses?”; “Do you like or dislike your glasses?”; and “Why do you dislike your glasses?” is all asking deeper and deeper questions about the same subject.

This is a great role-play exercise to get in the habit of asking deeper questions. Give me two-minutes with one of your staff, and I’ll reveal their deepest motivations behind working at your clinic. And it’s all just by using progressively deeper and deeper questions. Like peeling an onion.

As a side note, if a prospect brings up an objection in the discovery, we d0 want to answer it at that moment. We need to get all the information we can from the prospect in the discovery, so he’s not scared to give us even more information. If we were to answer questions right away in the discovery, the prospect may be concerned we’ll use all his information against him. Careful: Don’t ever sell in the discovery.

Secondly, don’t make the questions sound like an interrogation. Remember, make the discovery questions conversational and don’t interrogate your prospects.

In the next section we’ll be discussing all the questions that we use in the discovery to get good first-level, second-level, and third-level responses from our prospects.

I’ll leave you with this last statement regarding appealing to our prospects emotional brain centres, before justifying their purchase with logical reasons: When selling… lead with the right; follow with the left.

If you’d like more information on getting at the emotional reasons behind your client’s purchasing decisions, just contact us.

In complex vertebrates, including humans, the amygdalae (in purple) perform primary roles in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events.

What do people want? Understanding the answer to this question can unlock the potential of your selling efforts in healthcare consultations. As soon as you can distinguish from wants and basic needs, as soon as you understand how to talk directly to your consumer’s heart, you can begin to establish your role in their life.

Most people living in western society have everything they need to survive. Most marketers have gone way beyond appealing to people’s basic needs, instead they aim directly for emotional wants and desires.

Let’s step back for a second… Assume you’re in the middle of a healthcare consultation with a patient. You’ve performed a greeting, engaged in a warm-up, delivered an intent statement, and are now asking questions that reveal their motives for coming to you.

In a previous post, we discussed dominant buying motives. What are some Dominant Buying Motives that people would have to pursue elective health services? What are their deepest emotional wants and desires that you can reveal in healthcare consultations?

What do people want from elective healthcare services?

• To experience romance and to feel attractiveness. People move towards being liked; they want to have a better love life; they want to be socially successful. Sometimes this is known as the primal need for “connection” and “love” that we all share. People move away from conditions they perceive will lead to less love and closeness. Cosmetic procedures serve these desires directly.
• To feel vitality and a youthful appearance. People often want to look younger than they do and they often fear looking older than they actually are. Again, cosmetic procedures fulfil this desire, but cosmetic dentistry, trichology, anti-ageing and laser eye surgery also serve these wants.
• To have confidence. People often cite “increased confidence” as a reason for undergoing a physical change. These same people may lack confidence in social or business situations, leading to feelings of low self-esteem or even a poor self-image. When people lack certainty in their states of mind, they may have a greater want to control their physical circumstances to achieve the confidence they may seek. Laser eye surgery, cosmetic dentistry, trichology and cosmetic surgery all provide enhanced levels of perceived confidence among patients.
• To enjoy higher levels of self-esteem. Most people want to feel better about themselves. Their current perceived inadequacies may remind them of how they were teased as a child, or how they are somehow lacking. Cosmetic surgery and anti-ageing procedures go a long way towards increasing self-esteem.
• To feel safe. People often seek states of safety and avoid unnecessary risk. If your product appeals to enhanced perceived safety, many people will undergo manageable, short-term risk to enjoy the perceived benefits of longer term risk avoidance. Feeling safer is a common reaction cited by patients who have undergone laser eye surgery.
• To feel more healthy. People have a huge desire to improve their health, and some elective services offer this benefit ipso facto.
• To enjoy more convenience and avoid daily hassles: If you can link inconvenience to the problem and enhanced convenience with the solution, people will bend over backwards to eliminate the daily hassles the produce undue stress in their everyday lives. Increased perceived convenience is a major reason people choose to have laser eye surgery.
• Fun: The desire to act spontaneously and enjoy leisure swiftly follows the achievement of basic needs. Many people feel that if they look better, they will have more fun in life.
• Job performance (pride): Many people choose to undergo elective procedures out of a perceived enhancement to their performance at work. Laser eye surgery can help many people perform jobs that they would otherwise be disqualified from pursuing.
• Sports performance (pride): Similar to job performance, people want to experience variety and health benefits through physical activity. Like work-performance, people want to feel special and important and will seek significance through obtaining recognition through others and themselves. Swimming, diving, skiing, biking, are all easier without contact lenses and glasses.
• Family: Most people want to protect their families from harm, and will undergo changes to increase their ability to handle potential crises. Again, many people cite not having to worry about seeing normally when dealing with a safety emergency at home as a reason to have laser eye surgery.
• Economy: People want to stop wasting money on things they perceive may be unnecessary, which may lead them to obtain elective health services such as laser eye surgery. Economy, however, is more of a rational justification for a deeper emotional reason to purchase like that ones already mentioned.

If you need help on revealing your patients dominant buying motives in healthcare consultations…

Contact us and we’d be happy to discuss how we can train your team to reveal your patients dominant buying motives in healthcare consultations. In our next post, we’ll share how you the distinctions between first-level questions, and questions that reveal dominant buying motives.

Ask and you shall receive...

We’re just getting started into our discussion of the discovery – the part of the consultation where you ask questions… questions to elicit their motives, concerns, criteria and timing. So far, we’ve covered why listening is so important, the 4 goals of the discovery, and what must be present so that sale can happen. If you missed these posts, I’d recommend reading the earlier posts to understand why we need to employ the subject of today’s post: Asking deeper and deeper questions.

What are the three levels of asking questions?

Suppose we have a laser eye surgery prospect in front of us named John.

We say: “John, do you wear glasses?”

Whether John says “yes” or “no”, this is just a fact question, or a first-level question. Now, because John wears glasses, is that enough of a reason to have laser eye surgery? No, it’s not. Over 50% of the population has a need for corrective lenses and could benefit from laser eye surgery. However, the vast majority wouldn’t even think about having laser eye surgery.

We say: “Do you like or dislike your glasses?”

That is a fact/feeling question, or a second-level question. John might say: “I dislike them.” Now, is because John dislikes his glasses a reason for him to have laser eye surgery? Probably not. Lots of people who wear glasses dislike them, but that’s not enough of a problem to get rid of them surgically.

We say: “Why do you dislike your glasses? How do glasses get in the way of what you most value in life?”

This is an emotional question, or a third-level question. John might say: “I can’t see well enough to drive my kids home from football games in the winter.” Or “I don’t feel that I can react fast enough in an emergency situation”, or “I may endanger my family by getting into a car accident.” These kinds of answers are often revealed when starting the question with the word “why“.

Wow! Now, is that reason enough to have laser eye surgery? Absolutely! That is what’s called a third-level, or emotional reason, why somebody would purchase.

1. 1st level questions reveal facts.
2. 2nd level questions reveal feelings surrounding facts (likes and dislikes)
3. 3rd level questions reveal the emotional reasons for why someone would purchase – or dominant buying motives.

Hold on… I just wrote a very, very important phrase. I’ll write it again: “Dominant Buying Motive” – the DBM. If you’re printing this out, star that phrase. Underline it. Get a yellow highlighter and highlight that phrase. The DBM is the most important concept that I teach in my telephone sales training and consultation skills training workshops. We’ll get into defining the DBM in my next post…

For now, which level of questioning do you think would have a better chance at revealing the information you need in order to make a sale? 1st, 2nd, or 3rd?

That’s right, the third-level question. What are some third-level, or emotional reasons, why people would have laser eye surgery for example? I like to divide these emotional reasons into – a hope for gain, or a corresponding pain.

So in the case of John, his third-level, or Dominant Buying Motive for having refractive surgery would be: to keep him and his family safe. The problem, or the pain, if he doesn’t have the surgery may be: he may endanger himself and others because he can’t see well without glasses. The hope for gain is that he will keep his family safe due to his decision to see well without glasses.

Typically, a pain will be a stronger motivator than the hope for gain (or pleasure), as most people would rather avoid pain than seek pleasure.

What are some other third-level, or emotional reasons, why someone would buy your service?

The reason that this is so very important is that all too often medical sales professionals think people buy their product just because they don’t like the alternative, and they spend way too much time on the facts, without realising how people feel about the facts, and how those facts and feelings impact people’s lives.

For example, people may buy laser eye surgery because they dislike their glasses, but that may be only one of fifteen reasons that they would have the treatment. And in fact, disliking glasses isn’t a third-level, or emotional reason, that people would have refractive surgery at all.

Think about why people may dislike their glasses. It may be different from one person to the next. For one, it may be an inconvenience when engaged in sport or leisure activities, for another it may be that they feel that glasses make them look older or unattractive, for others it may be that they were teased from a very young age for wearing thick coke-bottle glasses, and others may even feel that they can’t perform at their job as well as if they didn’t wear their glasses.

So, the dislike of glasses is really a second-level reason to have refractive surgery, isn’t it? And the emotion attached to disliking glasses, is the third-level reason that someone would buy our product.

And it is the third-level reasons that we need to identify in order to make a sale.

Why are are people buying our product or service? What are their emotional reasons? Perhaps people are buying your product for status. That is their hope for gain. If they could just have it, like all of their other friends and family have, they would feel part of the group. The corresponding pain is that they wouldn’t be keeping up with the Joneses.

When we get that information, we can reinforce this emotional or Dominant Buying Motive, all throughout the consultation.

What must be present for someone to make a purchase decision?

No one will buy anything unless there is a problem if they don’t.

Think back to the last time you made a major purchase. Was it a car, a house, an item of clothing? You bought that item because there would be a problem if you didn’t.

In other words, if you bought a car because you’re old car wasn’t working very well anymore. You may have purchased that new house, because you needed to relocate. Or maybe you needed that new dress, because you were invited to a really good party on a Saturday night, and you just couldn’t find anything to wear. A good problem to have, but nonetheless a problem.

But just liking something, benefiting from something and being able to afford something isn’t enough to make a purchasing decision.

Of course they’re going to like the idea of seeing without glasses, what’s not to like? Of course they’re going to imagine how they could look better if they didn’t have crooked teeth to worry about. Of course, they’d love to be slimmer. Perhaps they can even afford it. But that’s not good enough.

What is the problem, if they don’t purchase what you’re offering? The answer is the key. Frank A. Clark, American cartoonist once wrote: “If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” When it comes to sales, he’s 100% right.

Do you own an ultra-high-end luxury cars? Could you use one? If you really wanted it, you could probably afford one too, right? But, you probably don’t have one do you? Why? Because there is no problem with your current mode of transport.

Very often in the sales process, we get very excited because we find our prospect’s hot buttons, we find out why they would buy, but there is no problem if they don’t.

The way we achieve this is by the distinction called deep questioning. We’ll get deeper into deep questioning in our next post.

Rabbits are great listeners! From: http://dogwalkinginromford.co.uk/custom/709rabbit.jpg

In our healthcare consultations skills and teamwork training, we spend a lot of time discussing the discovery. For a little context, here is where we are in our ideal sales process so far.

• Greetings
• Warm-ups
• Intent Statement
• Discovery

The discovery, is the part of the consultation where we ask questions about the prospects experiences that led them to identifying there is a problem to solve. We ask them about their past experiences, aiming to reveal their pain. We ask them about their future aims, in order to reveal their hopes for gain. We do this to identify their dominant buying motive, so that we can earn the right to recommend a solution that will solve their problem.

During the discovery, we also identify any concerns that concerns (objections) they may have regarding alternative solutions, the criteria they have defined, that must be met before they feel comfortable making a buying decision, and the intended timing of their decision, should we be able to offer a solution that checks all the boxes.

But even more important than asking questions, is listening to our prospects answers. Here are the 4 goals of a good discovery stage of a consultation:

1. To find out the customer’s deeper buying motives.We need to find out what our prospects do for fun and work, what their problems are, but more importantly, why the resolution of that problem is important to them. We must uncover so that we can offer a solution, through our service or product.

2. To uncover objections. Just finding out our prospect’s needs, discovering why they would have our product or service is never enough to make a sale. We need to discover, why they may not purchase. Unfortunately, many practitioners forget this all-important point. We get excited because we find a great buying motive, or hot button, but we don’t realise until the end of the consultation that the prospect is buying a house, or the kids are going to college, or perhaps they’re moving to Spain.

If we don’t uncover this information in the discovery, we can tell our prospect’s third party stories and do the necessary trial closes to overcome their particular situation or objection. Therefore, the second goal of a good discovery to ask the right questions, so as to uncover possible objections while there is still time to eliminate them.

3. To elicit trust. Consider what it feels to be listened to for ten, fifteen or twenty minutes? Listening to someone else’s dreams, hopes, fears and fantasies is perhaps the most validating thing we can do for another human being.

All too often we cut people off or we interrupt, we never really listen to what is important to them. It’s for that reason, why I can never understand why a clinician would just throw down the patient information sheet and ask their prospects to fill it out while they just walked outside. After all, if we do that, how will we ever get inside of them emotionally if they’re just giving us hand-written responses?

4. To figure out through a series of questions, what products we will be offering our prospects that will suit their particular needs. By narrowing down the prospect’s focus on a particular product or set of options, we eliminate discussions on other products or services that would be of no interest to them, thereby shortening the length of the consultation.

I think we can all agree that listening is the most important part of any consultation, and it is in the discovery that we listen and ask questions.

Question: If listening and asking questions are the most important part of any consultation, what are the most important questions to ask a prospect in order to ensure a sale? What are those questions that we need to ask in every single consultation? Take a minute and write them down.

We did a mystery shop the other day at a local branch of a high street chain of elective surgery clinics. As usual, the greeting was lackluster, the warm-up non-existent, and the intent statement perfunctory.

I said I’d provide some samples of intent statements that work after a greeting and warm-up has been performed at the consultation.

Just to review, the intent statement has five elements:

• the agenda
• the empathy statement
• setting up the discovery
• the takeaway
• the expectations statement
• the trial close

Two examples of healthcare consultation intent statements

Here is an example of an intent statement that would be given by a patient counselor or assistant that was hosting the consultation:

“First, we’re going to have a little chat. I’m going to ask you lots of questions about you, your motivations, and any concerns you may have. Then, I’ll introduce you the nurse who will conduct your examination. After that, we’ll get together again for another little chat…Now, it’s completely normal to have lots of questions and to even feel a little bit apprehensive about the process. If you have a question, feel free to ask me or anyone of us at any time, that’s what we’re here for. You may not even be suitable for one of our cosmetic surgery procedures, but after the examination we’ll be certain, and if you are suitable we’ll recommend the best treatment for you. At the end, if we do recommend a procedure, we can discuss the finances and scheduling, if you want to be a patient. Does all that sound alright?”

That’s a fairly simple one that most counselors can learn to perform after a little practice. Here is another one they could use:

“Most people, when they come here, have a lot of questions in their minds before they come in. The first questions everyone has are: how long is the consultation going to take, what are we going to be doing while we’re here, and is going to be a high pressured sales pitch? So what I’m going to do is answer those questions first, and any other questions you might have, before we begin.

It says in the welcome letter that the consultation will take at least 2 hours, in fact the time you stay here is entirely up to you depending on your interest level, most people stay even longer than 2 hours though, because I’m not going to show you a typical eye surgery practice, I’m going to show you something you’ve never seen before: A customised treatment plan that is the safest and most comprehensive available in the UK. As far as what we’re going to be doing today, we’re going to be talking about your vision, we’re going to look at your current vision and compare it to the vision you could have after you have laser eye surgery.

At this point, I don’t even know if we have anything for you because I don’t even know if you’re suitable for the treatment. So we’re going to ask you lots of questions, if you don’t mind, just to see if we have anything for you. As far as a high-pressured sales pitch, we’re the most prestigious refractive surgery clinic in the country with an internationally recognised surgeon, so we certainly wouldn’t want to high pressure anyone into anything, and jeopardise our reputation.

Now, on the other side of the coin, we are a private clinic, so if you do see something you like while you are here, we’ll certainly help you to become involved. In other words, if you’re found suitable, I’m going to ask you to book a treatment date – which is the next step in the process. Fair enough?”

I suggest that practitioners (doctors, surgeons, nurses, optometrists, chiropractors, etc.) also use an intent statement that follows my five steps so that patients know what to expect during the examination component of the consultation.

How can you learn good intent statements?

Rod Solar, client service director of Livesey Solar

In our healthcare consultation skills and teamwork course, we ensure that all of the participants write and learn their own intent statements. In our coaching, we help them adapt their intent statements until they fit like a glove and can be delivered with maximum confidence and enthusiasm. This is often the only step in the process that we insist is scripted, learned, rehearsed and repeated verbatim.

Many of my participants may find that their intent statement is similar to the one above or quite different to it. They also may find that one would make sense for their personality and another may not make sense for their personality.

The most important thing in doing an intent statement is that you understand what it is you’re trying to accomplish. Our whole goal is to reduce the prospects’ tension and anything contrary to that should be avoided. In doing so, we need to use the five essential elements in doing a good intent statement.

Remember, the most important thing in sales is to put in your own personality and we can only do that if we understand the why in what we’re doing. And if we continually inquire: is what we’re doing today making sense for today’s customer? Is what I did a year ago out of date?

Keep yourself in that inquiry, and that will keep your consultations fresh, personalised and motivating.

Regardless of what is being sold, the 3 biggest mistakes salespeople make are:

1. They don’t ask questions
2. They don’t ask the right questions
3. When they ask questions, they don’t listen to the responses

It is essential to listen to our prospective patients in order to tailor-make our healthcare consultations to hold the attention of our clients to suit their needs. Nothing is more important. After the greeting, the warm-up and the intent statement, we’re ready to start asking our prospects questions, and ready to start listening to the answers. Skip this step at your peril, for there are major problems that can arise should you not listen to your prospects.

What are the four major problems of not listening to customers?

1. We confuse our clients with everything we know, and we begin telling and not selling. The best salespeople in the world may know everything there is to know about the product, but listen well enough to know what not to say.
2. If we confuse them, we lose them – a prospect’s attention span wanders every 30 seconds even when someone is extremely interested.
3. We end up selling benefits that aren’t important to the prospect, or we create objections that weren’t there in the first place.
4. We don’t get to the emotional motivators of the prospect, only the logical ones, to buy our product (why might our customers be buying?), and are unable to use these emotional motivators to create the urgency to buy today. There are a thousand reasons the mind can come up with to say no, but a yes can only come from the heart.
5. We don’t establish the deep level of trust that is needed to make a recommendation for them to buy what we’re selling.

Listening is the single biggest validation we can give someone. Listening is the key to any sales process.

The entire psychology of the sales process should be geared towards creating the rapport necessary to induce a powerful, emotional discovery.

So how do we deliver a powerful discovery? In order to get our prospects to open up, we must do our first steps of the presentation correctly. And we’ll start looking at that process.. in our next post!

Don't think of a red elephant!

We’re going to take a break from the ideal healthcare consultation process to discuss a very important aspect of dealing with people you don’t know – it’s called: managing your self-talk.

Often, when facing a customer for the first time, negative self-talk can take over. This is especially true for people who are reliant on bonuses or commissions derived from sales results. As the fear of losing creeps in, we get exactly what we expect.

There are several examples of negative self-talk in these situations. A simple way to handle negative self-talk is to replace it with positive self-talk. The human brain has difficulty keeping more than one thought present in the mind at the same time. For example, if I write the following statement…

It’s extremely likely that you just pictured a red elephant, even after reading not to. It doesn’t make it any easier that there is a red elephant pictured at the top of this post! Here are three examples of how we can talk ourselves out of establishing necessary rapport with new patients or clients.

Mind-reading

“This person doesn’t really want to meet with me…” Instead, change this to: “She made an appointment with me, so she must need something.”

Filtering

“This will be a very difficult meeting because I have to talk to three people at the same time.” Instead, change this to: “I don’t know how this meeting will develop, let’s just wait and see.”

Personalisation

Instead of thinking “I don’t have much in common with this person”, think “I will discover what I have in common with this person,” or “We’re going to do business together, not get married.”

You get what you give

From time to time, I have to fight negative self-talk while I’m teaching, coaching or consulting. At these times, I have learned to replace these negative sentiments with positive ones. This is reflected in my rate of speech, my tone of voice, my facial expressions, the words I use, how I move, and a myriad of other subtle and unconscious mannerisms.

For example, when I walk into a training room full of twenty-five health practitioners that I have never met, I may be thinking any of the following negative thoughts as I begin:

• “They’ll resist my ideas”
• “They won’t like my style”
• “They’ll prejudge me because of my ‘American-sounding’ accent” (I’m actually Canadian)
• “They’ll see this as an interruption in their work”

If I allowed these negative thoughts to dwell in my mind… how do you think I’d perform? How effective would I be in delivering my message? I’d likely help fulfill my own prophecy, and treat them exactly as I expect they fear being treated.

Results follow expectations

When I was a psychology student, one of my professors told me a story that I’ll never forget. Now, this story is from memory, so if anyone out there wants to correct me on the specifics, I’m all ears. The gist, however, is true:

My professor’s colleagues had conducted a study that involved junior school teachers of inner-city schools.

These kids, mostly black and under-unprivileged, had an extremely low likelihood of attending college or university after high school. In fact, graduation from high school was often considered a massive success.

Well, the psychologists attempted to perform an experiment with these kids and their teachers. They divided the kids into two groups, an experimental group and a control group. For the experimental group, they informed the head teacher of the school to communicate to their teachers that they would be teaching a group of gifted children. These kids were so bright, they had scholarships already waiting for them in 12 years, and the teachers who would get these kids were selected to maximise their potential. The teachers of the control group were not told anything about their students other than the norm.

Both groups went to the same school, read the same books, made the same friends, lived in the same neighborhoods, and ate the same school dinners… all that was different was how the teachers interacted with them.

After 12 years of schooling, what do you think happened? You’ve probably guessed it already.

The vast majority of the kids in the experimental group indeed achieved a level of academic excellence that was unheard of at that school. Years after the study, many of the students in the experimental group went on to be accepted at college, graduated with degrees, and some of these attended graduate school.

The kids in the control group, on the other hand, performed no better or worse than the average kid to come out of that school.

The essence of the experiment is this: both groups performed exactly as expected.

This research has been frequently cited as a landmark study supporting an educational application of Vroom’s Expectancy Theory, which states

an individual will act in a certain way based on the expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to the individual.

If you’d like to read more about this research as it relates to teaching others, see this article. If you have kids, you may want to begin your PR campaign with his or her teachers right away.

Seriously, I strongly believe that we get what we give. And, I think that this applies very well to how our initial expectations of others can lead to their positive or negative impressions about us.

In case you’ve joined us in our healthcare consultation sales discussion midstream, we’re talking about intent statements, and the elements that make a good one.

As you may recall from our last post on the first three elements of a good intent statement (the agenda, the empathy statement and setting up the discovery), this stage of the process is a crucial turning point in the consultation that marks the conclusion of the warm-up chit-chat, and signals to the client that we are getting down to business.

The amazingly powerful takeaway (and I’m not talking about the curry around the corner) in consultation sales

If you’re like almost everyone on the planet, you’ve had the unpleasant experience of being romantically interested in someone who just wasn’t into you.

One of my earliest (of too many to mention) recollections of this situation was this girl I knew in school who I will call Jenah. Jenah was a very attractive 17-year-old with eyes as big as Jolly Ranchers. Make no mistake, this girl could have and should have been on magazine covers.

Frustratingly, she had the power to switch from friendly curiosity at one moment to complete disinterest in my existence the next.

And it wasn’t only me. Interestingly, she played this ambiguous game with more than a few guys I knew. Curiously, we couldn’t get enough of it. The more disinterested she seemed, the more interested we’d become. And just at the point when we’d start to lose hope, she’d again become friendly as if we now had suddenly become intriguing again!

Jenah was, in a phrase, attractive yet elusive. You see, she knew from a very early age the art that many women the world over become expert at: “the art of playing hard to get”.

And, whether it comes to people, or many other things we become interested in, we want most what we can’t have, but have some sliver of hope in acquiring.

Which leads me to the artful takeaway… You see, it’s so much more than a technique, it’s an attitude. It’s the art of being attractive yet elusive.

One of the best arrows in our quiver of sales techniques is the takeaway. Sometimes called “negative selling” or “reverse psychology”, the takeaway is actually “un-selling” the product or service, in order to take pressure off the prospect and provide the illusion of control.

A good takeaway takes the pressure off our clients, allowing them to listen, to feel safe, to open up throughout the consultation. A takeaway, in a way, lets them off the hook, and completely reduces the tension.

A good takeaway says something like:

“Laser eye surgery isn’t for everyone, it may not be for you, but over 20 million people have found it to fit their needs.”

Or:

“I don’t even know if you’re really suitable for the treatment, so I’m going to ask you a few questions to see if we have anything for you.”

A well-timed takeaway should significantly reduce the prospect’s tension and open them up in the discovery. A takeaway is especially powerful when we’re blocked in the discovery or at the end of our consultations.

Whenever I feel a prospect pulling away, I employ an artful takeaway. Eight times out of ten, if the prospect really has any sliver of interest in what I’m proposing, they come back to me. Often, their response will take the form of justifications for why they actually want the product after all, and how it might suit them. The more I un-sell, the more they sell themselves.

I use this technique in cold calls, follow-ups, cancellation calls, sales meetings, and even during training. It works almost every time.

However, the three basic rules of a takeaway must be used if you’re going to use one at all:

• If you take it away, make sure to give it back
• A takeaway must have the overall tone of empathy and sincerity
• A takeaway must be used throughout the presentation, or not at all

The statement of expectations in consultation sales

The fifth element of the intent statement is the statement of expectations. The purpose of this statement is to state clearly what the expectations are and get confirmation from prospects that those expectations are agreeable.

1. Will they receive an incentive if they put an initial investment down today?
2. Do they have some time to mull it over?
3. Do we expect them to make a choice today?

If you want your prospects to make a choice on the day (considering that their chance of converting depreciates dramatically the moment they leave the consultation), clarifying these issues in advance will enable the prospect to carefully consider what they are about to hear during the consultation, as opposed to saving their questions for another time.

Then, when you do ask them to make some kind of commitment, they aren’t surprised. They’ll be expecting that you were going to ask for the commitment, because you told them you would. This “early warning” goes a considerable way towards getting a “yes”, or a clear “no” (either which is fine by me by the way), and leads to a dramatically fewer dreaded “maybe’s”.

In a future post, I’ll provide some examples of good intent statements that work in elective health care consultations. The same statements we share with our training participants when we conduct our healthcare consultation skills training. Watch this space! Contact us to find out more.

As discussed in our previous post about communicating your intent, telling your patients what is going to happen during and at the end of the consultation is critical to reduce tension and enable prospects to open up to you.

So, what are the five essential elements of a good intent statement?

• The agenda
• The empathy statement
• Setting up the discovery
• The takeaway
• Setting up expectations

The Agenda

Let’s get a little deeper into the first element now. The Agenda serves two purposes: it reduces the prospect’s tension and it forces the prospect to listen. Because prospects don’t know what to expect, they often feel a certain degree of anxiety, therefore it is our responsibility to put into the agenda:

1. the duration of the appointment
2. what they’ll be doing
3. who they’ll be seeing

It’s axiomatic to tell your audience what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. When we take these a step further and number these items, it captivates our audience even more. As professionals, we need to do everything we can to keep our audience listening and excited.

Four strategies to get your prospects to listen

Foreshadowing: Whenever possible, tell your prospects what you’re about to tell them, show them, and number things (i.e. let me share with you the 3 major reasons we’re different from other clinics; you have 2 different treatment options here)

Dangling carrots: Tell them about some fabulous event, or information they’re going to get in the future, and how it will benefit them; without telling them what it is. This is called a teaser, or a carrot. For example

“after the optometric exam, I’m going to share with you the most exciting part of our clinic; in fact it’s this concept that is the number one reason that people want to become patients…”

Using superlatives: Use superlatives when preceding a concept, for example

“the most important concept I’m going to share with you is; the greatest thing about our service is; or the biggest mistake prospective patients make is; the number one reason people have laser eye surgery is; the biggest misconception about cosmetic surgeons is…”

Telling third-party stories. Facts tell and stories sell. I’ll write a whole other blog post regarding third-party stories, because they are so important! They add the colour to your consultation.

The Empathy Statement

Next, comes the empathy statement. We need to put ourselves in our prospects shoes and let them know we are sensitive to their concerns. What are the possible concerns of our prospects as they walk through our doors? They may have a concern that there may be high pressure, either throughout the process or at the end. They may be concerned that they’ll be need to make a decision about something they know very little about. Or they might be concerned as to the length of the consultation. An empathy statement can acknowledge and addresses these concerns. An example of an empathy statement may sound like this:

“Now, I understand how some of this information will be new to you. Don’t worry if you have any questions throughout the consultation… that’s what I’m here for, so don’t be afraid to ask.”

Setting up the Discovery

Third, we need to ask them and get their permission to ask them questions. It is essential that we let the prospect know why we are going to be asking them a series of questions, so that they feel comfortable answering them.

We need to assure the prospect that the questions they’re going to answer will benefit them, by allowing us to tailor-make the presentation to fit their needs. Or, we will share with them, by understanding their particular needs will reduce the time of the consultation. An example of setting up the discovery may sound like this:

“The first part of the consultation will involve me asking you many questions regarding your relevant medical history, your motivations for treatment, and any concerns you may have. Answering these questions as fully as possible will help me tailor the remainder of the consultation to ensure you get everything you need out of today, in the shortest possible time.

We’ve just discussed the first three elements of the intent statement – the agenda, the empathy statement, and setting up the discovery. In our next post, we’ll describe the other two elements in greater detail.

Failure to include these last two elements in the intent statement is the number one reason that health care sales people fail to close the deal at the end. So don’t miss them!

And remember, we cover this and every other aspect of delivering effective healthcare consultations to get more patients committing to treatments after consultations in our healthcare sales training courses. Contact us today to learn more.