Social Media Marketing. Expanded word-of-mouth and information may be best use for interactive online connections

Rod Solar on social media as a marketing tool for medical practices featured in a Eurotimes article in October 2012. The full article by Howard Larkin is below:

After more than two years on Facebook, Arthur Cummings MB ChB, MMed(Ophth), (Pret), FCS(SA), FRCSEd, can name only one patient he knows for sure that first heard of him through social media. “She searched for ‘keratoconus’ on the web and it came up within our Facebook page. She had seven children so she was familiar with social media. She saw what current patients were saying and she got a good feel for the practice before she ever saw us,” says Dr Cummings, who runs the Wellington Eye Clinic, Dublin, Ireland, with partner Richard Corkin MB ChB (Cape Town), FCS (Ophth) SA, MRC (Ophth).

Despite the relative lack of response so far, Wellington’s leaders are sticking with social media, including Facebook and an extensive YouTube video channel, for several reasons. For one, they consider social media less of a business development tool and more of an educational service and a way to keep in touch with existing patients and friends of the clinic, Dr Cummings says. For another, they believe that social media will become much more important for establishing a practice’s credibility as it matures.

“Social media is like websites were a few years ago. Everyone thought they had to have one, but it took a number of years for it to become clear what you should be doing and how you should position yourself. We are experimenting with social media now, but we know anecdotally people already use it for research when they are looking for services,” says Wellington’s practice manager, Ed Toland.

Mr Solar points out that the main difference between social media and a company website is that social media attracts members who share specific interests and activities, or who are interested in the activities and interests of a specific community, for the purpose of sharing information.

Social versus commercial media

Wellington’s experience is not unusual, says Rod Solar of consultants LiveseySolar Practice Builders Ltd, London, UK. Social media is in its infancy, and its value can be difficult to prove; however, it holds great potential. Also, emerging research holds clues as to how it might best be harnessed, Mr Solar says. The key is to understand the different ways that people use and view social media compared with more commercial approaches such as advertising and websites. Fundamentally, it all comes down to trust.

Mr Solar points out that the main difference between social media and a company website is that social media attracts members who share specific interests and activities, or who are interested in the activities and interests of a specific community, for the purpose of sharing information. Users are there to talk to each other and information moves from many users to many users. As a result, users are regularly engaged and information can go “viral”, passing quickly from one network of users to another.

“Conversation can be one-sided on the web, but it can be multi-sided in social media. That is the biggest difference.” – Rod Solar

A website, on the other hand, generally attracts people who are looking for information about a specific product or service. Information moves primarily from one source to many users. “Conversation can be one-sided on the web, but it can be multi-sided in social media. That is the biggest difference,” Mr Solar notes. Blogging and message boards can incorporate elements of social media by cultivating a subscriber base, but absent a connection to a blogging network or true social network site there is little opportunity for such content to reach new users.

“It is the perfect marriage of trusted source and trusted media. There is no reason for doctors not to engage in social media.” – Rod Solar

As a result, social media is typically seen as less biased and more trustworthy. According to a 2011 Nielsen survey of 28,000 consumers in 56 markets worldwide, 70 per cent of respondents trusted completely or somewhat consumer opinions posted online, second only to “recommendations from people I know” at 92 per cent. In third place, were branded websites tied to editorial content such as newspaper articles, which were trusted by 58 per cent of respondents. Factor in the high trust people place in physicians – at about 90 per cent, doctors consistently top surveys of which profession can be trusted to “tell the truth” – and social media is a natural, Mr Solar says. “It is the perfect marriage of trusted source and trusted media. There is no reason for doctors not to engage in social media.”

Be social on social media

However, Mr Solar warns that the same research suggests that advertisements and other frankly commercial messages are not appropriate for social media. In the Nielsen global survey, just 36 per cent reported trusting ads on social networks, lower than for emails users signed up for, TV ads, print ads, billboards, radio ads or even TV product placements.

The most successful social media campaigns keep things light and not overtly promotional, says Kris Morrill of medeuronet, a medical marketing consultancy in Strasbourg, France. “The ophthalmologists who are using them successfully are not promoting services. It is about sharing tidbits, things that are educational, as well as news about the practice in order to help generate word-of-mouth.” Mr Solar agrees. “The biggest mistake doctors make with social media is treating it like an extension of their website,” he says. Rather than go on about your qualifications or the clinical details of eye diseases, he suggests easy to digest, actionable content that people might share, such as “five risks of laser surgery, ” an interactive tool to tell if you may be a candidate for surgery or a quiz. “Use videos, images, charts, graphs and statistics. People love to share these.”

Above all, post content regularly and when people post comments or ask questions, respond. “You have to be comfortable interacting with users. You’re not going to get very far sitting back and waiting for people to come to you,” Mr Solar says. Wellington adheres to this approach. On YouTube, informational videos on refractive procedures starring Drs Corkin and Cummings have drawn the most views. A tutorial on taking eye drops has clocked up 12,000 views in two years. By comparison, a personal account of Dr Cumming’s recent LASIK surgery is moving up fast, with more than 600 views in six months. “People like to know that you understand what they are going through,” Dr Cummings says.

“You have to be comfortable interacting with users. You’re not going to get very far sitting back and waiting for people to come to you.” – Rod Solar

The clinic’s Facebook page and other social media are maintained and monitored daily by Isobel Brennan, an employee with a strong interest in social media. The content includes observations on sporting events and other local topics, as well as many comments from patients, and photos and comments from staff. It now boasts more than 570 “likes”. Using a similar approach, sehkraft Augenzentrum Maus in Cologne, Germany has generated similar results, gaining 375 “likes” since January 2010, says Carmen Wagner, the clinic’s representative. It’s hard to pin down exactly how many referrals Facebook generates, but “we comment or tell our community about events, and seconds later we have ‘likes’,” she says.

Ms Wagner also sees it as an effective way to interact more directly with patients and potential patients. For example, patients can post their comments voluntarily about their procedures on social media, and those comments are 99 per cent positive. It helps get the good word out in a country that does not allow patient testimonials in advertising or on websites. Such techniques allow you to establish a brand for your practice by bringing it to the attention of large numbers of people in a credible context, notes David Evans, CEO of Ceatus Media Group, San Diego, US. But because it does not target people specifically seeking your service, most visits will be fairly low-grade. “There is a pretty high visit rate to websites from social media, but the time on site is low. But people are on social media to be social, not because they are looking for LASIK providers.” It can take 90 days or more for a patient to decide whether to have an elective procedure. In the meantime, they will do plenty of research on your website and others. By the time they call you, they will likely say “your website” or “the Internet” is where they heard of you, making it hard to quantify the impact of social media.

But integrating Facebook, as well as Google-plus and Yelp reviews, and keyword ads on web searches can increased traffic on websites, says Christian Monea, CEO of King LASIK, which operates at six locations in British Columbia and Alberta in Canada, and Washington state and Oregon in the US. In addition to directing patients to the website, social media and review site links have helped move King LASIK to the first page on organic web searches.

Mr Monea estimates King spends $8,000 to $10,000 monthly on all forms of Internet marketing, including country-specific websites and Google key word ads, and outsources social media content to ensure new content goes up five days a week. “Last month 53 patients had surgery from Internet leads; that’s more than 100 eyes, or about $160,000 in revenue. Spend $10,000 to get $160,000? I would take that any day.” By comparison, $30,000 spent on radio ads typically generates about $60,000 in revenues.

Mr Monea has found that offering patients incentives to post online can help. King LASIK launched its Facebook presence with a contest to win an iPad. The tactic was fairly successful and the practice continues to offer prizes to social media contributors. He believes it is essential to take advantage of the “wow factor” as soon after surgery as possible.

Getting started

Like any marketing effort, social media requires planning as well as ongoing effort and monitoring to succeed, Ms Morrill says. She emphasises integrating social media with websites and other marketing efforts, and suggests looking at other ophthalmology and medical sites to see how they do it – and emulate those who are building sizable followings. Very short items posted once or twice a week work best, she says. Mr Solar recommends determining your purpose first. Whether it is increasing marketing effectiveness, increasing customer satisfaction, reducing marketing costs or reducing support costs, you won’t know if you’re succeeding if you don’t have a goal.

Be prepared to speak with your target audience, not to them, Mr Solar says. You’ll also need to engage them by encouraging users to participate – remember, it is a many-to-many medium. The most successful social media channels are those that are the most open, with members sharing their views, uploading content and connecting with each other. Be prepared to generate consistently valuable content. This can take some effort and a little time from surgeons, but if you batch it all at the beginning, you can generate enough content in a couple of days to keep the site fresh for a year, Mr Solar says. He suggests developing a set of questions people ask – about procedures, safety, symptoms, outcomes, whatever it is that people actually ask you and your staff – and then sit down and answer them all on tape. One of his clients came up with nearly 200 questions that were taped in a few hours. They are then released as short videos on social media and on the practice website, with transcripts on the website as well, providing several months of fresh content.

Lastly, track your program’s impact. Tools such as Google analytics, as well as new tools from Facebook and third-party vendors can help track social network efficacy in marketing by identifying click-throughs to your web page and providing unique phone numbers or offer codes for those who call. Keep in mind that building a social network takes time, Mr Evans says. If you’re interested, plan for the resources it will take and give it a year. But recognise that someone will have to work at it. “You are either socially engaging with your patients or you are not; there really is no middle ground.”

Small practices may conclude they do not have the resources to engage consistently, Mr Evans notes. Still, it may be worthwhile to put up Facebook, LinkedIn, Goggle-plus, and a Twitter account with minimal content, just to acquire the name for future use.

Negative comments

One risk of free-wheeling social media is that not all comments will be positive. But most will. A one-week survey of all US social network activity involving healthcare providers, insurers and pharmaceutical firms on their own sites and in online communities conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers found that only five per cent were negative. But when negative comments arise, they may actually present an opportunity to convert a complaint into a commendation, Mr Monea says. He recommends approaching patients who complain offline to find out what the problem is and what can be done to resolve it. In one case a complaining patient not only removed the complaint, he replaced it with a positive comment about how responsive the practice was.

Dr Cummings says he has had no negative comments – but he’s prepared. He even views them as a gift of sorts. “If someone is out there complaining, they are going to do it whether you know about it or not. Wouldn’t you rather know so you can address it?” In some cases, such as the Yelp review site, it may not be possible to remove or even contact a negative reviewer. But that doesn’t bother Mr Monea – as long as most of the reviews are positive. “If you have 40 or 45 reviews that are good, and one or two that are negative, people will take that into account. But if it is 50-50, people will give the negative reviews more credence.”

Privacy and ethics

Protecting patient privacy and avoiding ethical or regulatory violations are also concerns with social media. Patients – and physicians – may not realise it, but information shared through social networks usually belongs to the network, and may be sold to advertisers. This is, in fact, the business model of commercial social networks. When this information is clinical, it could be an ethical or even a legal problem, even when it seems innocuous. For example, asking in an online quiz whether people have had symptoms of dry-eye or other diseases could unwittingly reveal protected information. It is your ethical and legal responsibility to understand the terms under which you participate in social media and protect your patients from unauthorised disclosures of their personal data, says barrister Paul McGinn, Dublin, Ireland. “As with all contracts, the watchwords are the three Rs – read, reflect, and when in any doubt, refer the question to competent legal counsel.”

The same goes for potential violations of ethical standards, such as bans on patient testimonials, through links to social media. While you cannot control what patients say on social sights, it’s possible that a direct link to a page with testimonials from your website could be construed as a violation. The best course may be to check with your national ophthalmic society or medical registration agency, Mr McGinn says. Similarly, patients raising clinical questions online could present problems if handled incorrectly. Mr Evans says the best way to handle the problem is to avoid soliciting any clinical information. Mr Solar agrees. “Online clinical questions should be handled just as you would handle questions in your waiting room. Ask the patient to see you in private for a consult.”

On balance, the potential benefits greatly outweigh the risks, Mr Monea says. “Some people check Facebook nine or 10 times a day. When someone is willing to tell a story or post a picture, that can reach 300 or 400 ‘friends’ instead of one or two of their closest friends. The question is, how do you harness that type of communication power?”

Rod Solar speaking at ESCRS 2012 in Milan, Italy.

We had a great turn-out for our talk in Milan at the XXX Congress of the European Society for Cataract and Refractive Surgery, where we presented our Patient Acquisition Model for the first time.

As we discussed at the presentation, identifying the best medical marketing to use requires a comprehensive approach that takes into account your sales pipeline, and what your potential patients need at every step of their decision making process. Get your own copy of our patient acquisition model for an overview of the healthcare marketing process. Discover how everything you’re doing (or may not yet be doing!) fits together.

The LiveseySolar Patient Acquisition Model

This is an overview of the model – download the larger PDF so you can print it out for yourself.

The model begins with your most valuable marketing asset: Word of Mouth. Word of mouth is outside of your control, but it is inside your influence. Regardless of how good your word of mouth might be, there are still a small number of people that know you (spreading the word of mouth) relative to the vast amount of people that don’t know you and are searching for your service. A major goal of your sales and marketing should be to generate as much positive word of mouth as possible.

Generally, most people who are are interested in your service (whether they know you or not) will use Google (and other search engines) to search for the answers to the questions they have. This is why internet search marketing is so important. To get from Google to your website, they will either click an organic search listing or a paid search listing. Some people, of course, will bypass Google and either follow a link to your website from another website (a referral visit) or look you up directly by typing your domain into their browser.

Once they get to your website, the job of your website is to convert them to call or submit an form to email. Clearly, your website needs to be designed to do this as effectively as possible.

A small percentage of visitors to your website will contact your business, and the most valuable of these will contact you by phone. Many businesses, in fact, must get a prospective client on the phone before they will convert into a consultation. Therefore, telephone sales training is critically important to your success at this stage of the pipeline.

After your prospect converts on the phone, they will then visit with you at a consultation. The consultation is a pivotal moment in the pipeline because it is often at this stage that the sale can be made (even if the full transaction must wait until the surgery). Consultation skills training is an important tool to increase conversion rates at this stage of the pipeline.

Following a successful consultation, the patient will have their treatment or surgery and then proceed towards the aftercare stage of the funnel. What matters here is customer service. Appropriate customer service training can affect your performance from the telephone, consultation, surgery to the aftercare. As a result, you can expect to generate as many happy patients as possible, and ideally, happy patients that refer more patients. That is the ultimate goal.

Some of the happy patients that are already on social media will have naturally used it to discuss your brand and their experiences with it in social media (either on their profiles or on your business profiles). When coordinated with offline referral stimulation (e.g. events, parties, newsletters, etc.).

All of the work above, your internet search campaign, your website, its content, your telephone approach, your consultation process, your treatment approach, and your aftercare, needs to be subject to a cycle of

• experimentation
• analysis
• reporting, and
• adaptation

And that is where the work is. The more optimised each stage of the process, the better your results will be. The better your results, the more people at the top of the funnel will know you and talk about your service to those who are looking for it. This will generate considerably more qualified prospects at the top of the funnel, and your business will grow.

2012′s presentation slideshow

I believe that that best way to overcome an objection is to listen deeply to what is behind the objection before you answer it. In the heat of the moment, this is easier said than done. But, because an objection is typically an unasked question in disguise, it makes sense to know the question before you answer it, doesn’t it?

Taking this approach is akin to the carpenter’s proverb: “measure twice, cut once”. Obviously, it saves a lot of lumber.

How is this done? Well, consider what might be behind the objection from a typical patient on the phone (my aim on the phone is to encourage the patient to book a consultation):

“I’m not sure if I’m going to have the time for this…”

The patient’s unasked questions could be:

• how much time is this going to take?
• will I be able to fit it in to my busy schedule?
• will I have time for the initial appointment?
• will I have the time to recover?
• will work give me the required time off?

Measure once: There is a multitude of things that can be going on in a patient’s head. So, instead of answering the question, you’re job is to ask another question aimed at clarifying what the patient means by their statement. Clarifying questions might sound like:

• “Time for what, specifically, the treatment itself, or the recovery?”
• “How much time do you think you’ll need?”
• “How much time do you have?”

Any of the above questions may help in identifying the real issue behind the statement. This is considerably better than spending a lot of time answering the wrong objection. Great health care consultation.

Measure twice: After understanding the real issue behind the concern, it’s time to isolate the objection. For example, you might say:

“I see (pause)… Do you mind if I ask, apart from the time required to recover from the procedure, would there be anything else holding you back from going ahead?”

If there is, I want to list the objections so that I can answer each in turn (or even better, answer all with one solution – if possible). If you don’t do this, then you could be answering objections forever, and never get a commitment from the patient that after you have answered all of their concerns, they will agree with your proposal. This is also known as a trial close (which I’ll cover in later posts).

Cut once: If there isn’t, it’s time to agree with the objection. Agree? Yes, agree. Fighting the objection with clever adages or rehearsed rebuttals won’t get you far, unless you want a conflict with the patient. Instead, empathise with the patient’s concerns with something like:

“Ok, I understand how you might feel that way, and many people have felt the same way when they are considering this procedure. (pause)…However, after visiting with our clinicians at the consultation and making that concern known, patients have found that the clinicians can usually advise on a procedure that will suit your lifestyle and time requirements. When would be the best time for you to schedule this discussion with the clinician (the consultation)”

In that statement, I’ve agreed with the patient that the concern is real, I’ve validated that the concern is not unique, and I’ve given the patient a possible solution to their time problem and have created value in the consultation at the same time. Finally, I’ve trial closed the patient on booking the consultation.

By linking one of the values of the consultation (a discussion of treatment options) with the patient’s problem (lack of time), I’ve turned this logistical concern, into a clinical concern. Thereby leading the client to the next irrefutable step: the consultation.

Clinical health care consultation skill objections can be handled the same way. The process goes like this:

• Consider the unasked question
• Ask a clarifying question (measure once)
• Isolate the objection (measure twice)
• Empathise with the concern
• Answer the patient’s concern fully (with the facts) and ideally, use the concern as a reason for taking the next step. (cut once)

Using the right tools for the job

This leads me to a very important point: Clinicians, by nature, tend to be analytical. Analyticals, like to solve problems the way an engineer would: by taking things apart (analysis), studying the facts, weighing the options, and making a recommendation (synthesis).

If you can agree with that, then why on earth do I encounter so many clinicians who do not have the evidence at their disposal?

I can remember one clinic chain that I worked with, who’s sales managers wanted their clinicians to recommend (when safe and appropriate to do so) a more advanced treatment over a less advanced treatment that carried a lower price point. It is obvious why this was a business objection: to increase the average price per sale.

What they didn’t do, however, is provide the clinicians with the necessary evidence to stand on when recommending a more advanced treatment over a less advanced one. The clinicians, being analytical in nature, completely rejected the suggestion and carried on offering the most common treatment available (by nature the less advanced).

And why shouldn’t they? This approach is tantamount to sending your carpenters out with only measurement tape in their belt. Clearly, after they’ve conducted all the necessary observations, they will be hindered in their ability to execute on the job.

Understanding what sells clinicians is the first step in helping them persuade others. Giving them the tools so that they can justify their recommendations goes a long way towards building their confidence when they need it most. And often, I’ve noticed that a clinician’s confidence is tested mostly when faced with objections to their recommendations (especially when they don’t have the evidence to overcome the objection).

Ok, it’s my turn to play Anne Robinson for a moment…

Imagine for a moment that your private health practice is a chain that the patient needs to pull to get their hands on what you offer. The handle at the end of the chain is your practices accessibility (i.e. how easily a prospective patient can find you). Ideally, you should have several ends on this chain because this will help prospects find your chain more easily. Some of these handles could be:

• your website (that is found on the internet with the aid of search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising).
• your advertising in print media and directories.
• your own patients, and the word-of-mouth they generate.

Regardless, the first link in your chain is often the telephone and consequently the person answering that phone – the telephone operator. The aims of that person need to be to

• greet the prospect
• qualify the prospect on the phone
• propose an appointment to the prospective patient

This person needs to be a master of making a good first impressions, asking productive questions, and overcoming objections to an appointment. All of which is covered (and more) in my Telephone Boot Camp.

The second link in the chain, assuming the person answering the telephone was successful in converting the enquiry into an appointment, is the receptionist. Typically, the receptionist will be the first person to greet your prospective patient and will set the tone for the entire visit. It is also likely that the receptionist will have the majority of face time with the prospect, especially if you are a busy practice that makes it’s patient wait. This person needs to be an expert at “on-stage” behaviours otherwise known as customer service skills, such as

• making visitors feel special and at home
• tending to their unasked needs
• keeping them updated and involved

These are skills that I teach in my customer service workshops, usually attended by receptionists, medical secretaries and clinic managers.

The third link in the chain, is your patient advisor (or patient education consultant, or counselor). This person is proficient at

• greeting your customer
• putting them at ease
• gathering information about their needs
• confirming information
• shepherding the patient through the process
• presenting options
• asking for money, and
• setting up treatment appointments.

This person requires skills like building trust, uncovering needs, linking prospect needs to practice solutions, overcoming objections and negotiating fees and dates. These are all skills I teach in my Consultation Boot Camps.

The fourth link in the chain is usually the practitioner, or the practitioner’s proxy (a nurse, an optometrist, or a non-medical treatment specialist). This person needs to not only be extremely knowledgeable about their product, but also needs to employ the inter-personal skills to

• affably gain the patient’s trust and respect
• discern what to communicate and how to communicate it clearly
• establish credibility in the recommendation
• confirm the patient’s commitment
• answer every question fully to the patient’s satisfaction
• explain risks and benefits
• overcome the patient’s product-related or positional objections

Now, let me ask you these three questions:

1. With respect to the skills that I’ve just listed, which of the four links above (the telephone operator, the receptionist, the patient advisor, and the practitioner/practitioner’s proxy) typically perform their skills worse than the others?
2. Which of the four links above usually have the most to gain by becoming more proficient at these listed skills?
3. Which of these four links above are, ironically, the most resistant to the changes that training expects of them?

If you answered the fourth link in the chain (the practitioners and the practitioner’s proxies), you’d be right nine times out of ten. If you’re reading this post and recognise yourself in this group, then indeed: “YOU ARE THE WEAKEST LINK!”

In my next few posts, I’ll be discussing the distinctions that this fourth group need to learn, a few of the reasons why they consistently resist change, and what you can do to overcome it.

During the practitioner’s component of the consultation, the clinician will conduct an examination, overcome objections, perform a credibility statement, and trial close the patient.

In this way, the practitioner can perform all the necessary sales functions in a comfortable, non-threatening manner, that leverages the clinician’s authority and helps the patient advisor close the sale.

A few posts ago I covered dealing with objections, this post introduces credibility statements. Credibility statements are designed to emphasise the credibility of the clinician, after the examination and before he or she provides their findings and recommendation. This is the moment that bridges the diagnosis and the prescription so that the patient can answer the 3rd condition (why you?) relying on the clinician’s authority for leverage.

What are the 6 components of powerful credibility statements?

1. Create a reason to share your story
2. Explain how you found out about your clinic
3. Share your training background
4. Share the unique selling proposition and 3 supporting selling points
5. Share what you’re getting out of the job
6. Ask for questions about yourself

Now, I’ll be getting into these distinctions in more depth in my next post.

Now that we have examined the goals, components and examples of a good confirmation statement, let’s briefly discuss how these confirmation skills can be effectively used throughout the rest of the sales process.

Most notably, the principles of listening and repeating are used when patient counselors turn the patient over to a specialist or doctor, and when overcoming objections.

We will analyze both of these concepts in great detail in subsequent blog posts.

When the patient counselor is turning to a specialist or a doctor, it’s of great benefit to repeat to the specialist or doctor, in front of the prospect, the prospect’s first-level information, dominant buying motive, a problem or challenge, and then ending it with a trial close. Repeating, for example:

“Sue and Charles, this is our surgeon, Dr. Lisa Silverton.

Sue and her husband Charles live in Norwich. Sue is a cashier in a bank and Charles is marketing manager for Sainsbury’s.

The main reason they’re looking into refractive surgery is because Sue would like to look as young as she feels, and Charles really likes taking beach vacations and his contact lenses really get in the way.

Does that sound right Sue? Charles?

Sue just started wearing reading glasses last year and she absolutely hates how she looks with them on. Having refractive surgery is important to Sue so she doesn’t have to wear her ‘granny glasses’.

And Charles is very frustrated by having to wear contacts at the beach, and not be able to see when he’s swimming in the ocean and he would really like to feel more spontaneous on vacations, isn’t that right?

If everything works out here today, they’d like to have their treatments as soon as possible. I’ve written down a few key questions about the safety of the procedure, and they were also curious about our financing options.

But it sounds to me, Lisa, that if you could answer the safety questions and if I can get their monthly payments to a comfortable level, we’d have some new patients here today.

Sue, Charles, isn’t that about right?”

Wow! Doctors: can you imagine getting a turn like that instead of:

“Dr. Silverton, meet Charles. Well Charles, I’ll leave you in Dr. Silverton’s capable hands and see you later when you’re all done.”

You will see when we discuss overcoming objections that the listening and repeating of the prospect’s concerns is key to overcome them.

You see, only if we listen, agree, and are empathetic to someone, will they trust us. We must first get on our prospect’s side, before we can bring them over to our side….

While we’re on the subject of information confirmation that follows the discovery in the healthcare consultation, here’s another variation of a powerful confirmation statement that links the prospect’s life priorities to the product that you’re offering. This example is from the field of eye surgery, but you could simply exchange the specifics with the needs and benefits behind your speciality:

Me: “John, how important is good vision without glasses to you?”

John: “Very important.”

Me: “Ok, very important means a few things to different people. Do you mind if I ask you where good vision without glasses is on a scale of 1 to 10?”

John: “Oh, I’d say about an 8.”

Me: “Great. Now obviously John, good vision without glasses is important in your life, but there are other things of greater value to you. Do you mind me asking what they might be? What’s the greatest priority in your life?”

John: “That would be my family. Career, health, and golf”

Me: “So John, let me see if I have this right. You live in Southampton, where you are an accountant. You really enjoy golf, and you go to the gym at least three times a week. Good vision without glasses is important to you because it gives you the ability to do your job with less inconvenience and frustration, and family is the most important thing to you. But you’re also very committed to your career, health, and definitely enjoy the game of golf.

One of the challenges you’ve been having, however, is that your glasses are always getting in the way and making you feel irritated and exhausted during your day at work, so when you get home, you’re really not in the mood for spending much quality time with the kids.

So if I could show you how to enjoy the kind of lifestyle that would give you the opportunity to be free of glasses for most of your day, so that you’re not as tired in the evenings, enable you to get more enjoyment from your golf game, bettering your career, and supplying you with more energy to enjoy family time, since that’s so important to you, would that be something you’d take a serious look at?”

Again, we’re simply showing our prospects that our product can help them to fulfill their deepest desires that make up human life.

In our medical consultation workshops we help you learn that art of the information confirmation so you too can deliver powerful confirmation statements that nearly close the sale before you’ve even begun closing.

The information confirmation is the vital summary that the health care sales person must deliver after the discovery, so it is a very important healthcare consultation skill.

In addition to dramatically aiding in building trust with the prospect, the information confirmation can also crystallise the prospect’s thoughts.

We have to focus the prospect’s attention on the notion that he has a problem, so that we can offer the solution.

Remember some of the key questions that we ask during the discovery to uncover a problem? We discussed these earlier, questions like: “So, tell me about the issue that brings you here – what’s the problem and why are you here?”

Sometimes the prospect isn’t readily aware that she has an third-level problem, so we have to suggest one to bring a latent problem to the surface during the healthcare consultation.

Advertisers do this all the time, for example: have you ever found yourself driving down the road, perfectly content, until the moment you see the picture of a double-cheeseburger and chips on a billboard you just passed. All of a sudden, you realise that you haven’t had anything to eat for hours, and start feeling the hunger in your stomach. Like Pavlov’s dog, you may even notice that you begin to salivate a little, because you’ve been conditioned to respond to visual stimuli that foreshadows a savoury meal.

It is best to stir up a latent problem by asking questions, letting the prospect discover that he has one. For instance we might say to a prospect who has shared that they scuba dive with us:

“Do you see your lifestyle changing in the next few years?”

They might reply, “Well, yeah, we might retire in the next couple of years.”

To which I’d say,

“Oh, does that mean you’ll be scuba diving more or less?”

“Well, more.” He’d say.

“Oh, so you’ll have the surgery then I suppose”, I’d say, followed by: “tell me, are you putting away funds for it now?”

“Well no, and we’ll be on a fixed income…”

There! Now we’ve got a problem. This prospect better start budgeting for this surgery now, because they will likely not have the extra cash to fund it in a few years when they retire.

Finding a problem in the discovery and repeating it back in the confirmation, helps the prospect focus on that solving the problem.

In addition to evoking trust and crystallising the prospect’s thoughts, we can use the information confirmation to verify the prospect’s first, second, and third-level buying motives

All too often, we may conduct a discovery and think we’ve gathered the correct information during the healthcare consultation, but we’ve perhaps missed some valuable data, or we’ve misinterpreted the data.

Often, we may have heard what our prospects said but it isn’t really what they mean. Again by verifying the information, we can confirm it.

By verifying, we’re clarifying, and only by having the correct information can we sell effectively.

To gain agreement from the prospect that he does indeed have a problem so that we are, in a sense, given permission to solve it

Once the prospect admits he has a third-level problem, in effect he’s giving us permission to solve it.

Also, through our listening and being willing to repeat a prospect’s objections, often the objections will go away.

Often, a prospect will voice any concern they may have with purchasing, our willingness to really listen without judging it or defending our position often makes the prospects concerns go away.

I wouldn’t hesitate to repeat a prospect’s objections in the confirmation statement. In the next few posts, we’ll be examining some sample information confirmation statements to help you deliver them more consistently.

Sometimes you can do everything right, but still find yourself in front of a customer that either blocks you, or resists your attempts at understanding their needs. When this happens, you can either think on your feet, or have a plan of options that you can use when you’re dealing with a tough customer. In this post, we share our four methods to deal with the tough customer in the sales consultation.

Ask easy questions first

First, make certain to ask first-level questions earlier, to prying into second and third-level ones.

Sometimes I’ve found that salespeople can become so enlightened with the concept of deep questions, that they make the mistake of getting too deep too fast.

For example, they might ask initially: “How would you feel if you weren’t found suitable for the procedure?” before asking why they want to have the procedure in the first place.

Getting to the third-level before asking first-level questions is kind of like meeting someone new and asking all about their marriage and other personal matters before finding out where they live and what they do for a living.

It’s a little too personal; too fast. Remember to ask first-level questions first, and earn the right to ask second and third-level questions later.

Follow the process

A second technique you can use is to simply follow the process I’ve suggested, step-by-step. All too often, we’re not able to open up our prospects in the discovery simply because we didn’t reduce the tension in the first place.

We didn’t do a proper greeting, a good warm-up, an intent statement, or a correct discovery, so the customers never feel relaxed enough to open up during the discovery.

No step in the presentation can be missed. I’ll repeat: No step in the presentation can be missed.

Use the Take Away

A third method of dealing with a tough customer is to try a takeaway and compliment them. This is useful when a prospect enters our facility and tries to block us. They may say things like:

“I’m only here to see if I’m suitable.” Or, “I’m only on the first step of my journey here”.

What I find amusing, is very often, I’d start the sales meeting with a perfectly open-ended question such as:

“So, tell me Jack, tell me about yourself – what’s the problem and why are you here?”

And Jack responds instantly:

“I’m only looking for information now and besides my problem really isn’t that bad”.

I find this amusing because this response is usually indicative of a prospect who is simply putting up his defenses so as not to be sold. I have found that the best way to handle a prospect that is blocking you is simply to take it away, and maybe compliment them.

“Wow, that’s great. Well you know, since your problem is perfectly acceptable for you now, I may not have anything to show you here today. What do you think we should do then?”

The takeaway, and a sincere compliment will usually ease the toughest of prospects.

Ask them for help

Fourth, you can simply ask your prospect for help. What happens when you’ve been at it for nearly ten or fifteen minutes and we still can’t find a Dominant Buying Motive? We can simply ask the prospect for help, i.e.

“Tell me, I’m kind of new at this, what would I have to show you today for you to be interested in our treatment?”

Change something

Fifth, if nothing you do is working, you may want to change something – the room, the representative, bring a manager or one of the doctors in, anything to change the flow of the interaction that may jolt the prospect out of his mood and into a more receptive state.

Many people think that their problem is closing. But you see, if we do the right things all along and ask the right questions in the discovery, we can begin closing on our prospect’s Dominant Buying Motives throughout the presentation and eliminate objections. Very often through the questions we ask, the prospects will sell themselves on the notion that a particular surgery or treatment just may offer the solution to their unfulfilled needs.

So remember, ask first-level, second-level and third-level questions in the discovery to uncover your prospect’s Dominant Buying Motives. Third-level reasons like: hopes to gain attractiveness, safety, convenience, fears of loss such as the fears of losing attractiveness, adventure or fun.

Ask the right questions to chart your course for satisfying the four basic conditions and personal prospect objections.

And remember, work smart when dealing with the tough, defensive customers and you will have paved the way to close more sales, build better relationships, and have a greater sense of satisfaction in your work, and in your life.

I often get the opportunity to meet with my training clients after training, and I often ask what challenges they had experienced in implementing the sales process I had taught their staff in the Consultations Skills and Teamwork Training course. A few years ago, I started to see a pattern that troubled me.

Manager after manager was telling me that the most challenging part of the consultation was the information confirmation. Strangely, I’ve seen countless health care sales people drop the information confirmation as easily as they might brush dust off their suit jacket lapels. As I heard this, I began to think about how much better their results could have been, if they had only enforced the practice of this critical part of the sales process.

It astounds me how something so simple can get in the way of higher conversion rates. We have an excellent opportunity in the information confirmation to evoke trust and show our customers that we’re listening.

How important is it to ensure trust in healthcare consultations?

It’s paramount; there is no better way to earn trust or rapport, than to listen. That is why the discovery is so important, but it is the confirmation statement that proves to the prospect that we’re listening.

The repeating back of what someone just told us is the ultimate form of validation. Rephrasing back to someone what they just said not only shows that we’re listening, but it confirms that we’re empathetic to their situation.

It earns us the right to solve their problem, and recommend one of our products as the solution.

Too often health care sales people are under the misconception that they need to know all the facts of their product to make a sale. That’s simply not true, if we build good rapport, ask the right questions, listen attentively to our prospect’s needs, and repeat them back to the prospect to make sure we have it right, they will buy without fully understanding, say, the mechanics of how the treatment works, or the intricacies of anatomy and physiology.

I say that if we do all the first steps correctly, the sale is made before we even begin selling.

No doubt, the simple confirmation of a prospect’s wants and needs is a tremendous way to build trust.

So why do people drop the information confirmation?

Firstly, it’s one of the only two steps in my consultation process that requires two people to complete. Secondly, it requires a certain degree of acting.

I’ll get deeper into the information confirmation, and how to make sure it happens, over my next few posts.