Clinic’s Sales Process
Don’t be under any illusion, you must have a Clinic’s Sales Process and you must have sales scripts. To not have these will really impede your growth and your ability to hand over the job of sales to a sales person. Having neither of these will cost you dearly.
You probably haven’t seen this equation: D x V + FS > R = Sale (yes I know that D&V in medical terms is normally diarrhoea and vomiting) It’s actually from a change formula developed during the 60s for businesses and corporations that want to carry out institutional cultural changes, but was adapted for sales in the 80s.
With most clinics, no matter the sector, normally the people sitting in front of you are there for very emotive reasons. They either have to be there, or they’re there because something has really been seriously bothering them. In a world that seems to push perfection, people are feeling more self-conscious than ever about their appearance, and this has a knock-on effect on their self confidence that can impact on every area of their life’s so it’s important to understand exactly why they’ve come to you.
The D is the dissatisfaction or pain the customer has, V is the vision of what they want, FS is the first steps to get them to buy and R is resistance, which will be typical objections that you get to buying.
A Clinic’s Sales Process, is Crucial
The idea is that you talk to the customer about their dissatisfaction making that D as big as possible, really digging around to find out what it is that’s paining them. Get as much detail as possible, and ask them how it feels to be in that situation. Normally you have to ask a question at least three times before you uncover their pain. Really drill down and get them to describe, in depth, how they feel and what it means to them personally – where you can, make sure that the descriptions are vivid and rich.
Then, start building the V vision and again make this huge. Ask them to describe their perfect situation. Really dig around, ask what that looks like, what personal impact it has on them, how it will feel, what that would do for them, what impact it would have on their life and family. Make the vision bold, rich, and real. The bigger you can make the D and V, the easier the sale will be. Now, this isn’t about manipulating people, it’s simply about helping them to buy.
The FS, or first steps, is all about making the sale as much of a no-brainer as you can. Think payment in instalments, offering a money-back guarantee, 30 day trial periods, reminding them about any other cast iron guarantees you have, in fact anything that you can do to get buy-in. Once your customers decide to buy a little, they’re likely to go the whole way because they’ll already have made the decision to buy from you, and as people like to feel that they’ve made the right decision, they’ll look for evidence to support this.
There’s a great book called Yes! 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin and Robert B. Cialdini, and it’s got all sorts of interesting facts about persuasion and how getting small buy-ins from people could lead to much larger ones simply because people felt a connection and identified with the issue, campaign, or opportunity.
For one test, they quoted that the researchers knocked on 100 houses and asked if they could put a large placard in the front garden saying “kill your speed”. Not surprisingly, only 17% of householders said yes, and the others gave a flat no. Then, in a neighbouring, similar street, researchers knocked on the door and asked people if they could put a small sticker in their window saying “kill your speed”. A huge 76% said yes, and when, three days later, the researchers went back to the houses that had agreed to display the small stickers and asked if they’d now put a large placard in the front garden 53% of them said yes. That’s more than triple the initial number of the neighbouring street.
For A Clinic’s Sales Process, Think About The Customer Journey
The reasoning is that taking that small action changed very slightly how these people viewed themselves. That little sticker in the window showed that they were the sort of person who cared about their community, and who didn’t want people speeding, so when asked if they could put the much larger sign in the front garden many more identified with it and felt comfortable to say yes. Knowing that now, think about how can you get people to buy-in to what you do, or spend just a little bit, because they’ll then be much more likely to spend more with you later.
R is resistance and it’s all about reducing the resistance that will come through common objections that you’ll already have had. It’s just about recognising what you most often come across and preparing for it. If it’s about price, remind them of the value and the vision of what you’re going to help them achieve, or if they want to delay, remind them of the repercussions of that and repeat back to them what you found out when talking about their pain or dissatisfaction.
No Clinic’s Sales Process, No Growth
It might be that you go through this and then the client wants to think about it. Again, remember to include your right within the information they take away, just to remind them of everything you’ve already covered. If they haven’t already had it, include your guide on ‘questions to ask before you engage with <our sector>’ and remember to also include testimonials from existing clients. Also, try to stand out slightly, rather than just giving it to them, emailing the proposal over and send it over in a well packed brochure.
Make sure that you understand their concerns and how your clinic is the best fit. Include your right but make sure that your client understands the relevance to them. One of my clients won a customer against a much larger, more specialist business because the other guys presented ‘their right’ in the wrong way. They talked about ‘we’ve done this’ and ‘we’ve done that’ and ‘we’ve won this’. When my client talked to her potential customer, she shared the credible background but went on to explain what it meant to them. So ‘we’ve done this which means that you can benefit from…’ The other business just came across as if they were bragging, and ultimately didn’t win the customer’s business.
A Clinic’s Sales Process is essential to success.
By Alan Adams The Clinic Coach
