Sales Tips For Healthcare Providers!


Despite being in the healthcare field, doctors are still in marketing and sales.

We have discussed marketing previously.

Now, we will turn to sales.

As a provider, you have to sell your patients on you as well as on your treatment recommendations.

You have to persuade (sell) them that you are the doctor who understands them and can help them.

You have to persuade (sell) them that you have diagnosed them correctly.

Then, you have to persuade (sell) them that your treatment recommendation is what is best for them right now in the treatment process.

That’s a lot of persuading and convincing (selling), isn’t it?

And how much sales training do doctors receive? Usually none!

There is an entire science and psychology behind why people buy. There are ongoing studies looking at the neuroscience and physiology of buying. Numerous books have been written on the subject.

The majority of that research is beyond the scope of this article.

However, there are some broad topics worth discussing that provide recommendations for how healthcare providers can more effectively prescribe treatment plans and/or surgical procedures and get patients to be compliant.

Some problems patients encounter become emergencies for them, and they are usually quite agreeable to what needs to be done promptly to address their issue.

For example, a patient with an abscessed tooth or a perirectal abscess usually is in so much pain, they will follow whatever they are told. Just get rid of their pain!

That exemplifies one of the psychological behaviors of “buying” which is that people in their buying usually migrate away from pain or toward pleasure. The patient with the abscess just wants to be out of pain.

But on a broader level, people have been shown to buy based on emotion and then justify the purchase based on logic.

In fact, some researchers state that 85-90% of purchases are made based primarily on emotion with only 10-15% based primarily on logic.

So, a mother decides to buy a new iPhone. She had been thinking about it for a while. She really wanted it. It would make her happy. Those were the emotions. But, it is expensive. Her logical brain kicks in and questions her. She then begins to tell herself logically why it is a good decision. It has new features that will make her life easier. It has a better camera, so she can take better photos of the kids. It wouldn’t drop calls as much, so it would make her safer. She wouldn’t be made fun of for her old phone anymore. And the list goes on.

That is how people buy. Again, they buy based on emotions and then justify the decision based on logic.

That has tremendous ramifications for healthcare providers in dealing with patients.

Most healthcare provider encounters are elective and nonemergent. Therefore, there is time to discuss the problem, the treatment options, and the recommendations. The patient then has time to make a decision.

Is this doctor right for me? Is this diagnosis correct?

Is the recommended treatment better than all other options? Can I afford the co-pay and the deductible?

How do emotions enter into the doctor-patient relationship?

Liking someone and trusting someone are emotions related to a relationship.

You are developing a relationship with the patient. You want them to like you and trust you. They want to decide if they like you and trust you or not.

Here are some things you can do to help them like you and trust you and to help build a relationship with your patient.


1. Listen – A few years ago a study indicated that it took about 18 seconds for the average doctor to interrupt the patient. Too many providers are busy, short on time, and wanting to jump right to the solution without hearing the patient’s problems. That will not help them like you or trust you.

All doctors are taught that, if you just listen to the patients, they will tell you exactly what is wrong with them. Patients want to be heard. They want to feel they have your undivided attention. They want you to look them in the eyes. They want you to nod and acknowledge that you are listening. They don’t want you looking at your tablet or trying to develop your note for the EMR while they are talking.

The more you truly listen, the more emotional attachment there will be between you and your patient. And the more they will like you and trust you.


2. Get to know them as a person – In order to understand your patient, you need to get to know them. Where do they live? What is their employment? Are they married? Do they have kids? What are their hobbies? How has their healthcare issue affected their work, or spouse, or kids, or hobbies? What do they hope to get out of this appointment with you? What is their ultimate goal? If they can get rid of this healthcare issue, how will their life change?

Who they are, and who else they have to consider in life affects their decision regarding treatment, so you need to take the time to learn about them.

And when you take the time to get to know them, and they come to like and trust you, it is highly unlikely they will leave and see your competitor. They will be loyal to you, because you really do care about them.


3. Ask good questions – Yes, you know how to take a patient’s history. But do you know how to ask about their life and their lifestyle? Those issues enter into their decision-making process, so you need to know more than just their disease process. You need to learn all the ways it affects them, their self-esteem, and their family, friends, and work relationships.


4. Desire that they be a long-term patient – Speak with them as if you want them to be your patient for a long time. People want to be wanted. They will appreciate that you view this as one appointment in their lifetime as your patient, and not just another appointment in your busy day with no thought as to whether you will ever see them again.


5. Tell them stories – That seems odd, doesn’t it? Tell them stories of other patients’ issues and their successes with your treatment. Obviously, be general in your story. Don’t divulge any protected information. Maintain HIPAA compliance.

Storytelling evokes strong emotions.

Stories compel people to take action. People act on emotions.

They need to hear about other’s successes. They need to believe life can be better. Those stories of others make being better an attainable reality for them.

Sometimes your story may need to be about someone’s poor result by not following your recommendation. That can help a patient take action to avoid the same poor outcome.


6. Tell them future stories – Tell them the story of what the future holds for them.

Help them envision the significantly better life they could lead once your recommended treatment has resolved their healthcare issue.

On the contrary, also help them envision what their life could be like if they don’t follow your recommendation. Set in their minds the image of what life is like when their problem gets worse.

Patients often, on their own, can’t “see” either end of the potential spectrum. They can’t really realize how much better they could be, nor how much worse it could get. You need to help them by telling them stories about the future.

Paying attention to those issues will help establish a relationship with the patient. If you view it as a long-term relationship, they will feel like you care about them, that you truly want them to be a long-term patient, and that you value them.

When they develop this relationship with you, they are much more likely to perceive that you are on their side. They will be less skeptical of you, your diagnosis, and your treatment recommendations. They will like and trust you.

Therefore, they are much more likely to follow your recommendations, because they believe you want the best for them.

Here’s an example of how this works in a real-life doctor’s practice.


I was an Orthopaedic Surgeon specializing in hip and knee replacements.

When a patient came in the office, I could often tell rather quickly what was wrong with them. I could frequently tell just by watching them walk down the hall to the clinic room. In addition, for time’s sake, at the appointment time, the first thing we had them do in the exam room was to change into shorts and go down the hall to get x-rays. I often saw them walking into clinic or back from x-ray. So, by observing their gate and seeing their x-rays, I often knew what their problem was before I even entered the exam room. So, usually, making the diagnosis was easy.

But the diagnosis was only a small part of the decision-making process.

I needed to know a lot more about them. Yes, all their medical history, but way more than that.

I needed to know about their family, their living situation, the health of their spouse or significant other, the attentiveness, or lack thereof, of their extended family.

Did their house have stairs? Stairs to get in the house? Or just once inside the house? Could they function on one level and avoid the stairs?

Were they employed? How much time could they take off work?

What are their interests? What are their hobbies? What things have they had to give up because of their hip or knee issue? What were they missing out on in life because of their arthritic joint?

What was life like before their hip or knee got so bad? What lifestyle do they desire now?

How motivated are they to make the changes needed now and to do physical therapy post operatively if they need surgery?

You would think that, if a patient had an arthritic hip or knee that was causing them significant pain and was interfering with their life to the point of making them unhappy with life, it would be an easy decision to just get it replaced and move on with life.

Wouldn’t that be an easy decision?

NO!

Many patients had lots of other issues on their minds. They often had what they perceived as too many obstacles to have a joint replacement done.

Those other issues were what I had to learn from them. These were basically objections in their minds.

Back to our sales training comments, many salespeople go through training on answering objections.

Well, doctors have to answer objections too!

So, I had to pull that information out of them.

I had to know what their fears were. Some fears were reasonable. Others were not. But all had to be addressed.

Some had heard horror stories from others, so they were scared.

Some didn’t believe their spouse could or would help them postoperatively. Many didn’t want to be a burden on grown children who might need to help them temporarily after surgery.

Some had high deductible health insurance plans and couldn’t afford the deductible right then.

Some needed to improve their medical issues and refused to do so. For example, diabetics whose A1C was sky high but refused to do the work necessary to decrease it to the level needed to be a candidate for elective joint replacement.

So, such objections had to be discussed and solutions provided.

And many wanted surgery but were totally unprepared for it. My job, as well as my staff’s job, was to help them get ready. Get their mind ready. Get their family ready. Get their house ready. Get their medical issues ready. Get their employer ready. Etc.

But joint replacements are extremely successful. So, we had tons of happy patients!

Often, I would ask patients what things they had given up. Some with bad hips had given up riding motorcycles or horses because doing so hurt their bad hip too much. Some with bad knees had refused to go to Disneyworld with their grown kids and young grandkids because of all the walking required.

In those patients, I recommended in their postoperative goals that they work to resume those activities they had given up. And I requested that, once they were able to resume them, to please send me a picture of them engaged in that activity. Many did send their photos. To them, and to me, that was confirmation of full recovery.

I had photos of patients on horses, on motorcycles, at Disneyworld, at the top of a mountain they had climbed, playing pickleball, etc. I loved receiving them!

In selling the treatment for their arthritic joints, I often had to tell them the story of how much better their life would be. Many were unaware of how less active they had become. Their arthritis progressed so slowly, they had forgotten what life used to be.

My job was to tell them the future story and get them to picture themselves in their new life with their new hip or knee.

And sometimes I had to tell them the story and get them to picture how bad their life could be if they continued to refuse the treatment they needed.

That’s how emotions and logic enter into healthcare decisions as well as the doctor-patient relationship.

So, yes, doctors are in the business of helping heal or improve patients’ illnesses and diseases.

But, make no mistake, just like other businesses, doctors are also in the marketing and sales business.

So, spend some time learning sales psychology, sales techniques, as well as marketing.

They will actually help you be a better doctor!
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