As a sales and communications coach, I mentally bookmark sales experiences that were impactful to me.
Here’s one I’ve never shared (not sure why), but think of a few times a year.
My alma mater, Texas Christian University, has an athletic apparel contract with Nike. Nike does all their uniforms for all their sports, and as such, they create awesome TCU products for retail purchase.
One of these items is their annual TCU Custom Nike Pegasus running shoe. Every year, they release a new TCU-customized version of their popular running shoe model, which I often buy.
A few years ago, weeks before Christmas, I was with the family at a Dick’s Sporting Goods store. They had one of the TCU Nike shoes on display, and I was eyeing them. I wasn’t in a buying mood that day, having spent a gazillion dollars on kids gifts already.
But the salesperson came up to me, and this was the exchange we had:
HIM: “You like those Horned Frog shoes, eh?”
ME: “Yeah, they’re pretty rad.”
HIM: “What size are you looking for?”
ME: “I’m a 12.” HIM: “Oooh, man I might be sold out of those. Let me go take a look…”
ME: Experiencing brief anxiety over the idea of losing something I didn’t even actually want to buy in the first place
HIM (After a few minutes): “Yo, I found a pair back there.”
ME: “Awesome, thanks.” Proceeds to purchase without a second thought
Why does this sales experience stick out to me so much?
- I wasn’t even looking to buy, but he got me into a buying conversation by assuming I was and asking me my size.
- I don’t know if he truly thought they were sold out of size 12s, or if that was a tactic. Either way, it was good. Because I immediately became concerned they may NOT have my size available.
- By talking about possibly being sold out, it gave me the perception that these shoes might be hard to get in general, so I should snag them.
- The tension that was built was naturally relieved when he came back with my shoes in hand. It was like a mini story that I was a part of.
- Feeling like the mission might fail (they wouldn’t have my size), and realizing that he made the mission succeed, led me to feel a slight sense of reciprocation. “He did his part, so I have to do mine and buy the shoes.”
What’s your takeaway from this, and how do you apply it to your practice? Well, as often as we like to “Make things happen” for people, the selective use of “I don’t know, let me see what I can do” is quite impactful. Even if you know you can make it happen.
There’s a concept of “effort” that correlates with quality of service. If this guy had just responded, “Cool, I’ll go get them,” that feels more like order-taking (low-status). But the fact that he had to go look and see if they had any, that felt more like “I’m gonna try to make this happen for you” (high-status).
How can you apply this? You can do it with scheduling patients on certain days / times. Same-day post-ops. Adding patients to surgery days.
Anything that would add convenience to the patient, you can go with a “Oh, I have an idea but let me see if I can make it happen.” Even if you’re pretty sure you CAN, make sure they know you’re having to go to some kind of effort to do it.
This is one of the many persuasive techniques we teach in our E3 Conversion System Bootcamp. As you can see, it’s designed to be influential without being pushy or aggressive.
So if you want to book more surgeries in 2025, and you want to do it without coming off the least bit salesy, this may be the program for you.
Learn more here and snag a discovery call to see if the bootcamp is a good fit for your team.
– Troy “Pumped Up Kicks” Cole