“Troy, do you have any good sales scripts for X?”
As a sales and communications coach for high-ticket elective surgery practices, I get this question on a semi-weekly basis. And while it makes sense, this inquiry fails to get at the heart of the issue.
You wanna book more consults and surgeries, right? And you may think the key to accomplishing this goal is having new scripts and better ways of saying things.
Well that’s certainly part of it, and we have those. But before we even get into what we SAY, it starts with what we OBSERVE.
I’m headed to the Outliers meeting in Nashville in 2 weeks (Mar 21-22) to give a Keynote on how our specific method of “Active Listening” has proven to be a cheat code for more booked surgeries.
This is an under-leveraged, often-overlooked tactical approach you can take to supercharge your conversions. It’s also something I’ve never shared publicly before. But we (Susan and I) will be opening the treasure chest and spilling all the gold doubloons on-stage in Nash-Vegas.
Today I wanted to give you 3 High Level concepts so you can start marinating on them prior to the meeting. (If you’re not going, this will still be beneficial to you)
Regardless of your specialty, my hope is these will serve you if you take these principles to heart and activate them in with your team.=
1. People will tell you what they need in order for them to book surgery.
How do you understand someone’s priorities, interests, personality style and what drives their decisions? The only way to know it is by listening.
If you’re creating enough space in the conversation, asking the right questions, and listening, people will tell you exactly what they need (and by extension, what you need to know) in order for them to buy.
You don’t have to guess. You don’t have to cover all your bases. You don’t have to blast a shotgun into the ether and hope you hit something.
Active Listening done properly gives you the sniper shot right through the heart of the roadblocks standing between your patient and an amazing surgical outcome with you.
If you know what to listen for, you can set your patient up for success (your success is a byproduct of this).
Your patients don’t need MORE info, they need the RIGHT info in the RIGHT sequence.
How do you know what the right info is? By listening.
2. We not only listen with our ears, but also our eyes.
Obviously we think about listening as something we do with our ears. But when we observe, we’re essentially “listening” with our eyes.
Their body posture, their facial expressions, their attire, their accessories.
Not only will they TELL you what they need to hear in order to buy, they’ll SHOW you whether they resonate with the storyline you’re laying out for them.
Patients will show you what their interests are. They’ll show you what stories they need to hear.
What logo is on their shirt? What does their hat say? What sticker is on their water bottle?
Something I’ve started saying more often:
“If someone’s wearing it on their body, they’re probably into it.”
Sports team logos, brand names, etc. Observe, ask about it, and listen to the valuable clues they are giving you.
3. When in doubt, listen vs. talk
This is super-tactical. When in doubt, fight your need to word-vomit.
It’s so easy to feel like we need to throw more and more information into the situation.
Instead, listen. Ask questions. Get more information for yourself.
“The person asking the questions is the one leading the convo.”
By asking and listening, it keeps you in the driver’s seat, and it often leads to the patient working things out on their own.
At the very least, it gives you more insight into their thought process, so you can meet them where they are and ask more questions and lead them where they want to go.
Remember, when a patient tells YOU something, they also tell it to themselves. Which is uber-influential.
OK, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. If you want a full outline of tactics, how to incorporate this with Personality Profiling to put Active Listening on Steroids, and how to deploy “Active Listening” among your entire team, get your Outliers ticket now if there are any left and let’s party (and LEARN) in Nashville.
Lmk if you’re going.
Enjoy your weekend,
T
PS – Outliers is not my conference, and I don’t get anything whether you choose to go or not. But I do believe it’s the best meeting you can attend if you want to grow your cash-pay procedures, you’re into new technology, and most importantly:
You understand the massive benefit of being “in the room” with like-minded surgeons, admins, marketers and practice owners who are all on their own versions of the same monumental practice growth mission.
I’ve had a few folks reach out and ask me if I thought they should attend. And in full transparency, it’s NOT a conference for everyone. (Hence the name)
So if you’re like “Man, I kinda think I wanna do this but I’m not sure.” Hit me back and ask. Happy to help you figure it out.