In a now famous (to me) conversation with Chris Barrow back in 2010 in Jamie Olivers in Nottingham, he shouted at me "You think sales is an STD" just as the restaurant went quiet. That sparked my long-term study and love/hate relationship with 'ethical sales' a concept which I have become totally disgusted with.
For my money and my philosophy in the practice, we use a technique that I have 'coined' adaptive selling. While we understand through Prethics that it's essential that the practice makes a profit to continue to grow and invest, it's also essential that we are not seen to be used car or double glazing sales people who are always in for closing the deal. To that end we like to offer our patients (customers) the opportunity to accept or decline and push their treatment at their own pace depending upon requirements. I have been very guilty in the past of pushing patients away and not going as fast as they would like in relation to acceptance of their treatment. It's clear from our analysis of our consultations that some patients, after they've attended and paid their initial fee, want to get going as fast as possible and are very happy with a verbal explanation of treatment before diagnostics are undertaken. Another large amount of patients would like to take the information and disappear, cross reference it with other practices of information sites and only return after a considerable period has elapsed.
I have developed a technique in the practice of having an open discussion regarding this adaptive selling technique with patients and saying to them "We'd like you to progress your treatment at your own pace. I am happy to make you some provisional appointments for surgery at this stage but similarly I am happy for you to go away and we'll call you in a months time to see if you would like to proceed with any of the proposed treatment"
There is a skill to how you structure your consultations in relation to this but we have found that over time we have gained a great reputation for communication with patients and certainly the opposite of being overbearing, excessive sales people. It's one of the foundations for how we welcome new patients into the practice and how we continue to gain exceptional results through word of mouth marketing.
If you would like to know more about how we go about this then come and see us on the business course.
The Business of Business Course
This course is a year long business course with six two-day modules.
It is anticipated that Practice Principals will attend with their Practice Managers (although this is not exclusively the case).
The cost of the course includes a place for two people to attend with additional places available on separate modules for people with those skills within the practice.
The course includes access to an online discussion forum and four detailed online exercises to be carried out on a time limited basis. It also includes five working course dinners and a celebratory dinner, all at exceptional venues around Nottingham.
The cost of the (inclusive of VAT) is £12,000.
If you're interested please contact Tom Reason, The Campbell Academy Manager - 0115 9823919 | info@campbellacademy.co.uk
Blog Post Number: 1107
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