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Are Your Customers Sick?

Guest post by: Brian Sullivan

Article Overview: Why Early Diagnosis is Key to Saving Your Sales Life

Are Your Customers Sick?

Your patient (customer) calls and says they need to have a little check-up (business review) with you. After doing your homework and reviewing your charts, you realize you haven’t seen this patient in a while and hope that everything is fine. They haven’t expressed any pains lately so you are sure they just have a few questions. The patient walks in, looks sick as hell, tells you they have felt this way for a while and wanted to tell you that you are fired, and that they have changed providers because you didn’t seem to care enough about their health and well-being. You exclaim, “I had no idea. I thought everything was great. How was I to know? Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I could have corrected your problems…IF I HAD ONLY KNOWN.”

Well guess what, Doctor? The patient shouldn’t have to have an arm growing out of their neck before you realize there is a problem. It is your job to see the signs of a sick patient long before they realize they feel like garbage.

Whether you believe in Obamacare or Nobamacare, one thing is clear. Preventative healthcare is good for patients and many believe good for the system. Because by diagnosing problems before they grow serious, we are able to save lives, as well as the often increased costs that comes with more expensive treatment. In short, find the problem early; fix it, and everybody wins. This same formula applies to your business.

Here is a little fact about your industry. Many medical companies lose as many as 30% of their customers each year. And the reason so many of these accounts are “dying” is because the companies that are selling to them are not practicing “preventative” healthcare.

To effectively diagnose and treat customers so they remain healthy accounts:

• Ask your most important customers these three questions at least once a quarter.

• What am I doing I should keep doing?
  
  What am I doing I should stop doing?
  
  What should I begin doing to better serve you?

Can you imagine how surprised you would be if your family doctor proactively called each quarter to see how you were feeling and to offer tips to keep you healthy?

• Research the latest treatments and stay up on industry trends. Physicians need to get CME credits each year so they are aware of better ways to serve their patients. Salespeople, on the other hand, have no such requirements. Keeping our knowledge and skill at peak levels is often up to us. So why is it then that countless salespeople in our industry only hone their skills when their company provides it to them. Let’s get something straight. The best of the best in this business look at their company’s investment in education only as BONUS learning. But when nobody is looking, they are studying the clinical benefits of that new manufacturer product, seeking out a networking partner to share ideas, and attending that sales seminar that they paid for with THEIR OWN MONEY. Because they understand that this knowledge will keep their accounts HEALTHY.

• Prepare and review financial health objectives regularly. How healthy do you want each account to be? Is it enough that they are alive or do you want them living a vibrant financial life thereby raining Purchase Orders down upon you regularly. If you haven’t done so yet this year, break down at least your top 20 accounts and set financial health objectives for each. Pick a specific sales number and regularly review that list. In other words, schedule a specific time each week in your office where, like a physician, you review the charts. You will find yourself making subtle adjustments that will help you diagnose any problems much earlier.

• Admit when you blow it- Recently, as my 10-year-old son lay in a hospital bed with a severe case of bacteria hepatitis (aka. Wacked out liver), a nurse rolled in to give him his meds. One of them was Tylenol. Well, I am no physician, but I have read enough Tylenol labels to tell you that those little pills are processed in the liver and should NOT be taken when you have liver problems (or if you have more than 3 drinks a day!). I then realized that they had already given this to him several times already. After questioning why they wouldn’t choose a different pain reliever that doesn’t affect the liver they looked at me as if this was the first time they ever heard this, then made the change. When I questioned the physicians later they were bumbling over each other trying to justify why they did it rather than just saying they probably shouldn’t have. In short, they lost credibility not so much from their actions but rather by their response to their error. In business, when you blow it (and you will), admit it quickly, and then make the fix.

So this month, give your sales territory a check-up by using the skills discussed above. Because for every current account you keep happy, there is one less account you need to cold call. And the dollars that you can pull from existing relationships are often much higher than that of newer customers. (This is not a hall pass to not cold call by the way). By practicing the art of early diagnosis in 2010, you will keep a ton of accounts healthy. And I won’t judge you if that same behavior makes your competition sick! See you at the Top!

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Article Tags: insurance sales training, medical sales training, pitchmen, sales presentation, sales process, sales training



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