Healthcare consultation skills: Triggering your prospects latent desires
The information confirmation is the vital summary that the health care sales person must deliver after the discovery, so it is a very important healthcare consultation skill.
In addition to dramatically aiding in building trust with the prospect, the information confirmation can also crystallise the prospect’s thoughts.
We have to focus the prospect’s attention on the notion that he has a problem, so that we can offer the solution.
Remember some of the key questions that we ask during the discovery to uncover a problem? We discussed these earlier, questions like: “So, tell me about the issue that brings you here – what’s the problem and why are you here?”
Sometimes the prospect isn’t readily aware that she has an third-level problem, so we have to suggest one to bring a latent problem to the surface during the healthcare consultation.
Advertisers do this all the time, for example: have you ever found yourself driving down the road, perfectly content, until the moment you see the picture of a double-cheeseburger and chips on a billboard you just passed. All of a sudden, you realise that you haven’t had anything to eat for hours, and start feeling the hunger in your stomach. Like Pavlov’s dog, you may even notice that you begin to salivate a little, because you’ve been conditioned to respond to visual stimuli that foreshadows a savoury meal.
It is best to stir up a latent problem by asking questions, letting the prospect discover that he has one. For instance we might say to a prospect who has shared that they scuba dive with us:
“Do you see your lifestyle changing in the next few years?”
They might reply, “Well, yeah, we might retire in the next couple of years.”
To which I’d say,
“Oh, does that mean you’ll be scuba diving more or less?”
“Well, more.” He’d say.
“Oh, so you’ll have the surgery then I suppose”, I’d say, followed by: “tell me, are you putting away funds for it now?”
“Well no, and we’ll be on a fixed income…”
There! Now we’ve got a problem. This prospect better start budgeting for this surgery now, because they will likely not have the extra cash to fund it in a few years when they retire.
Finding a problem in the discovery and repeating it back in the confirmation, helps the prospect focus on that solving the problem.
In addition to evoking trust and crystallising the prospect’s thoughts, we can use the information confirmation to verify the prospect’s first, second, and third-level buying motives
All too often, we may conduct a discovery and think we’ve gathered the correct information during the healthcare consultation, but we’ve perhaps missed some valuable data, or we’ve misinterpreted the data.
Often, we may have heard what our prospects said but it isn’t really what they mean. Again by verifying the information, we can confirm it.
By verifying, we’re clarifying, and only by having the correct information can we sell effectively.
To gain agreement from the prospect that he does indeed have a problem so that we are, in a sense, given permission to solve it
Once the prospect admits he has a third-level problem, in effect he’s giving us permission to solve it.
Also, through our listening and being willing to repeat a prospect’s objections, often the objections will go away.
Often, a prospect will voice any concern they may have with purchasing, our willingness to really listen without judging it or defending our position often makes the prospects concerns go away.
I wouldn’t hesitate to repeat a prospect’s objections in the confirmation statement. In the next few posts, we’ll be examining some sample information confirmation statements to help you deliver them more consistently.