What Good Doctors Can Teach You About Sales

A couple of days in hospital makes you very aware of who is looking after you.

As I lay on my hospital bed during a brief stint last week, I was reminded of an excerpt from Malcolm Gladwell’s 2005 work, Blink, in which he poses the question: “Why are some Doctors more likely to get sued than are others?”

Gladwell, author of other well known social commentaries such as the Tipping Point and Outliers, thinks he has the answer.

He cites research by Professor Wendy Levinson, of the University of Toronto, that recorded hundreds of conversations between a group of physicians and their patients.

In one corner, were surgeons with a black mark against their names; these were people who had been sued at least two times.

In the other, were those with a clean slate. For one reason or another, none of their patients had decided to take them to court.

Significantly, Levinson found no difference in the quality, and quantity, of the information that the two groups of doctors delivered to their respective patients. In other words, both groups were essentially delivering the same message.

Where the second group showed themselves to be different however, lay in the way they talked to the patients. In short, group number two gave the impression they CARED…which seems to have been a determining factor when patients decided whether they would sue, or not.

So how did the Doctors with the unblemished record do this?

Three ways…

Firstly, they consulted with their patients for an extra three minutes (on average).

Secondly, they were more likely to use orientating comments designed to give patients a certain amount of control over the diagnostic process. For example, a Doctor might tell a patient up front: “First I’ll examine you, and then we will talk the problem over”. Or he or she might seek permission from the patient to tell him more: “Go on, tell me more about that”.

Finally, they were far more likely to inject humor during a visit.

On their own, these differences might not seem like much. Collectively however, the extra time, the delicate “framing” of procedures, and the capacity to generate a smile, obviously went a long way toward creating the impression, that these Doctors CARED…

When you think about it, the traits that these doctors exhibited toward their patients, are not dissimilar to what is required in effective selling.

Just like patients, consumers often need their problems diagnosed. And just like patients, it’s likely that they too, may be wary, of giving too much away to the wrong person.

Finally, consumers, like patients, probably want to do business with someone they like.

Which makes Levinson’s research about the doctors who don’t get sued…

Very INTERESTING…

The next time you interact with a customer, try to:

1. Allocate more time

2. Give more assurance when “diagnosing the problem” and to

3. Have more fun …

Then sit back…

And see if your sales don’t improve.