How to use SMART CONVERSATIONS with Patients to Trigger Sales

Initiating conversations with your existing patients that lead to sales. That’s what you want. But you can’t stop at simply initiating, you’ve got to carry them far enough to end in an appointment for a Consultation.

So you’re ready to start initiating! You have props in and around your office and your entire team is wearing buttons – all promoting your body contouring treatments and inviting comments. You want patients to take notice, show interest and ask about your new offerings but when you’re first starting, those first conversations can be a bit (or a lot) scary.

Today, we’re going to guide you through these conversations. We’ll give you directives on how (and how not) to communicate, examples of what and what not to say and ways to keep the conversations going.

So let’s get started.

First, understand that patients have different expectations of Team Members and Providers. Because of these expectations, your Team Members should be much more promotional, warm, excited and enthusiastic than you as a Physician, NP or PA.

So how do your Team Members show warmth, excitement and enthusiasm about your body contouring treatments? It starts with something as simple as a smile. A smile (or absence of a smile) is a form of non-verbal communication. Have you heard the adage that communication is only 7% verbal and 93% non-verbal? We’re not sure if it’s that extreme, but non-verbal cues, such as smiling, are huge in human interactions, and especially in the sales process.

Your Team Members must have enough basic knowledge about your body contouring services that they can speak about them with ease. Each one of them may not have enough working knowledge to take the conversation all the way so we recommend that you select at least one Team Member as your Designated Body Contouring Team Member. The rest of your team can refer to that designated person after the initial conversation with the patient. More than one Designated Body Contouring Team Member is better, but do what you can.

Communication Basics for all Team Members
Sincerely smile
Take notice when patients are looking at props and initiate the conversation if the patient doesn’t
Be excited, enthusiastic about the treatments
Share with the patient their own experience with the treatments (if they’ve had the treatment)
Use open-ended questions
Keep conversation going with more talk – even if the patient seems to have faded away
Do not allow conversations to end on a bad note; always reply with something positive
End the conversation with something like, “Great! I’m going ask Yvonne to speak with you briefly. She is an expert at these treatments.”
If the patient declines to speak to Yvonne, the Team Member should say something like, “Okay, I’ll tell her about your questions. She may email you some information or give you a call. How does that sound?”
What if the patient declines to speak to Yvonne with a comment like, “Oh, don’t worry. I don’t want to bother her.” Your Team Member should reply with “Oh, it’s no bother at all! Yvonne loves to talk about body contouring.”

The Team Member’s goal is to get the patient with Yvonne while the patient is at the office. That enables Yvonne to schedule a Consultation, which should ultimately lead to a sale.

In the alternative, if your Team Member is unable to get the patient with Yvonne, the patient will have notice that Yvonne will be emailing and/or calling the patient to provide more information and hopefully get them back in for a Consultation.

*The key is to get that conversation started and a Consultation scheduled while the patient is in the office and while the patient is ‘hot,’ meaning while those emotional buttons have been pushed. Remember, buying is an emotional decision justified by logic.

Let’s move on to Providers.

The Provider is seen by the patient as the ultimate authority for the reason the patient is at the office. Failure on the part of the Provider to convey to the patient their interest in and attention to the patient’s chief complaint can result in disastrous results – up to and including, losing the patient entirely.
As we stated, with rare exceptions, Providers should not initiate conversations with patients about body contouring treatments. These are some basics for Providers.

Communication Basics for Providers (Physicians, NP’s, PA’s)
Patients expect their providers to be attentive to their medical needs when they are in the office for a medical reason.
Even though it may be acceptable for your Team Members to ask, “Did you hear about our new treatment that blasts fat?!,” the provider should never do so.
The Provider should never initiate the conversation about the body contouring treatment with the patient.
The Provider should be well versed in the treatments and have the ability to field any questions from the patients.
Though it’s personality-based, most Providers are more comfortable discussing the treatments from the standpoint of safety and efficacy, more clinical and research oriented.
The Provider should be willing to share that he/she had the treatments done himself/herself with the patient.
Even if the patient asks about the body contouring treatments, the Provider should tell the patient that he/she will take care of the reason they are there, then discuss the body contouring afterwards.
The Provider should discuss how members of his team had the treatment and that they are very happy they did.

Your Action Steps for this Episode:
Block time out for your Body Contouring Team Member(s) to create sample scripts for the rest of your team. Then block out time for your Team Members to role-play with the scripts. The more practice your team gets, the more comfortable and effective they’ll be in guiding the patient down the path to a Consultation and ultimately, to a sale.
Set goals. Put their practice to work. Set a daily goal or a weekly goal of Consultations scheduled from patients in your office. Make it fun and give incentives. Have a Contest with a Reward going to the Team Member with the most patients scheduled for a Consultation.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned in for next week.

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Bye for now from Kay and Shannon at the Body Contouring Academy’s Proven Profits Podcast.