How to sell services to doctors
Selling to Doctors
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hello this is Miss Hart I want to
welcome you to the medical sales guru
podcast and the medical sales channel
here on YouTube today I want to talk to
you about something that you might or
might not do and that is selling to
doctors now keep in mind if you don't
sell the doctors or dentists or anybody
who's got the big fancy title don't
worry but I'm going to talk to you about
applies if you sell to health care
professionals of any kind but most of
you sell to doctors so that's what I
want to talk about so what makes it so
difficult to sell to doctors first of
all is it difficult to sell the doctors
well not all the time not if you know
what you're doing in fact when you know
what you're doing and you understand
doctors and how they think it can
actually become very easy to sell to
them but I want to talk about them a
little bit and what really creates some
of the challenges for a lot of medical
sales representatives like you let's
talk about the first thing the doctors
are smart now you might be thinking well
yeah they are but I'm pretty smart too
well I know but they are really smart
that's how they got into medical school
or dental school or health professional
school whatever it is by paying
attention to the details that allowed
them to get the grades they need to work
their way through so there's smart
people it's difficult to pull the wool
over their eyes plus keep in mind they
didn't just go to medical school they've
spent time and internship and residency
and fellowship and if they've been
practicing in the community for a while
they have seen a lot as well so they're
smart people which means you have to
approach them like they're smart people
you have to understand their level of
training and experience and show some
respect for that it also means you have
to be smart smart people don't like
talking to sales representatives who
don't seem to know what their talk
that this is why it's so important to
maintain currency not only in your
product knowledge but also what it takes
to present your products and services to
health care professionals the next point
about doctors is that they're experts I
mean they are really really experts so
it doesn't fit very well with them if
you walk into their office or the clinic
and you try to tell them what they
should do you know I've seen so many
sales reps go oh you know doctor that's
all fine and good but you really should
use this product you're uh you know
you're leaving a lot of money on the
table or your patients aren't getting
good results doctors really like being
told by a sales rep that cannot get a
good result so make sure you do that not
don't do that I'm kidding they're the
experts treat them like the experts in
their world this means that you have to
defer to their expertise because even if
you know more than them and in some
areas hopefully you do hopefully you
know your products more than they know
your products but chances are you don't
know as much about their specialty
like they do because they're the experts
they spent 12 13 years of their lives
studying it now here's another thing
think about this who has the power in
the sale in other words who has the
power to buy to say yes to use your
product to prescribe your drug it is
them they have the power therefore you
want to make sure that you again
show that you respect that and try to
present things in a way that they feel
like they could objectively make a good
decision for themselves their practice
and their patience now one other thing
about doctors and being experts is they
can be a little intimidating in fact
they tend to have big egos right I mean
big egos you know this this isn't
anything new doctors egos especially
surgeons if you've ever worked with
surgeons or spoken to surgeons some of
their egos can be legendary
monstrous so here's the question
good thing or bad thing well I don't
know it depends but I'll tell you one
thing if you're a surgeon you better
have a healthy ego to be able to support
taking someone into the operating room
and using a scalpel on them or a drill
or whatever you use they have to have a
healthy ego so because of this ego and
because of all this knowledge and
expertise that they have they can be
very intimidating to sales reps but
usually only under one common set of
circumstances and that's when the rep
doesn't know what he or she is talking
about if you're prepared if you
constantly study if you know your
product if you've been reading the
journals watching the videos if you
understand what the pressing issues are
in health care especially for that
specialty for that customer then you're
going to be able to speak intelligently
and you won't be so intimidated again
you want to defer to their expertise but
you don't want to be intimidating
because sometimes you got to get out of
your comfort zone you do have to push
them a little
because left to their own devices
doctors will keep doing what they're
doing they like the status quo whatever
they're using they want to keep using it
so you can't tell them their product is
great you can't tell them you have to
use this product what you have to do is
you have to disrupt their thinking about
the status quo and to do that you can't
be intimidated a big part of selling to
doctors is not doing sales presentations
it's having sales conversations again
when you're with a customer it should be
a conversation and seldom does that
happen I'm telling you from going on
hundreds of ride-alongs and working with
thousands of salespeople when I put
people in an intense roleplay situation
like I do in my workshops people
broadcast that their customers it's not
a conversation it's a speech it's a
presentation kind of like what I'm doing
here but I hope you're responding back
to me at least in your mind this
wouldn't be a good sales presentation
because you're not talking back your
customers have to talk back so how do
you get them to talk back understand
what it takes to create a conversation
ask questions talk about things that
interest them and guess what they'll do
they'll participate they will absolutely
participate and that is so cool
one other thing when they do participate
especially if they throw an objection at
you or something don't ignore what
they're saying at least acknowledge it
whether it's good or bad whether it
supports the use of your product or goes
against the use of your product
acknowledge their thoughts and their
feelings but don't be intimidated most
of all when it comes to selling to
doctors if they are the decision-maker
for your product what you need to do is
just get in front of them have a plan
and sell to them by having a relevant
sales conversation about something that
they want to talk about Wow that's kind
of like crazy talking about something
they want to talk about oh by the way
that's not your product I promise you
it's not your product probably 98% of
the time when they start talking to you
if you approach them the right way you
have the right conversation then you
will have
opportunities to position your product
and position your product were perfectly
but this requires that you really give
it some thought before you go in there
have an alternative plan what if your
approach doesn't work what if what you
think is important to them isn't
important to them you have to have some
place to pivot and if that doesn't work
then you have to have someplace else to
pivot this requires a plan so if you're
going into your customers and winging it
like so many reps do somebody who's
prepared it's gonna take your business
that's not a good thought is it have I
motivated you to prepare a little bit I
hope so because if you do good things
will happen so I want to thank you for
being here today
because your being here shows that you
take your career seriously you want to
be a medical sales professional not just
a medical sales rep not just someone who
pushes products at people you want to be
a professional and of course you want to
earn a professional level income that is
good it says something about you and as
I leave you let me remind you the most
important reason why you do what you do
yeah I know they part reasons because
you want to make a good living and you
you need a job in all that that might be
what's most important to you but in the
big picture the real reason you do what
you do it's about the patient and in
your job the patient always comes first
remember that because when you remember
that that'll also help good things to
happen for the medical sales channel and
the medical sales podcast
I am Mace Hara I'll talk to you again
soon
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