Are you a salesperson? Or perhaps the better question is – Do you need to be a good salesperson if you are going to have a successful practice? Perhaps you’d feel more comfortable answering in the affirmative if I use terms like marketing, or repositioning, or educating patients, instead of selling. Or, as someone said to me the other day, “I don’t sell my customers, I help them to make a decision.” This while he was trying to “help” me buy a boat.

However you want to sugarcoat it, the answer is -- Yes, if you are going to be successful you must be a good salesperson.

I call sales the “S” word because in many peoples minds it is a “dirty” word. It goes against the grain of many professionals to think that they have to stoop so low as to have to actually sell their services. Real professionals don’t do that, do they?

In reality, all professionals sell their services. Dentists sell. Attorneys sell. Orthodontists sell. Accountants sell. Medical Doctors sell. A good example of this is my friend Dr. Smith, who is a Cardiologist. (His name has been changed to save him lots of embarrassment.) I first met Dr. Smith when he called to hire me to manage the Chiropractic clinic that he had just purchased. I asked him why he decided to buy a Chiropractic clinic and his response was that his medical practice was way down due to managed care. He told me that in the ‘80’s he was able to market to family practitioners and generate all of the referrals that he required. (Did you catch that; he had to market to his fellow MD’s.) He would send out a newsletter, as well as gift and fruit baskets, to remind them that he was interested in their referrals. Recently, however, in the arena of managed care, the marketing wasn’t working anymore, so he decided to get into a business that he felt had more potential. Isn’t that interesting, a Medical Doctor buying a chiropractic practice because it has more potential. My point is that he never felt that it was bad or unprofessional to sell his services.

Another example that actually shocked me was a billboard that I drove by while visiting in Dallas, Texas. The billboard showed a patient lying on a hospital gurney covered by a slightly bloody sheet. Medical professionals surrounded the gurney. The caption read something to the effect of, “When You Need Help”, and then the name of the hospital. I’m not suggesting that the billboard was ethical, and it certainly was not tasteful. What I am pointing out is that we are not the only health care providers who feel the need to sell our services.

You see the problem is not really with selling; rather it is our negative perception of salespersons and their tactics. If you are a used car salesperson and are selling someone a car with an odometer that has been turned back, that is a problem. If you are a life insurance agent and are selling someone a universal life policy when a term life policy is what they need, that is a problem. If you are a gynecologist and are recommending an unnecessary hysterectomy, that is a problem. However, if you are a chiropractor who is recommending (selling) the appropriate amount of care to a patient, knowing that the care that you are recommending will benefit the patient, then you don’t have a problem. Convincing someone to do or buy something that they need is good! In fact if you didn’t recommend the care because you were afraid of being perceived as a salesperson, or perhaps because the patient’s insurance didn’t cover chiropractic, that would be unethical and immoral. It’s not bad to be a salesperson; it’s just bad to be a salesperson who sells something dishonestly.

Over the years I have had many Doctors tell me that if they had known before they went to school what it took to have a successful practice, they would have done something else. I’m not sure what other profession they could have chosen, but there is often that perception that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. In fact, unlike many other businesses, most of the selling that chiropractors are required to do is the easy kind. It generally involves convincing patients who have already selected your office that they either need to stay longer or refer others. It could be much worse. You could be in a profession that requires cold sales calls. Imagine what the telemarketer must feel like with a 99% rejection rate. Or how about the insurance agent who is required to make evening sales calls to potential customers.

Yes, we need to be salespersons. We need to sell people the chiropractic care that they need to improve their health and their quality of life. You cannot assume that everyone who walks into your office is going to have a perfect knowledge of chiropractic and, without any convincing on your part, do what is best for their health. Get over the idea that it is bad to sell. No one holds it against you except perhaps yourself. Instead learn to sell your product (health) effectively so that you can be of the greatest benefit to your patients and to yourself as your build your practice.