Selling the Essentials: Sales for Direct Care Physicians

Growing your business means gaining new patients — and that means, at some point, you're going to do sales.

Everybody sells

Admittedly, I used to have a negative view of salesmen. I'm not proud of it, but nobody ever did a great job showing me what a good, successful salesman looked like. I pictured someone who interrupted you, had an agenda, talked more than I cared to hear, and asked leading questions that seemed to manipulate or steer me toward buying their product.

Instead of looking around trying to sell your product to anyone who walks by, think of yourself as connecting the people you can truly help with the exact product they've been looking for. They just haven't known about it yet.

In reality, everybody is a salesman. That's why word-of-mouth "marketing" is the most effective — it's essentially sales!

Tips for "selling" your Direct Care product

Whether it's a Direct Primary Care membership, Direct Care surgery, specialty care, or something else, you have the chance to educate people about your services. Here are some quick tips as you talk to people about what you offer.

Ask questions to learn about them first

Most of us have a hard time stopping once we get started — especially when we're talking about something we're passionate about.

The trick is this: we listen more when we know someone is talking about our interests. And nothing grabs us like someone answering a problem we actually have. So ask people about their problems. Then you'll know what they actually want to talk about!

Before you launch into a long explanation of how your business works, see if you can find out what might interest them about it in the first place.

Resist the urge to explain everything

You've known about your business for a while — likely spending more than a year planning, reading, and thinking about how it works.

This is likely their first time hearing about it, and it's a lot to take in! Stick with the basics, and try to emphasize how your business answers some of the problems they've experienced before (see the previous point). It's okay to mention one or two more benefits of your membership, but stay aware of how much you're talking versus how much they are.

Then you have the opportunity to ask the hard question.

Be a bridge builder

If it's appropriate, ask what their barriers are to joining. A side conversation at a dinner party may not be the place, but if you're in a setting where you're explicitly talking about your services, ask.

Most people will have questions or concerns. Some are easy — they might not be barriers at all, just questions.

Others will have legitimate barriers. While some might seem like small issues to you, they can be very important and very large to them. Whatever you do, do not minimize their barriers! Affirm them — recognize that some things really are hard, and offer your solution to their problem.

Sometimes you won't have a direct solution to their barrier, and that's okay. Be honest. If you know of others who had the same issue and ended up solving it themselves — or committing in spite of it — share those stories. Maybe it's something you need to look into and get back to them on. That could turn into a win for everyone, too.

Just don't lie to them! Part of building trust is being honest, only speaking about things you know, and admitting when you're not sure.

Health care is serious — treat it as such

You may receive advice from other salespeople — maybe they sell parts, or timeshares, or even insurance — but many of them don't grasp the gravity of a person or family's health care decision. We've all heard the stories: families bankrupted, a catastrophe striking and a GoFundMe getting started because insurance won't cover something. Health care is a big deal.

Here's the one advantage you have: you're a physician. You're the one actually providing care, and the more you know about how the system works, the more you can build trust with patients.

Individuals and families are easy; businesses are hard

As important as health care is to individuals and families, they're much faster to sign up than businesses.

Part of it is that individuals and families are looking for a solution now, and they're making the decision based only on their own family's needs.

Businesses move much more slowly, and the larger they get, the slower they move. There are several reasons, but just know that the fastest businesses take about six months, and the slowest can take three to five years!

Be yourself

The greatest thing about the Direct Care model is that there's no middleman telling people where they can and can't get care. People get to choose who they think will best meet their needs — and as long as you're yourself, you're going to attract the people who believe you're the one to care for them best.

It won't be everybody, but that's okay. You can't take care of everybody!