The critical skill that ensures your message resonates is communication.
The best salespeople are amazing communicators, and it’s effective chiropractic communication that inspires the patient to collaborate with you on a solution to their health issues. When you work together to improve a patient’s health, that’s a successful sale, as real as the sale of a car, house or anything they dream of possessing.
Chiropractic communication starts with scripts
Almost all salespeople work from scripts, especially when they get to know a new product or service. Envision an ideal patient encounter and write out what you and your staff should say and do to make it happen. A good script builds rapport, communicates necessary information, details your treatment plan and its benefits and gets the patient excited about the outcome.
You can draft scripts yourself and ask for feedback from your staff or call a big meeting and take a true team approach to brainstorming and writing them, but get your staff’s input. Once complete, take the time to rehearse with them and answer any questions they have.
Start with the most basic interaction: Introducing yourself.
“Hi! My name is….”
Identify yourself early in every appointment, and insist your staff do it, too. Otherwise, the first person who comes in and takes the patient’s blood pressure may be mistaken for the doctor, setting the stage for confusion. Introduce yourself and explain to the patient what you’re going to do for them to set a tone that eliminates fear and inspires confidence and trust: This is who I am. This is how I can help you. This also primes them to say yes to what you’re selling.
“I’m listening.”
Next, ask about what brought the patient to see you and actively listen. Lead with open-ended questions, not yes-or-no questions, to get things moving and help them with communication. Take notes. Listen for clues to each patient’s needs and wants. (They’re not always the same thing.) You’re going to draw these into your sales pitch.
“Here’s why this treatment will benefit you.”
In sales, products have features, what the product does and how, and benefits, the why, the things the product makes possible. People tend to be good at talking about the what and how but not the why. You can talk all day about what happens to vertebrae during an adjustment (a feature of treatment), but that has to translate into something meaningful to the patient (such as less pain, a benefit of treatment).
So, don’t just tell the patient, “we’re going to adjust you.” Explain your treatment in detail; cite research (avoiding medical jargon), talk about successes you have had and include numbers if you can. Being specific and concrete gives your explanation more impact. Then communicate the value of it, the why, incorporating some of those needs and wants they expressed. What will the patient be able to do afterward that they couldn’t before? Help them visualize the outcome: “When we get you out of the pain you’re suffering in your low back, it’ll be easier to be productive at work. You’ll be able to get on the floor to play with your kids. You won’t be so tired all the time….”
“I need to hear from you.”
When you present your treatment plan, explain the value of check-in or reassessment appointments, and put the responsibility on the patient to communicate openly with you in the interim. I say something like, “You need to let me know what’s working and what’s not working because then we can change the game plan. Maybe we change the therapy. Maybe we change the frequency. Maybe it isn’t working at all and we need to go back to step one. But we never give up.”
Then make recommendations for home therapy and products they can purchase, such as nutraceuticals, to help their treatment stay on track, along with an explanation of how exactly to use them.
“Do you have questions for me?”
Build a few minutes for questions into your time with each patient. This doesn’t have to wait until the end; you could ask if they have questions as you switch topics during your explanation of the treatment. While answering patients’ questions is just good customer service, it often identifies potential obstacles to treatment. When this happens, salespeople are trained to meet the need, then overcome the objection. Be prepared for questions, especially about cost, and deal with those directly.
Then, employ another sales technique: Ask for the sale, something most people overlook if they’re not trained to do it. It works exactly like it sounds: Ask the customer (patient) to buy the product (your treatment). Do you want to go ahead and get that test ordered today? May I send you home with that supplement? If they hesitate, figure out their objection, then fix it.
For example, if they can’t afford all the lab tests you want, suggest starting with the most important one. If time is a concern, explain you can adjust the frequency of appointments to accommodate their busy work schedule. If they have concerns about the length of their treatment phase, give them alternate versions of the treatment plan on different timelines. Never only offer one plan, because if the patient doesn’t bite on it now, you’ve lost them. Remind them, too, that the treatment phase ends and they’ll come in less often during the maintenance phase.
Direct objections back to the patient; when they say they can’t do something, ask what they can do and let them answer. Then suggest an alternative plan that fits. Getting them to commit to something is better than having them leave committed to nothing.
Chiropractic communication tip: Keep on scripting
In addition to a basic appointment script, create scripts for other situations, such as answering the phone, new-patient onboarding or product sales. Keep electronic or hard copies handy so staff can review and improve chiropractic communication as needed.
Final thoughts
As a DC, you engage in selling every time you see a patient. You must develop your chiropractic communication skills to the point where you’re not being pitchy or pushy, just utilizing tried-and-true sales tools to get the patient’s buy-in on a plan to restore their health. By effectively communicating throughout their health journey, you can build trust and ensure patient compliance. That buy-in is critical to your patient’s well-being and your practice’s success.
CINDY M. HOWARD, DC, DABCI, DACBN, FIAMA, FICC, is a board-certified chiropractic internist and nutritionist in private practice and the owner of Innovative Health and Wellness Center in Orland Park, Illinois, where she focuses on individualized care. She is the author of Positively Altered: Finding Happiness at the Bottom of a Chemo Bag and writes for Stopain Clinical. Learn more and contact her at DrCindySpeaks.com.
