How to Sell to Doctors Module 1

Hello and welcome to this “How to Sell to Physicians” course.
I’m your coach Dr. Vicki Rackner. I’m a physician who’s spent the past decade helping
thousands of people manage their relationships with doctors so they get what they
want.
This course is about helping you get what you want--to make
more sales to more physicians.
In many ways building relationships with physician clients is
like dating. You decide who you want to meet, you make yourself attractive to that
person then you create a strategy about how and when to meet them.
Think of me as your physician matchmaker. Here you’ll
identify the best-fit physician niche, and craft your marketing message so doctors listen.
You’ll learn how to get around the gatekeepers, because I’ll show you the back doors.
You’ll learn the small changes that get big results. Even something like mastering the
“mental handshake” -- demonstrating to doctors you’re not armed with a sales pitch--
helps build rapid rapport and shortens the sales cycle.
I’m here to help you take the fastest and most direct course to
the business results you want--more physician clients and more sales.
In this session you’ll:

<ul style="text-align: left;">
! <li>Get an overview of the world of medicine</li>
! <li>Understand what makes physicians tick</li>
! <li>Begin to consider your best-fit physician niches</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">Physician Career Stages</h2>
Let’s begin at the beginning. What are the steps to becoming
a physician?
Most of my medical school classmates came from doctor
families. They knew from early on they wanted to go into medicine and follow in the
footsteps of their fathers--and sometimes mothers. While I had relatives who were
doctors, I was on a different career path. At age 24, when I was a graduate student, I
had a life-threatening surgical crisis. I woke from my emergency operation just knowing
I would become a doctor and save the lives of others like my own had been saved. And
not surprisingly I became a surgeon.
The vast majority of medical students go directly from college
graduation in June to to medical school July 1 and graduate four years later at age 25.
Then they enter a 3 to 5 year residency training. My own general surgery residency was
a five year program. If I wanted to be a heart surgeon I would tack on another 3 years of
fellowship training. On average doctors begin their first real jobs in their mid-thirties
carrying about $100K in medical school debt.
Here are the qualities medical schools seek out in
applicants:

<ul>
! <li>Intelligence</li>

! <li>Pursuit of excellence</li>
! <li>Willingness to defer gratification</li>
! <li>Single-minded focus</li>
! <li>Leadership skills</li>
! <li>Self-confidence</li>
! <li>Integrity.</li>
</ul>
Physicians must be temperamentally inclined to:

<ul>
! <li>Focus attention on what’s most important</li>
! <li>Ignore distractions.</li>
! <li>Work long hours</li>
! <li>Be with people in pain</li>
! <li>Make life-altering decisions</li>
! <li>Put their patients first.</li>
</ul>
Ironically, the same factors that you would value in your own
personal physician become barriers when the same person is your prospect.
As you work with doctors you’ll discover that most are driven
by a sense of purpose, and that purpose is to serve. They’re primarily driven by their
desire to:

<ul>
! <li>Alleviate pain and suffering</li>
! <li>Help others</li>
! <li>Establish their legacy.</li>
</ul>
To choose language that resonates with doctors, replace
“sales” with “service” and “profit” with “results.” The words “You can expect a 6-fold
ROI.” are not as compelling to doctors as, “You can reach more patients.” or “You can
improve your family’s security.”

<h2 style="text-align: left;">The Culture of Medicine</h2>
This is a very scary time for doctors. Physicians carefully
follow Medicare legislation; they know if Medicare drops their rates by 20% private
insurance companies will follow suit. One friend said, “How many business people have
their salaries set by congress?
They feel the economic challenges. Most physician are doing
just fine. What you might not know is that others are struggling.
Then there are the uncertainties about health care reform. We
know that the shift to electronic medical records will happen. There will be costly
regulation. Physicians’ top worries in many surveys include:

<ul>
! <li>Decreasing reimbursements</li>

! <li>Rising expenses</li>
! <li>Costly regulatory changes.</li>
</ul>
If you sit down and really talk to doctors you’ll discover
additional concerns that keep them up at night:

<ul>
! <li>Fear of being sued</li>
! <li>Loss of autonomy</li>
! <li>Unhappy, grumpy patients</li>
! <li>Referrals that come too late or not at all.</li>
! <li>Staffing conflicts</li>
! <li>Burn-out</li>
! <li>Work-life balance</li>
! <li>Patient complications/ deaths.</li>
</ul>
Many physicians feel alone, unappreciated and even
betrayed. What happened to the dream that drew them to a career in medicine? How do
I get here?
Every one of these concerns is a business opportunity for
you. Doctors want solutions to these problems. They can afford to pay consultants who
can help..

<h2 style="text-align: left;">Finding Your Niche</h2>
They say the riches are in the niches. Successful businesses
identify good-fit physician clients. Your niche shapes your marketing approach and your
value proposition. To help you identify your niche, let me give you ways to slice the
physician pie.
Practice Setting: How they Generate Revenue
Physicians generate revenue in one of three ways:

<ul>
! <li>Self-employed in a private practice or small groups,</li>
! <li>Employed at a hospital or clinic or business</li>
! <li>Tenured at an academic facility.</li></ul>
Within each general area there are sub-niches: doctors
employed in the VA hospital system or HMO’s like Group Health or physician benefits
managers in large businesses. When I was out speaking about chronic pain
management I had a fascinating conversation with nurses who deliver care to
prisoners.
Revenue-generating activities include:

<ul>
! <li>Direct patient care</li>
! <li>Administrative and leadership contributions</li>

! <li>Clinical Research</li>
! <li>Advance business goals</li>
</ul>
Specialty
There’s a pecking order among physicians. Doctors who
perform high-risk invasive procedures enjoy better social status, more political clout and
higher incomes than primary care practitioners are found on the lower rungs.
Here are the top-earners:

<ul>
! <li>Neurosurgeons</li>
! <li>Orthopedic Surgeons</li>
! <li>Cardiac Surgeons/ Cardiologists</li>
! <li>Radiologists</li>
! <li>Urologists</li>
! <li>Dermatologists/Plastic Surgeons</li>
! <li>Anesthesiologists</li>
! <li>Gastroenterologists</li>
! <li>ENT Surgeons</li>
! <li>Ophthalmologists</li>
</ul>
Generation: Boomer vs. Millennial
Boomers and Millennials are like different breeds of doctor.
Boomers physicians have a higher net worth, but they’re
harder to reach because they’re also more distrustful. The Millennials tend to be team
players with a higher emotional intelligence and more awareness about social
boundaries.
Life stage
Groups of physicians in similar life stages share more than
others of the same age. Here are a few life stage that could impact your marketing:

<ul>
! <li>Caring for children who live at home.</li>
! <li>Caring for aging parents</li>
! <li>Caring for both children at home and aging parents</li>
! <li>Newly married</li>
! <li>Newly divorced</li>
! <li>New practice setting ( sold the medical practice and is now a clinic/hospital
employee)</li>
! <li>New ﬁnancial challenges</li>
</ul>
Gender
Men and women physicians have different experiences that
could shape your offerings, and your marketing. I held a leadership position at the
American Medical Woman’s Assoc.

Business acumen
Some doctors have better business sense than others. Here
are the doctors who have the highest business savvy:

<ul>
! <li>Dermatologists</li>
! <li>Plastic surgeons</li>
! <li>Dentists</li>
! <li>Orthodontists</li>
! <li>Chiropractors</li>
</ul>
If you help medical practices become more profitable, these
would be your target markets.

<h2 style="text-align: left;">What do physicians want?</h2>
They want many of the same things you want. They want to
go to bed at night and say, “I made a positive difference today.” Here are some items
often in short supply:

<ul>
! <li>Be appreciated.</li>
! <li>Have a listening ear</li>
! <li>Avoid burnout</li>
! <li>Get back to the dream</li>
! <li>Know someone has their back.</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">How do physicians make purchasing choices?</h2>
Doctors add links in the chain of trust.
I heard about my insurance agent Fred Green the way most
doctors learn about advisors --I asked other doctors in the surgeon’s lounge.
Fred Green did a good job for me over the years. If anyone
asked, I would have been happy to recommend him. But one day Fred offered such
extraordinary service I began talking about him. Very briefly, I got pregnant and made
sure my OB was a participating provider in my insurance plan. A few weeks before my
due date I found out that the hospital where he delivered babies was no longer a
participating facility in my insurance plan. I was weeks from my due date, and I might be
responsible for half of the hospital bill.
I called Fred Green in a state of panic. He told me we could
fix it by changing insurance policies effective at the beginning of the month. He drove to
my office with the paperwork and personally faxed in the forms. Everything worked out
fine. My son’s 14 years old, and I still tell the Fred Green story and refer people his
way.
You want to be the Fred Green of your industry. You want to
have your name mentioned because of your distinctive service.

<h2 style="text-align: left;">Up Next</h2>

In the next weeks, you’ll get ideas about how to get there.
Each module in this course points the way, showing you what to do.
However, each action begins with a thought. That’s why each
module includes a coaching session coaching to help you choose the most helpful
thoughts.
This Tuesday we’ll explore common thoughts that shape
interactions with doctors. I’ve observed that the biggest barrier to success in this
physician niche is not the gatekeeper; it’s the person in the mirror. Your parents
coached you how to act with doctors, and this behavior is deeply ingrained. Your
parents’ lessons will undermine your ability to step up and become your physician
client’s trusted advisor.
I invite you to think about these questions:

<ul>
! <li>What are your earliest memories about doctors?</li>
! <li>What do you look for in a doctor today?</li>
! <li>What would an ideal ofﬁce visit experience be like?</li>
</ul>
I also challenge you to get some practice talking to doctors.
Initiate some casual conversations with doctors in your social circles. Pretend you’re a
journalist and ask:

<ul>
! <li>What drew you to a career in medicine your specialty?</li>
! <li>What made you choose your specialty?</li>
! <li>What are some of your proudest moments?</li>
! <li>What are your favorite professional activities?</li>
! <li>What is your favorite procedure?</li>
! <li>What is your favorite kind of patient?</li>
! <li>What is your favorite problem to solve?</li>
! <li>What keeps you up at night?</li>
! <li>If you could change one thing about your medical practice, what would it be?
</li>
! <li>Who is your hero? Why?</li>
! <li>If you knew you could not fail, what project would you take on?</li>
! <li>How do you know you’ve had a good day?</li>
! <li>Who are your mentors, and what are the most important things they’ve taught
you?</li>
! <li>What do you do when patients ignore your advice?</li>
</ul>
Thank for joining this group. Look forward to working with you
and watching your sales grow.Hello and welcome to this “How to Sell to Physicians”
course. I’m your coach Dr. Vicki Rackner. I’m a physician who’s spent the past decade
helping thousands of people manage their relationships with doctors so they get what
they want.

This course is about helping you get what you want--to make more sales to more
physicians.

In many ways building relationships with physician clients is like dating. You decide who
you want to meet, you make yourself attractive to that person then you create a strategy
about how and when to meet them.

Think of me as your physician matchmaker. Here you’ll identify the best-ﬁt physician
niche, and craft your marketing message so doctors listen. You’ll learn how to get
around the gatekeepers, because I’ll show you the back doors. You’ll learn the small
changes that get big results. Even something like mastering the “mental handshake” --
demonstrating to doctors you’re not armed with a sales pitch-- helps build rapid rapport
and shortens the sales cycle.

I’m here to help you take the fastest and most direct course to the business results you
want--more physician clients and more sales.

In this session you’ll:

•Get an overview of the world of medicine
•Understand what makes physicians tick
•Begin to consider your best-ﬁt physician niches

Physician Career Stages

Let’s begin at the beginning. What are the steps to becoming a physician?

Most of my medical school classmates came from doctor families. They knew from
early on they wanted to go into medicine and follow in the footsteps of their fathers--and
sometimes mothers. While I had relatives who were doctors, I was on a different career
path. At age 24, when I was a graduate student, I had a life-threatening surgical crisis.
I woke from my emergency operation just knowing I would become a doctor and save
the lives of others like my own had been saved. And not surprisingly I became a
surgeon.

The vast majority of medical students go directly from college graduation in June to to
medical school July 1 and graduate four years later at age 25. Then they enter a 3 to 5
year residency training. My own general surgery residency was a five year program. If
I wanted to be a heart surgeon I would tack on another 3 years of fellowship training.
On average doctors begin their first real jobs in their mid-thirties carrying about $100K in
medical school debt.

Here are the qualities medical schools seek out in applicants:

• Intelligence
• Pursuit of excellence

• Willingness to defer gratification
• Single-minded focus
• Leadership skills
•. Self-confidence
• Integrity.

Physicians must be temperamentally inclined to:

• Focus attention on what’s most important
• Ignore distractions.
• Work long hours
• Be with people in pain
• Make life-altering decisions
• Put their patients first.

Ironically, the same factors that you would value in your own personal physician
become barriers when the same person is your prospect.

As you work with doctors you’ll discover that most are driven by a sense of
purpose, and that purpose is to serve. They’re primarily driven by their desire to:

• Alleviate pain and suffering
• Help others
• Establish their legacy.

To choose language that resonates with doctors, replace “sales” with “service” and
“profit” with “results.” The words “You can expect a 6-fold ROI.” are not as compelling to
doctors as, “You can reach more patients.” or “You can improve your family’s security.”

The Culture of Medicine

This is a very scary time for doctors. Physicians carefully follow Medicare legislation;
they know if Medicare drops their rates by 20% private insurance companies will follow
suit. One friend said, “How many business people have their salaries set by congress?

They feel the economic challenges. Most physician are doing just fine. What you might
not know is that others are struggling.

Then there are the uncertainties about health care reform. We know that the shift to
electronic medical records will happen. There will be costly regulation. Physicians’ top
worries in many surveys include:

•Decreasing reimbursements
•Rising expenses
•Costly regulatory changes.

If you sit down and really talk to doctors you’ll discover additional concerns that keep
them up at night:

•Fear of being sued
•Loss of autonomy
•Unhappy, grumpy patients
•Referrals that come too late or not at all.
•Staffing conflicts
•Burn-out
•Work-life balance
•Patient complications/ deaths

Many physicians feel alone, unappreciated and even betrayed. What happened to the
dream that drew them to a career in medicine? How do I get here?

Every one of these concerns is a business opportunity for you. Doctors want solutions
to these problems. They can afford to pay consultants who can help..

Finding Your Niche

They say the riches are in the niches. Successful businesses identify good-fit physician
clients. Your niche shapes your marketing approach and your value proposition. To
help you identify your niche, let me give you ways to slice the physician pie.

Practice Setting: How they Generate Revenue

Physicians generate revenue in one of three ways:
•Self-employed in a private practice or small groups,
•Employed at a hospital or clinic or business
•Tenured at an academic facility.

Within each general area there are sub-niches: doctors employed in the VA hospital
system or HMO’s like Group Health or physician benefits managers in large businesses.
When I was out speaking about chronic pain management I had a fascinating
conversation with nurses who deliver care to prisoners.

Revenue-generating activities include:
•Direct patient care
•Administrative and leadership contributions
•Clinical Research
•Advance business goals

Specialty

There’s a pecking order among physicians. Doctors who perform high-risk invasive
procedures enjoy better social status, more political clout and higher incomes than
primary care practitioners are found on the lower rungs.

Here are the top-earners:

•Neurosurgeons
•Orthopedic Surgeons
•Cardiac Surgeons/ Cardiologists
•Radiologists
•Urologists
•Dermatologists/Plastic Surgeons
•Anesthesiologists
•Gastroenterologists
•ENT Surgeons
•Ophthalmologists

Generation: Boomer vs. Millennial

Boomers and Millennials are like different breeds of doctor.

Boomers physicians have a higher net worth, but they’re harder to reach because
they’re also more distrustful. The Millennials tend to be team players with a higher
emotional intelligence and more awareness about social boundaries.

Life stage

Groups of physicians in similar life stages share more than others of the same age.
Here are a few life stage that could impact your marketing:

•Caring for children who live at home.
•Caring for aging parents
•Caring for both children at home and aging parents
•Newly married
•Newly divorced
•New practice setting ( sold the medical practice and is now a clinic/hospital
employee)
•New ﬁnancial challenges

Gender

Men and women physicians have different experiences that could shape your offerings,
and your marketing. I held a leadership position at the American Medical Woman’s
Assoc.

Business acumen

Some doctors have better business sense than others. Here are the doctors who have
the highest business savvy:

•Dermatologists
•Plastic surgeons
•Dentists
•Orthodontists
•Chiropractors

If you help medical practices become more profitable, these would be your target
markets.

What do physicians want?

They want many of the same things you want. They want to go to bed at night and say,
“I made a positive difference today.” Here are some items often in short supply:
•Be appreciated.
•Have a listening ear
•Avoid burnout
•Get back to the dream
•Know someone has their back.

How do physicians make purchasing choices?

Doctors add links in the chain of trust.

I heard about my insurance agent Fred Green the way most doctors learn about
advisors --I asked other doctors in the surgeon’s lounge.

Fred Green did a good job for me over the yers. If anyone asked, I would have been
happy to recommend him. But one day Fred offered such extraordinary service I began
telling the story. Very briedfly, I got pregnant and made sure my OB was a participating
provider in my insurance plan. A few weeks before my due date I found out that the
hospital where he delivered babies was no longer a participating facility in my
insurance plan. I was weeks from my due date, and I might be responsible for half of
the hospital bill. I called Fred Green in a state of panic. He told me we could fix it by
changing insurance policies effective at the beginning of the month. He drove to my
office with the paperwork and personally faxed in the forms. Everything worked out fine.
My son’s 14 years old, and I still tell the Fred Green story and refer people his way.
You want to be the Fred Green of your industry. You want to have your name
mentioned because of your distinctive service.

Up Next

In the next weeks, you’ll get ideas about how to get there. Each module in this course
points the way, showing you what to do.

However, each action begins with a thought. That’s why each module includes a
coaching session coaching to help you choose the most helpful thoughts.

This Tuesday we’ll explore common thoughts that shape interactions with doctors. I’ve
observed that the biggest barrier to success in this physician niche is not the
gatekeeper; it’s the person in the mirror. Your parents coached you how to act with
doctors, and this behavior is deeply ingrained. Your parents’ lessons will undermine
your ability to step up and become your physician client’s trusted advisor.

I invite you to think about these questions:
•What are your earliest memories about doctors?
•What do you look for in a doctor today?
•What would an ideal ofﬁce visit experience be like?

I also challenge you to get some practice talking to doctors. Initiate some casual
conversations with doctors in your social circles. Pretend you’re a journalist and ask:

•What drew you to a career in medicine your specialty?
•What made you choose your specialty?
•What are some of your proudest moments?
•What are your favorite professional activities?
•What is your favorite procedure?
•What is your favorite kind of patient?
•What is your favorite problem to solve?
•What keeps you up at night?
•If you could change one thing about your medical practice, what would it be?
•Who is your hero? Why?
•If you knew you could not fail, what project would you take on?
•How do you know you’ve had a good day?
•Who are your mentors, and what are the most important things they’ve taught you?
•What do you do when patients ignore your advice?

Thank for joining this group. Look forward to working with you and watching your sales
grow.

How to Sell to Doctors Module 1

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