InvestMed: Top Story

Medical software resellers come from so many diverse backgrounds. Some resellers are programmers or IT experts, while others have a medical or accounting background. Each of us has somehow found our way into this industry and the success of our businesses (or any business for that matter) depends upon our ability to sell. No amount of technical, medical, or accounting background will ultimately help our businesses if we lack the skills necessary to sell our products and services.

Luckily, good salesmanship can be learned. Inside each of us there is a salesperson waiting to be born. To speed up that process, all anyone needs is a little coaching, a lot of practice, and a few simple tips. AND, good salesmanship is more natural than you might think. Enthusiasm for your product, a positive attitude, and sincerity all factor into your ability to sell and are hopefully already in your sales repertoire.

Finding Your Purpose: To begin, it is important to know why we are selling. Why are you in the sales business? What is your ultimate motivation? Money? Success? Respect? As a young money-hungry account executive at Medisoft, it didn't take me long to discover that working for money as my only goal could only produce so much will-power in me. Feelings of burn-out, stress, and frustration began to creep in, especially on lean months. It occurred to me that if I was going to do this for any length of time, I would need a better reason for being in sales -- something deeper to work for! My motivation, or my "pull-power," became helping resellers and it is that desire to help people that permeates most of what I do. In any facet of life, will-power can only get you so far -- it is that deeper motivation, or that "pull-power" that gets you up early and keeps you up late, because you find true satisfaction in your work. Amazingly enough, since changing my focus, I have never had to worry about money. Money and success have been a byproduct of this philosophy called "High Trust Selling."

High Trust Selling encourages sincerity, relationships, and personal integrity. In his book by the same name, Todd Duncan writes, "Most people can discern the difference between a salesperson who is out to make a dollar and one who is out to make a difference." If we are sincerely trying to find the best solutions for our clients and implement them in a way that gives them the greatest chance for success in their practices, the opportunities for repeat business, referrals, and lasting success are all increased. Additionally, we will experience more personal excitement, a deeper level of satisfaction, and higher productivity. People want to work with a salesperson who genuinely cares about their goals and wants to help them succeed. Finding your deeper motivation now will make a huge difference in your sales career.

Finding Your Voice: Once your motivations are in place, it becomes a lot easier to work on fine tuning your sales skills. It should come as no surprise that your most effective sales tool is your mouth. Consequently, using the wrong words or phrases can often bring up unnecessary objections to your product. You can actually talk someone out of a sale. Tom Hopkin's tells us in his book, How to Master the Art of Selling, that in our dialogue with customers we should replace words like "cost and purchase" with phrases such as "total investment." Take words like "buy or bought" and switch them for words such as "own or acquire." Don't "sell" people, instead, get them "happily involved" in your products. You aren't "pitching" people, but "presenting" to them -- You aren't offering people a "deal" but an "excellent opportunity."

Less Effective Word/Phrase	More Effective Word/Phrase
Cost or Purchase	Total Investment
Down Payment	Initial Investment
Contract	Agreement or Paperwork
Deal	Excellent Opportunity
Pitch	Presentation
Buy or Bought	Own or Acquire
Sign right here	Okay the paperwork or Endorse this copy

Again, the key is to use words that describe the software/hardware or the act of purchasing (i.e. investing) while not creating new objections to your products and services. Using the right words, you can help people focus on the reward of using your product, instead of the cost to get your product.

Sales Questions Finding the S.P.I.N.: It's not enough, however, to just know the right words. We also have to ask the right questions. The term SPIN stands for SITUATION, PROBLEM, IMPLICATION, and NEED PAYOFF and is a sales philosophy put together by international sales consultant Neil Rackham. Rackham's findings in his book include nearly 10 years of sales studies at over 35,000 transactions. He has consulted for Xerox, IBM, AT&T and a number of other fortune 500 companies. According to Rackham, SPIN Selling is ideal for high-end sales (for example, medical systems). Before demonstrating any product, before discussing any service, questions are used to determine a number of important things about the medical practice you will be presenting to. In SPIN selling the ability of asking effective questions is the most important of all sales skills. These questions are broken into four categories and a good salesperson always starts at the top with the Situation-Based Questions and works his or her way down to the Need-Payoff Questions (Remember S.P.I.N.). It is nearly impossible to ask too many SPIN questions:

Situation-Based Questions:	'How long have you had your present practice management system?' 'What are some of your goals as a practice?'
Problem-Based Questions:	'What are some of your concerns with your old system?' 'Are you worried about the reliability of your current system?'
Implication-Based Questions:	'How do these problems affect your practice's ability to function?' 'What kind of affect does this have on employee morale?' 'What kind of affect does this have on the quality of care you give you patients?'
Need-Payoff Questions:	'Would it be useful to improve data entry speeds by nearly 10%?' 'How much time do you think you could save with a more reliable system?'

Once you have adequately assessed the practice, how they function, and what their needs are, it becomes significantly easier to show them how your system provides the needed solutions for their office problems, as well as how your system compliments their existing routines and structure. Additionally, SPIN selling will elevate your status from salesperson to "Sales Consultant" in the eyes of the customer. Best of all, as you ask the right questions, the medical staff will tell you that it is your system that they need without you even having to say a word.

Finding Your Actions: While we practice asking the right questions, we can also begin learning how to monitor our own body language. Using proper body language and reading the subconscious signals that our customers are sending during sales presentations is another key to developing trust and closing sales. In Peter Clayton's book, Body Language at Work, Mr. Clayton breaks down some of the key messages we might send with our body during a sales presentation. For example, although it is important to make eye contact with the individual you are speaking to, staring into someone's eyes can make them uncomfortable. The "intimate gaze," as Peter Clayton calls it, is less intimidating and consists of keeping your eyes focused on the cheekbones and mouth of the customer, occasionally looking them directly in the eyes. Here are some other subconscious signals you should be aware of during sales presentations:

Body Language --	Possible Interpretation
Folded arms --	A defensive posture that shows uncertainty
Using hands while talking --	A good thing. Often implies sincerity.
Closed hands --	May send a signal of hiding something, i.e. dishonesty.
Touching ears and face --	Sends a message that the presenter doubts what they are saying
Hands behind the back --	Conveys a lack of confidence
Leaning back in the chair --	Implies Superiority, Arrogance

Be mindful of the messages you may be sending with your own body language. Learn to dress professionally, stand up straight, smile with your eyes, and talk with your hands. Additionally, be mindful of the body language of those you are presenting too, especially on a first meeting. In spite of all the expertise available on reading body language, it is important to note that sometimes your customer's folded arms could just mean that the room is too cold. Learning to understand the unspoken language is as much an art -- the art of reading people and sending the right signals -- as it is a science.

Finding Rejection: To be an effective salesperson we also have to learn to overcome the fear of being rejected. More than that, we can learn to love the experience of a failed sale as part the sales process. You can't go into a sales presentation and expect any level of success if you are overly worried that they might say, "no." In fact, learn to love hearing the word "NO." The word "no" is simply an opportunity to learn how to do better -- an opportunity to do a little sales research and discover why the medical office decided not to go with you. Additionally, you can learn to appreciate rejection by calculating your success ratio. If you make $50,000 for each "yes" and you generally close 1 out of every 5 sales opportunities, you can essentially look at every "no" as a $10,000 sale. (Think about that.)

The great Sir Winston Churchill once said, "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm." Learning to have a positive mental attitude about rejection and learning from your mistakes is a key to longevity in the sales business.

Finding the V.I.T.O.: It should be noted that failure is almost a guarantee if you are giving a sales presentation to the wrong person. The term VITO stands for Very Important Top Officer, and the ideas presented by Anthony Parinello on this subject can save you hours in wasted time focusing on trying to sell your product to someone who does not have decision-making authority. For our purposes, the Top Officer is generally the doctor or the owner of the medical practice, but could also be an office manager who has been given ultimately authority to select the office system they will be going with. The Top Officer is the person in the office who is most concerned with making sure the practice is profitable, as a whole, and less concerned with keeping their job, making a good impression, or trying to exert authority. It is important to identify the Top Officer and try to make your initial contact with them.

Additionally, at any medical practice there maybe other people who influence the Top Officer. They should also be gathered for any sales presentation and might include a medical biller or the office manager as well as nurses or other medical personnel. Regardless of who might be on that influential list, make no mistake that the Top Officer is the one you should make your sales appointment with as well as form your closest relationship with. It is your goal to develop an equal business stature with VITO -- to become a partner in helping him or her achieve the goals of the medical practice.

Finding Your Own Way: Practicing these sales techniques will assuredly help you in real-world sales situations, but its also important that you unveil your own sales identity. Sure, studying the great salespeople of our day is important. We can look at their stats, mimic their words, and make them our mentors. However, at the end of the day, you have to find a way to make those ideas a natural part of you. In any sales situation, you ultimately have to be yourself, or at least your best self, and if you can just do that you will find that there was a successful salesperson inside of you all along.