Speak to the scepticism before scepticism speaks to you.

Do you ever encounter objections while speaking to your doctors? How do you handle them? Do you run into the same objections over and over again? I bet you do. None of your products is perfect and none of them is good for everyone. There are many ways and techniques to overcome objections but the two key strategies that guaranty 80% of your success are: know them and address them upfront in your conversation. Knowing the objections means being able to isolate the objections down to their core. Surely there will be dozens of scenarios for individuals doctors, however having spent time in the field you should be able to know the main and the strongest ones pertinent to your products. Write those you already know down and constantly add to your collection as you go along. Now, once you’ve reviewed them and crafted masterful answers to diffuse the objections, you have a choice of either overcoming them when are still in their fetal stage or waiting until the end of you pitch when such objections may grow to become full-blown tumors. Actually, you don’t have that choice. You don’t want to wait until the building is completed to remove a defective brick from the foundation, do you? Put them to rest so that the remainder of your presentation or conversation evolves naturally around your strong selling points. And don’t be afraid, you already know what to expect. You’ve heard them. Act upfront and always speak to the scepticism before scepticism speaks to you.

In order to convince you got to be convinced.

Zig Ziglar, one of the best salesman of our time, once wrote that selling is essentially a transference of feeling. He said: “If I (the salesman) can make you (the prospect) feel about my product the way I feel about my product, you are going to buy my product”. In order to transfer a feeling, you’ve got to have that feeling. Try to persuade your doctors to write your product without being convinced that your product is the best for their patients, and that fact comes across to the prospects. What you frequently do is behave like you sell water in the flood. Yes, you got competition; yes, other products have many of the same features; yes, doctors have too many choices. But so what? Someone else said : “Believers are closers”. The C in the word “close” stands for conviction. Without that C you get “lose“. So whenever you enter your doctor’s office remember: In order to convince you got to be convinced.

When Spitzer comes handy.

There was a great comment in response to the post ” She did it. Can you?”:…but what if your product doesn’t fix any new problem just has a slight benefit or has the possibility of 2ndary benefits that are still unknown… What if there really isn’t a cost associated with not using “my product” only a hypothetical, then what?….

This is so crucial for your sales that you may want to put your thinking cap now before you read the rest. A few weeks ago I wrote a post about selling the problems. Here it is: http://drugreptime.wordpress.com/2008/01/17/sell-the-problem-before-you-sell-the-solution/. The world belongs to those who mastered the sales of problems. Look at what the presidential candidates do: 80% of their talks are about how profoundly troubled we are and the rest is ( not always ) what they are going to do about it. In fact, the presidential race is one huge sale. Those who write their speeches know that in Ohio they need to talk about NAFTA, in Texas about immigration, in New York about values ( betrayed by Spritzer), and so on. They customize their sales via customizing the problems, then magnify them to the point when your throat can’t swallow the problem, when you get terrified and ready to say: ” Mommy, mommy ( or daddy ) please help”. The current nomination battle is a massive personal branding exercise that has two virtues: transparency and rapidly visible results. There is little you cannot learn about brand positioning from watching the candidates duke it out in state after state.

Your sales are not unlike that. Remember, there are two kinds of problems in the world: The ones you have, and the ones you don’t. Your job is either to sell the solution to the problems that your customers have ( or are aware of ) , or to make them own the problems that you have the solutions to. That’s what your key sales skill is. Make them own it! And be there to solve it! Even if your product does not fix a new problem and has only marginal benefits, make the old problem and the marginal issues so vital and painful that your customer would start begging for solutions.

She did it. Can you?

When you engage your doctors in a conversation remember the rule number one: IT IS ALL ABOUT THEM-NOT YOU. Speak to their interests in plain and easy to understand English. Be very straightforwarded with your language. Teach, do not sell. Add value by sharing knowledge. Remember the big three questions that you must have compelling  answers to:   1. What problem your product is the answer to; 2. Who owns the problem; 3. What is the cost of not using your product. The more I observe the reps the more I see some serious deficiencies in crafting of their educational messages. Start today by creating short and clear answers to the big three above.

Let me give you an outstanding example that I heard from a rep today. She asked me the following: “Do you know that the number one reason why people quit smoking is that their doctor spoke to them about smoking cessation?”. Now is that good or good !? 1. What is the problem her product is the answer to – smoking cessation. 2. Who owns the problem – me, who has hundreds of smoking patients. What is the cost of not using her product- hundreds of my patients will continue smoking and will be sick sooner or later. BRAVO, you did it! Now you have my consent to learn more from you.

Presuming to know is a disease.

I will be travelling for a few days, but I feel like something important needs to be said. Here is a quote:

True perfection seems imperfect, yet it is perfectly itself. True fullness seems empty, yet it is fully present. True straightness seems crooked. True wisdom seems foolish. True art seems artless.

Not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease.  

Any ideas where it is from?