Sell Like a Doctor

Diagnose, then Prescribe!

Imagine you are very ill. You are experiencing terrible abdominal pains. You rush to see your doctor. He takes one look at you doubled over in abdominal pain and hands you a prescription for Vicodin. “Here” he says, “This is what you need. It works wonders on all my patients.” Two days later, the Vicodin dulls the pain but it still persists, especially when the pain killer wears off. You go back to see your doctor. This time he seems puzzled, but says, “You must have the flu. Let me give you this year’s flu shot. There now. Go home, get some rest, plenty of fluids and some chicken noodle soup. You should be fine in 48 hours.”

Two days later, the pain persists and you return. However, this time, the doctor seems perplexed. Yet he now knows what your problem is. “You must have an appendicitis attack. Let’s remove that appendix.” As he reaches for a scalpel, you finally come to your senses. Your doctor is incompetent and you should seek out another doctor.

We know this scenario is a little extreme or maybe even silly. We hope this would never happen. But what does it have to do with selling feed, agronomy products or anything for that matter? Remember back to the beginning when the doctor first saw you for your illness? Without one question, without one test and not even examining you, he made a diagnosis and prescribed pain medication. How did he even know what the pain was from or how severe? He just saw you holding your stomach. He also didn’t try to figure out what was causing the pain. He simply prescribed something to block the pain. Would any of us stay with a doctor that practiced medicine this way? Of course not.

Yet, this is how we appear to our customer when we fail to ask questions. You walk onto their farm and see a seed variety in their shop. You make an assumption about the customer and start selling your products against it. Twenty minutes into your pitch, he stops you to let you know that he was very unhappy with that seed variety and is returning it. So, he is not interested in your version of that type of seed. “Oops!” you yell inside your head.

Save yourself the embarrassment and the lost opportunity by asking questions. Just like your doctor.

Where does it hurt?

When did the pain start?

On a scale from 1-10, how bad does it hurt?

Then the doctor examines you to get a first-hand look at the painful area. Following the exam, she orders the appropriate lab work or x-rays. Finally, with all the information she has collected from the questions, the exam and lab work, she is ready to make her diagnosis.

We can follow the same pattern when selling in agribusiness.

Start with their current program:

How long have you been using this product?

What do you like/not like about it?

If you could improve or change one thing about this product or your current supplier, what would it be?

Back to our doctor visit. What does your doctor do during an examination when he or she finds a spot on you that hurts? First, you jump or scream and what does your doctor do? She pushes on that spot again and again to uncover what is going on.

This is exactly what you need to do when you uncover that spot of pain in your prospect’s current program. Instead of digging, prodding and pushing with your hands, you are using a series of questions to uncover how you can help this prospect with their farming or business. Instead of an examination table, you ask to go see the problem area first hand. This might be a bean field full of weeds or a building full of sick birds. It might be a store layout that doesn’t allow for easy shopping or a product line of implement attachments that are not displayed well. It may be an examination of the prospect’s breakeven analysis to determine if they are off on their pricing or costs. You go to the site of the pain and see it first-hand.

Once you have completed a thorough examination and asked high value questions, you are now ready to help this customer find the solution to their ailment and write a prescription (recommend a product).

Make your next meeting memorable by bringing in a speaker who’s been there.

Contact me to find out how Greg@GregMartinelli.net