How to Get More Patients: - MD Preferred Services



Part 2: The Rules for Working with Doctors

B2D Success:

Accelerate your business growth by marketing your products and services to doctors

by Vicki Rackner MD

Preface

Introduction

Part 1: What Makes Doctors Tick?

How doctors become doctors

How doctors are like and unlike your other clients

How groups of doctors are alike

How groups of doctors are different

Part 2: What Makes Doctors Tick?

Make the first sale-- to yourself

Give to get

Sneak in the back door.

Results, results, results

Ask for referrals

Build physician-friendly teams

Avoid land mines.

Part 3: Smart Marketing Campaigns to Engage, Influence and Persuade Doctors

Choose your approach

Choose your content

Choose your campaign

About Dr. Vicki Rackner

May I Help You?

Preface

When my son was a toddler he had a love affair with trucks. One day we passed by a huge construction site. He pointed his chubby little toddler finger at the dirt pile and said, “Touch trucks.” I said, “That would be great, Sweetie, but, look: there’s a fence all around the trucks. Plus do you see that sign on the gate? It says ‘Do not enter.’” He thought for a moment, and suggested, “Take down sign.”

Conducting business with doctors is like making your way into that locked construction site.

The goal of this book is to help you accelerate your business growth by gaining access to the medical turf and selling more of your products and services to doctors. You’ll learn how to take down “do not enter” signs.

Here’s the most important point of this entire book: doctors think differently than business people.

I learned this lesson the hard way.

You see, I’m a doctor myself. I ran my own private surgical practice for many years. I made a career shift about a decade ago, trading my scalpel for a pen and microphone as a full-time author, speaker and consultant.

I thought the transition would be easy. In my mind running a medical practice and running a small business was the same thing. Boy was I wrong!

My early years as an entrepreneur reminded me of traveling in China. I felt like a complete foreigner observing strange customs.

I studied the world of business intensively. I hired mentors who served as my guides. As I learned how things work, two things happened.

First, I gained tremendous respect and appreciation for people like you who have mastered the fine art of marketing and sales. You have a true gift.

Second, I enjoyed greater business success.

I wondered, “What if business people had the same experience traveling in the world of medicine as I had traveling in the world of business?”

I’m here as your personal tour guide showing you how to navigate inside the world of medicine. These ideas will help:

. •Insurance Agents

• Real Estate Agents

. •Financial Advisors

. •Healthcare Attorneys

. •Mortgage Providers

. •Community Bankers

. •Accounting Professionals

You’ll acquire knowledge and strategies to accelerate your business growth by:

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. •Dramatically improving your ability to reach physicians

. •Leveraging the marketing power of existing physician clients

. •Acquiring more physician leads and convert more leads to clients

. •Securing your role as a trusted advisor

. •Making more sales.

The Handshake

The handshake began as a ritual offering proof that both parties came unarmed. Begin your relationship with doctors with the “mental handshake” to put them at ease. Let them know that you are not there to assault them with a sales pitch. Replace the word “sales” with “service.” Replace “profits” with “results.”

Introduction

Imagine picking up your ringing phone, and hearing, “I was recruited to join the hospital staff, and a colleague tells me you like working with doctors like me. Could you tell me more?”

Here you’ll get tips and strategies to create physician-friendly business practices that result in more sales to more doctors.

The ideas in this book will help you whether you work with doctors all day long, or you want to expand into the physician niche. After all, doctors buy houses, drive cars and go out to dinner, just like anyone else.

The catch is that the process of influencing doctors’ purchasing choices is not like conducting business with any other group of clients. It’s neither quite B2B nor B2C. It’s not quite like marketing to the affluent. Conducting business with doctors is in a class of its own. I call it B2D.

Working with doctors…is it right for you?

While the rewards in working with physicians are great, it’s not for everybody.

Let’s begin with the positive. Doctors are an attractive market niche for these reasons:

• It’s a large group (700,000 physicians in the US)

• Physicians enjoy a high net worth

• You can identify them and market to them

• There’s little competition in this niche

• Simple physician-friendly business practices set you apart

• Physicians are interesting people

• Physicians can afford your services.

• Physicians have large spheres of influence.

• Physicians are loyal customers.

Here are the major challenges:

• The barrier to entry is very, very high.

• Relationship-building takes time.

• The “physician temperament” sets them apart from other clients.

• Physicians are very busy, and it can be hard to get their attention.

• Physicians demand excellence.

• Physicians don’t always know what they don’t know.

• Physicians’ decisiveness can manifest as arrogance.

• Physicians like being in control.

It takes a special person to work with doctors. Here is the profile of success:

• You truly care about your clients and put your client’s interest before yours.

• You have complete mastery of an excellent product or service.

• You are a hard-working, intelligent person.

• You are a person of integrity--you do what you say you will do.

• You network well.

• You’re optimistic and resilient.

• You believe in yourself and in your products.

• You have the courage to ask for referrals and testimonials.

• You are patient and graciously persistent.

• You can innovate and generate new marketing approaches.

• You can overcome the culturally instilled intimidation and address physicians as peers.

If you’re still interested, here’s how this book will help you:

I will help you understand what makes doctors tick. You may be surprised to learn how much differently your doctor’s mind works than yours. I know because I’m both a physician and an entrepreneur.

I’ll share with you the rules for engaging doctors. You’ll learn the strategies that work, and the land mines to avoid.

And finally I’ll share physician-friendly business practices.

The truth is that physicians really do need your help. With some focus, persistence and strategic marketing, you can enjoy the financial and professional rewards that come with establishing yourself as a trusted advisor to your physician clients.

The Secret for Success

My physician mentors shared that “the secret of patient care is caring for the patient.” As your B2D mentor I’ll share that “the secret of selling to the doctors is caring about the doctor.”

Part 1: What Makes Doctors Tick?

One day I ran over a garden soaker hose with a lawn mower. Twenty years earlier I would have simply gone to the hardware store and replaced it. However, at the time I was a practicing surgeon, and I had the confidence I could fix it. I worked for well over an hour, trying every technique I used in the operating room. I was frustrated as I drove to the hardware store to replace it. The sales person said, “Most people know you can’t repair a hose. What made you think you could fix it?”

The answer was obvious to me. I was a doctor! Standard rules simply did not apply to me. Over nine years of rigorous medical training shaped the way I thought about myself and about the world around me

In short, doctors think differently than most of your colleagues and clients.

The selection and training of doctors

Here is the academic path to becoming a practicing physician:

• Undergraduate degree (4 years of college--usually from age 18 to 22)

• Medical school (4 years --usually from age 23 to 27)

• Residency (3 to 5 years--usually from age 28 to early 30’s)

• Optional fellowship training (1 to 3 years)

The average physician completes residency training and takes on their first “real job” at age 30 to 35 with about $100,000.00 in medical school debt. Half will go to work for a private practice setting and half will become employees of clinics, hospitals or academic centers. The starting salary for a primary care physician averages around $100K, and the average specialist who performs invasive procedure begins at about $200K.

The training of a doctor is a labor-intensive, expensive and lengthy undertaking. Medical schools select the applicants who have the greatest chance of making it thought seven to ten plus years of training and becoming skilled doctors.

Here are some of the qualities that they look for:

• Intelligence.

• Pursuit of excellence

• Willingness to defer gratification

• Single-minded focus

• A commitment to life life-long learning

• Leadership skills

• . Self-confidence.

• Loyalty

Physicians must be temperamentally inclined to:

• Assume risk

• Be with people in pain

• Make life-altering decisions

• Focus attention on what’s most important and ignore distractions.

• Work long hours

• Put their patients first.

You will discover that most physicians are driven by their desire to:

• Alleviate pain and suffering

• Serve others

• Carve their legacy.

How Doctors are Different

Not all doctors are the same. A social conversation with a pediatrician fresh out of residency is qualitatively different than another with a retiring heart surgeon. Here are some ways doctors are different from each other.

Medical specialty

There is a pecking order of physicians. Doctors who perform high-risk invasive procedures enjoy greater social status and higher incomes; primary care practitioners are found on the lower rungs. I am not promoting my own views; I’m simply sharing commonly held general perceptions.

Here are the top-earners:

1. Neurosurgeons

2. Orthopedic Surgeons

3. Cardiac Surgeons/ Cardiologists

4. Radiologists

5. Urologists

6. Dermatologists/Plastic Surgeons

Here are the bottom- earning fields:

1. Pediatrics

2. Family Medicine

3. Geriatrics

4. Internal Medicine

5. Hospitalist

6. Urgent Care

Boomer vs. Millennial

Different generations are like different breeds of doctor.

Boomer physicians tend to be the “lone wolf” type; they expected to run their own private practice. For most of their careers, they called the shots and enjoyed tremendous autonomy. They treated their patients according to their best judgment, set their own fees and policed themselves. Doctors ruled the roost, and even unruly behavior largely went unchallenged. When I went to medical school in the 1980‘s, I actually witnessed a frustrated surgeon throw a temper tantrum--and a scalpel!

The turbulent 90’s changed the landscape of medicine. Insurance companies reigned in soaring health care costs by taking the financial helm announcing they--not the treating physicians--would set the fees.  Since larger organizations could negotiate better managed care contracts, smaller medical practices allowed themselves to be purchased by hospitals and clinics.

By 2000, about 50% of physicians were self-employed, and the rest were employed by hospitals and clinics. 

The Millennials entered their medical careers knowing the rules had changed. Their expectations were different than the generations before them. They tend to be team players. They have a higher emotional intelligence and have more awareness about social boundaries. Their clinical choices are guided by evidence-based standards and treatment protocols.

Life stage

Groups of physicians in similar life stages share experiences 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

• New financial challenges

Gender

When I began my surgical residency, the dressing room doors were labeled, “Doctor’s Lounge” and “Nurse’s Lounge.” Now half of medical students are female; and women tend to make career choices guided by lifestyle considerations far more commonly than men do. Gender could shape your offerings. I imagine a high-end clothing store creating a special service for divorced male doctors; a financial planner might target female physicians.

Business Acumen

Doctors of my generation were offered no formal business training. Some groups of doctors have better business sense than others. Here are the medical professionals who seem to have the best business savvy:

• Dermatologists

• Plastic surgeons

• Dentists

• Orthodontists

• Chiropractors

If your services help medical practices become more profitable, physicians in these medical specialties would be a good place to start.

What Do Physicians Want?

Physicians want many of the same things you want. They want to go to bed at night saying, “I made a positive difference today.” Doctors measure their success through their ability to wage war on disease and get good patient outcomes. It’s hard to feel good about the day when patients cannot be cured, or they have a disappointing response to treatment.

Here are some intangibles to ponder:

• Doctors want to be appreciated.

• Doctors need a listening ear

• Doctors hope to avoid burnout

• Doctors long to get back to the dream

• Doctors appreciate knowing that someone has their back

Part 2: The Rules for Engaging Physicians

My insurance agent Fred Green will always have a special place in my heart. For years he helped me choose the best health care plans for my employees and my family. Right before I got pregnant I changed plans to one in which my OB was a preferred provider.

On October 23, three weeks before my due date, my OB’s scheduler pointed out that the hospital where I planned to give birth was not a participating facility in my insurance plan. That meant I was responsible for half of the total hospital bill.

I called Fred in a state of panic. He calmed me down and offered a solution. He could switch my insurance policy to kick in Nov 1. He drove to my office with the papers for me to sign so they would be filed in time. My son was born in November, and we averted the crisis.

Fred made a big difference in my life. Despite the fact that I was running my own surgical practice and billing insurance companies for my services at the time, Fred knew the ins and outs of insurance policies.

How often do you think I told this story? How many doctors do you think I sent to Fred?

Here are some rules for becoming a trusted advisor to your physician clients as Fred Green is to me.

Make the first sale--to yourself

Do you know -- with certainty-- that you improve your client’s condition? Can you help clients achieve their desired results? Do you and your clients treat each other as trusted peers?

Even business people who answer with an emphatic YES aren’t quite as certain when it comes to physician clients. Here are a few reasons.

Most people are intimidated by physicians. I know what it’s like to get intimidated by powerful people. When I work with celebrity patients and clients, I can easily psyche myself out. Do I really have what it takes to help them?

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When you’re scared or anxious, that means the spotlight is on you. Shine it where it should be--on your clients and their best interests. When you focus on your client, the fear melts away.

2. Your mother taught you how to behave with doctors. You may still hear the coaching to be a “good girl” or a “brave boy.” She may have told you to be seen and not heard. The smell of an alcohol swab or the sight of a white coat may make you feel like you’re five years old again. And you start thinking like a five-year-old.

Your clients need and deserve your very best adult thinking. With some practice, you can learn to bring your full adult self to your physician clients.

Your mother may have told you to leave the house with clean underwear.

But I have treated hundreds of patients in the ER , and I never once heard a single doctor or nurse comment on the condition of a patient’s underwear.

Let go of your mother’s lessons about how you conduct yourself in the presence of doctors. There’s no reason to be intimidated by doctors. Treat them with respect.

But let go of the fear and intimidation.

Give to Get

Teaching my rescue dog the command “come” was a challenge. I tried training him by moving towards him; he thought I was playing a chase game, and moved further from me.

Then I learned to change my behavior. When I stayed still and rewarded him when he came as called, both of us got what we wanted.

Chasing doctors does not work. Stop trying. Instead, give high value content to get their attention. Attract physicians to you by offering something they want.

• Here are a dozen topics that really interest physicians:

• How to get more referrals

• How to generate more revenue

• How to avoid getting sued

• How to enhance the quality of life of patients with chronic disease

• How to get back to the dream

• How to deal with difficult patients

• How to deal with difficult employees

• How to have happier marriages

• How to parent more effectively

• How to get patients to take medication as prescribed

• How to use social media

• Where to take great vacations

• Give away free information and tools to help doctors in these areas. You can send newsletters, create videos, host a breakfast meeting or create webinars.

Sneak in the back door

A state medical association hired me to speak; our goal was to get a great turnout. I recommended inviting the physician members and their husbands/wives to a dinner meeting in which I talked about the topic, “Getting Back to the Dream.” We sent the invitation to the doctors’ homes and addressed it to the doctor and the life partner. It was their best-attended meeting in recent history.

Sometimes doctors are the wrong people to contact. The person with the real influence --and maybe the keeper of the checkbook--is the life partner, the office manager or the nurse.

Let me remind you that it can be challenging being a life partner, office manager or nurse. They too have unmet needs. Think about how you can value to their lives, too.

Results, results, results

How do you present a business offer to a physician?

The offer is like a picture frame that sets off your product or service in its best light. The classic teaching is that an offer answers the client question, “What’s in for me?” 

Not so with doctors. The most effective offer helps doctors better serve their patients, carve their legacy or improve their family’s security.

Let’s imagine your company sells a home nasal irrigation device. Your phone is ringing off the hook because Dr. Oz just endorsed the product on his national show. You have data that shows that your irrigation device shortens the duration of colds, decreases the risk of asthma and cuts down on headache frequency. You want doctors to sell this device in their offices, like dermatologists sell skin care products.

What would you say to the doctor?

a. “You could sell this product in your office and generate revenue that improves your bottom line.”

b. “Here’s a scientific study that proves this product works.”

c. “Here’s something that will help your patients when antibiotics are not an option.”

If this were a non-physician business client, your choices would be (a).

You might be tempted by choice (b); after all, doctors want to make scientifically-based choices. The problem is that logical arguments reflexively raise resistance.

I recommend choice (c). Your chances of success are greatest when you help a doctor achieve a desired result. The most compelling offer meets a doctor’s emotional need.

That’s because emotion drives motion.

The offer that motivates doctor address:

• The ability to better serve others

• The ability to craft a legacy

• The ability to makes their families more secure.

Ask for referrals

Your goal in building your physician list is adding a link in the chain of trust. The gold link is a referral from another doctor. A silver link is a testimonial. The bronze link is the trust you build when you deliver a steady reliable stream of high-value content.

Your most important sales skill is the ability to ask for the referral. It can take some courage to say to your personal doctor, “Could you help me invest in my financial health? Do you have any colleagues who might be interested in learning about special insurance program for physician drivers?” Then be willing to ask every single one of your clients for testimonials and names of other physicians.

This can be very difficult to do. You may feel like you’re imposing. Reframe the question; ask for your doctor’s help in the spirit of serving their colleagues.

Build physician-friendly teams

Network with other business people in your community who have made a commitment to physician-friendly practices. You can offer a better experience for your doctor clients, and you have an opportunity to exchange of physician leads and create unique experiences for your clients. One of the more effective networking programs for professionals who sell to doctors that I have seen is offered by MD Preferred Services

Avoid land mines.

Physicians can sniff the lack of integrity. They will turn away when they sense you are putting your own needs above theirs, telling a little white lie or pretending to be someone you are not.

Part 3: Smart Marketing Campaigns to Engage, Influence and Persuade Doctors

I have a friend Betsy who’s like a “walking yellow pages.” She knows the best restaurants, doctors and teachers. Whenever I want to know where to go, I call Betsy.

Most doctors know someone like Betsy who passes along the names of the best realtors, insurance agents, wealth managers and travel agents. The names of go-to business people are often shared in the surgeon’s lounge or over lunch. Your goal is to be the go-to person in your industry. Marketing helps you get there.

Do your marketing campaigns answer key questions?

• Who should your prospects contact?

• How can they reach you?

• What high-value content will they receive if they work with you?

Are you taking steps that will help you build physician referrals?

• Begin where you are. Talk to physicians with whom you already have relationships.

• Ask existing clients, family and friends for referrals.

• Figure out how physicians found their way to you.

• Define your brand and your client experience.

• Create campaigns that accommodate different learning styles.

• Plan to proactively and regularly deliver high-value attractive content.

• Build your prospect list; it’s a treasured asset.

Are you reaching out to the right people and the right groups?

• Physicians by specialty, location, career stage

• Office managers (MGMA)

• Physicians’ life partners

• Medical staff offices ( doctors getting privileges)

• Hospital/clinic HR ( new hospital employees).

• Nurses

• Professional organizations

• Hospital administrators

• Executive search firms

• Service organizations

• Religious groups

• Journalists

• Internet information seekers

• Your peers across the country

Are you offering information on topics that really interest physicians?

• How to get more referrals

• How to generate more revenue

• How to avoid getting sued

• How to enhance the quality of life of patients with chronic disease

• How to get back to the dream

• How to deal with difficult patients

• How to deal with difficult employees

• How to have happier marriages

• How to parent more effectively

• How to use social media

• Take great vacations

• How to become a media resource

• Be a thought leader in the industry

• How to define success

• Colleague support and education

• Peer support and education

• Caregiver support and education

• Strategies that enhance the quality of life.

• Life stage management

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Here are some marketing vehicles you might use to deliver your high-value content:

• Written word (articles/brochures/books)

• Dinner meetings

• Medical meetings--sponsor a breakfast

• Dinner meetings and invite spouses

• Associations--contribute articles and sponsor an event

• A welcome to town

• Video

• Courses (live, self-study)

• Support groups

• A live experience/event

• Social media outreach

• Media exposure

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Your successful physician marketing campaign might contain some of these elements.

• Offer an opt-in newsletter in which you deliver helpful tips for professionals.

• Send hand-written thank you notes and convey your appreciation clients’ trust in you.

• Launch a refer-a-friend campaign.

• Help your physician clients add more value to their patients

• Enhance your web site with testimonials

• Create short videos that answer the 10 questions your new clients most frequently ask.

• Use strategic keywords in the title and description that optimize search engine stickiness.

• Put your videos on your web site and on a You Tube Channel

• Build new strategic relationships with people with relationships with physicians.

• Create a list of local physician-friendly businesses that offer resources your clients need.

• Join conversations in strategic LinkedIn groups

• Sponsor breakfast events at major medical meetings.

• Notice what works. Then do more of it.

• Listen for common questions or conversations that start, “I wish somebody would....”

• Pitch a great story to local radio programs or talk shows.

• Educate the community. Give a talk at your public library; people turn to librarians for medical resources. Give a talk at the Rotary Club.

• Offer branded gifts for your clients’ patients. You can co-brand my Personal Health Journal.

• Offer other’s peoples’ content. Did you see a terrific talk at TED? Read a great book? Let others know.

• Ask you clients how you’re doing. What do they most like about working with you? What could you do differently?

• Go the extra mile. Offer Nordstrom’s service. Remember the little touches, like offering tea or asking how the daughter’s soccer game went.

• Create engaging experiences. Invite an expert for a special evening event.

• Share stories. Ask your clients for their best practices, collect them and share them.

• Get involved in your community.

• Become a philanthropist.

• Support a cause.

• Volunteer.

• Serve on boards.

• Establish yourself as the local thought leader.

• Develop compelling content you know physicians want.

• Plan to reach out and deliver something of value on a monthly basis.

• Mix and match the approach.

Make sure that you improve the client’s condition with each encounter. Then repeat!

This is how you build a list of loyal physician clients who want to hear from you.

Enjoy the many rewards of working with your physician clients! They will certainly appreciate each and every trusted advisor!

Want to learn more?

Here are some ways we can help you establish yourself in the physician niche:

• Enroll in our 12-week “How to Sell to Doctors B2D” course.

• Learn more about our coaching program.

• Explore our consulting services.

• Hire us to deliver “done-for-you marketing” to your physician clients and prospects.

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Here are value-added services you can pass along to your physician prospects and clients as marketing tools: 

• Practice-building support for physicians. Click here for more.

• Turn-key events for physician audiences including webinars, tele-seminars and live training.

• Speaking services.

• Health and wellness content for physicians’ web site, newsletter and social media. Click here to view weekly videos and blog posts.

• Caregiver content for physicians’ web site, newsletter and social media. Click here to see sample content.

• The Connection Prescription” systems to reach out to people in physical or emotional pain. Click here for details.

• Support groups for physicians’ patients and their families

 

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Call me at (425) 451-3777 or drop me an email at consult@ to schedule a complimentary 15 minute consultation and explore how you can accelerate your business success.

Accelerate your business growth

About Dr. Vicki Rackner

Dr. Vicki Rackner is the doctor in your sales corner. Through her company , she helps clients engage, influence and persuade physicians. Dr. Vicki shares her insider sales secrets collected through her diverse 25 year medical career treating tens of thousands of patients, holding a clinical faculty appointment at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and now marketing her speaking, coaching and consulting services. She delivers keynote addresses at national meetings, serves as an expert to national organizations and is regularly quoted in publications that include CNN, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Reader’s Digest, Bottom Line Health, Woman’s Day, Real Simple and many others. Dr. Vicki lives in Seattle with her son, a rescue dog who steals her shoes, cats and fish. Contact her at (425) 451-3777.

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B2D Success

Accelerate your business growth

by marketing your products and services

to doctors

Vicki Rackner, MD

Physician and Founder of Targeting Doctors

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