Articles - Business / Client Dev & Marketing

If there is any business within the health care industry that includes elective procedures, they understand the differences in “patient vs. client” theory.  As a Business Development Manager for a large ophthalmic medical device manufacturer, I had the challenge of convincing doctors and their staff to learn and embrace those differences. 

I can honestly say, most medical practices don’t “get it”.  Those that do, make a very good profit.

The challenges of “pathology vs. retail” lie beneath the intangible, customer service.  Customer service and all that it encompasses; understanding ones motivations, individual personalities and delivering service that fulfills the individual’s unique needs.  People who are “sick” still want good customer service, but define it differently from the elective surgery patient.  If you are sick, your goal is to feel better; you are in a receiving mindset.  If you are an elective surgery patient, your mindset is on searching for answers, a discovery mindset.

Identifying and understanding those diametrically-opposed motivational elements sounds easy, but the hardest part is embracing the concepts deeply enough that internal processes are created and the right employees are placed in positions that cater to each type of patient.  “Miss Sally”, the doctor’s sister-in-law, who has been counseling cataract patients for 25 years, was always my biggest training challenge. 

Not only did I have to worry about offending the client’s family member, but I had to make a square peg fit into a round hole.  Miss Sally’s job didn’t involve “convincing” people to have surgery, because her patients are an average age of 75 plus, and THEY CAN’T SEE!  They just want their eyes fixed and their insurance provider to pay for the surgery.

Remember the elective surgery patient is in a discovery mindset?  Talk about a category of patients with a lot of questions!  The right employee has to be able to respond to objections vs. react to questions.  From a trainers’ prospective, my biggest obstacle became change management.  How can you change a person’s thinking style and behavior traits?  You can’t.  At birth we are a sponge that is influenced by our environment, all the while, creating the person who we eventually become.  As an adult, we have fixed characteristics that we can stretch a little, more or less.  But like a rubber band, if we continue to stretch it, it will break; much like people.  If you put the wrong employee in the wrong position, not only will you limit your profitability, but you will also lose a good employee.

We know from experience that it is far more difficult to change people than it is to accept others’ differences.  In order to find the right person for the right position, you need to identify an employee’s unique characteristics and match them to the characteristics necessary for the job.

---------------------------

Biography

Jan Watson, President and founder of J.P. Watson Group, LLC, brings over 20 years of national and international sales and marketing experience from the medical device industry, as well as private practice.  The Group’s mission is to assist clients with selecting and developing high-performance workforces through the use of state-of-the-art psychometric tools.  Today’s corporate climate requires organizations to rely on their top performers and to identify and coach average employees into top performers.  Strong workers, who are enthusiastic, focused, and in the right jobs, are the solid foundations of any business.  Contact Jan at 850-529-8362 or visit her on the web at www.betterjobfit.com.

//

Comments: