Are We in For Economic Turmoil or The Sky’s the Limit?: Part 3

Posted January 03, 2025 in Uncategorized | 9 minute read

Are We in For Economic Turmoil or The Sky’s the Limit? Part 3 of 4 – The Psychology of the Sale

Continuing with our theme back to the basics

Sales psychology involves understanding customers’ mental processes and behaviors to support their buying decisions by engaging their feelings and appearance motivations. However, our goal is not to persuade patients into surgery they do not need, but to empower them to make informed provider choices, naturally you hope they select your practice as the best option. I look forward to teaching effective communication skills to help patients make the best decisions for their procedures.

Let’s look at some of the research on how people make buying decisions.

1. Research on the brain has shown that shopping is 95% unconscious whether it’s for cosmetic dental implants or eyelid surgery. These would both be equivalent monetarily and also appearance motivated, so the process would be similar.

Research by Max Planck Institute in 2008 found that during sales, people naturally believe that they use their rational thinking to make buying decisions, the reality is that people make buying decisions unconsciously – which means they are usually unaware of the fact that they have made a choice, even when they think in the process moment.

Coming from a high-profile international sales and marketing position into aesthetic medicine, I have been professionally interested in how much our understanding of human behavior in the sales process is transferable to a cosmetic consultation. And I submit with this increased understanding it could be considered manipulative by some people. Or it could be considered the power of enthusiasm that your practice is the very best place for a patient to have a cosmetic procedure. I will leave that up to you to decide.

The unconscious decision made by patients when making surgery decisions makes it imperative for doctors and staff alike to understand critical transaction questions, such as what is it that unconsciously drives my patients to schedule surgery with me?

2. We are social creatures, and the consultation is driven by a social framework just as any other human interaction or commercial situation where a purchase will ultimately be made. Advertising, peers who have had procedures, Hollywood and social media all play a role in setting the stage to have a cosmetic procedure.

Naturally, as social beings we are influenced by the perception of societal confirmation having surgery is socially acceptable. We often share this experience with others who have had procedures, so acceptance is very high. It’s almost like a club. People are driven by the concept of family, friends, and social connections who can encourage us to do something for ourselves.

The most successful patient coordinators carefully manage their relationships with patients and can convey comfortably their doctor can solve their needs with procedures or surgery. Some go so far as to say, Dr. Jones has done surgery on most of us in the office. The message being, we all trust him or her with our faces and bodies. The unspoken message is, “you are in very safe hands and look how great I look.”

Sometimes it goes beyond just pitching your surgical procedure to your prospective patient but also showing them how reliable you are as a confidant and fellow surgery traveler.

3. Discover what drives people unconsciously

Concerning the first point, professional coordinators need to identify what drives their prospect patient’s “yes” decision beyond just their emotions. Do they really need this surgery to accomplish their appearance goals? Let’s face it, no one needs cosmetic surgery.  People just want to look better and if surgery is what it takes, they say, “count me in. “

According to the psychology of selling, the belief is that emotions alone are not the driving force to sales, but the imagination of what the surgery or procedure will do for them, frequently influences their purchase decision.

The most successful coordinators assist patients through a natural process of asking questions with the goal of establishing that their office is the best place to meet their appearance goals.

Here are some of the questions that need to be answered and make the biggest difference in scheduling.

Is This Doctor Trustworthy

• Beyond just looking pretty behind the desk and talking a good story, you need to show your patients that their appearance concerns are important to you, and you take them very seriously.
• Regardless of how a patient found you, via phone calls, marketing campaigns on social media, efforts of influencer marketing, or digital ads, you must give them the ultimate attention and help they need.
• There is some research from survey companies such as Real Patient Ratings that suggests how fast an inquiry is responded to can greatly increase the potential patient’s decision about your practice, over a practice that took its time and didn’t answer the phone until the 4^th ring. It may seem nit-picky, but most often it’s at the subliminal level and they message is this practice isn’t very efficient or they would have answered by the 2^nd ring.

Our Non-verbal Cues Speak Louder Than Everything Else

• All of us have had experiences with people who were not really engaged with us even though they were talking to us. This is the kiss of death in a consultation.
• If the coordinator is looking at her phone instead of the patient or her body language is saying she’s running behind and needs to hurry up, rest assured this patient is not moving forward.
• This also happens with doctors. Where I have seen this happen the most is in the consultation when the doctor is explaining a procedure that he or she has explained a thousand times. You can almost see the doctor’s eyes glaze over because they are on autopilot. There is only one way to overcome this and that is for doctors to ask more questions and let the patient tell them what they know about the procedure.
• I’m always pleased when doctors try this question engaging technique because they are always pleasantly surprised by how much their patient knows about the procedure only to find they’ve been on three other consultations. The other doctors only talked at them instead of conversing. As a physician you can always clear up any incorrect information and you can shorten the consultation, and the patient comes away feeling heard. Amazing but true!
• Your non-verbal gestures, facial expressions, and positive body language can have a positive impact on the mindset of patients at the receiving end. This all goes back to how we establish trust, 55% visually, 38% tone of voice and 7% verbal , or what you are saying.
• The general belief in sales psychology is that with the use of the right words, a strong voice, and an open body posture, you can significantly influence the decision-making process of a patient. I would propose this is a huge responsibility and if people are ill intentioned this emotional power can be abused. On the other hand, 99.9% of the doctors I have worked with have been admirable souls who have taken an oath to do no harm. I take them at their word.

Make Patients Feel Good About Themselves

• With the belief that positive language shapes our thinking, you must take extra care in the way you talk to your patients during your consultation. When someone comes to you for a cosmetic consultation, they are generally unhappy about something, and they are going to take their clothes off and show the doctor all the things they hate about their body. This is not a feel-good moment. Everything we say and do is either uplifting or downgrading so think about what and how you might state the obvious. 
• Never bad-mouth your competitors it never has the effect you think it will, and it almost always gets back to the other doctor. When asked a direct question about someone else’s work, deflect because you can always say you are not in a place to know.

Strengthen Your Appearance

Common belief is that we do not buy a product or in our case a procedure we buy a feeling. This could not be more evident than with influencer marketing and how it works. You see it all the time when a personality influences people more than impressive features and benefits. This could not be truer than in the beauty business.

Successful companies understand how personalities influence buyers’ decisions which is why so many of them use influencer marketing to promote their products to their target audience and increase their sales success. How does this affect us at the practice level.

Your before and after photos are some of your best influencers and filming patient testimonials is a great way to capitalize on their happiness. This is called transferring belief from myself to others seeking the same happy result.

In addition, many practices develop influencer relationships, but keep in mind influencers are used to getting “stuff” for their influence. You’ll need to decide what this type of publicity is worth to you. Sometimes, these relationships pay off big time and there is no ethical dilemma that I can see, however honesty is key. You don’t want someone saying they’ve had a procedure with you when they haven’t and if anything should go wrong, which we all know can happen, then influence can swing the opposite direction.  

Stay at the top of their minds

Being the first practice, your patients think of when they decide to schedule a procedure is accomplished almost entirely by how good your relationships are with the patients you have a history with. Whether they scheduled or not, how they left the consultation and what your ongoing follow up was like is how this outcome happens.  I have seen patients schedule a surgery with a practice they saw as much as five years earlier. This is all about how relationships are established and maintained.