By Greg Stafford, Strategic Accounts Manager
We continue today with our deep dive of the Consultation Sales Process with a look at Step 4 of the process: “The Consultation”.
ReSound’s structured consultative selling approach helps you to systematically guide your patients to understand the seriousness of their hearing problems, the implications involved, and the pay-offs that come from adopting amplification early-on upon diagnosis of hearing loss.
The Consultation Process
After introductions and building an initial report with the patient, it is time for the actual evaluation. The following steps take about 45 minutes.
- Medical and hearing history assessment
- Physical ear exam
- Hearing test
- Hearing device demonstration
- Needs and lifestyle questions (more on this below)
- Review test results and explain need for treatment
- Gain commitment to treatment. “Let’s talk about treatment options now to help you overcome your hearing challenges, OK?”
- Discuss hearing device options & patient preferences
The Needs & Lifestyle piece of the consultation is subjective, so proper questioning must be utilized with the patient to identify implicit needs with the patient and to get the patient to express his or her explicit needs to you. Here are some tips:
- Needs-based questions: use the right mix of FACT finding questions, PROBLEM focused questions, IMPLICATION focused questions and finally PAY-OFF questions or statements. Remember the goal is to not only get the patient to explicitly define his/her needs but also ask for or agree to a solution to those explicit needs.
- Implication questions allow you to magnify the complexity of the patients hearing problem. “How does your hearing problem complicate your ability to stay active? How does it make you feel? What effects does it have on your family? What are the consequences of doing nothing?”
- Pay-off questions/statements allow you to bring a positive light to the patients hearing problem. “Is it important to maintain strong relationships with others by hearing everything they say (spouse, kids, grand kids, friends, etc.)? What would it mean to you to attend church/speaker/seminar and be able to understand everything being said?”
On August 20th we will focus on the final step in the sales consultation process – successful close.