DON’T HAVE AN AGENDA

One of the biggest mistakes a doctor can make when speaking to a patient is to try to convince that patient to accept your recommendations.  When you are driven to convince someone to accept your care you are selling.  As soon as you begin selling you are talking the patient OUT OF YOUR CARE!  With every comment or objection the patient feeds you, your statements lead them right out of your office.  This is what happens when your “agenda” is to do all you can to get that patient to commit to your care.

To quickly avoid this destructive method of communication, your intention is just to build a relationship with your new patient. When you desire to build a relationship you will find that you can “listen” to their perspective, understand who they are, find their emotional hooks and more effectively handle their objections.

When you build a relationship with patients you seek to “understand” rather than be “understood.”  When you desire to be “understood” you don’t hear or listen on deeper levels to your patient.  When they feel you are not completely listening you have lost trust.  They will not commit.

When you seek to “understand” you are curious, you ask questions, you are interested, you listen on deeper levels (3 Levels of Listening) and you build trust and rapport.  You are now building a relationship that will inspire a patient to follow your recommendations.  They will follow you as a leader because they know you care. 

"People don’t care what you know. They want to know that you care.”