One Minute Pause no 13

I am currently reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.

It’s all about how our unconscious minds make snap decisions for us that we can’t always explain.

Here’s an example: As a doctor, the risk of being sued for malpractice has very little to do with how many mistakes you actually make.

There are highly skilled doctors who get sued a lot and doctors who have made more than a few botch-ups in their career but have never been sued.

Why does this happen? Why are some doctors protected from being sued?

First the research: In the study undertaken a researcher listened to hundreds of recorded conversations with doctors and their patients: half of the doctors had never been sued and the other half had been sued at least twice.

What she found was there was no real difference in WHAT the doctors were saying to their patients; they all gave the same level of detail of their condition and ongoing treatment.

What was different was HOW the doctors spoke to them.

The doctors who never been sued used language like “First we ’ll talk and then I’ll examine you” and “I’ll leave some time at the end for any questions you have” which gave the patients a sense of what they would get out of their visit.

They were often heard to say things like “tell me more about that” and “what do you mean exactly?” to probe any underlying problems.

Also, the conversations would tend to be on average 3 minutes longer than with the doctors who had been sued before.

So, the research showed that the doctors who ended up being sued were the ones who had shown comparatively little interest in their patient’s condition and got straight down to business.

How can this relate to the way you approach your next presentation, or sales pitch?

Well, in the way that we are less likely to sue doctors if they take the time to listen, we are also less likely to show resistance to people if they take the time to listen to us first.

If it’s you doing the talking - hold back with the solution until you have listened closely to what they are saying.

Start the process by asking intelligent questions about their situation, and delve deeper into their answers by following the doctors’ lead and saying things like “tell me more about that”.

By taking the time up front, your sales pitch can be tailored exactly to their needs while giving you the credibility of the very finest doctor.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 10th, 2005 at 11:26 am and is filed under One Minute Pause. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.