The new client power dynamic that professionals were never taught to deal with

We’re continuing our new series of video Questions and Answers recorded during the recent ESCRS trade show that took place at the Excel Centre in London. Today Rod Solar answers a question that many experienced non-sales professionals might be wondering – why do I need to bother selling now when I never needed to before?

Question: Why do professionals need to sell now when before they didn’t need to?

 

Answer

That’s a great question, a lot of things have changed. One of the main things is that the power dynamic between professionals and non-professionals – who are their customers or clients – has completely changed.

These days you have people who don’t put their professionals on a pedestal. They don’t simply just go to someone because of their title, ask them a bunch of questions and walk away with the recommendation as if it’s the gospel truth.

Today, consumers are considerably more savvy. They are doing their own research. They have the capability and access to do their own research in ways that are unparalleled at any other time. And they are making use of it. Becoming a good consumer has been drilled into us and one of the main reasons for that is because there has unfortunately been a lack of professionalism in a lot of environments whether they be medical or in building, in government, etc.

Trust has eroded. People are trusting things and people less and less. They are taking the onus on themselves to do their own diligence. And when that happens they assume a power dynamic position that professionals were never taught to deal with. They were taught essentially that: they are the ones with the opinions, they ask a few questions, provide a good recommendation and that is all there is to it. The customer should simply agree, comply, and move on.

It’s just not happening that way anymore.

Customers have objections. Clients have their own questions they want answers on. They might even come out and ask you, “Why should I do it with you as opposed to your colleague down the street”.

That’s another issue that has developed: the competition. In the past there might be one doctor or one engineer or one lawyer in every small town. As people move and become more urban they have access to considerably more supply than they ever did. Today there are directory pages full of professionals in almost every category you can imagine in major urban centres.

Choice, we are spoiled for it.

So customers are looking at you in a set of many of your competitors now (they used to be colleagues), to choose what is best for them. In order to do so; to choose, they become more savvy. They are demanding to know distinctions that they otherwise would have never concerned with. In so doing, they are becoming a lot more demanding.

And so as a professional you need to really be in tune with that. You need to communicate in such a way that even by how you communicate creates a distinction between you and your colleagues.

It’s not enough to simply know what you are doing and to do it as best as you can. You now need to communicate that you know what you are doing and are the best in your field. And if you can do that, then the rewards will follow.

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What our clients say…

“In a matter of weeks, we already saw results with LiveseySolar. Far before we were even finished with our project.”

Erik Chotiner, MD, FACS, Ophthalmologist

“The whole group has been very, very professional. We’re quite early in the stages, but we can see the benefits.”

Dr Nick Mantell , MBChB FRANZCO

“They’re very professional. They know what they’re doing, but they also put us at ease. This helped us to cut through what’s needed to get what we want.”

Mr Praveen Patel, MA (Cantab), MB BChir (Cantab), FRCOphth, MD (Res)

“It’s wonderful to work with an agency that engages on our level and understands our market.”

Dr Anton Van Heerden, MBChB; FRANZCO, Ophthalmologist

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Meet our Founders

We’re passionate about helping leaders of high-quality, growth-minded practice owners double their practice revenue

Rod Solar

Founder & Scalable Business Advisor

Rod co-founded LiveseySolar and acts as a Fractional CMO and Scalable Business Advisor for our customers. He’s on a mission to help transform the lives of 10,000 people with vision correction surgery by 2024. To achieve that, he inspires his customers to make confident decisions that will help 50,000 people take the first step towards vision correction.

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LiveseySolar completely transformed the way we were approaching this… We’ve gone from having just the dream of having a practice to having a practice up and running with people making inquiries and booking for procedures… It’s extremely pleasing. We feel lucky we connected with LiveseySolar.

— Dr Matthew Russell, MBChB, FRANZCO, specialist ophthalmic surgeon and founder of VSON and OKKO

Laura Livesey

Founder & CEO

Laura Livesey is the co-founder & CEO of LiveseySolar. She has developed powerful refractive surgery marketing systems that increase patient volumes and profits for doctors, clinics, and hospitals, since 1997.

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Rod and Laura know as much about marketing surgery to patients as I know about performing it. They are an expert in the field of laser eye surgery marketing. They know this industry inside out. I believe that they could help many companies in a variety of areas including marketing materials, sales training and marketing support for doctors.

— Prof. Dan Reinstein, MD MA FRSC DABO, founder of the London Vision Clinic, UK