Want to Get Better at Selling Remodeling? Imagine You’re on Your Deathbed

How do you want your physician to talk to you? Here are three styles—including one worth emulating.

4 MIN READ
Dr. Atul Gawande

Tim Llewellyn

Dr. Atul Gawande

Most of us are very uncomfortable about the inevitability of the death of ourselves and those we love. By not discussing, it we hope to keep the reality of death at bay.

Doctors must talk about mortality with many of their patients. Yet even doctors don’t all do that good a job with the subject.

In Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters In the End, Dr. Atul Gawande, the author and physician, discusses this issue. He cites a study by Ezekiel and Linda Emanuel about the different types of relationships that doctors might have with their patients.

While reading Gawande’s thoughts on this matter, I started thinking that the choices a remodeler has when selling are very similar.

Gawande writes about relationships:

The oldest, most traditional kind is a paternalistic relationship—we are medical authorities aiming to ensure that patients receive what we believe is best for them. We have the knowledge and experience. We make the critical choices. We tell you only what we believe you need to know.

Many remodeling salespeople take this approach. We are the experts. You are lucky to have us tell you what to buy, what you need. If the potential client does not feel well-served by this approach, that is their problem, not the salesperson’s.

This approach usually alienates the potential client. The salesperson has no idea what went wrong. After all, he is the expert!

Gawande then summarizes another type of relationship described by the Emanuels:

The second type of relationship [is] termed informative. It’s the opposite of the paternalistic relationship. We tell you the facts and figures. The rest is up to you. It’s a retail relationship. The doctor is the technical expert. The patient is the consumer. The job of the doctor is to supply up-to-date knowledge and skills. The job of the patient is to supply the decisions.

With this approach, the remodeling salesperson overwhelms the potential client with lots of data. That, he thinks, is his job. The potential client is supposed to be able to sort through the incredibly complicated array of choices and decide what is best for them.

This is a particularly ineffective approach if the potential client has never worked with a remodeling contractor and/or had remodeling done for them. The potential client has no point of reference for sorting through what the salesperson told them.

Gawande goes on to say:

In truth, neither type is quite what people desire. We want information and control, but we also want guidance. The Emanuels described a third type of doctor-patient relationship, which they called “interpretive.” Here the doctor’s role is to help patients determine what they want. Interpretive doctors ask, “What is most important to you? What are your worries?” Then, when they know your answers, they tell you about [the options] and which one would most help you achieve your priorities.

With this approach the salesperson is asking the potential client what they are concerned about. To do so seems so obvious; how can a salesperson have a chance of getting the project if he does not know what the client is concerned about?

Despite this being so obvious, many salespeople don’t do this because it takes time. It does not produce immediate results. It opens up a dialogue that doesn’t have a clear endpoint.

Again, by not taking the time the salesperson’s chances of success are very low.

Gawande describes his interactions with a cancer patient whose husband ran a funeral home. Most clinicians just want to just lay out the:

…hard, cold facts and descriptions. They want to be Dr. Informative. But it’s the meaning behind the information that people are looking for more than the facts. The best way to convey meaning is to tell people what the information means to you, yourself…

“I am worried,” I told [my patient].

When the salesperson expresses sincere concern for the potential client, they begin to let down their guard and tell the salesperson what they truly are concerned about.

The emotional connection engenders trust. Without trust there is no possibility of a sale.

[the patient’s husband] had …recommended a strategy that palliative care physicians use when they have to talk about bad news with people—they “ask, tell, ask.” They ask you what you want to hear, then they tell you, and then they ask that you understood.

This is where success lies when selling. When the salesperson askes what the potential client’s concerns are, he can then address them in a meaningful way.

Asking the potential client what they understood creates clarity and ownership of the information by the potential client. In that way, the path forward to a productive working relationship has been created.

Death and sales: Two things we will all deal with over the course of our lives. By slowing down, paying attention (often to what is not being said), genuinely caring and engendering trust, one can become much more successful at both.

While still alive consider the points Mr. Gawande made. By integrating them into your approach to sales you will get more signatures with less rejection. The same is true with all your relationships with people, as long as you live.

About the Author

Paul Winans

Paul Winans, a veteran remodeler, who worked as a consultant to remodeling business owners, and a facilitator for Remodelers Advantage, is now enjoying retirement. Paul's book, "The Remodeling Life: A Journey from Laggard to Leader" is available on Amazon. Paul can be reached at plwinans@gmail.com

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