I put everything I planned to purchase back and walked out of the store completely confused. 

This happens all the time with our patients and referring doctors as well. 

The worst part??? We don’t even realize it’s happening.

Now back to the story… I went to Ulta the other day to pick up some face serum and powder… Simple enough right???

As I was shopping, the sales lady asked me if I needed some help.

I asked her a couple of questions, and instead of pointing me in the right direction, she started spewing a whole bunch of overwhelming information at me. 

Then she pointed to the serum in my hand and said, “I noticed that you have the serum, but looking at your skin, I don’t think you need a serum. I think you need a moisturizer.”

Umm… I already have a moisturizer????

She then took me over to the moisturizer section and slathered so many creams on me that my head was spinning. 

After all that… She showed me her favorite moisturizer. And then promptly proceeded to tell me they were out of stock across the entire country. 

Several product demos and one out of stock recommendation later (none of which were the powder that I was actually there to purchase), I put the serum back, and walked out empty handed and totally confused.

We actually do this every single day with our patients and referring doctors, and we don’t even know it. 

So, what happened here?

It wasn’t that the salesperson was a bad person.

She had:

✅ The desire to be helpful.

✅ A lot of knowledge.

✅ The willingness to serve the customer well.

But where she went wrong was not meeting me where I was.

I was just there to get some powder. 🤷

If the sales lady had just answered the first question and met me where I was, then I would’ve been ready to take the next step.

It’s the same thing with patients when we…

🔸 Give too much information too soon.

🔸 Put them on information overload.

🔸 Don’t make a reasonable recommendation.

And they end up walking out of our practice paralyzed and do nothing.

Or with referring doctors… We walk in and we’re so excited about our practice and have so much knowledge to share but then we…

🔸 Spew verbal vomit all over them. 

🔸 Give them too much information to take action.

🔸 Don’t tell them how they can work with us.

So, what’s the solution?

Meet patients and referring doctors where they are and give them just enough information to help them take the next step.

P.S. If you liked the Ulta story, wait until you hear about Sephora!!