In any business, including in the field of aesthetic medicine, competent negotiation is one of the key components of success. Thanks to the ability to communicate with customers, employees, partners and many other people – business can become truly prosperous. However, each industry has its own important features of communication.
The negotiation consultant, owner of BROCA & WERNICKE Stanislav Martynov.
There are such concepts as B2B and B2C. How to apply them in the world of aesthetic medicine?
S.M.The first thing to say is that the expression is quite popular now, and I agree with it that there is B2B, there is B2C, but, in fact, it is either P2P – people to people, or H2H – human to human, and everywhere we work with people. From the point of view of negotiations, the difference is that we have a different volume of transactions and different duration of the conclusion of this transaction.
If we are talking about B2B, and these are issues for managers regarding renting a room, firing and hiring employees, purchasing expensive equipment, maintaining it, and so on - these are large transactions that cost a lot of money and last for many months, or maybe and years.
If we are talking about B2C, then the client comes to you, sees the price tag, and it is not customary for us to say no to this price tag, this is done very rarely. Sometimes it just isn't worth it, like I came in for a haircut and haggling for 20% off or 10% off isn't worth my time, and rightly so.
Don't negotiate when you don't need to, they should always pay off your investment of resources, including time, in terms of the result you get.
That is, the result must exceed the resources invested in it. And in B2C, if we are talking about some big sales, big operations, for example, big sales of real estate or cars – people are negotiating there, because there are many conditions, and each condition needs to be separately agreed upon, prescribed, received guarantees, and so on.
In medicine, it seems to me, it is a little easier for businessmen, because a person trusts his health and sometimes his life to the other side, and not everyone is comfortable bargaining when the doctor will operate on you later. Is it necessary to do it – I would probably say yes, because all the same, people who come to receive services can get better conditions.
If a person has been cooperating with some medical institution for a long time, he can always say that he has been a client for two years and ask why he has the same conditions as the one who came for the first time. And it will be very cool, but not everyone is ready, because they say that they will not save on themselves, and we have such a barrier.
What should be the negotiation strategy if the patient came with a negative or dissatisfied
S.M. He, rather, did not come, but leaves with a negative. When a patient comes, he asks to do some procedure for him, and then he does not like the result, and this may threaten with some consequences. Minimum – the patient may simply no longer come, but as much as possible – sue. And here there really is a place for a negotiation process, because we must agree with the patient why this should not be done, and how to get out of this situation. I would recommend looking at the facts first.
If there really is a mistake, even if the medical institution has incorrectly formed the expectations of the client, this is the problem of the medical institution, but not the client. The institution should have checked this, and if they say that the patient misunderstood, the staff did everything well, the patient has such genetics and so on - he is not interested.
Accept the fact that it could have either been done better, or at least explained better in the first place. Recognize that somewhere, if true, is your fault. This will immediately relieve emotional stress, because if a person comes with a conversation about what he does not like, he is emotional. If a person is emotional – he does not hear you. You need to make him listen, and the first – this is to show that you heard him, understood his problem, recognized that somewhere it really could have worked better, but is it worth it to go to court?
Perhaps you can solve the problem in a different way. Is it worth it that the patient never comes to you again? Of course not, offer him that, for example, you will do a certain procedure for him at a discount or for free, and he will stay with you. You will turn a negative client into a loyal and good one, and he will receive his service.
What to do if the patient's negativity is not the doctor's fault
If the doctor's guilt is not proven, you still have to show that you heard the patient and ask him to substantiate it. Say that you understand how the patient views it and ask him to show some facts that support his point of view, because you have other facts.
And even if you're wrong – in negotiations it doesn't matter who is right. It is important that when we agree with you - and you, and I were satisfied.
If I work in a medical center, I need a loyal client, and if you leave satisfied – yes, you were wrong, but I gave you something additional in exchange for your loyalty, for the fact that you will not take any negative measures, that you will come to me again, and so on. T
when you are satisfied and I am satisfied, and this is the key to success, so there is no need to focus on who is right and who is wrong. We looked at the facts, but even if you are wrong, and the facts say so – the person is emotional, he will not hear you. Say that you heard him, ask what he wants you to do so that he stays with you, or how you can redeem yourself. Draw a person into the negotiation process, and when he tells you his conditions, you can disagree with them, offer an alternative, and the process has already started.
Are there any peculiarities in negotiating when hiring top employees
S.M. First – they need to be maintained, because when you hire any employee, experienced, "star", not very experienced - you have a huge number of parameters that you discuss. And even if the other side says that it is ready to work with you, the question of conditions remains, and how you will arrange them. And it should not be that since a star employee came to you – now you must do everything as he said. Why?
As a result of the negotiations, both parties are interested, and if I told you that I want to work with you, then I'm already interested, and let's discuss the conditions.
First – we need to conduct these negotiations!
Second - it would be a mistake to agree to all the first conditions set by this star. We always have some kind of gap, I tell you that I want such and such a salary, but, in principle, it is very likely that even if you just ask, I will agree to a smaller amount. If I disagree immediately – You can offer me something in return. You say that a person will have a better place, and for stars it is important that he will stand out from the rest, but then you pay him somewhere a little less interest or give him, for example, more challenges and interesting projects.
Many people are attracted by this, and it is more important for them than financial profit. In turn, for the owner of the business it costs almost nothing, and he values money more, so it turns out that you are exchanging something that is not very important for you for something that is very important, and this -perfect negotiation.
How to properly part when dismissing employees
This should be thought about in advance. We need to think about when we will terminate the employment contract even when we conclude it, for the future. There are no eternal contracts, there are always termination conditions, and if these conditions work out before the deadline for which we signed, then there are certain penalties, fines and conditions on which this person leaves.
If he leaves on his own – this means that he must, for example, inform about it 2-3 months in advance so that we can carefully communicate with customers and replace him with someone else. If you yourself fire a person - there must also be some facts, and you must say that you have a condition why he does not meet some indicators, you need to move on and carefully replace this person.
This is not a quick process, don't think that you just snapped your finger and the person left. Most likely, then there will be not a very good result, you will sacrifice relationships, some kind of sediment will remain, and so on, so do not rush. We talked, some time passed – we talked again.
Maybe the person himself wants to leave, and you will find a way to leave him, or maybe you want to fire him, but he is ready to improve and work, so why not?
Negotiations are not rushed if you are in a hurry and make a deal quickly - very often the quality of this deal leaves much to be desired.
Share your opinion about the work of estet-portal.com
S.M. Professional, interesting, and even the fact that the direction of your business and audience does not often come into contact with such a topic as negotiating, but you are talking to me, you want to give your subscribers something interesting for their content, to look at familiar things from the other side, from my point of view - this really characterizes you as professionals who care not about themselves, but about the interests of their clients.
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