I know some people in chiropractic feel like “sales” is a dirty word. Sorry, but you have to sell your services to make money. If you don’t make money, poof, there goes your business. Who did you help along the way? No one.

Obviously, there’s a lot to learn in chiropractic sales training. But you can start using these three fundamentals immediately.

1. Shut the F**k Up

You should love hearing this because it means you do less work to make more money. All you have to do is STFU.

Here’s the thing: People don’t want to hear you talk. You’ll never talk someone into becoming your patient. That’s why we always remind chiropractic CEOs that they don’t talk people into a close. They listen them into a close.

This is true in pretty much every industry, but a lot of sales professionals never STFU and listen. They end up sounding like radio DJs trying to fill up dead air. They go on and on and on. Meanwhile, the client — the person who really matters here — can’t get a word in.

By learning to STFU, you also encourage clients to talk. Look, someone has to make sound to fill up the empty space. Otherwise, conversations will feel awkward. Create those empty spaces so your clients will fill them.

Some chiropractors think that this is an easy thing to do. How hard is it to shut your mouth?

Turns out… it’s pretty hard.

Most chiropractors end up talking too much because they want to educate their patients. It’s awesome that you want to share your knowledge. And it’s great that you want patients to make informed decisions.

When it comes down to it, though, patients want you to keep it simple.

Quick recap.

STFU so you can create space for patients to give you important information.

STFU so you can keep things simple instead of overwhelming patients.

And STFU so you stop talking yourself out of a close.

2. Rapport

Building rapport between yourself and the prospect might be the most critical aspect of sales training.

A good rapport lowers tension in the conversation, making the other person — your client — feel comfortable opening up and telling you why they’ve come to your practice for help.

Great rapport feels like sitting at lunch with friends. There’s plenty of back and forth because you’re just having a conversation.

One of the hardest things about building great rapport is that you have to be yourself. You’re making a relationship, so you have to be genuinely, organically yourself. If you can’t do that, something will feel off to the other person.

They won’t feel comfortable in the discussion, so they certainly won’t feel comfortable paying you to be their doctor.

There are a couple of details I think all sales professionals need to know about when it comes to rapport.

First off — and I’ve said this before, so you might recognize it — authenticity is the new currency. A few decades ago, professionals were very stiff. That approach doesn’t work for today’s consumers. They want to give their business to people who remind them of their friends. If you come across as too buttoned up or robotic, people won’t like it. You have to be you. Otherwise, you won’t have real conversations.

Second, don’t worry about being liked. You don’t need to think about whether the other person likes you.

Instead, you need the client to respect you.

Now, how do you get someone to respect you? Again, you have to be yourself. Additionally, you must listen to them, understand their needs, and provide a service that meets those needs.

If you can do that, you will close more sales.

If you’re wringing your hands, thinking about how much you want clients to like you… All I can say is that “liking you” comes with time. You’re providing chiropractic services that will help these people enjoy life more. Trust me, once they see what you can do for them, they will like you.

3. Ask Skilled Questions

Not every question will encourage clients to give you useful information. Since you want them to tell you things that will help you diagnose and resolve their issues, ask skilled questions.

Okay, but what does that mean? That’s a bit vague.

Let me give you some examples.

“How long have you had your neck pain?”

This is an unskilled question. It’s so basic that you probably won’t get much from it.

You can turn it into a skilled question, though, by asking, “When is the first time you recall having any type of neck pain whatsoever?”

Do you see the difference here?

The second question asks the client to go much further back in their history and give a much more detailed answer.

Let’s put it in a different context. Let’s say you call a plumber because your basement flooded. Here, an unskilled question from the plumber might be, “When did the flood start?” A skilled version of that is, “When’s the first time you noticed any water at all in your basement?”

Skilled questions help you diagnose problems. They also help you close sales.

The unskilled question about neck pain will often get a response like, “A couple of weeks.” Because that’s how long this specific instance of pain has been going on. The skilled question might get a response like, “It first started when I got my job at the bank. That was about eight years ago.”

Now, your prospect is thinking about how they’ve been suffering for eight years, not just a couple of weeks. Wow, that’s a long time. I’d better ask this chiropractor to help me!

See? The client closed the sale because you asked a skilled question. Plus, you knew to STFU when they answered.

Sales Training Equals Success in Chiropractic

I pulled these three sales fundamentals from a longer conversation I had with my ChoseForChiro partners. You can watch the video on our YouTube channel. It’s only about 15 minutes long, and you’ll get some more insights into how sales training helps chiropractors succeed.

You can also sign up for our MasterClass to learn even more sales tips. Either way, keep practicing these skills to move your chiropractic business forward.