Take a moment to think about the pattern of clients you’ve taken on for the last few months. Do they typically come to you with a diagnosis of their problems asking you to fill their prescription? Or are they coming to you with symptoms asking for your assessment? If you’re like most agencies, it’s probably a combination of the two, and if you’re like most agencies, the clients that come in with symptoms are generally the best types of clients.

Just like you wouldn’t go into a doctor telling them what’s wrong with you, clients shouldn’t be going to the experts explaining what it is that they need to solve their problems, yet they do it every day. So how can you combat this? A wise person once explained to me that clients come to your agency through one of two doors, the “strategy door” or the “implementation door”.

The reason to get clients in through the “strategy door” is that they turn into better, longer-term clients because they’re seeking a diagnosis and not simply coming to you to give them the pills they think they need.

So how do you get your patients to stop dictating their care and start to think of you as the expert they come to with symptoms instead of solutions? It’s easier than you might think, but requires a shift in your thinking that you can’t back down from.

1. Learn

The easiest way to start directing patients through the strategy door is to be the one in control in your conversations. If a potential client calls you to discuss their problems, make sure you’re the one dictating the phone call. Ask them about their symptoms, pain points, struggles, and goals. They may seem to resist, but they are looking for that expert to tell them what’s up. If you notice them diagnosing their own symptoms (“I have a sore throat, it has to be strep!”), be ready to combat this by directing the conversation to the bigger picture, explaining your process for diagnosing their symptoms, or providing anecdotes to express the complexity of their symptoms and that the answer may not be so simple or obvious. The easiest way to get clients to see you as an expert is to act like an expert.

2. Diagnose

During this conversation, make note of the actual symptoms they mention (not the solutions), and assess them for a bigger picture analysis. If their throat is sore, their back hurts, they have constant headaches, and they’re always thirsty, a doctor would look for an answer that encompasses all of the symptoms instead of treating them individually. That’s what experts do, and as the expert in this situation, it’s your job to notice patterns and diagnose problems that probably started at a higher level than how they see it. This way of thinking, especially at the pace of a phone call or meeting, will take practice, but with time, you’ll probably even find that many of your clients with varying symptoms, have similar diagnoses, enabling you to help them much more efficiently.

3. Prescribe

At this point in your discussions, you’ll have learned about their problems, diagnosed them with what the real issue might be, so this is where you begin the process of walking them into the implementation room. You’ll have gained enough knowledge to know what they need to feel better, and this is the place that you prescribe them a solution to their problems. You’ll notice that many clients want the conversation to start here and skip the diagnosis altogether. Just like in medicine, after time, these patients become painfully obvious (“I just need the pills!”), and sometimes you can get them to sit down with you for an assessment and diagnosis, but sometimes they just want the pills. In the long run, the pill-poppers aren’t good for your business, but sometimes you have to take them to stay afloat. Just know the side effects before you accept the risk of handing off pills as they need them.

4. Follow up

After you’ve prescribed what your clients need to solve their problems, it’s important to see how their treatment went. Doctors will always schedule a follow up appointment to make sure their pain has subsided or the symptoms have disappeared, which can also be a great tool for your agency. Many times, you’ll find yourself assuming that if the client has any problems, they’d tell you, but often, just as in medicine, patients just need you to ask. Take this as an opportunity to follow up, see how things are going, and see if they’re feeling better or even have new symptoms! This follow up can even be scheduled at the completion of their project!

Using this model for your agency will take getting used to (for both the client and you), but in time, it will allow you to enter from the strategy/diagnosis side more often to establish better patient relationships because they can easily see you’re looking out for their well-being.

§ 2 Responses to Strategy vs implementation: are you prescribing the right medicine?

• Lawrence Riddick says:

  February 10, 2012 at 3:01 am

  This is a great article! I took notes : )

  Reply
  • Kim Higdon says:

    February 10, 2012 at 3:30 pm

    Glad you enjoyed it!

    Reply