C’mon, admit it! It’s ok to say it, we all know it: Selling is evil, it’s just plain evil. It’s awful and horrible. It’s despicable. Seriously, it’s just atrocious and immoral. And, it’s beneath you!

It would have to be all those things according to what most of you, as eye care professionals, tell me. When asked, in one of my surveys, to define selling, here are some responses from some of your peers:

“Selling is pushing someone to purchase something they may not need.”  “Selling is convincing a person to buy something from you.”   “Selling is persuading a person to buy an item you’re trying to profit off of.”  “Selling is trying to get money from someone to buy something they don’t want or need.”  “Selling is trying to deceive someone to get their money.”

These are actual responses.

Now ironically, and no matter what you do for a living, Selling is necessary. If there weren’t any sales, 99% of us wouldn’t have jobs. So, selling a product and/or service is necessary. But is it really a necessary evil?

Well, it probably is if you subscribe to one of the definitions above or have a negative perception in your head about what you think Selling is. And you probably do because negative perceptions and definitions about Selling is all that’s been taught to us.

Most of us accept the notion that Selling is all about persuading someone to buy something… Selling = Persuasion. So let me ask you this, do you personally like to be persuaded? Yeah, neither do I. And neither do most people.

So if Selling = Persuasion and most people don’t like to be persuaded, […]

An optometrist was very eager to give me his opinion on “selling”.  His attitude was that “selling” cheapens and degrades the profession of optometry. Optometrists and their staffs should not be salespeople. Optometrists should be the best doctors they can be and their staffs should be a reflection of that.

Agreed!  100%!!  Optometrists should be the best doctors they can be and their staffs shouldreflect that. Absolutely! Unequivocally!

He went on to say that people like me, who teach selling to eye care professionals, should be ashamed of themselves; that we appeal to the lowest common denominator of money-grubbing optometrists. Ouch!  It’s not the first time I’ve heard this from someone who’s never attended one of my workshops.

“Doctor, are you telling me that you’re dedicated to the health and comfort of your patient’s visual health? 100%?”

“Yes, of course,” he replied.

“Wonderful! Would you happen to know the percentage of your patients that purchase more than one pair of eyewear from you?”

“Maybe 5 or 10%, if I had to guess.”

“How many pair does your average patient need?”

“On average? Three pair.”

“So, your patients are leaving with less than they need? Hmm, so how is it that you’re not in jail?”

I shared with this doctor the following information: A woman won a $2.1 million settlement against her cardiologist for failing to give her an aspirin.  Yep, an aspirin!  It was to be given to the patient before an angioplasty.  But, because the patient received less than what was needed, she developed gangrene and lost a foot.

Think about this:  If you put your trust into the hands of any other kind of physician… a cardiologist, an oncologist, an orthopedist, etc., and they gave you less than what […]