Recently I originated my Art of Selling Award, and had given out the first one.
Today I’ll tell you about the second recipient.
For those who aren’t familiar, award winners are people who display sales skills beyond the average, ordinary, and expected. The person’s example of professional salesmanship must be remarkable, and something worth sharing with my readers and clients. And, similar to the first winner,seven-year-old Will, today’s winner isn’t a salesperson by profession—or at least it’s not in his title.
He’s my dentist, Dr. Mitchell Cooper, DDS.
When I was recently searching for a primary dentist here in Phoenix, I picked Dr. Cooper based on the strong recommendation of a good friend. I had also checked him out online, read glowing reviews, and decided to give him a shot.
On my initial visit and exam I could see why he was popular… modern office, efficient staff, and he was very friendly, thorough, and funny.
It was determined I needed some additional work… a filling replaced and a chip smoothed out, which I finally went in for last week.
A drill-and-fill is never on anyone’s “Favorite Things to Do” list, but Dr. Cooper made it tolerable, and I was again impressed by his thoroughness.
The work was done late in the day, and right afterwards I had plans to meet my son at a pizza place. Non-sales tip: this was not the smartest idea, and I don’t recommend it after dental work. The entire right side of my face was paralyzed from the novocaine and only the left part of my mouth moved when I attempted to speak, eat or drink. It was tough not to drooI. People stared. I digress.
Anyway, later that night, close to 9:45pm, I received a call on my cell phone. I don’t give the number out to many people and didn’t recognize the caller ID. I answered. The caller said: “Hi Art, it’s Dr. Cooper, I just wanted to be sure everything is OK.”
I was blown away.
Let me put it in context.
-Dr. Cooper does not know that I work with professionals on using the phone, or that he could potentially have his story read by over 50,000 subscribers.
-This was not a major dental procedure with complications.
-He must have seen over 20 patients that day. I counted four in just the hour I was there.
-He was still working, caring for patients by phone, making a phone call at 9:45 at night.
-He genuinely cared when he asked the question and when he answered one I asked about the procedure. He in no way was rushed to get off the phone, like one might be if they were just going through the motions for symbolic purposes. He is a genuine guy, and I also could tell that by the way he interacted with his staff and other patients.
I told him I needed to ask about his calling. Does he call all of his patients? He said that he usually does. That further impressed me.
I’ve had other doctors and dentists give me their phone numbers with instructions to call if I needed anything after leaving the office, but none that called ME.
That is an example of selling by caring, helping, and following up. There’s some advanced sales strategy for you. Think I would consider another dentist? Nope.
Think I’m going to tell everyone I know about him? Yep. And over 50,000 others.
If you are in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area and want a top-notch dentist, call Dr. Mitchell Cooper’s office, Greyhawk Dental, (480) 994-4327.
What We Can Learn
The story itself has several valuable, yet simple and fundamental lessons for us as salespeople:
-What do you do after a sale? We work hard to get customers, but what is done to not only keep them, but ensure they wouldn’t even think about going elsewhere? Have you ever had customers leave because they might not have felt like they were getting attention from you or your company? Probably… then again, you don’t really know if you weren’t in contact with them.
-What do you do to overdeliver, to surprise and delight, that is over the top, and above and beyond expectations? That’s the stuff that’s memorable, and goes viral with word-of-mouth buzz and referrals, the cheapest and most valuable form of new business. Do you have all of the referred leads that you can handle?
Keep it up, Dr. Cooper, although I have a feeling it will be tougher to get an appointment with you as your practice will undoubtedly continue to grow.
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