Hair Sales Questions

I loved the question about the salesman and the consultation [see: Hair Salesman]. I am a professional salesman selling high end cars, and I fully understand this issue. When one is selling a car or a service, the businessman asks: how many people does one have to go through to get a sale? Now with that said, How many prospective candidates do you go through to make a sale?

We call this conversion rates. Taking 100 people coming through, how many will sooner or later (within 2 years) make the decision to have a surgery. I have found that the number for my practice is between 33-40% and for other doctors working for me it is about 25-30%. My ‘conversions’ are higher because most of the people who come to see me know about my reputation in advance and often have made up their mind in advance of the visit. I am often the last doctor that they will visit. Still, my conversion numbers are low because I turn down most women (they often can not be helped), young men (who are too young and therefore too early in the process), people with unrealistic expectation, etc.. A salesman would view that the right conversion rate should be the majority of people coming through the door-whether they truly needed the surgery or not. When I had worked for another medical group who had employed a full time sales force, the conversation rates ranged between 50-95%! They would have fired me for my low conversion rate if I was one of their salesmen. That tells me that those doctors who employ salesmen, insulate themselves from the patient. These doctors build more a money focused practice than a people focused practice. My style is to use the medical forums and meeting, my website, the internet and activities like this BaldingBlog to communicate and educate, then have the prospective patient come to see me after they are informed. I have built a boutique practice where I have Hollywood stars and heads of state or CEOs of large companies as often as blue collar workers.