EP063: Integrity-based Human Influence for Functional Medicine Practitioners

Welcome to the Perfect Practice podcast where we share the most innovative strategies to help you build a successful functional medicine business, attract your ideal patients, serve your community, and get paid what you're worth. Each episode is packed with practical steps that you can take to immediately grow your influence and serve more people. Our mission is to share golden nuggets from successful practitioners, technology experts and innovators from around the world. Your host, Sachin Patel is a functional medicine and success coach, international speaker and best selling author. He's calling in all his favors to bring this information to you so you can create your Perfect Practice.

What's up everyone? It's Satchin. Welcome to Perfect Practice. I'm coming to you live from my hotel room. It's a Saturday morning and I am in New Jersey right now. I am attending Unblinded, which is a sales mastery course put on by Sean Kalegi. And Sean is actually a attorney who is blind. He's legally blind and has built an amazing law firm, but has also built an awesome framework for integrity based sales. Now, I know the word sales can be a bit of a challenge for people in the medical field because we don't like to be salesy and sleazy and slimy. Of course, nobody does in any profession, in any industry. But sales for some reason can be a bit of a sticky word for us. So integrity based sales is a completely different paradigm of sales and a paradigm that I think we can all align with when it comes to our core values. So the framework that they use is called integrity based human influence. And so we're here at a three day event trying to master this exact framework and, and formula. So I thought for today's episode, what I do is I'd give you some of my highlights from day one. I've got two more intense days of training and practicing and coaching that I'll be doing. And of course, I'll be sharing these strategies at our upcoming event, Perfect Practice Live. You can grab your seats@perfectpracticelive.com and join us because what we're going to be doing this year is teaching you how to get outside of your brick and mortar. And when you're doing that, that's gonna lead to amazing new opportunities for you. But here's the thing. No matter what direction your practice goes in, whether you double down in the brick and mortar side of things, whether you go outside and start selling things online or have online programs or zoom calls, you've gotta be really good at sales. And sales is essentially what we would refer to as Agreement for formation. You're agreeing with your customer to go on a journey with them that's going to be mutually beneficial. It's going to benefit you because it fills your heart and joy to produce a result for somebody. It's going to fill them with great health and joy and pride in the outcome that you're generating for them. And it's going to help your business move in the right direction. That's what an agreement formation should be. It should be all three of these things moving in the right direction. So the framework that I'm going to share with you today is based on three days worth of training. I've only taken one day of training, but I think I've got enough to move you in the right direction and get you thinking about sales a little bit differently and using it as a tool instead of it being something that you're afraid of. Because again, your association with, with this word might be based on, you know, something that's actually holding you back and not serving you in your practice. Nothing happens in business until a sale is made. So if you're really good at marketing, guess what, you've got to be equally good, if not better at sales because that's where the actual action takes place. Any business is going to be heavily dependent on people saying yes to what you have to offer. And if people aren't saying yes to what you have to offer, you really don't have a business. You've got a hobby and you might have this expensive marketing going on or, you know, ineffective marketing going on. But ineffective marketing is usually ineffective sales and conversion and like I said, agreement formation. So I'm going to really go over the framework here because I want to stay in integrity and I'm not going to rip off Sean's formula and share it with you. I definitely think it's something that you should look into, especially in the healthcare field. This is extremely powerful. I actually have a bunch of my mentorship clients here, friends of course, but they're also mentorship clients because I believe that this is a valuable training for them. So there's about 20 of us here with our teams and staff members that are going through this formula because we want to maintain the highest level of integrity and we're looking to incorporate that into our practices even further. The beautiful thing about coming here this weekend is I've realized that we have been doing a lot of this integrity based selling and influence without actually knowing it. So this allowed me to actually add a framework to the way I was approaching sales and the way I was approaching my clients to get them to make a decision and it allows me to put things in the right order. So this is very important that you have some sort of training in this. This is actually my first ever formal sales training. I've taken a lot of training on marketing. I've taken a lot of training on, you know, technology and the Internet and social media and stuff like that. And I've been sold to a thousand times, as you can probably imagine. But this is actually my first sales based training and I'm so glad it is because I can really feel a positive vibe as I'm learning this information and I can truly feel Sean's heart coming through in this information that he's presenting. And as I mentioned earlier, he's actually legally blind. So it's amazing to see a human being up there blind, rocking the audience. And of course he's got a great team. And shout out to Jared Yellen who invited us to come to this event because he knew that we would really benefit from it. So thank you, brother. All right, let's get into this. First and foremost, there's three parts to the framework. The first part is a four step communication model. The next is the ten indispensable elements. And then the third part is the four energies. So let's go through those. I'll give you my two cents on them. But of course this is a three day training so I'm not going to be able to cover this in depth individually. And really you've got to see it in person and practice it to get the most out of this. So if they're ever hosting an event, I'll be sure to let my audience know and might be something worth considering. They haven't told us if there's any offers they're making this weekend and I'll be glad to share that if that's the case so that you can go through this training and formula. I truly believe your practice would benefit from it. So let's start with the four step communication model. First and foremost, you want to create emotional rapport with somebody. You've got to be really good as a practitioner at listening at people's stories. Not their clinical story, not about their lab testing and their symptoms, but truly their story. Because their story is something that's important to them. People don't say something, they don't add details to their story unless there's some sort of meaning to them, either conscious or unconscious. And you've got to pick up on that. Okay? So when you're Listening to your clients tell their story, you know, make sure you're listening to the actual story itself. Not the symptoms, not the condition, not the lab work, but their actual story. Because that's how you build emotional rapport. Building clinical rapport is when you let them know how smart you are, but building emotional rapport is letting them know how much you care and how well you're listening. So you've got to be extremely present. You know, and I'm guilty of this sometimes, especially with my son, because I kind of know what he's going to say. As an adult, we tend to do that. We make assumptions. And so I almost always have to bring myself back to that present moment and realize how important what he's saying is to him and to me. So practicing with your children is really, really good because it brings you in that present moment, awareness. And you can really build a lot of emotional rapport by truly listening and really matching that person's physiology, matching their nervous system, matching their intensity, really, you know, turning towards them and matching their body language. And you're going to kind of do this just because you're human, but if you do this consciously, then you can go a little bit deeper, faster into serving this individual. The next thing that you want to do is connecting people to their pain and, yes, strategies. So you've got to make them really aware of what their challenge that they're calling you to help them with or seeing you in person to help them with is doing to them and the way it's impacting them. And it seems kind of obvious you might be doing that already, but some of you might be afraid to actually ask the questions that are necessary to get to that pain. You know, how is this affecting you? We might make assumptions. We might not even know how it's affecting them or what really creates an emotion and how this is affecting them. Until we probe a little bit deeper, you know, is it preventing them from being the spouse they want to be or the parent they want to be or the, you know, business owner that they want to be? Like, what is the emotional thing that you can get them to speak about and connect them to their pain? Okay, we are not logical beings. This is something Sean talked about, and I've known this for years. There's nothing logical about the way people make decisions. And the example he gave was having kids, right? There's really nothing logical about having kids. It's a lot of time, It's a lot of energy, it's a lot of money. You know, it can take you Away from other things that you're super passionate about. We are emotional, right? There's emotional reasons we have children and emotional reasons we do things more so than logical. So you got to connect people to their emotions surrounding their pain that they have and also understand their quote, unquote, yes strategy. A yes strategy is basically what's going to get them to say yes, right? What's going to make that shift for them? People probably don't get excited about their lab work, right? People probably are not excited that their cholesterol is going to get lower. I mean, I think doctors get excited about that. And, you know, functional medicine practitioners, I'm sure we get excited about that because it means we're moving that person in the right direction. But really, what is going to be the thing that gets them to say yes? You've got to move closer towards that. What are, what are the questions that you need to ask this individual by paying close attention to what they're saying to figure out what gets them to say yes? And sometimes you can ask them, you know, what do I need to go over today to get you to make a decision? What are the things about this program you value the most? What's got you most excited, and what's the reason you set up this time to speak with me? Right? What is this helping you solve? So get to that yes strategy and make sure that you're focusing on that when you're communicating with them. The next thing you need to do is you need to share your unique identity. And your unique identity is basically your hero's journey. Your heroic identity is what he refers to it as. And this is where you're going to be telling your story in a way that allows people to connect with you a little bit more deeply. So some of the characteristics and stories that you can share should highlight your integrity, your honesty, your empathy, your loyalty, your confidence, integrity, you know, your passion, courage and bravery, humility, love, inspiration, leadership and your adventurousness. So all of these things can be highlighted in your story as to sharing what you do, what you do and your unique identity should draw people in. Okay? And when you understand what challenges they have, what pain points they have, and you've built that emotional rapport and you're listening, then you can draw from your heroic stories and your heroic identity and focus on those things that are going to resonate the most with them. So if they don't have kids, maybe you telling them about your kids doesn't really make sense. Okay. Whereas, let's say you had a sick child and they have a sick child. And you've helped your sick child feel amazing because of all the research you've done and because of all the conferences you've gone to and, you know, the information that you've gathered over the years, that's gonna be really resonant with that person. So when you listen carefully to what their emotional triggers are, then you can pull from your heroic identity and, and focus on those things that build rapport with this individual. And then the fourth part about communication is really reframing the word close, right? And really change that to agreement formation. So let's create an agreement that we can work with that's going to address this pain point for you and move you in the right direction so you can have a massive breakthrough with your health. And so reframing it in your mind makes a big difference. Okay. It takes a lot of anxiety out of the process of closing or, you know, getting the sales, so to speak. And I don't even like saying that. You could probably feel my vibration change when I say that. You could definitely feel my energy. I could feel my energy change. Maybe you could too, in my voice. I love the terminology agreement formation. So, you know, just kind of thinking about, you would never say, hey, at the end of this call, we're going to close you. You would never say that. But if you don't have a better framework or better nomenclature to work with, you're saying that in your head, you might not be saying it out loud. So you want to actually have the thoughts in your mind and in your heart basically being the same things that you actually say. That's what integrity is. We use the same language in our heads as we do in the spoken word. So agreement formation is a powerful shift in nomenclature that can really help you. And that's really what it is. You're both agreeing to work together and, and you're coming to an agreement that this is a strategy we're going to be using to help you get better. Now, the next part of the framework are the 10 indispensable elements. So 10 indispensable elements are basically little strategies that you can use to get people to move towards that agreement formation. So, you know, number one would be scarcity. Okay? Scarcity can be used in multiple different ways. There are a certain number of seats available. So for our live event, we literally have a fire code and we can only have one hundred and fifty people there. So there is true scarcity. You know, for that event, there is a fundraiser that we're doing and there's true scarcity for that event because I can only have a certain number of people in my house. You know, if you're accepting an unlimited number of people, don't create false scarcity. Okay? If a program starts on a particular date, then you know, that could be a source of scarcity because you might have a specific timeline when a program is starting. But be authentic and be genuine with scarcity. And there should always be some sort of scarcity. Now, scarcity doesn't always have to come from you. Scarcity could also come from them. You know, there could be a sense of urgency that's created based on the problem that they have. So if a client doesn't sign up, what are the consequences that they're going to face? Right? That's scarcity. Scarcity isn't just missing out on doing business with you, but scarcity is missing out on life, which is what their pain is preventing them from experiencing. The next indispensable element is matching and mirroring. So when you're communicating with somebody, you've got to match their energy. You've got to match their body language, you've got to match, you know, their, you know, physiology, so to speak, because you want to make sure that there's rapport being built. That way, if somebody comes in and their energy, their voice is low and yours is super high, you're going to seem super annoying and frustrating to that person. Okay? So match their energy. Bring them up if you need to, but meet them where they're at. Or, you know, calm them down if you need to, but meet them where they're at. So matching and mirroring is another important part of the integrity based human influence model. Next is acknowledgement. You want to make sure that the person feels heard. And the way you do that is by getting their story straight or repeating what they're saying. So if they might say something and you might say, hey, I just want to get this straight, so you're telling me, and then you repeat what they say. Number four. And really, Sean framed this as number one is love. Right? We should always lead with love. And that's one of the things I love about this framework, is that it is leadership in sales through love. That's the first and foremost thing. And we should always, always, always do that. There's also something that they call level five listening. So level five listening is really powerful because what it does is it immerses you into that individual's sphere. Okay? So level five listening is where you are not thinking about what you're going to Say next, you're making eye contact, you're being emotionally involved and engaged in that conversation. They feel heard, they feel seen, they feel understood. And that's one of the things that many of our clients complain about, right? That they don't feel heard or they don't feel understood, and their doctors aren't truly listening to what they have to say. And, of course, that's gonna be a challenge if we're trying to help them get healthy. We need to be very, very diligent in the way we listen. And it's not about us knowing that we're listening. The customer or the client or the patient needs to know that you're listening as well. So they have to feel heard. It's not about being heard. It's about feeling heard. Now, the next one is emotional and energetic transference. And this is where there has to be that connection. So this is kind of an unspoken connection that takes place, a feeling that people get that they can trust you. Okay? That, you know, and if you're doing all these other things right that we talked about, you know, asking the right questions, matching and mirroring, you know, acknowledging the person, repeating their story back to them, leading with love, doing transformational listening, then there's gonna be an emotional and energetic transference that takes place. Okay? And this is something that's super important. The next element is reciprocity. Okay? Reciprocity is very powerful, and the key is to never expect anything, you know, especially before an agreement takes place. You should always go in with a giver's attitude. You know, my mentor, Joe Polish, taught me that life gives to the giver and takes from the taker. So be reciprocal and be very giving and, of course, loving as you're going through this process. Next element is the power of questions. So questions are really, really key. And I'm going to go over five questions that you should all be asking in just a moment here. But questions are extremely, extremely important. And you want to have a list of questions or a way of crafting questions that really gets people to answer and get them thinking. Right. It's not just about getting them to create an answer, but it's getting them to think a little bit. And good questions can build a lot of rapport. Number nine is validation of the process. Okay, so you're validating what you're doing is actually going to help this individual. Maybe you share case studies or stories on how that's the case or why you feel that's the case. But they need to feel comfortable and confident in what you're offering, and it's just, it's going to make them feel really good, especially if you're doing all the other things we talked about. And the next is the triad of congruence. And this is where there's alignment in our language, in our vocal qualities and our body language. So, you know, what we're thinking, the words that are coming out of our mouth, and basically the unspoken words that our body is conveying have to be in alignment. And so this is extremely important as well. I'm going to go through the four energies, and then I'll go through, you know, five questions that you want to ask people. So there's four different energies when you're understanding, influence, mastery. The first one is Zeus energy. So this is very decisive. This is black and white. This is, you know, alpha type of energy. The next one is Goddess energy. Okay, so Goddess energy is basically where the energy is love and empathy. Level five, listening. And you want to incorporate this in your process as well. So there's times where you need to be firm and there's times where you need to be soft, so to speak, and soft in a good way. Right. Water can be both hard and soft, you know, at the same time, and it's in the same state. The next quality or energy is aspirational, inspirational. And so we want to make sure that we're leading people towards a better future and they know that we're able to take, do that and have a positive outlook on things. And the next one, the last one, is fun. So the primary use of this energy is to make others smile, create memories, and to get people to laugh. And if you can take people through all four of these different energies through your sales process, through your agreement formation process, guess what? You're going to have some pretty transformational outcomes and amazing consultations with your clients right off the bat. You're going to be the most amazing practitioner that they've ever worked with based on the qualities that we talked about today. Now let's go over five questions in the creation of emotional rapport. So the very first thing I talked about, the first part of the framework, was creating emotional rapport. And there's five questions that go along with that that I wanted to talk about with you. So these questions can be framed in a variety of different ways. I'll give you the basics, and then you can adjust the question, of course, based on what the client's saying and based on what you feel is most appropriate. So question number one that you can ask people is, where have you been, you know, what have you done? Who have you seen? What have you been doing up to this point in terms of the care that you've been receiving and the people that you've been seeing? Now, when they talk about this, you've got to listen very carefully and they need to know that you're listening. And listening means that you're paying attention to them. You're matching their body language, you're mirroring them, you're looking them in the eyes appropriately, not on your computer typing, okay? So you've got to be fully present to the conversation and you've got to listen to the subtleties of what they say because they're going to tell you very clearly if you're listening, you know, what they liked about it, what they didn't like about it, what frustrated them, what excited them. The next question is, where are you now? So this is going to be a chance for them to give an honest assessment of where they are with their health or where they are with their current strategy or problem that they're trying to solve. So they're going to tell you, they're going to tell you, you know, my energy sucks or, you know, I feel great, but here's the challenge that I'm facing right now. Here's get a sense of where they're at. Don't make assumptions and let them tell you where they're at. The next is where are you going? So what do you feel like is the trajectory of your health if you don't do anything? Okay, clearly they feel that this is a pain point for them, otherwise they wouldn't be there seeing you. But again, let them tell you, where do you see your health or where do you see this condition going? What's the trajectory that you see yourself going? In question number four is what's worked for you. So out of all the things that you've done so far, what are the things that are working for you? So they might say, you know, I changed my diet, that helped. I cut out gluten and that helped. I started going to bed earlier or exercising, spending more time in nature. And those are the things that help. And you can acknowledge them for doing those things and commend them for doing those things. They might even tell you some of the things that helped from some of the other practitioners that they saw and you know, and congratulate them for that, for taking the effort and having the awareness, the self awareness of being able to acknowledge that. And then number five is what are the challenges? What are the things that you're still struggling with so that working together we can address those issues. So those are the five questions and really in a nutshell is, you know, where have you been, what have you done? Where are you now? Where are you going, what's working and what are some of the challenges that you continue to face. So we can, you know, take it back and, or take your health or whatever it is that you're offering to this person, to whatever problem you're solving, you can help them move in the right direction. So there you have it, the integrity based human influence formula. Thank you once again, Sean for putting this amazing program together. I'm super pumped for the next two days. Learned a lot and I hope that you found this extremely valuable. If you're looking for an amazing event to attend which will use this as a framework, amongst other things. We've got some amazing speakers lined up this year. I'd love to have you at Perfect Practice live. If 2020 is your year, this is your event. We're going beyond the brick and mortar. We, we're gonna teach you strategies on how you can increase your impact, increase your influence and really create a ripple in your community and your country and the world. The world needs all of us now more than ever and there's never been a greater time or opportunity to start having that impact. So I have many of my personal mentors will be there speaking and everyone that's speaking from the stage, they make seven figures online. So we don't have people there that are talking theory. We've got people there that are going to be teaching you strategies because they're actually doing it. So my mentor Peter Osborne is going to be there. My mentor Matthew Loop is going to be there. I've got Uje Ramdas who's going to be there. He's going to talk about business building and the structure and organization of your business. You know, I've got Jason Kristof coming, who's a self sabotage expert. So he's going to help us have some massive breakthroughs. My mentees are going to be there and they're going to be learning, but they're also going to be sharing. I'm of course going to be speaking, my team members are going to be speaking there. So this is going to be a really powerful, powerful event. If you're a clinician who has high integrity, if you're looking to continue to lead with love and you're looking to take your practice and business to the next level, because it needs to go to the next level. This year and this decade. This is our decade. Then this is your event so I'd love to see you there. You can learn more at www.perfectpracticelive.com. this year our event is in Toronto April 3rd to 5th. It's three action packed days and we've got some amazing bonuses that we're giving out to you even before you come to the event so that you can start putting our teachings immediately into action. I love you. Have an amazing, amazing rest of your day. Hope to see you soon and wishing you much success in 2020 and beyond. Bye for now.