As a salesperson, you're on the phone -- a lot.
How do you make sure you don’t make a silly mistake or forget something on a call when you have so many to keep track of?
It happens to the best of us. You make a rookie mistake and then facepalm yourself for it. Even doctors who’ve performed the same procedure for decades make simple mistakes.
But doctors discovered a simple tool that helps them avoid unforced errors and perform at the highest level -- and you should be using it too: A checklist.
Get the simple checklist to optimize your discovery calls.
For example, doctors are supposed to follow these five steps every time they insert a line into a patient:
- Wash their hands with soap
- Clean the patient’s skin with chlorhexidine antiseptic
- Put sterile drapes over the entire patient
- Wear a sterile mask, hat, gown, and gloves
- Put a sterile dressing over the catheter site once the line is in
These steps are no-brainers for doctors. Still, when nurses were asked to observe doctors for a month at Johns Hopkins Hospital (one of the top hospitals in the United States) they found that in more than one-third of patients, the doctors skipped at least one step.
That means an increased risk for line infections, which forces patients to stay at the hospital longer than necessary and in some cases leads to death.
Once a hard-copy checklist of the above steps was implemented and strongly enforced by hospital administration, the ten-day line-infection rate dropped to zero. In that hospital, this one checklist prevented 43 infections and 8 deaths, and saved the hospital $2 million dollars in costs.
How often have you gotten off a call and realized you forgot to ask a question? Or to provide a crucial piece of information? It’s not that you didn’t know to do those things. It just slipped your mind because you had a rough day.
Imagine how often those unforced errors result in lost opportunities. Even if you only made a mistake in one of every ten calls, that can add up to tens of thousands of dollars lost every year.
Use a checklist every time you’re on a discovery call to ensure you get all the information you need and book the follow up call.
Your bottom line will thank you for it.
Click below to get the Discovery Call Checklist and
avoid making silly mistakes that cost you profits.