Selling is like a muscle—if you don’t use it, you lose it.
Many pharmacists and pharmacy staff don’t feel comfortable “selling.” But if you suggest front-end products and pharmacy services that patients actually need, it’s really just another way to help.
To build sales stamina, you have to start small and work your way up. The transformation from a lightweight to a heavyweight sales champion doesn’t have to take long, but it helps if you have a sales workout schedule to follow.
Here is a 4-week regimen any pharmacist or pharmacy staff member can do to build their sales strength.
Week 1: Educate yourself
Familiarize yourself with everything that’s relevant to your pharmacy—your store layout, patient demographics, product and service offerings, your community and the industry. Consider subscribing to a weekly newsletter, so you always have the latest industry information.
Give surveys or just ask patients for feedback to learn more about your patients. You can also research your community through resources listed here. The more you know, the better you’ll be able to boost sales through supplementary and complementary product recommendations so spend this week learning everything you can.
Week 2: Develop a sales speech
Using what you’ve learned about your products and your patients, develop a sales speech to recommend supplementary front-end products. For example, train yourself to offer skin care products to patients with diabetes, or to suggest a probiotic to patients filling a prescription for an antibiotic.
Share the sales speech with your staff or encourage them to develop their own. Practice it by yourself, with your staff, and with the occasional friendly customer. Adjust the speech based on feedback to make it more effective.
Week 3: Identify opportunities
Make a list of opportunities during patient interactions where you can boost front-end or back-end sales. Maybe you can add a sign on your front door reminding patients about your compounding services, or you can recommend a front-end purchase at the checkout counter. Spend the week looking for, and recording, opportunities to add a sales speech. Have your staff keep an eye out for chances, too, and share your ideas at the end of the week.
Week 4: Put it to work
Put your new knowledge and your sales speech to work during the opportunities you identified. Set goals for yourself and your staff to give two or three sales pitches each day during this week. Get in the habit of incorporating sales into your daily routine, so you can continue the good, daily sales habits even after this month.
Keep track of any additional sales that result from your recommendations, and after a month in the routine, look back and see how this workout has helped improve your business’s bottom line.
Start your one-month workout to boost sales and see the results in your pharmacy’s bottom line.
