Prescription without Diagnosis

Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.

Imagine you have just sat down for your airline flight. A passenger walks down the aisle loud and obvious. He’s wearing a white lab coat with his name embroidered left chest, a stethoscope hangs from his neck, and he’s carrying an old-fashioned doctor’s bag. He speaks loudly, as if there is any need to, exclaiming “I’m a doctor!" He approaches you and tells you that you look like you could use some sleep. “Here’s a prescription for Ambient.” To the passenger across the aisle he notes that she looks nervous.“You need some Xanax”. “Oh, my! Is that a rash?” he asks the person a few rows back, “I’ve got something that works great for eczema!”

I think you would think the person a quack at best and not be prone to take his advice. If you want to be a professional who is respected for your expertise, work on your problem diagnosis skills, unlike the quack described above, you learn to diagnose from listening, by asking good questions, through trained observation and gentle guidance. 

In my experience, long-term client relationships were built on actively working on getting to know about my client’s business, the market they served, the industry they participated in, the organizations with whom they fought for market share, their goals and vision of success. It was never about getting them a one dollar item to give away at a trade show. 

I spent many years trying to get an appointment with a key promotional products buyer at a large international pharmaceutical company (back in the old days when they spent millions on branded merchandise for physicians and health care facilities). When I finally got the appointment, I walked in with a padfolio and pen. After our brief introductions and niceties, I was about to start asking and listening when the prospect suddenly stood up and peered over his desk at the area around my chair. “Where’s your suitcase?”, he asked. Seeing the puzzled look on my face, he said “all of you ad specialty people always come in and start emptying a suitcase full of stuff on my desk.” I smiled and said, “I want to better understand your needs first. My belief is that prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.” Over the next forty-five minutes, I was able to learn about the top ten brands that they most needed help with and what they wanted those brands to stand for and mean to their target audiences. It was the start of a long, loyal and profitable relationship. For both of the client and my company.

Diagnosis comes from learning important details about your client.

• Learn why they are in business. What is their mission? Pay attention to the words they use and speak their language to them. You may find this out from their website, annual report, or maybe even hanging in their lobby.

• Know how they go to market. How do they go about reaching their final end consumer of their product or service. Do they use distributors, dealers, or go direct?

• Understand their unique distinctions that differentiate them in the marketplace. When you understand their competitive advantage you can recommend actions that will help them communicate their difference effectively.

• Determine who are their competitors. You can learn a lot about what not to do as well as what to do when you know whose lunch they’re trying to eat. Speaking of eating. Many of my former clients in the food business spoke in terms of “share of belly”. This meant that when a fast food company enters the breakfast space, a cereal company now views them as a competitor.

• Get to know how they view success. Ask about their most successful promotions and least awesome flops. Find out how they want stakeholders to feel about their company, their brand, their prospects.

When you go deep to understand your clients, you put yourself in the position to help them diagnose problems and create solid prescriptions for mutual success.