Are you doing enough?
A patient goes to see their doctor, feeling unwell. The doctor checks them over. “It’s nothing big, I can quickly sort you out” says Doctor, and gives Patient a prescription. “However, you are overweight and that’s not helping you. Here’s a diet sheet and some exercises you can do, come back and see me in a month”.
A month later Patient returns. “Those tablets worked, thank you Doctor, but now I’ve got a pain in my back”. “Have you done your exercises” says Doctor. “No, sorry, I’ve been busy”. “OK”, says Doctor “well you must make time because it’s important to exercise. I see you’ve put more weight on. What happened to the diet?”.
“Well, you know what it’s like when your busy, doctor, and I do like my chocolate.” “Here’s some cream for your back, but you must stick to the exercise and diet plan. Your health will only deteriorate if you don’t so make sure you do”.
This goes on for several months. Patient comes in with varying ailments, pains and excuses. Doctor fixes what can be fixed, reiterates the message and makes another appointment.
After six months Doctor calls Patient in. “I need to be clear with you” says Doctor. “You keep coming in with problems and I fix what I can but you are ignoring my advice when it comes to the root causes. I understand you are busy and dieting is hard but this is important. If you continue to ignore my advice then your health will deteriorate further, your standard of living will fall and you may well die sooner. I’m not prepared to sit back and watch that happen and I’m not prepared to continue wasting valuable appointment time when I have other patients to work with. Have a serious think about your life. Talk to your partner and family. Come back and see me next month. If your weight has fallen and I’m convinced that you are serious about working with me to get you fixed then I’ll keep on acting. If not, you’ll have to find yourself another GP.”
It’s up to Patient now.
When you have a client who has been on your books for a while but who has not made any real progress with their business, are you just putting up with their excuses or are you challenging their ways?
Are you doing enough?
