Year of the Pig

In the last post I mention the most powerful influence you have on your market -- what you say about what you do.

Then I point out that jargon befuddles us while talking plain and simple gets your ideas across.

In this post let’s explore how to apply these notions to market yourself as an alternative practitioner. How you can powerfully influence your market by plain and simple talk about what you do. It works for all kinds of businesses.

Michael M., my acupuncturist friend, mentions this is the ‘Year of the Pig’ in the Chinese calendar. That’s too juicy for a professional smartass like me to pass up.

I comment –

“Should I be worried about this? How did the pigs in China get a whole year named after them?”

Michael responds –

“Pigs are good. It represents you have some money and means. And since the Chinese love to eat pork, pigs are seen as great animals to have around. Of course, they make fun of pigs too. If you have a girl calling you a "stupid pig" it is a good day, because it means she really likes you.”

Hmmm. This will take some getting used to. American women usually think pigs are disgusting, dirty, ill mannered, etc., and calling someone a pig here is a serious insult. But a bachelor, who sees Chinese women as exotic, needs to know how good it is to be a pig.

Michael translates a different kind of pig idea that is foreign to me into terms I immediately understand. Not surprising, since in addition to Chinese Medicine, Michael professionally translates medical texts between Chinese and English. He’s fluent and articulate in both languages.

He’s a translator. That’s good for the medicine business as well.

What does a Chinese Medicine doctor say to a patient who asks him --

“How does acupuncture work?”

(No, this is not the lead line to a joke.)

What the patient is asking for is a translation. They’re not asking for a lecture about something they don’t understand, in terms they don’t know.

This is a critical moment when the practitioner can make or break the patient relationship by his response.

He can launch into a highly theoretical and detailed classroom style discourse about ‘how it works’ based on what he learned in China.

Or he can sensitively explain matters in plain and simple terms that are easy for a mainstream American to grasp.

Let’s say he takes the first approach. He goes on much too long, using words and concepts the patient can’t possibly know, and therefore can’t trust. He misses the point where their eyes glaze over. He goes on further, until satisfied his explaination passes any exam given by his mentors and impresses the pants off his peers.

The secondary gain is huge for his ego. He’s enjoying that so much he misses how he lost the challenge to convey meaning to his patient while he was busy winning the battle going on in his own mind.

Beware the ego. It’s a very poor business person.

Now let’s say he takes the second approach. He delivers a short, plain and simple explaination in terms a mainstream American can easily grasp –

“Chinese medicine manages the life force that flows within the body. We find places where life force gets stuck or misrouted, and we get it moving or re-direct it into healthy paths.”

Or something like that. I’m out on a limb here, since I don’t know what I’m talking about with respect to Chinese medicine. I’m totally ignorant of it, in fact.

But I recognize a plain and simple response when I hear one.

The patient at that point has enough information to feel comfortable, and the treatment continues. Or maybe the patient needs more information, and asks

“How am I supposed to know what herbs I should take?”

Let’s say the doctor hasn’t thought about this in advance and doesn’t have a ready answer. So he interprets the question as a challenge, and gives some defensive response. He feels better but he loses the patient, who was befuddled and just needed some re-framing of his mindset.

Again, the ego is a very poor business person that’s too self involved to tend to the mind of your market.

Now let’s say the doctor has thought about this question in advance. In fact, he has compiled a whole list of questions that patients typically ask. And he has carefully formulated plain and simple answers to them all.

His response becomes –

“In Chinese Medicine, the doctor advises you what herbs you need from his pharmacy. It’s part of the service, so you don’t have to study up and become an expert.”

Thus he translates an objection into a powerful benefit. Sometimes what you say about what you do is translation. The doctor’s tending the mind of his market like a garden. He creates and maintains a Chinese Medicine FAQ, adding new answers as new questions come up.

More on plain and simple statements to influence your market, in the next post. I’ll show how to use this powerful concept to create your verbal branding.

Give this a try. Create one plain and simple answer that translates something you do into terms your customer can easily understand. Test it on a real customer. Think about the results. Decide whether you benefit from having a full FAQ. Act on your decision.

I offer a translation service on my web site called “Translation to American.”

Gotta go now. Pig practice. On being a real pig. A real stupid one.

In case I meet a hot Chinese woman.