People Don’t Buy the Diamond; They Buy the Story About the Diamond

by Bharon Hoag – Executive Director of OneChiropractic

Editor’s Note: Bharon Hoag is the keynote speaker at Ignite 2021. He is inspiring and engaging and will help bring your practice info focus by helping you involve your entire staff. Register and Ignite your practice at www.ChiroIgnite.com.

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I’m currently listening to a very interesting book called When I Stop Talking, You’ll Know I’m Dead, by Jerry Weintraub. It was recommended to me by a couple of friends I respect, and the title sounds like something I would say, or, rather, others have said about me.

I am only a few hours in, but it has already given me so much to think about. One of the early points shared is the namesake for this article. I found that phrase about the diamond’s story very interesting. Jerry goes on to tell a story about his father in the early 1950s. He was a traveling jewelry salesman. He would travel around the country with a briefcase full of jewelry he would sell to jewelers. Jerry shared a specific story of his father coming home with the gem-like rock, and it had no value. However, his father shined this rock until it glimmered. He named the rock “The Star of Ardaban,” bought a high-end briefcase to put it in, and developed a fabulous back story about the rock. His father began to call local newspapers and tell the story of this amazing gem, and they could take pictures and put him in the paper.  He gained so much publicity that when he traveled, Jerry’s father would have jewelers wanting to come to see the “The Star of Ardaban,” and while they were marveling at this shiny rock, he would sell them all of the other jewelry he had — just brilliant!  

This story amazed me. I stopped the book and sat and thought about it. I remember going in to buy a wedding ring when I was 20 years old. I knew nothing about diamonds and was utterly dependent on the story the jeweler told me. And you know what? I bought the one that made the most sense to me from the story the salesman told. I paid $2,000 more than I wanted to because of the story told… Jerry was right!

I then began to parallel this principle to chiropractic. We spend so much time talking about the “diamond” and do not do a good job developing the backstory. I have heard this principle explained another way: “People do not buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” That is from Simon Sinek’s book, Leaders Start with Why. Let me be clear. I am not talking about creating a backstory for chiropractic; there is a beautiful story already there. I am talking about articulating the backstory for you and your clinic.

What happens when you begin to simply tell the story of how you became a chiropractic physician and why your practice does what it does? Is it possible you will attract more like-minded people if you spent more time sharing your mission in the world, rather than the specific treatments you do? After all, isn’t a key goal in sales to differentiate you from your competition? Who else has your story? When you begin telling people what you believe and what your mission is, then you provide them an opportunity to join your mission or believe what you believe. This is how you become magnetic to the world around you. Sinek also says in his book, “The goal is not to do business with everyone that needs your product of service, the goal is to do business with people that believe what you believe.” That is a powerful and extremely accurate statement. Does your world know what you truly believe? Not what chiropractic is, but what YOU believe.

I challenge you to begin formulating your backstory. Make it the essence of your communication to the outside world. When your “Why” leads the conversation, you will see a dramatic difference in the way people respond and comply.

I believe in you, in your “why” and in your ability to serve your community with the power of chiropractic. I would love to hear the story of your diamond!