Getting your head around selling

We supply both Athletic Shoe Stores and Health Professional Practices, the following information may be less relevant for Shoe Stores as ‘selling’ products are the primary way that you make money, however, this may be of interest for some Health Professionals as it not only applies to selling thongs, but any product or service.

Amongst health professionals, the word ‘selling’ is often viewed as a bit of a ‘dirty’ word. As health professionals, many of us got into the profession as we are kind and caring people and we really want to help people, as such we would never want to be seen as ‘selling’ to our patients. However, it is very important to remember, that you are only selling something if you do not believe in what you are selling! If you are trying to ‘push’ a product or service onto someone that they will not benefit in some way, shape or form, or it does not offer some benefits over the alternative, then you are a salesperson.

However, if you truly believe in a product or service, if you feel that the person will derive some benefit, or if the product or service offers some benefits over the alternative options, then you are not selling anything. In this case, you are essentially doing the person a favour by recommending the product or service though educating them about the features and potential benefits of that product or service! Once the customer has been educated, it is then up them to make the final decision whether or not to buy, you’re not ‘selling’, forcing or pressuring the person into doing anything.

To recommend or not?

Some food thought...I once went to a Physiotherapy business meeting where the speaker put forward the following scenario. As a health professional, our role is to advise our patients on matters of health. If there was a particular product or service that offered some benefit or was a superior option to the alternatives, then the question has to be asked, “Are you fulfilling your duty as a Health Professional if you do not make your patient aware of these options and educate them about the pros and cons of the options so that they can make an informed decision?”

Take the following two examples:

Example 1: Think of the following situation of a patient that goes to the dentist for a filling.  They spend hundreds of dollars getting it done. They pay their bill and leave with no further recommendations from the dentist. The patient then later reads about a special mouthwash which has recently found by dentist to reduce 99% of cavities. Don’t you think they would be a bit disappointed that the dentist didn’t at least educate them about the benefits of this new special mouthwash? After all, they are paying the dentist for advice. The patient would surely ask themselves, ‘Does my dentist have my best interest at hand or does he/she just want me to keep coming back to see them so they can continue putting fillings in me and make money?’ They would surely feel annoyed and disappointed and possibly go somewhere else to get their dentistry done.

Example 2: Think of the following situation of a patient that goes to see their Health Professional for their sore back that occurs every-time they sit in a car for a prolonged period of time. The Health Professional treats them for months and months and the patient spends a lot of money trying to resolve their issue. The pain improves a bit after each session, however, every-time that they drive in their car for long distances, the pain comes back and they have to go back to see their Health Professional. However, one weekend, they happen to take a mate’s car for a long drive which has a lumbar roll in it and this time their back doesn’t get sore. Problem solved! The patient would surely think, ‘Why has my Health Professional not recommended a lumbar roll to me? Does my Health Professional have my best interest in mind or does he/she just want me to keep coming back to see them so they can make money?’ They would surely feel annoyed and disappointed and possible go somewhere else to get their treatment done.

Implications:

I’m not implicating in anyway shape or form that you are not doing your job if you do not recommend Archies Thongs! Not at all!! All that I am saying, is if you believe that a particular product or service may offer your patients or customer some benefit or benefit over the alternative options, then you are simply doing them a favour and completing your duty as a health professional or sales person by giving a thorough treatment session or sales interaction by educating them about the features and potential benefits, it’s then up to the patient or customer to make their own mind up.

However, in the case of Archies Thongs, there is an argument to suggest that if your patient is a frequent thong wearer and if you believe Archies Thongs (or another thong brand) is likely to be a better option for their health than what they are wearing, then if you have the time to do so, in a comprehensive treatment session, you should at least educate your patient about what some of the issues are with regular thongs and what advantages that alternative thongs offer over these (whether or not it is Archies Thongs or another brand). Again, it’s all about providing the patient / customer with the information so that they can make an informed decision about whether or not the thongs are for them or not.

Don’t feel so bad about recommending Archies!

Given that I have designed the product, it will come as no surprise that I will tell you that I think Archies Thongs are a great product! Haha! I am also the first to admit that they are not perfect (there is no orthotic thong on the market that is, they all have their pros and cons), however, in our opinion Archies Thongs represent one of the best balances of function and fashion available for an orthotic thong on the market.

Archies thongs solve many of the fundamental design flaws of typical flat thongs offering people who care about their health, fitness and fashion a more suitable option than the alternatives.

While we are lacking a double blind randomised control trial and we only have anecdotal evidence and expert opinions supporting the efficacy of the product, there certainly is a lot of anecdotal evidence and expert opinions that frequently report a range of benefits that their patients and customers have experienced from wearing the thongs!

Some things to consider in relation to the efficacy of the product:

Regardless of whether or not an individual wears orthotics or requires support from their footwear, due to the extreme comfort of the thongs and their positive effect on promoting a more normal natural gait pattern, most people state that they simply cannot go back to wearing normal thongs that after wearing Archies Thongs.

We have had countless customers who have reported that they cannot normally wear thongs due to pain and discomfort but have been able to walk for ‘miles and miles’ in Archies Thongs without pain. In fact, many of these same people often report that they never take their Archies Thongs off their feet!

We have a large number of people who stopped wearing thongs years ago, due to pain and discomfort only to start wearing Archies Thongs without any issues. These people are often absolutely ecstatic that they can wear thongs again without pain!

We have an extensive amount of people who previously reported different forms of low-back, hip, knee, Achilles and foot pain say that their Archies Thongs have ‘fixed’ their problems. Now, we at Archies Footwear would NEVER for a second claim that Archies Thongs ‘fixed’ these problems, however, I am sure that if you were to observe these very same individual’s biomechanics that it would be highly likely that they would have some biomechanical abnormality of the foot / lower limb and that extensive flat thong wearing may be contributing to their problem. In this case, the simple addition of the orthotic support and tighter strap found in Archies Thongs may likely have corrected their foot postural abnormality thereby improving their lower limb biomechanics and gait pattern which has thereby had positive influence on the patient’s injury.

Archies Thongs have been given the status as an ‘approved footwear item’ at many elite sporting organisations and the thongs are the choice of thong for many of Australia’s elite athletes.

So while we at Archies Footwear may be lacking a double blind randomised control trial to support the efficacy of Archies Thongs, there is certainly a vast amount of anecdotal evidence that suggest Archies Thong may offer some benefit to the user and that they may at least be better than the alternative flat options.

If nothing else, Archies have an impressive amount of people with a ‘cult like’ flowing who absolutely rave about the super comfort of the product and it is unlikely that you will get any complaints from your customers about this!

It’s also important to remember that only approximately 10% of the people that purchase Archies Thongs wear them because they wear orthotics or have foot problems, the majority of people purchase them simply for the comfort and the positive effect it has on enhancing a more natural gait pattern than would be achieved in typical flat thongs.

Testimonials:

If you have any doubts about whether or not people benefit from wearing Archies and you would like to see what our customers are actually saying about the thongs, then please visit our regular website and check out the product reviews. These are not reviews from our friends and family. These are reviews from real customers!

You can also check out the testimonials page from our current stockists and see how Archies Thongs are benefiting their customers as well as adding a simple passive revenue stream to their business.