Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice. 

Suppose you woke up feeling ill this morning. So, you call your doctor's office and get an appointment. You arrive and soon you are ushered into an examination room. In a few minutes the doctor joins you, but rather than asking any questions, the first words out of his mouth are, "Let me tell you about this new medication we have. It's a real wonder drug. I'm going to write you a prescription and you should begin taking it right away." And with that, he moves on to the next patient.

Surely you would re-think your choice of health care providers.

But how is that any different from starting a client meeting by saying, "Thanks for agreeing to meet with me today. The reason that I am here is to tell you about this great new package that we have." The fact is, it's not different at all. These meetings leave many clients feeling the same way you would feel in the medical example I just described.

If a doctor prescribes the same medication to all of his patients, there will be a small percentage of them who have an ailment for which that drug would be an appropriate treatment. Most would either not get better or would actually get worse.

Same thing with our packages. The operative phrase here is "small percentage" because, in the case of package sales, that percentage is also expressed as your closing ratio. Typically, package closing ratios hover somewhere between 10%-15%. When the entire sales staff is presenting the same package to everyone who agrees to meet with them, the end result is that there is a brief influx of sales. So, to a manager who is trying to create a spike on a spreadsheet, this approach to selling seems to work. But there are some other questions that need to be asked:

1. Is a sales strategy that results in a 10%-15% closing ratio the best way to achieve maximum yield from a sales staff's investment in time and effort?
2. Does package selling position you against your competitors in a positive way?
3. Does package selling significantly contribute to the building of relationships with your customers?
4. What impact does package selling have on your long-term pricing objectives?

One last point. Packages are not inherently bad. It's our methodology of prescribing them that results in advertising malpractice. To avoid being perceived as an incompetent doctor, all we have to do is make sure we properly diagnose the customer's needs before prescribing a course of treatment. The client needs analysis (CNA) is the single most important step in the sales cycle. Once you have discovered a need that matches up well with a package you have, then prescribe away. If you limit your presentation of packages to clients that have matching needs, you significantly raise your closing ratio on that package while freeing up time to spend with other customers who have different issues that you can also effectively address.