“Mr. —— did not have one of his own checks with him, and had to write this on one of our blank forms. He doesn’t want it to go through his bank in this shape and has asked me to hold it until he comes in Saturday when he will exchange it for one of his own.”
The check was put away and on Saturday when Mr. —— called the writer, who was the treasurer of the concern, was out at luncheon. As the new patient handed the second check to the doctor the latter was compelled to say:
“I’m sorry, Mr. ——, but I’m unable to give you back your first check right away, Mr. ——, our treasurer, has it locked up in the safe, and I cannot get it until he returns from luncheon.”
“Oh, that’s all right,” replied Mr. ——. “Any time will do.”
And away he went, leaving both checks, representing $5,000, and as good as gold, in our possession. The doctor had won his confidence from the start.
In this particular instance there had been no advance correspondence, and the caller was unknown to the doctor either personally or by name. The writer happened to know him by sight and thus was able to “tip” him off to the doctor. If it had not been for this it is probable that the fee would not have been more than $500, and the doctor would have congratulated himself on having done a good day’s work at that. What makes the case even more remarkable is the fact, as previously stated, that the man had the reputation of being very close in money matters. Yet here was an instance in which he not only paid the fee of $2,500 in advance without a murmur, but actually entrusted a stranger with $5,000 of his funds.
After two weeks of personal treatment this same man, acting on the advice of the doctor (who was to share in the fee) had partially arranged to pay another specialist $10,000 for the treatment of his wife, and was on the point of closing the contract when the blundering tactics of the second physician upset the whole thing. Negotiations were progressing favorably, there was no dispute as to the amount of the fee, or anything of that kind, when a single mis-step aroused his suspicions, and the deal fell through. In talking the matter over later Mr. —— said:
“I may be sorry, Doctor, that I did not accept Doctor ——’s proposition, but to tell the truth he didn’t impress me favorably. Now if it were you who were to conduct the treatment I wouldn’t hesitate a moment.”
The joke of the thing—and it was a joke—lay in the fact that of the two men the doctor he had no confidence in was by far the more able and competent of the two. But he lacked tact; he didn’t know how to inspire confidence in his patients; didn’t know how to conceal the disagreeable truth and enlarge on the non-essentials making them appear as the more important of the two. He was too brutally frank. The doctor who got the $2,500 fee and retained the entire confidence of his patient to the last, was a past master in the gentle art of what is known in slang parlance as “bull con.”
All of which tends to show that the getting of a big cash fee rests entirely on the impression created by the physician. If this impression is favorable the fee will be forthcoming; if it is not a yoke of oxen couldn’t yank it away from the patient.