I had a call yesterday with a practice that was “interested in doing some marketing.”
An acquaintance put us in touch, and I told them we could talk to see if they might be a good fit for us.
Pretty quickly into the conversation, I realized they are not our ideal client. Several flaws in the surgeon’s thinking jumped out at me. I wanted to share those with you today to make sure you aren’t making the same mistakes.
I call this the Old School “Mindset of More.” Old School is great if we’re talking about hip hop, classic cars or work ethic. Not so much when we’re talking about refractive surgery.
Here are 3 ways the Old School Mindset of More doesn’t serve you in the modern marketplace…
1. A desire for more “Marketing” (with a capital M)
Mad Men. Slick suits. High rises. Think back to the days of Don Draper delivering his pitch for Lucky Strike cigarettes.
The flash. The flair. It’s fun to watch on TV, but not necessarily tied to the mission at hand – filling your surgical suite.
This big, ambiguous concept of Marketing is what the doctor had in her head.
Dr: We want to do more Marketing for our practice.
Me: Ok, tell me more about that. Do you want to do more refractive surgeries?
Dr: Well yeah, but we need branding and Marketing.
Me: That’s fine. But I’m just making sure that your goal is to do more surgeries. Because that’s what we do.
Dr: Well yes, but what about our other Marketing?
Me: We aren’t worried about other Marketing. We have a proven product and process to get you more surgeries. That’s the play. We just run variations of that play over and over and over to fill your schedule.
Dr: But but but Marketing.
This Old School “More Marketing Mindset” stifles growth and sucks up budget.
Uncommon opinion – you actually don’t want marketing. You want a full surgery schedule.
Just like your patients don’t want LASIK. They want the results LASIK can give them.
Don’t get fixated on more Marketing. Get fixated on more new patients.
2. A focus on getting more “stuff” vs getting more results
There’s this horribly flawed idea that getting more “stuff” is automatically better in life.
This doctor told me, “We need to work with someone who will do everything – posters and brochures and commercials and signs, all that.”
We don’t do those things. And it’s not because they don’t need to get done. You need good brochures and materials and signage.
We don’t do them because when it comes to resources and opportunity cost, we focus 100% of our time and effort onto the plays that we know get surgery patients for our clients. Namely, our E3 Sales Training Workshop and our Patient Prime System to generate more consults that turn into surgeries.
Why? For the same reasons you probably don’t treat every different eye condition on Earth.
Why wouldn’t you just do “everything eyes”? Because of the massive resource allocation, the distractions, the lack of effectiveness that come with such a ridiculous model.
You offer a few specific solutions, you’re amazing at them, and your patients love you for it.
Take fitness for example. Would you rather:
A. Have a gym with access to every piece of equipment known to man, or
B. Have a trainer give you the exact exercises, exact workout plan, exact training and accountability you need to hit your goals?
Most people would say B and even pay a premium for it.
Yes, A has more “stuff.” But it’s also more overwhelming. It’s more complicated, and more confusing. Option A is a distraction standing between you and your goal.
This Old School idea that “more is better” is ridiculous.
There’s a practice in your city with more office space than you. Does that make them better?
There’s a practice in your city with more collective years of experience that you. Does that make them better?
Doing “more” is not necessarily better, and in many cases, it’s actually worse. Streamlining, simplifying, and taking the proven path to results without any fluff or distractions – that’s what’s better.
3. A fixation on more volume (at all costs)
I was glad to hear this practice is priced higher than their market average for LASIK.
Poblem is, they were ready and willing to give up their premium pricing for the sake of volume.
She told me, “We’re willing to go significantly cheaper to get more prospects in the door.”
You can imagine my response. “Yeah, don’t do that. Some small savings programs for specific groups is fine, but you should not do market-wide mass discounts.”
Her response? “Well, we’ve been told by cutting our price in half, it’ll be attractive for more people. I don’t really want to do that, but we’re considering it.”
She was so fixated on volume, she was willing to sacrifice her profit to get there.
“Volume volume volume at all costs! Brand be damned. Premium positioning be damned. Profits be damned. We’re going after volume!” 👈 This is an old school way of thinking.
Don’t get me wrong – more surgery volume is great. And we grow volume with our programs.
But sacrificing profit? I hate that. You hate that. My humble but accurate opinion – you’ve worked too hard for too long and put too much on the line to be the Wal-Mart of vision correction.
This Old School “more volume at all costs” mindset needs to die.
In conclusion, this practice – and many others like it – are too stuck in the old school mindset of “more” to take advantage of today’s opportunities in the marketplace.
But practices who are of the New School mindset…
That are interested in actual results vs “more Marketing”…
interested in doing what works vs doing more “stuff”…
and interested in profit (while also increasing volume), are in a much better position to achieve the success they say they want.
If that’s you, and you want more surgeries, reply to this message.
Have a helluva Tuesday,
Troy “Less Talk, More Rock” Cole