One of our current coaching clients is a surgeon who wants to increase his premium cataract conversions.
We were discussing this topic a few weeks ago, and he brought up a peer of his who takes a more “aggressive approach” (his words) and has strong conversions.
Me: “Ok, so what about him?”
Client: “Well… I want better conversions, but I don’t want to come off as aggressive.”
So I asked him to describe what this “aggressive” surgeon does. Basically…
- As long as the patient qualifies for premium, he focuses on that.
- He talks about all the benefits, touches on what the patient’s interests are and how the specific procedure will help them.
- He makes a strong recommendation that the premium procedure is what the patient needs to do if they want the best result.
Me: “Ok, and he has good conversions?”
Client: “Yes.”
Me: “And his patients are happy with their results?”
Client: “Yes.”
Me: “Then what’s the ACTUAL problem with what he’s doing?”
**Crickets**
—-
There is no actual issue for what the other surgeon is doing. There is simply a perceived issue.
And that perceived issue comes from my client assigning a negative term – “aggressive” – to the tactics of his friend.
Our words have power. And they can either EMpower or RESTRICT power, depending on the words we use and how we use them.
When we broke it down to bare bones – and discussed what the friend was ACTUALLY doing and the ACTUAL results he was achieving for his patients – there really wasn’t anything negative about it.
So part of my clients’ transformation was to assign POSITIVE words to his peer’s actions. I walked him through an exercise to do this, creating a specific “language shortcut” that he could easily remember and recite. And it was like a switch flicked on for him.
He was able to adopt some of his friends’ successful tactics as his own. And less than a month later, with this and a few other small adjustments we’ve helped him make, he’s more than doubled his premium conversions.
***It All Comes Back to Clarity***
Clarity around what you do, why you do it and who you are doing it for. And your words are big part of that.
So choose your words wisely – the words you tell yourself and the words you use with others. They certainly impact your conversions, AND also your perception of yourself and your work.
If your premium procedure conversions aren’t where you’d like them to be, your (or your team’s) words may be a major roadblock. Reach out and we can discuss and see what simple “language shortcuts” you can implement to increase your conversions too.
– Coach Troy