Articles

The Lululemon Copycat Approach (use this in your practice)

I’m an athleisure guy. On days I’m tooling around town or headed to the ballpark, I can be found rocking Legends Luka shorts and their Aviation tee, a Melin hat and a pair of Nike Pegasus running shoes.

But my fondness for fashion-forward fitness started with the OG of athleisure – Lululemon.

Launched in 2000 and now worth over $39 billion, Lululemon invented and popularized high-end yoga pants and has since expanded into a full wardrobe of athletic, smart-casual and even dress clothes for men and women.

Chartr.co had a recent article talking about their post-COVID business surge (sound familiar?) and more recent decline in growth (also sound familiar?!) due to a number of factors.

Not the least of which is the plethora of market-share-stealing athleisure brands that have launched since Lulu opened their doors almost 25 years ago.

As an athleisure connoisseur, I am targeted with ads for all kinds of random athletic wear companies daily in my Instagram feed.

But if you look at the niche activewear companies who have started rising to Lulu levels, you see they followed the same success pattern as their forefathers in the fitness apparel space.

Why? Because Success Leaves Clues.

Take Vuori for example, an Activewear company currently valued at $4 billion. These guys didn’t reinvent the wheel when they went to launch their brand in 2015. They followed the Lulu playbook.

For example, Lululemon started with a Niche – women’s Yoga pants. That was their flagship product, they perfected it, and expanded from there.

Vuori did the same thing. They launched with one product – men’s shorts designed tough enough for a workout, but nice enough to look good running around town. Their fashion-meets-fitness design gained popularity, and now Vuori has 16 different categories of men’s and women’s wear on their website and in retailers.

More: Lululemon boasts more than 450 retail stores in the U.S. alone. So when Vuori wanted to get into the Brick and Mortar space, they looked to Lulu.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, of the 50 storefronts Vuori operates, an impressive 80% of them are within 1/2 mile of a Lululemon shop. Almost literally a stone’s throw away.

I could go on, but you get the point.

Success Leaves Clues.

If you look at the most successful elective surgery practices in your niche – the ones who have weathered economic turbulence and continue to thrive – you will find a handful of common “Success Traits” among them.

Now, trying to decipher, reverse engineer and implement these traits on your own is time-consuming and frustrating. Which is why we designed our Green Room Coaching Community to take the guess work out of it. We teach your team how to embody and communicate these “Success Traits,” and ways you can adopt and implement them in harmony with your unique brand.

As a Green Room member, make sure you and your team are jumping into our Coaching Community at least 2x a week, joining our live coaching calls and working through the plethora of persuasion tools, lessons and masterclasses we’ve shared, in order to continue building the Success Traits that are foundational to your premium brand.

And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!

– Troy “Man of (Ath)Leisure” Cole

PS – The Chartr.co newsletter is fantastic if you like data and enjoy learning about recent business trends. Highly recommend!

Don’t Aim It, Just Throw It (In Baseball and Consultations)

As head coach for my 9-year-old son’s travel baseball team, we emphasize a mental approach that has implications beyond baseball:

“Don’t aim it, just throw it.”

While we use this for our young pitchers, it’s useful in many areas of life (including converting more prospects to patients in your practice).

In our area, the 9-year-old baseball season is a big deal. The boys move from coach-pitch in their 8-year-old season – where they hit balls thrown by the coach in a controlled setting – to kid-pitch, where the game gets more complex.

Now they pitch, lead off, steal bases, deal with dropped third strikes, the whole gamut. It’s real baseball, just like the pros play. This change can be really tough and sometimes scary for young players.

One of the hardest parts of this transition is getting a kid to stand on the mound and pitch to a batter (and vice versa). It’s a big step, both physically and mentally.

And when a young pitcher throws a few balls instead of strikes, they tend to get anxious and timid. They start aiming the ball instead of raring back and throwing it naturally.

The result of aiming, of timidly trying to place the ball perfectly where they want it to go – even more balls and fewer strikes.

So we always remind our players, “Don’t aim it. Just throw it. Sling it in there.”

Another application of this concept:

My 11-year-old son was recently prepping for his piano recital. His instructor wanted him to kick off the event with his rendition of “Great Balls of Fire,” a tune he has played many times and knows quite well.

The morning of the recital, he was playing through it, and I could tell nerves were getting to him. He was tense and trying too hard to get it right, and the result was a number of big mistakes.

I approached him at the piano, and I reminded him of something he’s heard me say on the baseball field plenty of times:

“Buddy, you’re aiming it. Just throw it. You know the song. It’s in you. Don’t overthink it, don’t worry about what note to play next. Just let er rip!”

That afternoon at the recital, he did just that. Got up on stage, smiled wide, and (metaphorically) lit the piano on fire. He enjoyed the moment and did what he knew how to do. And the crowd went wild.

This idea of not aiming and just throwing is also important when we talk to prospective patients. If we worry too much about not making mistakes, what to say next, and what might go awry…

We’re focused on the 2 WRONG things:

Ourselves
The negative

When that happens, we get nervous and lose our focus. Instead of being present, being in the moment, focusing on the person in front of us and just Doing the Thing. This makes us less effective communicators and can even lead to self-sabotage.

But when you’re well-equipped in your practice to Throw It (not aim it), the result is a more confident team, more excited patients and more patients on your consult and surgery schedules.

And you really only need 3 components to effectively “Throw it, don’t aim it” with your prospects. You need:

A good “product”
The skills to be effective communicate about that product
Trust in yourself to go out there and do what you know how to do

In our coaching programs, #1 is a prerequisite. If you don’t have a good “product” (well-trained surgeons, good technology, patient-focused culture, good reputation) then it’s darn near impossible to even pass Go and get in the game.

Then we focus on #2 and #3. Making sure everyone has the skills. Knows how to answer phones, book consults, book surgeries.

And #3 is a big one – whether you’re new to the elective medical business, new to the practice or a seasoned veteran, there are certain situations where you tend to “aim the ball” instead of throwing it.

I asked about this on one of our weekly coaching events yesterday morning – “When is it difficult for you to be in the moment?”

Is it on a stressful day of the week? Is it with a certain personality type? When counseling patients on a specific procedure type?

A few of the answers people have shared:

“When I’m doing a consultation for an engineer”
“When patients have overly technical medical questions on the phone”
“When I’m talking to someone about LASIK (I’m good with Advanced Tech cataract surgery, but start “aiming it” when it comes to LASIK)”

And we worked through these one by one and talked about strategies for staying in the moment and throwing – not aiming – in these situations. And everyone left feeling pumped up, equipped and empowered, which is our goal for every live coaching event we do.

All of this is in an effort to do what we call “Selling On Brand.” Everyone needs a sales process. But you want that process to align with your practice brand. And that’s what we help practices do through our E3 Conversion System, and it’s insanely effective.

In closing, I challenge you to ask this question of your team and discuss their feedback – When is it difficult for you to be in the moment?

Remember, whether on the baseball field, at a recital, on the phone or in a consult, the key to success is often not in aiming for perfection but in throwing yourself into the moment.

So remind yourself and your team – next time you find yourself overthinking or hesitating, take a deep breath, remember that you got this, and just throw it.

– Coach Troy

A hitter’s approach to score more consults

In a minute, I’ll share an effective “mindset shift” to help any underperforming consult schedulers to up their conversions. But first…

My oldest son (Cannon) hit his first grand slam last weekend. #prouddad moment for sure.

As you know if you follow baseball, a Grand Slam happens when the bases are loaded and the batter hits a home run, scoring 4 runs with 1 swing of the bat.

In this particular instance, Cannon came to the plate with 1 out, bases loaded (obviously) and the opposing team had just put in a new pitcher. He nuked this kid’s first pitch over the left-centerfield fence.

What does this have to do with booking more consults? Once I tell you what Cannon’s “job” was, it’ll all make sense.

Depending on the situation, score, outs and other factors in a baseball game, a hitter has different jobs. And you’ll hear us as coaches say, “Do a job here!” to the batter.

A few examples:

The lead-off batter (the one who hits first in the lineup), has a job of getting on base. Get a base hit, get walked, get hit by a pitch. But get on base so we can move you around to score.

There’s also a play called a hit-and-run. This is where the base runner steals, and the batter’s job is to hit a grounder ideally behind the runner into a gap, so we can advance more bases and get more runners around the bases.

Aaaaaaand when there’s a runner on third with less than 2 outs (like Cannon’s situation) – your job at the plate is to smoke a ball to the outfield. Because even if it’s a fly ball that’s caught for an out, the runner on third can “tag up” and go score. And now you have another run on the board.

So to be an effective hitter, you must know “your job” in any given scenario. And the same goes with every role in your practice.

Challenges arise when you have folks on your team who don’t know their job.

Baseball is more complicated than booking consults. Because in the latter, you really only have one job. And what we often see is that consult schedulers underperform first and foremost because they don’t know what that job is.

So what is the ONE job we have to do in consult scheduling? It’s to lead the prospect make the right decision for them.

Every time, regardless of the situation.

And in 99% of the cases, that “right decision” is to come in for a consultation.

But we sometimes get confused about the job. To be clear, the job is NOT:

To answer every random question a prospect asks
To continue inviting questions and stay on the phone forever, getting into the weeds
To “not be pushy” and wait for the prospect to ask to schedule a consult
To tell the prospect “When you want to book a consultation, just give us a call” and leave the call without actually asking for the business

None of these are THE job the prospect needs you to do.

And it’s not uncommon for us to ask a new client to self-assess a call in which they answered 10 out of 10 questions correctly… but the prospect got off the phone without even a mention of the consultation.

“How was that call?”
“It was great.”
“What makes it great?”
“I was able to answer all their questions.”

Yes, you did. But the prospect is gone and we didn’t actually help them move forward. The prospect loses, which means we lose.

Your ONE job in consult scheduling is simple, but doesn’t mean it’s easy. Which is why we focus a lot on the psychology of this, the mental approach, scripting, objections, all kinds of scenarios in our coaching programs.

But an easy assessment you can do is to listen to a few call recordings, or secret shop your practice, and get a sense of whether or not your consult schedulers know what the job actually is.

If they don’t, now you know what you need to work on, and you can start to right the ship.

And while the spring/summer baseball season is coming to a close in a few weeks, we’re actually just heating up for our Summer Camp Experience in our Green Room coaching community for refractive and cataract scheduling teams. We have new trainings, fun challenges, prizes and more coming down the pipe for June, July and Aug.

So if you want to book more consults and more surgeries, get your team’s communication skills dialed in, or you just need an injection of energy and positivity for your folks, this is perfect timing for you.

We have 1more spot open for June, so reply to this email or shoot me a text message for more details.

Talk soon,

Troy “Do a Job” Cole

PS – The Zeiss webinar we hosted Tuesday was a BANGER. Sorry if you couldn’t make it. I don’t think they’re sharing a recording (I’ll let you know if they do). But here’s a copy to the study we covered, in case you haven’t seen it yet. Download it here

PPS – If you want to see the Grand Slam, check out the video here.

The Art and Science of Fanatical Patient Results

I once asked world-class surgeon, long-time LogiCole client and close friend Greg Parkhurst, about what it takes to create such impressive surgical results for his patients.

Because I’ve met many of his patients over the years of working together, and they aren’t just happy. They’re fanatical about their outcomes and the way he’s changed their lives.

My layman paraphrase of his eloquent explanation:

There are so many technical aspects that go into the surgery – the technology, the measurements, the treatment types and even combinations of treatments. But creating fanatical results goes beyond that. What we do as surgeons has to be a science AND an art. It’s not just plugging numbers into a machine. It’s about understanding the patient, understanding the nuances and limitations of the treatments, knowing what they really want to be doing with their eyes, and taking all that into account when designing their treatment plan.

Art and Science. Crucial advice for any surgeon, and I would say it also extends to marketers, surgery schedulers, phone teams and more.

Sure, there are technical aspects to what we all do. But there’s also an art to it. Understanding people, what they need, how they need to be led. Intuition, influence, leadership and empathy.

For example, a question I get asked often – “How many times should we follow-up with leads?” This is a very technical, “data-based” question. While it’s a reasonable question, It’s devoid of the “art” component of followup. Which often is the most critical piece to success or failure in your conversion process.

Next Tuesday, I’m jumping on a webinar with a group of my super-smart industry friends to share Zeiss’ mega-study of digital lead secret shops. We’ll share all the data – the science – about the surprising trends they discovered.

And we’ll also get into the Art of follow-up, conversion and what needs to happen to maximize your consult bookings and out-convert your competition.

Join us to discover the Art and Science of digital lead conversion.

– Troy “Scientific Artists” Cole

PS – Rumor has it they aren’t recording this webinar. So either you or your admin / manager / schedulers (ideally multiple folks from your practice) need to register for one of these 2 times we’re doing the webinar LIVE. Click and do it now… 👆

Quality leads are made, not found

One of my dad’s favorite shows is Gold Rush on Discovery. It’s about commercial Gold miners trying to strike it big.

I’ve watched it with him a couple times, but I tend to get frustrated with the show (Seems like it’s always people fighting and expensive equipment breaking and no one ever finding much gold, but maybe I haven’t given it enough of a chance).

The prospect of “striking gold” is certainly appealing. Dig in the right place, and extract riches!

Which is how a lot of practices look at their leads. “We want more quality leads! Where can we find em?” As if they’re digging for gold.

I’m talking about the kind of leads that come in, have few questions, value your expertise, and are ready to buy.

Love those, yeah? Me too! “Where can we find more of those GOLD leads, Troy?!”

We’ll talk about that in a second.

First:

Are there certain referral sources that lend themselves to more “Quality Leads” than others? Totally.

Say a prospect comes in today, and he says 2 of his friends have had LASIK with you within the last month. Well it’s a safe bet he falls into the “Quality Lead” category.

The dude is gonna be easier to book for surgery than say someone who stumbled across you on social media (generally speaking).

But WHY? WHY is he easier to schedule?

Because he knows more, right? He’s already asked his friends all about it – did it hurt, how long did it take, how much did you spend, was it really worth it, etc? He’s pre-educated.

So it’s NOT just who he is. It’s NOT just the fact that he was referred by 2 friends. Because before his friends had LASIK, he was another random guy on the street. Another “regular lead.”

But this guy had a bunch of questions, and once those were addressed (by his friends), he transformed into what many would call a “Quality Lead.”

He was not BORN as a Quality Lead. No one is. He was MADE into a Quality Lead.

RE-READ THIS 👆

Because quality leads aren’t found. They’re made.

Some are created by their environment:

The prospect’s friends / family who have had the procedure before.
The radio spots they’ve heard about you every day for the last 3 years on their favorite station.
Seeing your sponsored testimonial posts on social media over and over

These are all environmental forces that (in part) elevate a person to “Quality Lead” status.

That said, in many cases, you have to take a proactive approach in creating quality leads.

More outreach. More education. More digging. More asking questions. More finding the WHY. More finding the WHY NOW.

Discussing the benefits and consequences of their decisions around having / not having a procedure.

And the beauty of it is this – since quality leads are made (not simply discovered or stumbled upon), you actually have some control over the process. It’s like if the guys on the Gold Rush show could camp out at a cool spot in Alaska and say, “OK, we like it here. Let’s just set up shop and go to work MAKING gold.”

They can’t do that. But you kinda can.

But HOW do you go about creating quality leads? That’s a topic for another day.

Specifically, that day will be next Tuesday, 5/21, at 12p Central of 7p Central. Because I’m jumping on a Zoom with my friends Michael at Glacial, Dan at Lead Engage, and the Zeiss BDM Queen Carol-Anne to deep dive on this very topic.

See, Zeiss undertook the most in-depth Digital Lead Secret Shop study ever conducted in the industry (to my knowledge). 300+ secret shops across 100+ practices, with thousands of datapoints gathered and analyzed.

So if you want to see what’s happening in the industry, and hear of ways you can create more Quality Leads for your practice, tap one of the links below and register.

From Click to Consultation: Out-Convert Your Competition in the New Economy – 12 Central | 7p Central

– Troy “Gold ~~Digger~~ Maker” Cole

PS – They’re not planning on having a replay of this event. And you’re gonna get the most out of these events when you show up LIVE anyway. So pick a time and register. And forward it along to your team and have them join us too.