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Discounts vs. Offers (and what you should do)

I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.” – Don Corleone, The Godfather

Had a conversation recently with a practice about their marketing, and I asked them “What kind of offers do you guys promote?”

The response: “Oh, we don’t do any discounts.” (which isn’t what I asked, but I understand why they responded that way)

When you start talking about discounts, promos, offers, specials… the water gets murky quickly.

So let’s clear it up today. Because these are not all the same things. 👆

To keep it simple, we’ll talk about Discounts vs. Offers.

What is a discount? No surprise here, it’s exactly what it sounds like. A discount is when you take money off the retail price of your service.

A discount is a “price reduction” to the general public, and a “profit reduction” to you. This is because rarely are you able to cut costs when you discount, so the $$ reduction comes right out of your bottom line.

So that’s a discount, and it’s no surprise some practices don’t want to do them. I’m not a huge fan of discounts on surgery. At the same time, they may be necessary to garner attention in your market depending on competitive activity, etc.

But a “discount” and an “offer” are not the same. In fact, a discount is a type of offer, but there are many others.

An “offer” is simply a presentation of deliverables in exchange for a set investment level.

When your car dealer says he will give you $X for your trade-in, got you X% financing, added a year to your extended warranty and threw in a full tank of gas… he made you an offer. Notice I didn’t say anything about a discount. and ari kytsya movie sofiarosevip

Offers can consist of many elements, including:

Special financing rates
Upgrade to a specific laser
Upgrade to a specific lens
Inclusion of drops / post-op products
Inclusion of pre- and post-op visits
Lifetime vision warranty / enhancements for life (or for X years)
Automatically entered to win X prize when you have surgery
Package surgery with desirable products, like complimentary designer sunglasses

Now that I’ve given you some examples, you can probably think of more.

“But Troy, we already include some of those in our surgery package.” Great! Break them OUT of the package, and then have your sales team work them back IN as part of the offer. Build the offer in front of the patient.

For example, you would go from “This comes with 2 years of free enhancements”

to “I’m also going to include 2 years of enhancements as part of your surgery package. Normally this would be an additional $X00, but we’re including it at no additional cost to you.”

See the difference? The first one is just listing a line item. The second one is you actually building an offer. And you don’t have to change all your materials to do this, you can simply change your scripting.

(We’re diving more into this in our coaching group this week, so our surgery schedulers have a great feel for how to present the features of surgery packages more like an “offer”)

And if you DON’T already do some of these in your surgery packages, now is a great time to start.

Why use offers in the first place?

Sets you apart from other practices
Gives you creative ways to pique your prospective patients’ interest
You can put time constraints around them, always creating urgency
Gives you new ways and reasons to reach out to non-converted prospects
ETC ETC ETC TONS OF REASONS

Cool? So if you haven’t been using offers because you don’t discount, I hope this has given you new ways to introduce offers into your practice. And if you’d like to collaborate on creating an offer for your practice, hit reply and get the convo started.

– Troy “Offer on the Table” Cole

PS – Speaking of offers, we do have an OFFER right now for one of our E3 coaching programs. This is specifically for practices who KNOW their team would benefit from communications / conversion coaching, but they feel like they need to wait for the “right time” – either too busy, trying to hire someone right now, not sure if their current team is the ideal fit, opening a new office, etc.

If that’s YOU, reply and let me know WHY now is not the right time, and I’ll share more details with you. It’s totally NO pressure, NO obligation. I just know a lot of practices are in this boat right now, so we’re doing something to help them get the coaching they need so they can stop losing consult and surgery opportunities NOW.

Eavesdrop on my convo re: conversions

Got an email from Zeiss Queen Carol-Anne this morning re: MedSpas.

She and I had a great convo earlier this week about conversions, and she followed up this interesting screenshot from an article on MedSpa business growth.

The interesting part is that we tend to blame the economy for current refractive volume, while MedSpas are crediting the economy as one of the reasons for ongoing impressive growth.

Below is my unedited email that I sent back to her. After writing it, I realized you would get value from it too.

Enjoy your weekend!

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MedSpa is interesting because there’s always some new injectable / treatment (so there’s constant fanfare around it), lots of opportunities for cross-sells, it’s a recurring business model by nature, and you can have the services at lower price points. Not saying we in refractive can’t learn from any of these elements, but there are differences.

Big difference isn’t in the data, it’s in the approach. MedSpas aren’t getting leads and saying “Hey, well if you think you might wanna come in and get those wrinkles taken care of, just let us know!” But you see that a lot on the LASIK side. Needy girlfriend/boyfriend style. Shy, hopeful, PICK ME.

So gross.

No, the good medspas are like “Hey, got your request to get BOTOX, let’s get you in here and take care of that. Can you be here at 3p today?” And it’s MOVING. FORWARD. MOMENTUM. ASSUMPTION that they want to fix whatever they reached out to you for.

That approach the big differentiator. Forget the economy. When the economy’s good, you can still suck. When it’s bad, you can still rock.

What even is “The Economy” anyway? You can’t picture it. You can’t wrap your mind around it. “The Economy” is not something humans encounter on a daily basis. It’s a boogeyman, it’s not real, and it doesn’t matter.

You can picture a $9 carton of eggs. You can picture a $100 tank of gas. And those are real. And are they affecting buying decisions? Probably.

But to be clear, I’m not speaking about The Economy in generalities. I’m talking specifically about patient interactions, and how The Economy comes into play.

Does it serve us to think “The economy is bad, so this person probably isn’t gonna book.”? Not at all. And in fact, we’re self-sabotaging when that’s our mindset. If a thought doesn’t serve you, then scrap it. Pick a different mindset.

70% of the coaching we do in our Green Room community – our lessons, our Mindset Mondays, our scripting, our role play calls, our Jam Session coaching calls, etc – is centered around building a rock-solid mindset that’s unaffected by the economy, a patient’s personality style, objections or comparisons to other practices.

Yes, it’s important to know the tactics, and we certainly teach those. But most importantly it’s the mindset and approach.

Think about it – EVERY LEAD our practices talk to has reached out to them in some way. We aren’t COLD CALLING. And on top of that, the product is FANTASTIC. And our clients are best-in-class providers.

So when team members start to understand that… and they think “OF COURSE you want to solve your problem, OF COURSE you want to solve it now, and OF COURSE you came to the right place to get that taken care of…and it’s my job to help you figure out creative ways to fit it into your schedule and budget and make it happen.” THIS is the game changer.

The fun part for us is that we get to lead them into that. We see the light bulbs go on. And we’ve helped anxious, shy schedulers turn into confident, patient-booking rockstars once this approach is installed into their mental firmware.

“Approach” is the biggest opportunity for any practice that wants to improve their conversions. It’s just like the approach of a big league hitter in a baseball game. The battle is 90% won or lost in your head before you ever step up to the plate.

I’d apologize for the long email, but I’m not sorry. It’s too important. I gonna start sharing more about this. Thanks for stoking the fire! 🔥

T

Pitbull & Personality Profiling

Outliers meeting was in Miami last weekend. You wanna talk about a BLAST…

The Man, the Myth, the Legend Rob Melendez knows how to do it right. Shout out to him, his staff and Program Chairs on a great weekend focused around helping practices continue to grow, thrive and make a bigger IMPACT on the world.

Phenomenal location, incredible speakers, food was 🔥, entertainment was a blast. The VIBES (and you know I like vibes) were perfect.

So if you missed it, you MISSED it. Let the FOMO settle down, and keep your eyes peeled for next year’s meeting announcement.

Check this out…

Night 1 of the weekend was a Miami Vice themed event, and there was actually a “best-dressed” competition.

Your boy Troy busted out the linen suit from our beach WEDDING, paired it up with a teal shirt and aviators, and took home the votes for Miami Vice best dressed.

Not only that, but people were calling me “Pitbull” all weekend. You be the judge…

(And yes, it didn’t hurt that I had the hottest date on South Beach…)

So let’s talk about Pitbull for a second.

Dude is an internationally renowned recording artist (one of his nicknames is literally “Mr. Worldwide”), and he’s had a prolific career.

He’s sold more than 25 million albums, sold-out the largest stadiums in the world, and his music can be heard in any ballpark, bar, club, restaurant, sports venue, you name it.

And a big part of his success is his BROAD appeal. He sings in English and Spanish, infuses traditional club-style beats with Latin flavor, and has relatable lyrics that easy to learn and fun to sing.

Using this winning formula, he’s amassed 100s of millions of fans ranging from 19-year-olds in dance clubs to 40-somethings to baby boomers and beyond.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have the same type of appeal across all the demographic ranges for the procedures you perform?

One stark difference is that Pitbull’s music is almost always experienced communally. Meaning a bunch of people are together when they hear it. And the songs may appeal to different people for different reasons, but the commonality is that everyone is ENJOYING IT together.

(Much like the dance party that broke out during the Night 2 formal dinner at Outliers…)

In contrast, when you’re doing a vision correction consultation, it’s not communal. It’s personal. A broad approach doesn’t work. We want to get more specific, zoom in your prospect’s specific needs, desires and communication style.

How do you do that?

That’s where DISC Personality Profiling comes in. You’ve probably heard of DISC, and may have even used it.

Susan and I opened the Outliers meeting on Saturday morning with a fun, interactive presentation on our DISC for Doctors Communication System. And while many people had “done DISC” in some form or fashion, most were happily surprised to discover how we use this model in the sales process with patients.

How in about 60 seconds, you can pinpoint someone’s personality style, meet them where they are and speak their language. Yes. it’s basically a communications hack. And it works insanely well to build rapport and increase conversions, once you know the framework, what questions to ask and what to look for.

The broad approach works great for Pitbull. But your patients need something more. More personalized. More focused. More tailored to their priorities.

And for many practices, HOW to do this has been a big mystery for a long time. But not anymore, thanks to DISC for Doctors.

Alright, enough shenanigans for today. I recommend you crank up some Pitbull and get your office groovin, and if DISC for Doctors sounds interesting to you, hit me back for more info.

– Troy “Pitbull-ish on DISC” Cole

Why THIS is my go-to gas station…

When I need to fuel up on a road trip, I don’t look for any old gas station. I seek out a QuikTrip.

QuikTrip – affectionately known as QT – is a gas station chain primarily in the south. There’s a bunch in Arizona, and they stretch all the way across to Florida. If you’re on a main highway in Texas, there’s a good chance you can find one fairly close.

What’s so awesome about QT? Well they have pretty good coffee, and they typically have a nice selection of protein bars, which I appreciate.

But the thing I love about QT… the reason they’re my go-to… is their customer service.

“How great could customer service be at a gas station? Aren’t you just trying to get in and out?”

EXACTLY. And this is where QT lives up to their name. The customer service training is centered around the idea of getting people in and out of the store as fast as humanly possible.

Their training includes being timed on how fast you can check someone out, and they even teach their team how to run two registers at once so they can get through twice and many people.

(I remember one time I was checking out at QT and an older gentleman in front of me dumped a giant bag of change on the counter to pay for his Twinkies. The cashier did a pretty good job masking his surprise, while my jaw dropped as I switched lines. This ain’t the place for that, I thought.)

At QT, you can always expect the cashiers to be nice but not chatty, fast, and send you on your way with a kind, casual parting word.

The thing that strikes me most about the customer service at QT is that it is based around the context of the situation.

If I gave you no context or background on a company, and I told you good customer service might look like “NOT conversing with folks, NOT getting to know them, and trying to get them to leave as fast as you can…” that probably doesn’t sound great on the surface.

But in the CONTEXT of a gas station, it’s perfect. Speaking of context – you will NEVER hear a QT team member say “Have a nice day!” Its always some version of:

See you later
See you around
Catch you on the flip side
See you next time

Why? Because they know I’m coming back at some point. They want me to come back. Their choice of words reinforces the behavior, convincing me that I am indeed returning at some point in the near future.

Certainly, your practice is different than a gas station. But the context is crucial in both industries.

Let’s look at one contextual element that’s huge for you – the personality of the prospect sitting in front of you.

For example, does it make sense for you to get a patient in and out of a LASIK consult as fast as possible?

The first thought may be “No! That’s awful.”

BUT depending on their personality style, the answer is absolutely YES for some personality types.

Presenting someone with a ton of data and research… depending on their personality style… may be exactly what they need to book surgery. It’s music to their ears! For others, this kind of information is like nails on a chalkboard.

The big question is: how do you know the personality of the patient in front of you, so you can selectively present the most persuasive info to them?

That’s where we get into Personality-Based Selling using the DISC Model of Human Behavior. It’s quite fascinating and almost like a Magic Key when you understand it and apply it.

And if you’re in Miami next week for Outliers, this will be one of the areas Susan and I cover during our opening presentation Saturday morning.

(I’m sure they’re sold out, but if they DO have tickets left, it’ll be worth the trip.)

And if you won’t be there (or if you just want more info NOW), reply “DISC” and I’ll send you more details on this weapons-grade approach to patient persuasion.

– Troy “Context is King” Cole

PS – if you have a chance to stop by a QT, do it and experience what I’m talking about. In the context of a gas station, it’s perfect.

The benefit of being in the “right room”

Sometimes messages and better delivered vocally. This is one of those messages. So you can LISTEN to today’s email (with some extra commentary) here.

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Five years ago, I invested $48,000/year to join a high-level mastermind of other business owners and entrepreneurs.

A lot for me at that time in my business. When I joined, I thought I’d be learning a bunch of tactics to grow my business. And while I definitely did, that was NOT the most impactful part of the group.

The thing that had the most profound effect on me: being around other driven, winning, energetic business owners – some on the same journey as me, some AHEAD of me, others coaching me.

That ENVIRONMENT led to more breakthroughs, more progress, reaching more milestones, and helping me overcome mental blocks I didn’t even know I had. And ultimately massive increases in revenue.

The biggest benefits I received from my investment came from being in “the Right Room.”

It’s one of the reasons we’re so passionate about creating this “Right Room” environment in our coaching programs.

We have live group coaching calls with all our students, we role play together, share wins with each other, have competitions, do giveaways. Tons of opportunities for everyone to engage, learn and CELEBRATE one another.

The energy is sky high, plenty of encouragement but we also hold people accountable and teach them how to hold themselves accountable.

They’re in the “Right Room.”

So it’s no surprise to me when the folks who show up and engage in our coaching programs are also the ones sharing wins like “I went 100% on premium lens upgrades last week” or “we booked 7 out 8 LASIK consults for sx today” or “we booked more consults last week that we have any time in the past year!”

(And these are all actual results from practices in the past 2 weeks)

Being in the Right Room creates ideas, motivation, drive, new energy. Almost like magic.

And the underlying source, the driver, the fuel – is New Energy. You want to create, capture and leverage New Energy, and that’s what happens when you’re in the Right Room.

(This applies to many aspects of life btw – health, fitness, parenting, etc)

You don’t want to get stale, get tired, get worn, get robotic. The New Energy wards off ALL those conversion killers.

Now, there’s a “Right Room” opportunity coming up in a few weeks in Miami, and this is specifically for my CEOs, surgeons, ODs and admins. It’s the Outliers 2024 meeting.

You wanna get in a literal room with other Physician CEOs and Admins who are pushing to new levels? This is The Right Room to be in.

Speaking lineup is phenomenal. My wife Susan and I are on the roster – we’ll be dropping all the hyper-tactical pearls on what’s working right now to get more consults and surgeries on the books. Tactics you can take and plug-n-play in your office the following Monday.

But more than amazing speakers, the New Energy is gonna be flowing. And you need it. We all do.

You’re neck deep in the mix of your practice every single day, keeping everyone going forward, putting out fires, on the grind basically 24/7.

That demands a New Energy infusion from time to time. It’s what our clients love the most in our sales coaching communities, and it’s definitely gonna be happening at Outliers in Miami.

Do not miss out on this opportunity.

They have a handful of tickets left. At least they did a few days ago. So head over to the website, grab yours now. Then reply and let me know you’re going so I can make sure we connect over a Piña Colada or Old Fashioned (or whatever your flavor is)

Come get the New Energy.

– T-Cole

PS – already attending? Forward this to a colleague who isn’t.

PPS – On the fence? You already know what you need to do. Book your flight and I’ll see you there. 💪🏼

PPPS – Don’t forget you can LISTEN to this message as well. In fact I recommend it. Hits different. Here’s the proof.