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Who’s the best surgeon in your city? Hoping your answer is you / your practice.

But are there other practices that…

• Aren’t as good as you?
• Don’t offer the same breadth and quality of technology?
• Either unwittingly or through purposeful deceit – will recommend a procedure even if it’s not the best solution for a patient?
• You wouldn’t send your mother to?

The answer to at least one of those is probably yes.

Now, when a prospect gets in touch with you… you can guess they’re calling some of those other practices too.

Of course we don’t want to lose their business to a lower quality practice. But the bigger concern is for the patient and their potentially bad decision…
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Who’s gonna protect your prospects from making the wrong choice?

I ask because they need help. They need guidance. They need to be empowered with the knowledge and confidence to make the right decision.

You must give them that support. Don’t leave them to their own devices and set them up for potential failure.

Some may think, “Well, our results and reputation speak for themselves. People can figure out we’re the best.” Those qualities are important and certainly help, but we give people too much credit.

So many prospects don’t know how to choose a surgeon. Which makes perfect sense since they’ve never done it before.

This is why you get daily calls from people asking how much you charge, AS IF that should even be in the Top 5 criteria for choosing a surgeon. They’re ignorant.
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Am I saying you should trash your competitor? No. That’s a horrible idea.

What I AM saying (make sure your team knows this):

You cannot take a passive role in the decision-making process of your prospects. You must be active participants and leaders. Educate your prospects, Exhibit your authority and Empower them to make the decision that is right for them. (Yes, these are the foundations of our E3 Conversion System).

Plenty of foxes out there. The inept surgeon down the street, or the discount strip mall chain center across town.

That’s why you DON’T tell your prospects, “Well, just let us know!” You DON’T say, “Call us back when you’re ready!” You don’t sit back. You don’t relax.

You LEAD the entire way.

You say the patient is the #1 focus, right? You preach that you’re “all about our patients” yeah?

Then the responsibility is yours. As the best surgeon in town, you have a job to do. YOU guard the hen house.

– Troy

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PS – On the topic of E3, we’re in the midst of several major updates to our E3 Booking Team Program – new scripts, new frameworks, and even new technology.

Lead Conversion to Consult is the biggest leak in any practice. Want to book more surgeries? Improve this %. That’s why we’re hyper-focused on this particular area for our clients.

In fact, we launched our new SMS E3 Engagement System for one of our pilot clients, and they went from a 5.1% response rate to a 65% response rate (a 13x increase) while actually requiring LESS time from their scheduling team. It’s a beautiful thing!

Email if you want to know more. Market-exclusive, as always. Not sure if we have a client in your market yet? Just ask.

 

Prospective patients love this excuse. Don’t fall for it… 👉

Curious if you’ve ever experienced this…

You wake up in the morning and realize you don’t have much going on. Clear calendar. No plans.

And so you call your Primary Care Physician, snag an appointment and drive across town to see her.

Hang out in the waiting room for a while, read some magazines. Go back and do some diagnostic scans, check-ups, whatever.

Finally meet with the doc, who asks, “So, what brings you in today?”

“Ah nothing really. Just didn’t have a lot going on so I figured I’d come over, get some information, check the place out.”
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You’ve never done that. I’ve never done that.

Why? Because we’re busy people who have a lot going on. Like every other human on the planet. Including your patients.

And my point is this:

Many prospective patients are coming to see you today. None of them are in your office because they are bored, because they don’t have anything better to do, or because they just wanted to shop around a little bit.

You are not a retail boutique selling blouses. No one is “just browsing” at your office.

If someone calls you, books an appointment, then gets out of bed, puts on pants, drives across town in traffic, and comes to spend time in your office for a couple of hours, they have a darn good reason.

They come see you because they have a problem, and they want that problem solved.

Any prospect telling you otherwise simply is not yet sold on you, your practice or your solution. So you need to backtrack and figure out why.

There are plenty of ways to do that, and we get into those techniques in our E3 Conversion System Bootcamps. Just know that every prospective patient who steps foot in your office WANTS you to solve their problem. Figure out where your communication gap is and fill it.

And don’t lie to yourself and say, “Well, they weren’t serious.” If they’re there, they’re serious. Now let’s get them on the surgery schedule.

– T-Cole

 

A few weeks ago, I shared my insights from coaching my oldest son in kid-pitch baseball for the first time – 3 important mindset shifts for surgical counselors.

I also coach my younger son’s coach-pitch all-star baseball team, and yesterday they won their first gold ring. (Let’s GO!)

I coach my son’s all-star baseball team, and yesterday they won their first gold ring.

It was a valiant effort, playing 3 games in 110-degree weather. They Aledo Orange 8U All-Stars earned their tournament win.

One aspect of their play really stood out to me. It’s a great reminder for me in biz and life, and I wanted to share it with you to kick off your week.
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Our team won the gold rings because they played 3 Complete Games.

What do I mean by that? Well, normally when you have kids this age – even if they’re really good – you’re gonna hit an inning or two where the wheels look like they’re falling off. You make a bunch of errors, other team scores a bunch of runs, etc.

And you just hope it doesn’t happen at the WRONG time, and that it doesn’t cost you the game.

We never had that yesterday (super rare). They played 3 complete games with dominance – infield got outs, outfield caught fly balls, hitters hit, baserunners ran smart. And our boys were able to beat 3 solid teams by 10+ runs each because they played complete games.
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The “Complete Game” analogy is vital if you want a successful, growing practice. And it comes down to each person knowing and playing their roles.

You can think of the Patient Journey like a game. In baseball, it might be a 9-inning game, right? So the 1st inning is the prospect thinking about your procedure, inning 2 they look you up online, inning 3 they call for an appt….

Etc until the 9th inning, when they’re happily referring their friends and family to YOU because you provided awesome care.

Every player on the team has a role in playing a complete game. If our pitcher is throwing strikes but your defense can’t field the ball and get outs, we’re not playing a complete game.

If your front desk is on-point but your technicians are having a bad day and that negativity translates to the patient, you’re not playing a complete game.

And for practices that can’t put together a complete game… well, those 9th inning referrals will go to the competitor down the street. Because the patient chose them instead of you.

The Big Takeaway – It takes an entire team owning their positions to play a complete game.

Wherever you are in your practice, whatever your role is, however big or small you think it is – it’s crucial to winning. So take it seriously and give it 110%.

And I’m not just talking about YOU and YOUR team winning. Because when we play a complete game, the real winner is your patient. Because they are getting excellent care at the best practice in town (yours!)

And if we drop the ball and the patient ends up down the street at a cheap, less-experienced, less-patient-focused provider… sure, we lose some revenue. But the patient loses so much more in terms of the care and results we COULD have given them, had we been on our a-game.

Go out and encourage your team to put together a Complete Game today. 💪🏻

– Coach Cole

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PS – If you’re interested in having your team “coached” in the mindset I discuss in these short essays – playing with excellence, owning their roles, being team players, developing a love for the game, dominating the competition, being confident in your premium pricing – hit reply and let’s talk.

PPS – Pic of me and my almost 8 y/o, C.B. (Caden Brave), holding his ring. #ProudDad