Articles

Is your practice getting “Amazon’d”? How to Tell If You’re Accidentally Marketing for Your Competition

I saw a product demo video on Instagram last week for a caulking tool. (I have a couple of small home improvement projects going on, and I’m sure Instagram knows that, so they show me relevant content).

The tool looked useful in the video demo, so naturally… clicked over to Amazon to see if I could find a better and/or more affordable version of said tool.

And wouldn’t you know, Amazon had a dozen different versions of this tool available. In fact Amazon lets me click on one, read about it, then shows similar versions without me even asking.

I bought one of the more expensive ones because it has the best reviews (lesson in there for you) and was available via Prime shipping.

And voila! There’s a real-life example of a brand getting “Amazon’d.”

Let’s talk about what it means to get Amazon’d and why this presents a significant challenge for brands in the marketplace (possibly not yours…)

=============

Oh, Amazon. They pioneered it all in the retail ecom space. Free, fast delivery… order anything you want… one-click checkout… 3rd party sellers on their platform… the whole shebang.

Amazon created The Hub for retail purchases. And then they trained us on how to use it.

“If I need a thing, go to Amazon and see what they offer.” Just like in my example – I saw a specific brand of a tool, went to Amazon, and looked at the entire category of said tool. Then bought what I needed (which was NOT the brand I originally saw).

How well has Amazon trained us? There’ve been times I’ve tried finding a product on Amazon, and if it’s backordered or they don’t have what they want… I’ll just wait and look again some other time.

I simply forget that there are other retailers out there who MIGHT have what I need and MIGHT be able to get it to me quickly and MIGHT do it at an affordable price.

Ridiculous, right? But I’ve talked to friends about this… and I’m not the only one who does it.

And if the thing I want IS on Amazon – I’m looking at all the different products available, reading the reviews, and seeing what looks best to me. Often times, I don’t purchase the original brand I was looking for.

Here’s why I’m talking about this: because “getting Amazon’d” goes beyond retail. It happens to elective practices too. Although it’s not on Amazon… it’s on Google.

=============

How it happens…

A prospective patient hears about your practice – through an ad, word of mouth, etc. And so they Google you.

When this happens, the prospect sees 2 important pieces of info:

1. Your Google reviews.

2. Recommendations for your competitors (either through Google Ads your competition is running, or through the small “also searched for” box at the bottom of your Google business listing.)

In this scenario, someone has gone from being exposed to just your brand, to other brands in the same category. (seeing the Amazon similarities yet?)

Let’s look at another common situation. Maybe the prospect hears one of your ads, but he couldn’t remember your name, or how to spell it, or your exact web address.

“What was that place called?” So they Google “LASIK Dallas” to try to find you.

What do they discover?

A list of practices in Google AdWords (ads at the top of a search page)
A list of practices in Google “Map Pack”
A list of practices in the organic listings that show under the map.

Again, someone has tried to seek you out, and through that effort found you and all your competitors.

Key to Remember: In the modern marketing landscape, your efforts to promote your practice often result in prospects looking at multiple practices within your specialty.

You’ve heard “A rising tide floats all boats.” To an extent, that’s true. The more marketing dollars are spent in a category, the more general awareness around that category (which is a good thing).

But specifically, the rising tide is floating a few boats disproportionately more than the others. The boats that get the most lift? The ones with the most 5-star Google reviews.

Someone searches for you and finds a competing practice with twice the 5-star reviews that you have? Guess who’s most likely getting the first phone call.

Said another way… when this happens, you’ve just advertised for your competition. The guy down the street is benefiting from your hard-earned marketing dollars and efforts.

You got Amazon’d. Because your prospects do what these massive tech companies like Amazon and Google have trained us to do – they go to The Hub, see a number of possible solutions to their problem, and chose what they perceive to be the best option (often this is the one with the most and best reviews).

=============

Now let’s talk good news…

The inverse is also true. When you have twice as many 5-star reviews as anyone else in town, your competition markets for you.

People search for them and find YOU. Other practices promote YOU, and they don’t even know it.

And the premium price you charge for your surgeries? Well of course you’re premium, look at the results you provide. Anyone can see the results right there in your Google reviews (which are so much better than every other practice’s). Makes sense why you’re priced higher than the rest of these places, as good as y’all are…

In closing…

If you’ve heard of the 80/20 principle, remember it’s universal. 20% of the practices enjoy 80% of the new patient gains.

Are you marketing for you competition, or are they marketing for you? The simple way to tell: Google “<YOUR CATEGORY> <YOUR CITY>” and see who has the most 5-star Google reviews. Also see where you’re showing up in the results relative to your competition.

If it’s a competitor, you have work to do.

And if it’s you… well, you still have work to do.

The work: Get the most Google ratings and reviews. Wanna be the 20% getting 80% of the results?

Start getting reviews today and do not let off the gas. Make your competition market for you. Amazon those fools.

– Troy “Recovering Amazon Addict” Cole

PS – I’ve been better about diversifying my retail purchases beyond Amazon. I made a conscious decision to shop from more independent retailers and locally when possible. Sure I spend a little more sometimes, but to me it’s worth it to support independent businesses and my local economy. 👍🏻

”Alexa Mode” is costing you new patients right now

On a training call yesterday, I helped a young lady break out of what I call “Alexa Mode.”

For 95% of the practices we secret shop, the person on the phone (whether it’s a consult scheduler or a counselor) is stuck in “Alexa Mode.” It’s super-common, and it’s expensive because it’s costing you patients daily.

Me: “Hey Alexa, what time does TCU men’s basketball play this week?”

Alexa: “TCU takes on Seton Hall in the first round on Friday at 8:57 p.m.”

This is Alexa Mode. I ask a question, Alexa answers it (actually it’s Siri in my case, we roll deep with Apple around here).

I ask, I get the info I need, and I go about my day.

For Siri, for Alexa, for any other digital assistant, this is solid work. But when our schedulers go into Alexa Mode, it results in massive holes in our consult schedule.

=============

You are not Alexa. You are an amazing human being, made in the image of God, playing a crucial role in the patient journey.

You are not a machine that robotically spouts answers to random questions thrown your way. You are a leader who understands the needs of your patients, and helps them make the decision that’s right for them.

Make no mistake: If someone calls our office, asks questions, gets the info they need, and then goes about their day…

We have failed them.

“Troy, people ask me questions. You mean I shouldn’t answer them?”

Couple notes on this:

First, do not feel beholden to answer every question asked of you. That said, it’s important to identify and address the concern underlying the question. That’s a whole other lesson in itself (literally – we have a coaching module on that in our E3 Bootcamps where we go in-depth on this concept).

To summarize: every question is the surface-level manifestation of an underlying concern. Deal with the concern at the root, and you don’t have to mess around with the question.

One example:

“Do you guys offer financing plans?”

The common ANSWER to the QUESTION is: “We don’t finance, but we work with a company called Care Credit/Alpheon, and they have XYZ promotional rate right now.”

But the underlying CONCERN is “Can I afford it / How can I fit this into my budget?”

So addressing the CONCERN (vs. simply answering the question) would be more like “Great question! We have several different payment options, including plans as low as $X a month. Look, we have college kids who come in here and have LASIK. We can help you figure out the money part. Most important thing is first making sure you qualify and what’s gonna be the best solution for you.”

=============

One more concept to etch into your brain:

The person asking the questions is the person in charge.

Think about the last cop show you watched (my wife digs NCIS). Officer has the suspect cuffed in the interrogation room, asking him questions. The officer is the one in charge.

We don’t want our engagements to feel like an interrogation, but the analogy is useful – the person asking the questions is the one in charge of the engagement.

Which means if our prospects are asking questions, and we’re answering them… then THEY are in charge.

And in case there’s any question: YOU need to be in charge of your patient engagements. NOT the patient.

Sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? After all, we like to call our patients “guests.” We like to follow the Ritz-Carlton customer service model. Seems the patient should be leading this relationship, yeah?

But don’t forget a major part of Ritz-Carlton’s success is their ability to anticipate their guests’ needs. Yes, the experience is focused on their guest. But Ritz-Carlton leads the experience.

Do you want to call housekeeping for a towel change, or go downstairs and pick up your own room service order? No. You don’t want to tell them how to do their jobs, you just want the result – a great experience. It’s RC’s responsibility to lead the process make it happen.

Same goes in your practice. Your patients want you to lead them. They want the result, and they are trusting you to get them there.

You are in charge. Practically, this means after you address the concern they conveyed with their question, YOU ask a question of your own and continue moving them toward the consult. YOU take the leadership role.

Don’t just sit there, answering questions… waiting for the next one… until your prospect runs out of things to ask and decides to get off the phone.

=============

We are the leaders of our patients. This is a hill I will die on.

We are not here to take orders. We are not here to answer questions. We are not here to wait until the patient says “Let’s go!” to get them moving on their transformational journey.

Every single lead that comes into your practice – every person you talk to – has in some way raised their hand and said, “I need help.”

And it’s our job to help them. Which means being the leaders, taking charge, and guiding them down the path of their patient journey.

=============

You are not Alexa. But you are awesome when you step up and lead your patients. So do it, today and every day.

Make the shift from “Question Answerer” to “Leader” and watch how patients follow your lead.

Have an amazing day,

– Troy “Alexa-less” Cole

PS – This is such a powerful mindset shift when you apply it to your engagements with prospects and patients. Read it again, then forward it to your team.

Don’t Forget to Market to This Audience

Quick reminder – make sure you don’t overlook marketing to the most important “audience” in your practice growth strategy:

Continually market to your own team.

If you want your patients to buy-in and believe you can transform their lives, your team members need to believe it first.

Your team members are the messengers. The representatives of your vision. The executors of your mission.

So if they are uninspired or otherwise lack clarity and conviction around what you’re doing (and why you’re doing it), prospective patients will have a difficult time getting on board.

A few simple ways to market to your team:

Share new 5-star google reviews with your people. Read them to the team during meetings, send them out via email. Make sure your staff hears these stories of transformation from happy patients.
Patient sends a note or a gift thanking you for their treatment? Read it, show it off, pass it around. Put it on the bulletin board in your staff lounge area.
Have team members watch you do a procedure. This is easier to do with treatments like LASIK, and you probably don’t want to do this with a long, invasive cosmetic procedure. But when appropriate, your people need to see first-hand how quick, comfortable and transformative your procedures can be… and the patient reactions to such procedures.
If you do mission work, charity work or other community support, involve your team. Talk about why your practice support the organizations you do, and get the team involved in some way.

Last thing – none of these are one-and-done. If it’s been 6 weeks since you shared your latest 5-star reviews with your team, that’s too long.

Get in a rhythm where your team-marketing efforts happen weekly, or even daily. (Yes, we have busy clients who still manage to do this.)

When you continually market to your team, they are empowered and inspired to preach the good word to your patients. Which is key for anyone who wants to convert more surgeries at a premium price point.

Have an awesome weekend,

Troy

PS – When it comes to reviews, you gotta actually have new Google reviews so you can share them with your team. If you don’t generate at least 10 new 5-star ratings + reviews on Google each month, you have a bad review-getting process. Get in touch if you would like the process that works like gangbusters.

This Grandpa Destroyed Me in Racquetball

I was catching up with a TCU buddy last week, and somehow the convo turned to a racquetball tournament we played our sophomore year.

Nothing overly official – just a competition organized by the university rec center.

I consider myself a solid racquetball player. And sure enough, I handily defeated the first 3 guys I faced in the tournament. (All other students)

But then the semifinal round came about, and I faced a new foe – one of the professors.

This guy was 3x my age, slightly overweight, not the best physical specimen. I had definitely faced more athletic opponents.

Out of shape? Old? Lookin a little creaky? “Well, this should be easy,” I thought.

Negative, Ghost Rider. Dude wiped the floor with me.

How did he do it? – He controlled the angles.

The guy didn’t have to be fast… or athletic… or even in that great of shape… because he didn’t even have to move. He knew all the angles of the court, and he put them to work. He had me chasing the ball everywhere. Waiting for me to fall on my face so he could place his next shot just out of my reach.

=============

I learned several useful lessons in that match, all of which apply directly to the folks booking consults and surgeries in your office.

Working harder doesn’t necessarily win in terms of sheer effort. You can try as hard as you can (me running all over the court), but if you don’t have the knowledge to properly apply the effort, you risk getting run over.
Determine your strategic advantage. This dude was not gonna “out-athletic” me. He knew if it was a race of sheer agility and strength, I would win. So he didn’t play that game. He played his game – controlling the angles.
Controlling the Angles is a Key to Winning. This guy won because he knew how to use the angles of the court to position me where he needed me to be in order to accomplish his goal. Sometimes he hit it hard, sometimes soft. High, low. Left, right. But always with intention toward the end goal.

“Control the Angles” is a key concept if you want to increase your conversion rates.

Consider every prospect you engage, it’s like a volley in racquetball.

If I hit the ball as hard as I can, and he hits the ball as hard as he can, and we go back and forth like that until someone messes up, it’s not strategic. You win some, you lose some. It’s too random, not what you want.

But this happens every day on the phones in your office.

Prospect: “How much is LASIK?”

You: “It’s $5500.”

Prospect: “Do you offer financing?”

You: “We work with a company called Care Credit, and they have 2 years no interest.”

Prospect: “OK, thanks, I think that’s all I need to know for now.”

You: “Great, well just give us a call if you want to book a consult!”

/End Call, lost lead, someone who desperately needed our help didn’t get it.

Why? Because that’s just a straightforward volley back and forth. No angles. No strategy. No guidance. No leadership.

And will you book some consults playing a straight-up game? Of course you will.

But you will book more – you will WIN more – if you control the angles and put them to good use.

=============

What are some examples of controlling the angles? Here are 11.

I’m not gonna give detailed explanations of how to use all these – that’s too much for one email. (Though we dive into all that during our coaching programs). But this will give you enough to get started in controlling the conversation and moving the prospect in the direction you want.

Incubation Angle – “How long have you been thinking about it?” – Move them to act now (waited long enough)
Price Angle – “Great question! Mind if I ask a few quick questions so I can answer that accurately for you?” – Giving out price when asked isn’t useful. If you called the Ford dealership and said “How much is a car?” and they gave you a price, would that be helpful? No. Get more info, then you can answer more accurately (or skip past the question altogether).
Referral Angle – “How did you hear about us?” – Friend, Google review, etc. Then the referral source becomes an angle you can leverage.
Wear Angle – “What do you wear most often – glasses or contacts? And how long have you worn them?” – Get a pulse on how long they’ve had this problem.
Open-Ended Angle – “What made you reach out?” – Get them spilling their guts about why they have called you for help.
Urgency Angle – “Any big events coming up?” – Get this thing taken care of so you’re ready for that wedding, vaca, etc.
Urgency Angle 2 – “What do you have planned for spring break / summer / etc?” – Another take on urgency.
New Guest Angle – “Have you ever been in to see us before?” – Establish they are a first timer and that you’re rolling out the red carpet for them.
Spouse Angle – “What does your husband/wife think about this? Are they so excited for you?” – Spouse is gonna be involved, go ahead and get in front of it (proactive).
Future Pacing Angle 1 – “What’s the first thing you’re gonna do once you can see?” Get them thinking past the sale about the results they’ll experience.
Future Pacing Angle 2 – “What are you most looking forward to?” Another take on future pacing.

Angles. That old dude destroyed me on the racquetball court because he knew how to control the angles.

Cool thing about what you do – There doesn’t have to be a “loser” in your game. If you use your angles appropriately, and you help someone make the decision to move forward with the procedure they need and deserve – then you BOTH win.

– Troy “Angle Everything” Cole

PS – There doesn’t have to be a loser, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be. If your people don’t do their job… if they don’t control the angles… if the prospect calls and asks for help, and we didn’t help them at least come in for a consult… and the prospect hangs up the phone and “think about it” for another 3 years… then they’re the loser. And it’s our fault.

PPS – Related to today’s message – you know how it’s darn near impossible to find good hires right now? And it’s putting a strain on your ability to give the highest level of customer service for your premium-priced procedures?

Well… rather than trying to find a new hire (or at least in addition to it), what if you could significantly increase the capacity of your best patient counselor?

We’ve put together a service that does just that. It acts as an “extension” of your patient counselor – we text prospects immediately after they submit one of your web forms, we educate prospects on why to choose you, we continuously reach out to them if they don’t book, etc. Basically all the stuff your current team is too strained to do, but you know needs to be done if you want to increase conversions.

And it’s way more cost-effective than hiring someone anyway (if you can even find anyone awesome to hire). So if you’d like to know more, reply and I’ll send you more details.

The Dangers of “Being Competitive” with Your Pricing

I was advising a new client last week on pricing strategy.

Our philosophy at LogiCole Consulting: pricing is a positioning tool. We work with our clients to help them charge premium prices that are still significantly lower relative to the value they provide.

Another way to look at it – while they may be the highest priced in their markets, they are still the best deal.

There’s no advantage to being priced “in the middle of the pack” (a concept I first learned from Dan Kennedy). A few hundred more than this guy, a few hundred less than that one. Because now you’re just part of the noise.

To use price as a positioning tool, you must be on one end of the pricing spectrum.

You want to be priced at the high end – Ritz Carlton – or the low end – Wal-Mart. You can win in one of those two positions. Anything in the middle is fighting for scraps.

So why do so many practices feel the need to price themselves “in the middle” relative to other practices in town? The most common answer I get from prospective clients when I interview them: “Well, we want to be competitive.”

At first glance, this reasoning makes sense and even sounds admirable. But I would argue that “being competitive” doesn’t just limit your price, it can throttle the level of care you provide.

“Being competitive” is not the goal of your practice, and it’s a mindset is hurting you more than it’s helping you. Let’s address it…

=============

Competition happens among teams in the same league. For example, C.B. is my almost-8-year-old son, and I coach his baseball team. We will compete against my neighbor’s team that he coaches for his 8-year-old son.

Both teams are in the same league. Our athletes have comparable talent levels. When we play, it will be a fair competition.

But is that what you want for your practice?

“I want to be in the same league as other practices in town.”
“I want it to be a fair competition!”
“I want the levels of care and patient experience to be equal among me and other surgeons at other practices.”
“I’m more than happy to serve patients down at the same level as everyone else.”

I doubt those thoughts have crossed your mind. Why?

Because you wanna be in a league of your own. You want people to look at you… and look at other providers around town… and think “Man, there’s not even a comparison.”

You want this scenario: C.B.’s 8-year-old team vs. my 5-year-old’s tee ball team.

They’re NOT in the same league. It’s not even a competition. No one would let them play each other because it wouldn’t be fair or even safe.

The fact that both teams play baseball is where their similarities end. And the fact that someone else in town does vision correction or cosmetic procedures is where your similarities end too.

So if you’ve felt compelled to embrace this “Be competitive” narrative, this is permission to stop. Do not allow yourself to be lowered to everyone else’s level. Do not limit your team’s beliefs in the type of patient experience and outcomes you can provide.

No need to be competitive when you’re in a league of your own.

– Troy “Keep Slugging” Cole

PS – If this resonates with you, check out the book Positioning by Al Reis and Jack Trout. h/t to Dan Wilson for mentioning this recently. I haven’t re-read it yet this year, but I’m about to give it another go.