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“Well… I feel like $8k for eye surgery is a big expense.”

A client’s surgery scheduler shared this during a coaching call re: her conversions. She was having challenges booking surgeries, and now I knew why.

She was going into the consult thinking about “how much money” she was asking them to spend. She viewed the vision correction as a major expense, a cost, a negative. And she had been projecting that onto her prospects.

It’s a common mental block that rears its ugly head and ruins a critical step of the Patient Journey – Asking for the Business.

If your team feels like you’re overpriced, or that you aren’t delivering the value, or that you’re asking for a lot of money in general… will they have the confidence to overcome objections and book surgeries? No.

So how do you help your team overcome this? Your sales people need “money perspective.”
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Heard a great example of this during a recent training I went through.

The trainer asked about people’s high ticket offers. Someone said “We sell a high ticket service for $9k.”

And he replied – “That’s not high ticket. You know what $9,000 is? It’s an old, beat-up Toyota Corolla.”

The trainer contrasted the person’s offer – and all the benefits their prospects would receive – against spending the same amount money on a mediocre used car.

I’m not saying you would use that example with patients. But the point is that we often need to reframe how we think about these investments ourselves.

Even your highest priced procedures aren’t expensive. Either compared to the total amount of money and what it could buy elsewhere (some used car). Or more importantly, compared to the results your prospects will achieve by investing in themselves.

Think about it – for $100 – $200 a month, you’re changing every waking moment of a person’s existence. That’s huge.

But forget about months, let’s break this down more… 👇
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If you really want to get granular (and sometimes that’s useful), weigh the investment in terms of cost-per-hour.

Someone spends $8000 on laser vision correction, an investment they use 18 hours a day for 10 years (being conservative here).

**That works out to 12 cents an hour. **

Compare that to the cocktail dress your patient bought for $500 and wore to one party for 4 hours = $125 an hour.

The dress is literally 1000x more expensive your procedure… when you compare the costs appropriately.

(This gets into how most people don’t have any idea how to think or compare or make hard decisions, which is whole other essay altogether…)

And if you’re a cosmetic dentist, plastic surgeon or even bariatric practice, you can make similar comparisons.

We spend SO much money ALL the time on things that don’t deliver a fraction of the value, benefit, joy and utility of the procedures you offer.

You team needs new “money perspective” so they can get out of their own heads, their own opinions, their own priorities and understand the incredible value they’re delivering to your patients.

Once they grasp this, it creates massive confidence to Ask for the Business.
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Similar situation when we enroll clients on our bootcamps.

Practices will go out and spend millions of dollars building out offices or ASCs. They’ll drop multi-six figures on a new laser or pieces of diagnostic equipment. These investments are important for your practice, and I’m all for it.

And our team coaching programs are a fraction of those investments. Yet I can make the argument that our world-class sales and communication bootcamps are essential if you actually want to fill the surgery center, get people under that laser.

And practices inherently know this when they come to us, otherwise we wouldn’t even be speaking in the first place.

Our prospects know their teams need our coaching. Your prospects know they need your procedures.

But it takes a high level of confidence and conviction – a new “Money Perspective” – to communicate the massive value and benefits.
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Key takeaway – The life-changing investment in your procedures is minimal at best. Your patients give the equivalent of a used Nissan Versa, and they get the entire world in return.

Sounds like a darn good trade to me. Make sure your team understands this too.

Happy Thurs!

Troy “Money Perspective” Cole

Last night, I went to a concert for a band you’ve probably never heard of…

I’ve seen these guys 15ish times over the last 20 years. They never fail to put on a great show.

They’re called Less Than Jake, a ska/punk group from Gainesville, Florida.

So when we heard they were touring… and the first night of the tour would be in Dallas… and it was the first concert we’d be able to attend since the world went sideways with the ‘rona 18 months ago… I rallied the troops.(Tickle your earholes here)

Both my brothers, my 2 best friends and me. The 5 horsemen. Going to see a band we’d seen a bunch of times… play all the same songs… again.

The show was everything we hoped it would be. Loud guitars, a blaring brass section (they’re a ska band, which means they have horn players), confetti, balloons, bad jokes, the whole 9 yards.

Once they concluded their final song and the drummer tossed me one of his sticks (which still gives me a thrill), we decided to head to the back of the venue, rehydrate and regroup.

My friend Jason turned to me and said, “Dude, for the first night of the tour, they were on point! They always put on such an incredible show. It seems like they’re having just as much fun on stage as we’re having in the crowd.”

And THAT LAST LINE, my friends, is essential to building an extraordinary practice.

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We’ve all dealt with businesses and employees who clearly don’t enjoy their jobs. Scowls on their faces, monotones to their words. They just want to get you “handled” and move on to the next thing.

Unfortunately, this is the case with most business interactions. Going back to the Customer Service essays I shared a few weeks ago (which you can find here), it’s pretty common for people to “go through the motions” at their jobs.

I’m not telling you anything you don’t know – you’ll experience this very thing multiple times today.

Keeping with the theme, here’s another concert example to illustrate the point:

I remember seeing the band Kings of Leon at Lollapalooza about 10ish years ago.

There’s a much better chance you’ve heard of Kings of Leon vs. Less Than Jake. And back in the early 2010s, Kings of Leon was blowing up. They were all over the radio, had a bunch of big hits, and were one of the headlining acts for the massive Lollapalooza festival that year.

We decided we had to check out their show. But 2 songs into their set, we’re all looking at each other wondering… why is the energy so low?

They were going through the motions. Which doesn’t mean they sounded bad… quite the contrary. They sounded exactly like their albums. The sound was incredible.

But the presentation – the show, the passion, the enjoyment of what they were doing – it wasn’t there.

Maybe that’s their schtick as a band. I’m not judging them. All I can tell you is everyone in our small group felt the exact same way – “Well, this is pretty mediocre.”

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There’s something to be said for people who truly have a passion for what they do (or at least appear to).

Because you’ve had interactions with those people well. They’re rare, but awesome.

One of my boys (Caden Brave aka CB) takes ukulele lessons.

Susan and I are like, “Wow, this lady is REALLY into her music lessons.” And it gave us a great feeling.When Susan was looking for an instructor, she called the local music school. The woman who runs the place was so excited about what they do, so passionate about teaching music, so eager to meet my son and give him a great experience.

Her passion and energy showed how much she cared. Cared about providing a great service… cared about my son’s experience.… cared about us spending our hard-earned money with them.

These are the same beneficial by-product feelings you create in your prospects and patients when you exude energy and passion for what you do.

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What’s Less Than Jake’s recipe for sustaining a 30-year music career with die-hard fans all over the globe? It comes down to 2 things:

1. They have a great product.
2. They exude a passion, energy and love for what they do.

It’s the same formula you can use to stand out from the other practices in your area. They’re boring. They don’t love what they do. They’re going through the motions.

You’re different. You’re passionate. You’re excited. You’re eager to help. You want to put on a great show – that is, to create a great experience – for your patients.

Do that, and your practice can rock for 30+ years too. (And you’ll make a whole lot more moola than a ska-punk band from Florida, I promise you).

– Troy “Rock On” Cole

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PS – To stay excited and energetic and passionate about what you do… isn’t always easy for your team.

If you want to hear some practical rhythms we teach on this very subject, shoot me a message and I’m happy to share.

I couldn’t believe Carlos had never waited on us before.

We go to Gloria’s – a regional South American / Mexican food restaurant – probably once a month-ish.

(Their steak fajitas are on point, margaritas are the best in DFW, and our kids love love love their black bean dip…)

Gloria’s service is generally pretty good. But we’d never had Carlos serve us before. He’s the kinda guy I would remember if we had because his service was next level.

Carlos brought his A-game. Our waters, chip baskets and bean dips never got less than half empty.

He made sure to ask how we would like our dishes prepared – how would I like my steak? Aioli on top or on the side? Extra pico? Quesadillas split for the kids? Corn tortillas, flour or both? Extra plates?

And he quickly cleared any empty dishes from the table once they were done.

The dude did all of this with a happy, stellar attitude. I had to comment on it.

“Carlos, this has been great service today. We appreciate you giving us such a great experience.”

He beamed with pride. “It was my pleasure, sir,” he said, “I’ve been here 15 years.”

And then he told us, “Next time you and your lovely family are here, ask for Carlos. I have regular customers all the time, and I would love to serve you again.”

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My description of Carlos’ service may not sound life-changing. I agree.

But going back to my point from Monday’s message – strong Customer Service is at such a premium right now, someone who does great at just the basics really stands out.

What can you learn from Carlos that will help you book more surgeries in your practice?

Let’s use the Carlos example to go over how great customer service should feel if I come into your office as a patient:

It feels like you have everything under control. I don’t need to worry about it.

It feels like you are leading the process and I can follow you.

It feels like I can be comfortable asking questions or making requests.

It feels like you know what you’re doing.

It feels like you enjoy what you’re doing.

It feels like you take pride in doing your job well.

It feels like you’re more concerned about me than about you.

It feels like you know what I need before I know that I need it – and you take care of those needs.

It feels like you are confident enough in the results that you provide, that you ask for future business (either repeat customers in Carlos’ case, or asking for referrals).

It feels like it was worth every penny and then some because the experience was so good compared to most other interactions in my life.

It feels darn good.

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Is this how your prospects and patients feel when they interact with your office? When they do, it becomes much easier for them to hand over their hard-earned money for your premium priced procedures.

What Would Carlos Do? Go do that today.

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– Troy “Fajita King” Cole

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PS – If you skipped my previous email on BAD customer service, go back and read it.

PPS – Customer service is key to booking more surgeries. We’re filling our Fall Sales Training Bootcamps right now. If you’re interested, reply for more details. Our bootcamps are the bee’s knees for elective surgeons who want to book more surgeries or raise their prices (or both).

The customer service bar is so low these days…

My 3-year-old could hop over it on one foot.

Surely I’m not the only one seeing this. Have you noticed how great customer service just… isn’t really a thing anymore? Or at least it’s not common.

Quick story:

My family of 6 (did you know I have 4 kids age 9 and under?) are season pass holders at a local water park. On one particular visit a few weeks ago, we forgot our season pass cards at home.

Should be a simple enough solution, yeah? Check the computer, see that we’re members, thank us for being loyal customers, and let us in.

Nothing crazy. Not even bending over backwards. Just an opportunity to provide solid customer service.

Nope. They tried to make us buy replacement passes. Wasteful. Didn’t need em. Didn’t want em. Weren’t necessary.

But neither the employees NOR the manager could fathom the idea of just letting us in. (And we’re not talking about some giant corporate theme park with tons of moving parts. It’s a locally owned, small-time operation with a couple dozen employees).

We spend significant amounts of money there each summer – on season passes, food, birthday parties for the kids, buying tickets for friends.

And when they had the opportunity to deliver solid customer service and show us they appreciate our business…

They totally flunked.
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So that’s one example of bad customer service. But what’s even more common is mediocre customer service you find everywhere else.

All examples from my life in the last 2 weeks:

>>> Servers at nice restaurants who are just going through the motions, have no attention to detail and don’t seem the least bit concerned about providing a great date night experience.

>>> The cable company receptionist who acts like it’s the biggest inconvenience of her day to talk to me (after she’s kept me on hold for 17 minutes).

>>> The sprinkler repair man who says he’ll come Monday and just… ghosts me.

“C’mon, Troy. People are stressed. Businesses are short-handed. Don’t be an old curmudgeon about bad customer service.”

Hey, I’m not saying anything about WHY it’s happening or even if it’s justified (actually I will comment on that: bad customer service is never justified). All I’m saying is that customer service these days is SO WEAK… that it gives you a massive opportunity.
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If you just give solid customer service, you’ll be so much further ahead than so many other businesses trying to take your prospects’ attention and money.

I’m not even saying you have to be amazing. I mean you should be, but even that’s not necessary to be leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else.

You don’t have to be Ritz-Carlton level (though that would serve you quite well). You don’t have to be Zappos (although you should strive to mimic their customer service in many ways).

Start by SETTING and MEETING expectations, and you’ll be ahead of 98% of the businesses out there, including all the other practices in your area.

SALES is my usual topic of discussion. Why are we talking Customer Service?

Because when you give good old, fundamental customer service – being responsive, clear communication, smiles, anticipating needs – this goes a LONG way in creating the value you need to close high ticket surgeries at higher-than-commodity pricing.

What we’re talking about is critical to growing your volume. There’s no way around it.

Take Customer Service out of the Patient Journey, and you’re left with a helluva bumpy ride.

Can you still off-road your way to your destination? Sometimes. But why not give your prospects a freshly paved fast lane to the results that they want?

Which is why we dig into these customer service concepts in all of our training programs. Heck, we have new modules coming out focused just on the front desk team members. How they can create a great first impression for patients coming into the office.

 

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In closing:

Are you giving good, consistent customer service? It’s one of the easiest ways (right now) to set yourself apart as a world-class practice.

The bar is low. Just step over it and prosper.

TOMORROW…

We’ll talk about what Solid or even GOOD customer service looks like. My dude Carlos at Gloria’s is a great example.

“A guy slingin’ the world’s best house margaritas can help me book more patients in my elective surgery practice?”

YUP. More tomorrow…

– Troy “Serve” Cole