Articles

I recently onboarded a new client who was complaining of people in their market “shopping around” for vision correction.

People who didn’t seem serious. Only asked about price. Didn’t want to book a consult.

This comes up fairly often when interviewing practices for one of our bootcamps. Especially when we share big wins our clients typically achieve – Conversions going up, record days/weeks/months for treatment, raising their prices while also raising conversions, etc.

Typical response: “That all sounds great. But our market is different. It’s unique. We have a lot of shoppers. I don’t know if that will work here.”

Every market has its nuances. But the big thing we’re talking about here are the laws of human nature, and those stay pretty consistent across the board.

​

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

​

So how do you keep people from “shopping around” when they call your practice?

Picture a shopping mall (remember those?). You walk into a store, look around then on to the next one. And the next and the next.

Why do you do this? 2 reasons:

1. Because you are in charge of your shopping experience. You run the show.

And 2. Because most retail employees aren’t going to step up and run the show for you, so you stay in charge by default.

Think about it. You walk into a store and many times aren’t even greeted by someone. Or maybe an associate says “Hi, can I help you find anything?” That’s better than nothing I suppose. But it ain’t leadership.

​

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

​

So what would take you out of “shop around” mode in a mall?

If someone else who started running the show instead of you.

Here’s what I mean:

Picture yourself walking into Nordstrom to find a new outfit for a party.

Instead of the sales associate saying, “Can I help you find anything?” It goes more like this:

Nordy: “What brings you in to see us today?”

You: “Oh just looking for something for a dinner party.”

Nordy: “Ooh, sounds fun! Let’s see if we can help with that. Are we talking formal, semi-formal, dressy-casual…?”

You: “dressy casual for sure.”

Nordy: “Great. And would you say you’re feeling more on the fun-n-funky side, or something more traditional?”

You: “Ha probably fun and funky. It’s my friend’s 50th birthday dinner, we’re doing the limo thing and probably getting ridiculous.”

Nordy: “Excellent, can I show you a few things that you might like? I’m Susan by the way, nice to meet you…”

And you’re off to the races…
​

=====================
​

Nordstrom knows a thing or two about customer service. They know to help their customers get the result they want (look good, feel good), it takes an element of leadership.

One of the big reasons people shop around for a product/service they already know they want – they don’t have anyone leading them in the right direction.

This is especially true for something like elective surgery, where people are making a big decision they’ve never had to consider before.

They’re basically flying blind. (pun for my LASIK folks)

So they call you and 5 other practices. Ask questions about the few things they are familiar with (this is where so many of the pricing questions come from!). And they desperately try to gather enough information to formulate some kind of plan of action themselves.

Problem is, many of them never get themselves to the point of saying, “OK, here’s my next step.” Which shouldn’t surprise you. They don’t have any idea what they are doing.

Most people are bad decision makers anyway, and that goes double when we’re in unfamiliar territory.
​

=============
​

But is there any real harm in just answering their questions? In a word, yes.

Answering questions does your prospect ZERO favors. In fact, it’s a disservice.

If you answer every one of someone’s questions… and they leave more confused than before (which is often the case)… then you actually hurt them more than helped them.

Your prospects need a leader. A leader who is going to ask her own questions, to find out what the prospect really needs and work together to formulate an action plan that gets results. That’s why they called you in the first place, right?! To get a result?

One of the Es in our E3 Conversion System Bootcamp is “Exhibit Authority.” We re-wire our clients to think about leadership in a way that actually serves – and converts – prospects.

Don’t want people who “shop around” at your practice? Exhibit authority and give them a reason to fall under your leadership for this important decision. They cannot find the promised land on their own. They need you to lead them…

Share this with your team and go lead your patients today.

– Troy “Nordy Boy” Cole

​

PS – The 2021 Fall cohort for our E3 Conversion System Bootcamp is kicking off in a couple of weeks. We only have room for 3 more practices to join.

If you would like to: grow your surgery volume, raise your prices beyond “market rate,” build a strong culture, and turn your team into true believers in what you do (because conviction trumps everything) – then your team needs the toolset, skillset and mindset to make it happen.

E3 is the way. Reply to this email with “E3 me!” and I’ll send you a copy of our Dossier that outlines the entire program.

We’re not at batting practice anymore, Toto…

A strange thing happens when a practice gets their marketing dialed in. (I’m helping a client work through this now, and it’s always a good reminder.)

For many practices who don’t market (or who don’t have effective marketing), they only get leads who are “ready to go.”

So Sally will call up and say, “Hey, my friend Sharon came over there and has LASIK. She really likes you guys, and I wanna come in and get it done too.”

Now, that’s great. Of course you want those easy wins.

But let’s look at what happens when you start marketing your practice the right way. You start to attract prospects who aren’t already sold on you and your practice.

If you have leads that take more effort to track down, or they need more persuasion to understand your value proposition… that’s a sign you’re on the right track.

Why? Because that means you’re attracting future buyers, in addition to those who are ready to go right now. You’re extending your effective reach, vs. simply taking what comes your way.

To put it on a bumper sticker: Fickle leads aren’t a bug of good marketing. They’re a feature.

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

You know I like my baseball analogies. ⚾️

Your referral leads are like baseball practice, hitting baseballs off a tee. You get in a good groove, and you’re really smashing the ball. “I’m pretty good at this hitting thing.”

Well yeah, because those referred patients are often “tee’d up” and ready to book.

So you suit up for a game. You step up to the plate, thinking you’re ready to go. And then you quickly realize…

Hitting during a ballgame is a totally different deal.

The pitcher’s throwing you fastballs. Curve balls, sliders. You’re struggling to get your bat on the ball. And if you do connect with the ball, you have to run the bases in the right way so you don’t get out.

There’s more to do, more to remember, and so many more variables than just slapping the ball off the tee.

Does that mean you need to be Babe Ruth? No. You can be a great hitter and score plenty of runs for your team once you know the fundamentals. But here’s the common issue – teams get frustrated because they think hitting off a major league pitcher should be exactly like hitting off a tee.

“Well, I lined up like normal. I swung the bat like I typically do. I did all the usual motions I use on the tee. So why did I strike out again?”

Because hitting on a tee and hitting a live pitcher aren’t the same thing. We’re talking about 2 different scenarios that require 2 different approaches.

Sure, one can help with the other. But if you think, “These are the same thing, so why aren’t I performing well in BOTH of them?” that’s just a simple flaw in thinking that needs to be corrected.

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

Imagine you manage a baseball team:

A few of your team members are great with a bat, have good attitudes and generally do well on the tee. But they’re having trouble hitting the ball when they’re up to the plate. Do you just give up? Throw in the towel?

No. You get someone to coach ‘em. Teach your team how to react to a pitcher. How to identify different pitches. How to put the ball in play so you have an opportunity to score.

Same goes for lead conversions. If your team doesn’t know how to convert a lead into a consultation into a surgery, you don’t just throw up your hands and say, “Well, guess this isn’t gonna work. We’re stuck.”

You train them on how to handle different situations. Teach them how to think the way you think about your patients. How to handle common objections. How to persuade when your prospects are standing in their own way and don’t want to make the decision that’s right for them. Get them excited because they work for one of the best practices in the world – yours.

This is exactly what we do in our E3 Bootcamp, and it’s precisely what your team needs on a weekly (or even daily) basis to continuously improve their game (and thus your winning percentage as a practice).

Marketing’s job is to create opportunities. On the communication/sales side, our job is to take those opportunities and turn them into consults and surgeries.

Don’t be afraid to step up to the plate. Coach your team to hit live pitching so you can win more games. And if you don’t have the time and resources to devote to coaching them, that’s understandable. But find someone who can.

That’s all I have for you today. Have an awesome Wednesday.

 – Coach Troy

Continuing the convo I started last week and continued yesterday, let’s get 100% clear what it means to “sell” in the context of elective treatments.

When you hear me say “Sell your treatments” or “Sell the heck out of it” I do NOT mean that you should be like a used car salesman using every trick and tactic to get prospective patients to buy. Why?

1. You don’t need to. 2. That approach doesn’t work anymore. 3. There are way more effective ways to convey value and present a buying decision.

Are we clear on this? We don’t hard sell. We don’t teach our clients to hard sell. We don’t recommend you hard sell. You don’t need to hard sell.

“Sales” is the short-hand term we use to describe the process of helping a patient make the decision that’s right for them, even if (especially when) it’s outside of their comfort zone.

If you don’t like the word “sales” that’s ok. I get it, it’s a loaded term with baggage. But don’t let that hold you back from embracing what “sales” (or whatever you want to call it) can do for your practice.

Swap out “sales” if you want. Call it “communications” for a minute.

(Which I may like even more. Here’s why…)

You might think of “selling” as something you’re either doing or not doing. Like you can turn it on or turn it off.

And you might think of “selling” as something that’s done only by “sales people” – your schedulers or counselors.

But when I say “communication”…

There’s no off switch to communication. You are always communicating something… in some way… to someone.

If I walk in the house, give my wife a big hug and kiss, and ask her how her afternoon has been… I’ve communicated with her.

If I walk in the house, completely ignore her, and go straight into my office… I’ve also communicated with her!

 

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

 

Same thing goes in your practice, when you and your team are communicating with prospects, patients or even other team members.

Your words (that you say or don’t say), your cadence, your facial expression, the speed of your voice, your body language…

Everything is communication. The question becomes “Is your team communicating the value of your practice in a clear way that differentiates you and helps your prospects make the right decision for them?”

In a nutshell, that is the question we address in our “sales” training. And as you can see, this requires so much more than your standard “sales processes” and “sales people” to be successful.

Which is why at first, clients come in wanting us to coach their sales teams. Then we show them this value-focused communication style we teach, and they want to enroll their entire patient-facing team in the bootcamp (techs, navigators, doctors, etc.). Makes perfect sense.

Sales coaching. Value Communication Training. Call it whatever you want, but it’s a requirement. That is if you’d like a busy, growing practice, premium priced procedures and most importantly, a team that has 100% clarity and belief that you are the best practice in the world.

You know you’re the best. But if your team cannot clearly communicate this to your prospects, you have an expensive problem that needs to get fixed asap.

That’s all I have for you today. Make it a great Wednesday!

 – Troy “Communicate” Cole