Articles

[🔥VIDEO] Follow Chipotle’s lead to add another 30-40 eyes next month

It’s time for the Thursday Thunder, my friend! Got a 🔥 video for you today, featuring the King + Cole Boys.

In today’s episode…

Troy thinks Chipotle holds the key to refractive success, Michael talks about gamifying frozen yogurt toppings, and the guys finally come up with a name for the show.

In addition, you’ll discover:

– COVID’s Fast-Forward Effect on consumer behavior (and why this is important to your practice)

– Chipotle’s Hybrid Model of customer acquisition that you can use to attract more surgery patients now

– The hidden limitations of only doing consults “the old way” (even if you’re busy, you’re still capped)

– The “first mover advantage” that’s out there for the taking (if you take action immediately)

– And more…

Go watch it now.

– Troy “Double Steak Burrito Bowl” Cole

PS – You don’t actually have to watch it unless you just wanna see our handsome mugs.

Turn on the video and listen in your car or during your workout. You’ll still get the full benefit of the content…

Is the Old School “Mindset of More” keeping you stuck?

I had a call yesterday with a practice that was “interested in doing some marketing.”

An acquaintance put us in touch, and I told them we could talk to see if they might be a good fit for us.

Pretty quickly into the conversation, I realized they are not our ideal client. Several flaws in the surgeon’s thinking jumped out at me. I wanted to share those with you today to make sure you aren’t making the same mistakes.

I call this the Old School “Mindset of More.” Old School is great if we’re talking about hip hop, classic cars or work ethic. Not so much when we’re talking about refractive surgery.

Here are 3 ways the Old School Mindset of More doesn’t serve you in the modern marketplace…

1. A desire for more “Marketing” (with a capital M)

Mad Men. Slick suits. High rises. Think back to the days of Don Draper delivering his pitch for Lucky Strike cigarettes.

The flash. The flair. It’s fun to watch on TV, but not necessarily tied to the mission at hand – filling your surgical suite.

This big, ambiguous concept of Marketing is what the doctor had in her head.

Dr: We want to do more Marketing for our practice.

Me: Ok, tell me more about that. Do you want to do more refractive surgeries?

Dr: Well yeah, but we need branding and Marketing.

Me: That’s fine. But I’m just making sure that your goal is to do more surgeries. Because that’s what we do.

Dr: Well yes, but what about our other Marketing?

Me: We aren’t worried about other Marketing. We have a proven product and process to get you more surgeries. That’s the play. We just run variations of that play over and over and over to fill your schedule.

Dr: But but but Marketing.

This Old School “More Marketing Mindset” stifles growth and sucks up budget.

Uncommon opinion – you actually don’t want marketing. You want a full surgery schedule.

Just like your patients don’t want LASIK. They want the results LASIK can give them.

Don’t get fixated on more Marketing. Get fixated on more new patients.

2. A focus on getting more “stuff” vs getting more results

There’s this horribly flawed idea that getting more “stuff” is automatically better in life.

This doctor told me, “We need to work with someone who will do everything – posters and brochures and commercials and signs, all that.”

We don’t do those things. And it’s not because they don’t need to get done. You need good brochures and materials and signage.

We don’t do them because when it comes to resources and opportunity cost, we focus 100% of our time and effort onto the plays that we know get surgery patients for our clients. Namely, our E3 Sales Training Workshop and our Patient Prime System to generate more consults that turn into surgeries.

Why? For the same reasons you probably don’t treat every different eye condition on Earth.

Why wouldn’t you just do “everything eyes”? Because of the massive resource allocation, the distractions, the lack of effectiveness that come with such a ridiculous model.

You offer a few specific solutions, you’re amazing at them, and your patients love you for it.

Take fitness for example. Would you rather:

A. Have a gym with access to every piece of equipment known to man, or

B. Have a trainer give you the exact exercises, exact workout plan, exact training and accountability you need to hit your goals?

Most people would say B and even pay a premium for it.

Yes, A has more “stuff.” But it’s also more overwhelming. It’s more complicated, and more confusing. Option A is a distraction standing between you and your goal.

This Old School idea that “more is better” is ridiculous.

There’s a practice in your city with more office space than you. Does that make them better?

There’s a practice in your city with more collective years of experience that you. Does that make them better?

Doing “more” is not necessarily better, and in many cases, it’s actually worse. Streamlining, simplifying, and taking the proven path to results without any fluff or distractions – that’s what’s better.

3. A fixation on more volume (at all costs)

I was glad to hear this practice is priced higher than their market average for LASIK.

I’ve talked plenty of times about the many reasons you are obligated to charge premium prices for your procedures.

Poblem is, they were ready and willing to give up their premium pricing for the sake of volume.

She told me, “We’re willing to go significantly cheaper to get more prospects in the door.”

You can imagine my response. “Yeah, don’t do that. Some small savings programs for specific groups is fine, but you should not do market-wide mass discounts.”

Her response? “Well, we’ve been told by cutting our price in half, it’ll be attractive for more people. I don’t really want to do that, but we’re considering it.”

She was so fixated on volume, she was willing to sacrifice her profit to get there.

“Volume volume volume at all costs! Brand be damned. Premium positioning be damned. Profits be damned. We’re going after volume!” 👈 This is an old school way of thinking.

Don’t get me wrong – more surgery volume is great. And we grow volume with our programs.

But sacrificing profit? I hate that. You hate that. My humble but accurate opinion – you’ve worked too hard for too long and put too much on the line to be the Wal-Mart of vision correction.

This Old School “more volume at all costs” mindset needs to die.

In conclusion, this practice – and many others like it – are too stuck in the old school mindset of “more” to take advantage of today’s opportunities in the marketplace.

But practices who are of the New School mindset…

That are interested in actual results vs “more Marketing”…

interested in doing what works vs doing more “stuff”…

and interested in profit (while also increasing volume), are in a much better position to achieve the success they say they want.

If that’s you, and you want more surgeries, reply to this message.

Have a helluva Tuesday,

Troy “Less Talk, More Rock” Cole

[VIDEO] – Refractive Growth Mindset, #1 Cost, Fishing Poles, Sporting Goods, Fast Lanes

Piping hot Thursday Thunder video for you today, my friend. The Michael King and I rap about:

The #1 biggest cost in your practice (the equivalent of taking stacks of $100 bills and throwing them in your fireplace)
The type of “Growth Mindset” that is required to increase refractive volume
How your practice is not like a sporting goods store, and the challenge that represents for you (and what to do about it)
The problem with relying too much on your “pretty website”
Limitations around the current opportunity in the refractive space
A few of the best “fishing poles” we use to hook more prospects from of our clients’ websites
The “smart cut” to get more patients now (the fast-lane roadmap)
And more…

Watch it here

AND if you aren’t doing the consistent surgery volume you want – you owe it to yourself to jump on the call with one of us and figure out why.

Stop beating your head against the wall and get some clarity. Now.

Talk soon,

Thunder Troy & Magic Mike

Case Study FAIL (can’t believe I missed this)

If you’re frustrated about not having the bandwidth to grow your refractive volume right now – because you’re still short-staffed or for any other reason – Read on to find out exactly how to do it… 👇

Last week, I sent you a case study of a client who used our Patient Prime System to generate an extra 7 figures in quarterly revenue, year over year.

And that’s awesome. More revenue is awesome. More surgeries are awesome.

Sitting in the refractive suite for an extra 3 hours on surgery day because you’re so darn booked up… awesome.

But there’s one other awesome thing I completely failed to mention when I sent this over to you.

And that is efficiency.

See, there are many practices out there who see the big opportunity right now. The “Refractive Wave” that is happening.

People have a renewed interest in LASIK. They don’t like the foggy glasses, they don’t like spreading germs to their eyes by touching their contacts. And they’re ready to make a change.

It really is a massive opportunity. And you want to take full advantage of it.

Heck, you deserve to take advantage of it, in my humble-but-accurate opinion. As hard as you work, as much as you’ve put on the line to open and grow a practice.

Not to mention the fact that you had your entire operation shut down last year, for goodness sakes. But you persisted, you pivoted, you survived. And now it’s your time to prosper.

(And let’s be real – patients need you to prosper. They need the solutions you have. Don’t get all “I feel bad making money during a Pandemic” on me. Making money is the only way you keep changing lives. Do it proudly.)

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Here’s the common challenge I’m hearing:

In talking with many practices over the last few weeks, the #1 reason they feel like they can’t go full-out and really capitalize on the Refractive Wave opportunity…

Is a lack of bandwidth. Many practices haven’t fully staffed back up from COVID. Team members are spread thinner than they were pre-shutdown.

They’re short-handed. Short-staffed. And sure, they’re moving in the direction of a full roster… but they aren’t there yet.

Unfortunately, opportunity waits for no one. It’s not gonna wait for you to staff up. It’s not gonna wait for you to feel comfortable pushing the gas pedal. It’s here now, and you have to take advantage of it now.

So how do you do it?

This was the thing I completely failed to point out in the case study I shared.

If you go back and watch the video, I want you to pay attention to these points. Read the rest of this message first, then check out the video again (I linked it at the bottom of this email).

Point 1 – The practice spent less time following up with leads.

Year over year, the practice in the case study generated about the same number of leads for the 3-month period in 2020 as they did in 2019.

On average, a lead takes X amount of time for your team to engage. (That’s not a typo. “X” is whatever that average is – 5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc.)

So if they generated the same number of leads, it would have taken about the same amount of time and effort to follow up with them, right?

Actually, no. The practice spent significantly less time on lead follow-up. Because about 25% of the leads were for virtual consults, which are self-scheduled appointments.

In fact, the practice didn’t have to spend any time or bandwidth on those particular leads prior to them showing up for the consult. We qualify, educate and do all the appointment reminders for them.

Math: Same # of leads + less time spent working the leads = More Efficient.

Point 2 – The practice booked more consults from the same number of leads.

42% more consults booked, to be exact. In 2019, 40% of their leads converted to consults. In 2020, 57% of their leads converted to consults for the same time period.

Again, this is due in large part to the way we have set up the self-scheduler/qualifier/reminder flow of our virtual consult funnel.

Math: Same # of leads + Higher conversion rate to consult = More Efficient.

Point 3 (The Big Takeaway) – When you’re running lean and mean, the only way to grow your volume is to become more efficient.

For anyone whose team is stretched thin, who doesn’t feel like they have the bandwidth to take full advantage of the Refractive Wave… this is how you do it.

You increase efficiency. Less time chasing down leads. More time focused on prospects who show up to consults and are ready, willing and able to book treatment.

Math: Reduced team + massively increased efficiency with new patient opportunities = net positive practice growth.

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The best way we’ve found to increase efficiency is through our virtual consult system that’s been tried, tested, tweaked and perfected by multiple practices and thousands of prospective patients.

You don’t have to write anything, build anything or figure anything out. We have the whole process packaged up, and we plug it right into your practice. It’s that simple.

So if you don’t want the Refractive Wave to pass you by, reply to this email ASAP and let’s talk.

– Troy “Ride the Wave (Efficiently) Cole”

PS – Almost forgot the video link to the case study. Check it out here.

LEAKED VIDEO: 2 Refractive Marketing Mavericks Talk Shop

Something a little different for you today.

I’m sharing a short video from a private, internal planning call that you’re gonna find highly useful.

So I was on a strategy call with Michael King earlier this week. We were talking about the excitement and momentum we’re seeing around our Patient Prime System.

We also discussed some of the questions and challenges that come up when we’re talking to practices about virtual consults and why/how to leverage them.

He had the bright idea that we should document and share this convo. So we hit “record” and captured this portion of our meeting for your viewing pleasure.

(NOTE: This is from a Zoom meeting that we recorded on the fly. So it’s raw, audio quality could be better, but the content is gold).

In the private video, you’ll see us discuss:

– The refractive surgery “wave” and why it’s vital to ride it now

– Exact data from a practice that added an extra 42 consults through the Patient Prime funnel last week

– The ‘home-centric’ shift and how COVID accelerated consumer behavior 5 years into the future (and why that’s important)

– The “Fishing Line” analogy for bringing an additional stream of patients into the practice

– What to do when you get asked The Pricing Question on a virtual consult

– Taking advantage of “the new way” to get surgery patients into your practice

You can check out the video here.

Enjoy your Thursday!

Troy “Clarity” Cole