Articles

🙏 What Would Jesus Do (about virtual consults)?

With Christmas a couple days out, I thought it appropriate to bring Jesus into the convo about Virtual Consults.

Let’s open our Bibles to John chapter 21…

Here we find Jesus’ disciples on a bad fishing trip.

Jesus comes along on shore (they don’t know it is him), and asks what’s going on.

They tell him, “Dude, we haven’t caught anything all night.” (Troy Translation)

Jesus instructs them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. Have a little faith, try something new.

With an eye roll, they hesitantly comply. And to their surprise and joy, the nets are so full of fish, they can’t pull them into the boat.

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Maybe your current fishing strategy isn’t providing you enough new surgical patients. And you’re a little frustrated… like the disciples were.

Or maybe you simply want a bigger catch than what you’re already hauling in.

When you get on board with the proper Virtual Consultation model, you have the opportunity to “cast your nets on the other side of the boat.”

This works in a few different ways. Here’s two:

1. It gives people in your current geographic area the opportunity to engage you.

Even if they don’t want a normal in-person consult for whatever reason.

If they are afraid, or if they don’t want to put pants on, or if they are interested – just not that interested – you can still get them on the hook. (pun intended)

2. It gives you the opportunity to cast a wider net.

You know that small town 40 miles east of your office? The one where you get a patient randomly every month or two?

It’s difficult to get folks to drive an hour into the city for a consultation.

But can you get them on a 15-minute Express Virtual Consult? You sure can.

And once they get a bit of face time with your team, build rapport, and discover they are likely a good candidate…

Well, that haul into the city doesn’t seem so far after all.

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Don’t take my word for it.

Virtual Consults, done in the right way, are already driving surgical volume for a number of practices across the country.

And this is your opportunity to be on the forefront of this “Virtual Shift,” instead of playing catchup…

So do what Jesus told his boys on the boat. Have a little faith. Try something new. Cast your nets on the other side.

And you may quickly go from quoting John to quoting Jaws…

“I think we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

– Troy “Fisher of Consults” Cole

PS – If you want to realize the full benefits of an effective Virtual Consultation program, but you aren’t sure how to market Virtual Consults / book them / execute them / convert them to sx… you may benefit from our Patient Prime System.

The PPS is a turnkey marketing program with all of this included. And there are no retainers or ongoing fees, which = no risk to you.

We have room for 3 more practices in our Q1 launch group of the Patient Prime System, so if you’re interested, reply to this email asap.

PPS – Merry Christmas from my family to yours. I pray this is a relaxing and joyful season as you celebrate your many blessings!

Your Practice vs. No Pants (you don’t stand a chance)

Work From Home has been all the rage this year.

Data highlights on the current and forecasted Work-From Home (WFH) trends:

53% of U.S. telecommuters view flexible scheduling as the top benefit of WFM
25% – 30% of the workforce will be working remotely from home by the end of 2021
99% of remote workers would like to continue doing remote work to some extent

These WFH people make up an ever-growing chunk of the population. And WFH is one aspect of the “new normal” that’s not going away any time soon, if ever.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, one feature of WFH did not show up in any of the data I reviewed…

It could be the most important characteristic of WFH. It’s definitely the one that will impact your practice volume moving forward, for better or for worse.

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Let’s talk about pants real quick. Specifically, wearing them vs. not wearing them.

When you work from home… Pants are optional.

And you know what? People love it.

Like I said, there’s no hard data to support this. BUT if you take a gander at comments on Twitter, Facebook, IG, Reddit, you’ll see plenty of anecdotal evidence that WFH folks love the pants-optional lifestyle.

(Do NOT search for ‘no pants’ on social media btw. You’ll see things you can’t unsee. Take the word of your trusted leader on this. People love working in not pants.)

People like their pajama bottoms, sweats, gym shorts, you name it. As long as it ain’t pants.

And that’s a problem for your practice.

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Here’s what you need to know about pantless people in a comfortable setting: They wanna stay that way.

The idea of running by the grocery store on the way home from the office? No biggie. It’s on the way. And you’re already wearing pants.

So you stop in, grab a few items, head to the house.

The idea of running to the grocery store… when you’re already at home working? That is a big deal.

You gotta get up. Put pants on. Then drive away from your comfy place, out into the world, to get your groceries.

Sounds silly, but it’s a much bigger activity.

Now, swap out ‘grocery store visit’ for ‘LASIK consultation’ and you’ll see why this is an issue.

You got all these people working from home… staring at screens and drying out their contacts… and you know you can help them. They know you can help them.

But the thing standing between them and the help they need? A pair of pants.

Your Practice vs. No Pants? You don’t stand a chance.

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As silly as all this may sound, the point is that consumer behavior is rapidly shifting to home-centric commerce, and probably not going back.

Look no further than the massive growth of mail-order groceries (Prime Fresh, Instacart), home workouts (Peloton, the Mirror), and food delivery services (GrubHub, Uber Eats).

Obviously we aren’t just talking about pants.

“No pants” is the thing people are meme-ing for the resistance of leaving the house.

So if you are the practice who can reduce the need for people to leave their comfort zones (figuratively and literally), that’s how you win in 2021.

This is where the virtual consults come into play. Yes, you have your in-person consults for the pants’d folk who are already out in the world.

But for those 30% of Work-from-homers – living free and loose with their no-pants lifestyle – you gotta have a more convenient option for them.

You must be an equal opportunity practice in 2021. You cater to those with pants and the pantless.

What does that mean?

This is one of many reasons you must have a dialed-in, conversion-focused virtual consultation process.

(Not just a Zoom account, not just your in-person consultation given on video)

The practices who get this are already prospering, and will continue to do so in 2021.

In fact, our Patient Prime System, which is heavily focused around Virtual Conversions, has helped multiple practices stack an extra $100k+ in monthly refractive revenue.

We are enrolling 5 practices into the Patient Prime system in Q1. No ongoing fees or retainers, and guaranteed ROI.

Deadline for enrollment is 12/31 (or sooner if the spots fill up).

So if that sounds good to you – reply to this email right now for more details.

And remember:

Pants people have problems and money. No-pants people have problems and money. Solve the problems, take the money.

– Troy “I Got 99 Problems, but Pants Ain’t One” Cole

Imitation is the sincerest form of admitting defeat

Ever see a competitor ad… or website… and think to yourself…

“Wow, they straight up copied us!”

I’ve seen it happen to my clients many times, so I’m sure it’s happened to you.

You aren’t the only one. We have our fair share of copycats.

For example, I was served a Facebook ad for a practice over the weekend. And as I’m reading it, I’m thinking, “This sounds a lot like a recent client promo we wrote.”

I went and looked just to be positive. Sure enough, I was right.

I was on a local practice’s website last week. I took a look at their self-test, and wouldn’t you know it…

It was a carbon-copy of one of ours.

This used to frustrate me to no end. “We work hard to put together creative campaigns for our clients, and we’re getting ripped off!”

But then I started to realize what copycats are signaling to me.

Have you ever seen these Michael Phelps meme?

This is essentially what’s happening when someone copies you. Which means it’s actually a good thing…

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Why is it actually good when someone copies you?

1. It shows you those practices have no creative skill.

Your competitors can’t come up with anything on their own. They got nothing. They need to take what you’re doing and try to leverage that.

But the fact that they don’t know what to do externally… probably means they have no clue how what to do on their Patient Journey either.

2. Those practices have to wait on you to make a move.

They’re gonna copy you? Great, that means they’ll never be out in front.

They can only move as fast as you. Their default position is “wait.” Wait for you to do something.

And since your default position is “action” (it is, right?!), you have a built-in first-mover advantage.

You’re in the pole position. The market leader. The authority.

And that’s exactly what you want to be with your patients – the authority and the leader who will help them reach the promised land. In fact, your entire Patient Journey should signal this.

3. Those practices have no idea about the backend.

Imagine building a restaurant with a gorgeous, eye-catching facade out front.

But when someone comes in the door… there’s no welcoming ambiance. No smiling hostess. No knowledgable waiter to guide you through the menu.

It’s a farce. It’s a show. Nice on the outside, absolutely mediocre on the inside. A bait and switch. Lipstick on a pig.

And their prospective patients see that quickly. And they don’t take kindly to it.

(Many of those prospective patients then run to our clients, who have incredible Patient Journey Systems in place)

4. Those copycat practices have no identity.

Your identity, your culture, your beliefs, your mission. These core values are essential to who you are, who you serve and how you serve them.

The nature of a copycat is that they don’t have these core values on their own. They have to look at what you’re doing, what you’re saying… and try to “be” that themselves.

Which is much easier said than done.

5. They don’t know what’s next (your unfair advantage)

Adapt or die. The nature of business and marketing is that it’s ever-evolving – to speak to and meet the newly created needs of your clients, customers or patients.

Remember when 2-day shipping launched?

Amazon saw people wanted faster and cheaper shipping. They started free 2-day shipping, and the world went wild.

That was a few short years ago. Now 2-day shipping? Meh. We’re used to it. And other major retailers are offering it (having copied Amazon). So we as consumers want something better.

Enter 1-day shipping, or even same-day delivery in some cases (depending on how close you live to an Amazon fulfillment center).

Also enter businesses like InstaCart, who deliver our family’s massive Costco orders directly to our front door within hours of placing the order.

(True Story: My AirPods died a couple weeks ago. I InstaCart-ed a new pair from Costco. Time from order to having them in my hands – 90 minutes.)

If you want to stay top dog in 2021 (or unseat whichever practice has that position) – you must continue to innovate.

Innovation is essential to growth.

The process goes like this:

You come up with a new way to do things
Others say “no way they can actually fulfill on that”
You do it. You prosper.
Others see that, and eventually they copy you.
You’re already on to the next innovation.

As long as you’re innovating, there’s no reason to worry about the copycats. Because you know you’re 10 steps ahead of them anyway.

Other practices/agencies have copied so much of our marketing over the years, but what they don’t know – we have 10x more either hidden “under the hood” or coming down the pipeline.

For example, we have a brand new marketing offer for 2021: instead of paying for retainers or agency fees, you only pay for consults who show up.

What do other advertising people say? “That’s not how agencies are structured. That doesn’t make sense. That could never work.”

Watch us do it. (Then copy us, of course)

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In closing, don’t let the copycats bother you.

They are but a cheap imitation of what you do and who you are.

And if you want to copy me or my clients, good luck. Just remember:

Imitation is the sincerest form of admitting defeat.

That’s all I got for you today…

– Troy “Often Imitated, Never Duplicated” Cole

PREsuasion, Goldendoodles, and Yellow Brick Roads

This week, I’m sharing insights on what you need to do to set your practice up for success in 2021.

Wait, the last month of 2020 is here?

Hard to believe (for a number of reasons). I’m thankful for what I learned in 2020… but I won’t miss it once it’s over.

Anyway, we’re talking 2021 planning this week. And a few of the big rocks you can move to set yourself up for success in the new year. (Here’s my last message from Monday, in case you missed it)

2 words for you today – “Patient Journey.”

When I say that, what comes to mind?

A lot of folks think about it as the steps a patient takes to get from Point A – feeling bad and seeking a solution – to Point B – a happy patient with their problem solved.

And those steps typically include:

Visiting your website
Getting on the phone with you
Actually booking an appointment
Actually coming in for an appointment
Booking a treatment
Showing up for treatment

This is an accurate statement of the Physical Patient Journey.

But there’s a secondary journey that takes place…

And it doesn’t occur on your website, on your phone lines or in your office…

It’s the Psychological Patient Journey. And it takes place in the patient’s head.

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We are all always on two tracks – 1. the things we’re doing, and 2. what we’re thinking/feeling about the things we’re doing.

Quick story:

We just got a new puppy, a Mini Goldendoodle named Josie:

Josie is a sweetheart. But she’s still trying to figure out her sleep schedule.

2 nights ago, she was fussy and barking. A bad night’s sleep for Josie = a bad night’s sleep for me.

Last night, we made sure to run her around the yard and really wear her out. She slept much better. Good sleep for Josie = good sleep for me.

For the last 2 mornings, I’ve done my same normal routine – wake up at 4a, read my Bible and journal, work for a couple of hours, hit the gym.

I did the same things both days. But how I thought/felt about those things was very different from yesterday to today.

Yesterday with bad sleep – I was dragging, tired, cloudy, frustrated. It took me a while to get up to speed for the day.

Today with good sleep – I’m refreshed, focused, feeling good and productive. I hit the ground running.

Same tasks on both days. Same actions. Same “Physical Morning Journey” for me.

But the physiological, psychological and emotional aspects were very different from no-sleep Troy to full-sleep Troy.

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Point of my story (besides showing off the fabulous Josie) is that the physical and psychological are separate pieces that must *both* be addressed.

Each patient is on two journeys.

The Physical Patient Journey is easy to audit and adjust. You’re basically assessing physical locations (your exam lanes), time (length and scheduling of calls/consult) and presentation (scripts, brochures).

The Psychological Patient Journey is more difficult to manage. You can’t see it or touch it.

But it’s there, and it’s vital. And you already know this.

Think about the last time you had a patient come in, and they were just ready to rock. It was probably someone who was referred by a happy patient.

They were excited, they were confident, and they were ready to book.

And you might think, “Well, it’s because their friend told them all about the procedure already, so they just didn’t have many questions.”

And sure that’s part of it. But information from their friend wasn’t the solution. It was the bridge to the solution.

And by solution, what I mean is… that patient got wayyyy further down the path of the Psychological Patient Journey before they ever even set foot in your office.

They already had clarity around the problem you solve. They already had a belief that you were legit. They already had the identity of someone who is the type of person to have vision correction.

“Sally did this and loves it and said it was no big deal. I’ve known Sally for 10 years. We’re besties. If she’s the kind of person who can do this, then that means I’m the kind of person who can do this too.”

People don’t literally say this ☝️. But it’s an example of the subconscious commentarythat’s happening in the patients’ head, which quickly moves them down the path of the Psychological Patient Journey.

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On the flip side, you have people who come in…

They are great candidates for treatment, they have the cash to pay, it should be a no-brainer decision for them…

But they are unsure. Uncertain.

Even though you’ve taken this person through the Physical Patient Journey, they are stalled out on the Psychological Patient Journey.

A patient has to mentally sign on the dotted line first. Then their actions (booking a procedure) can follow.

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We don’t have time or space to go too much deeper on this, but here’s a question to ask yourself:

“How can I accelerate the Psychological Patient Journey?”

What resources, content, scripts, visuals, experiences can I implement to shift the mindset of my prospective patients so they are more ready to do what they need to do?

Robert Cialdini wrote an epic book on this called “Presuasion.” The main premise: “What actions we can do beforehand to make the ideal outcome more likely to occur?”

This could be in the form of educational videos, brochures, blogs, testimonials, patient reviews, word tracks, homework for patients, self-tests, pricing calculators, outcome simulators, etc.

And it’s not only what but when. When in the Physical Patient Journey do you implement these pieces?

After the first phone call, 24 hours before the consultation, during the consultation in the office, as a take-home from the consult, prior to treatment, or even 30 days post-op when you want the patient to continue referring friends and family to you.

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Going into a new year is a great time to audit your Patient Journey – both paths.

A few questions to ask yourself:

What touch points are weak?
Where are the gaps?
Where is the patient losing momentum?
Where could you be more impactful?
What emotional and psychological needs of the patient aren’t being met?

Answer those questions, figure out the what and the when, and then implement the appropriate content or scripts or plays from your playbook.

Even the top-tier, world-class, customer service-focused practices have opportunities to fortify the Patient Journey.

And when you do this, a couple of amazing things happen:

Conversions go up = You book more treatments from the leads you are already getting.
You create a better patient experience vs. anyone else in the market = You can command a premium price for your procedures.

Audit your patient journey. Plug the gaps. Profit.

Happy Hump Day,

Troy

PS – You might have read all that and think, “I totally know we need to do this, but it’s a long and intensive process.”

Agree. It’s not easy. Which is why most practices don’t do it. And it’s why practices have sub-par Patient Journeys. And it shows in their numbers.

(Even if you get great results for your patients… if you have a weak journey, many prospective patients will never even get to the “promised land” of life-after-treatment with you.)

No fault of yours. You have 1,000 things going on. It’s hard to find the time to do this.

But I’m curious: Would you like someone else to audit your patient journey? A team of marketing and sales pros to Identify/Build/Implement the content and experiences that transform your Patient Journey from an overgrown hiking trail to a Yellow Brick Road?

NOTE: This is not a service we currently offer. (We’ve worked with many practices on this very thing over the years, but it’s not something we’re doing right now).

But if you want help on this, I want to figure out a way to get you that help.

So if you’d like to start 2021 on the right foot – with a freshly paved Patient Journey for your patients – book a quick call and we can see what makes sense for you.

🎬 Don’t miss your “Blockbuster Moment”

I thought Blockbuster Video was long-dead and gone.

Fun Fact: not quite. There’s apparently one left.

In fact, I recently listened to an interview with the store manager of the last existing Blockbuster video.

You can check it out here.

If you’re over age 25 (which is the vast majority of my readers) you remember going into Blockbuster Video back in the 90s and 2000s.

Susan and I were telling our kids about the “foreign concept” of Blockbuster.

Of course their entire world is on-demand. We want to watch an episode of Daniel Tiger, we pull it up on the TV and it magically plays.

They don’t know the trials and hardships we went through just to watch a movie!

About going to Blockbuster after school on Friday, walking up to the wall of new releases, and you HOPED one of them was protruding a little further from the wall than the others… because that meant there was a rentable video in the case behind it.

And even if there wasn’t, hope was not lost. A quick dash to the counter for the cashier to check the return box. Maybe someone dropped off that coveted VHS and it hadn’t been restocked on the shelf yet.

Blockbuster was the JAM back then. And at its peak in 2004, Blockbuster consisted of 9,094 stores and employed approximately 84,300 people: 58,500 in the United States and 25,800 in other countries. Not long ago, Blockbuster Video was valued at $5+ billion.

Which makes the interview with the LAST remaining blockbuster all the more entertaining.

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Another Fun Fact: When Netflix was on the come-up, Blockbuster has the chance to buy them for a measly $50 million.

(In contrast, Netflix is now worth $187 billion as of April, probably more now. They’ll invest $17 billion in producing original content this year alone)

But in one of the biggest “missed opportunities” in modern business history, Blockbuster turned them down. Why?

Blockbuster’s research told them that people enjoyed the experience of going into a store to pick out a movie.

And yeah, that was fun. I’m sure people said they liked it.

But here’s the thing:

Convenience always wins.

It’s human nature. And Netflix is 100x more convenient than Blockbuster.

Blockbuster made the mistake of assuming that, even with newer, better, more convenient options, people would still wanna do it the old way.

And that meant they missed their Blockbuster moment. Not only did they miss the opportunity to acquire an amazing asset…

…but that asset grew up and quickly killed them.

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So here’s the lesson:

As you’re planning for 2021, don’t miss your Blockbuster moment.

What is the opportunity?

Well, we’ve been pushed into a new era where people are doing more transactions online than ever before.

(And they were doing a ton even before the pandemic. Just ask my Amazon delivery guy…)

But now more people than ever, people are comfortable with fitness memberships online…. buying groceries online… having business meetings online…

And yes, handling their healthcare online.

The idea of a “virtual consultation” is no longer weird or fringe or progressive. It has quickly become part of the New Normal. (I hate that dumb term but whatever)

2021 is going to be the year of the virtual consult.

The practices who get this figured out will have more opportunities than they know what to do with.

We were trending this way already, but COVID fast forwarded the progression.

“People still like doing it the old way.”

Blockbuster said the same thing. And they paid the price.

I’m encouraging my clients to go all-in with virtual consults for 2021. If you want help doing this, reply and let’s talk. There’s definitely a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it.

Whatever you do, don’t miss your Blockbuster Moment. Don’t let someone else be the “virtual consult” practice that you have to catch up with.

Or worse, the “virtual consult” practice that kills you.

Get out in front, lead the pack and prosper.

– Troy “Be Kind, Rewind” Cole