Articles

Trojan Horses, Patrick Mahomes and Jabs vs. Hooks

Over the next few days, I’m sharing insights on what you need to do to set your practice up for success in 2021.

I hope you had a stellar Thanksgiving holiday and are ready to plow through the end of 2020 with a vengeance.

Last week, I emailed you about how to look at your marketing like a playbook rather than a roadmap.

(If you missed that post, check it out here)

On that note, let’s talk about the plays you must have in your playbook to dominate next year.

We’ll also look at ways to develop your players so they can execute your plays like Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill combining for 742-ish touchdowns.

Today we’ll get into the Testimonial Flood Play.

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You (hopefully) already know the power of testimonials and reviews.

This is nothing new. Marketers and salespeople have been using testimonials to sell for centuries.

And this can range from celebrity endorsements (Hello, Payton Manning – who is in almost every single commercial during an NFL game) to happy customer Jane down the street.

I argue that testimonials are more important than ever before for a couple of reasons:

1. People are more skeptical of marketing than any other time in history. We are inundated with thousands of ads all day long. Which means your prospects’ “marketing radars” are highly sensitive.

Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t market. But you want to do what you can do to convey your value proposition without activating your prospects’ Marketing Radars. And testimonials are the perfect Trojan Horse for exactly that.

2. The state of modern media is such that reviews and testimonials can be taken and amplified easier than ever before. For example, someone can leave a phenomenal review on Google, which is seen by thousands of prospects over coming months and years.

And you can also take that review and turn it into an ad, a social media post, a story to tell, a poster on the wall in your office, and a website blog feature. (more on this concept below)

Now, it’s great to have testimonials and 5-star reviews “out there” for people to find. But the focus of the Testimonial Flood Play is to strategically place those reviews in front of prospects throughout the patient journey.

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How does the Testimonial Flood Play work?

I won’t go into all the details, but high-level, you want to get as many reviews and testimonials in front of your prospects as humanly possible.

All this social proof is like adding turbo boosters to your sales process. It helps you move the patient along in building the trust and clarity needed to say “yes” to your offer.

So how do you do it?

– Get new 5-star Google reviews every single week

– Place reviews and testimonial videos on your social channels every week

– Use testimonials in your ads and all over your website

– Include testimonial stories in your follow-up communications (emails, text) to prospects – those who convert to a consult and those who do not

– Tell at least one short patient story on the phone and in the consult – a story that relates to the prospects’ pain (don’t use patients names or identifiers unless you have permission)

– Use screenshots of reviews as screensavers on the computers around your office

– Read at least 1 happy patient review to your team at your daily huddles/meetings (build a culture of celebrating your patients’ successes – another blog entirely) You literally want to overwhelm prospects with social proof. This should be done on purpose – and systematically – as part of the patient journey.

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One final note – while glowing testimonials in general are good, the content of the testimonial is what determines its potency.

And this is where a lot of practices fall short – they offer up testimonials that are little jabs instead of right hooks.

The litmus test for this – is a testimonial relatable or not.

“I love my results and strongly recommend these guys.” <<< That’s solid, but it’s not relatable. It sounds great, nice jab. But it’s not nearly as persuasive as it could be.

vs.

“Before I came here, I couldn’t see 3 feet in front of me without my contacts… my kids always wondered why mom couldn’t splash around in the pool, never understanding that if I lost a contact (and couldn’t see them as a result), it created a potentially life-and-death situation. But now that’s all changed thanks to the vision correction treatment I had at XYZ laser center…” <<< This is relatable. This is a right hook. This is gold.

Unleash the Testimonial Flood Play and ride the wave of social proof to more consults and booked surgeries.

That’s all I have for you today. Enjoy your Monday.

– Troy “Testimonials Trump All” Cole

Giving thanks for the business

I hope you had an epic Turkey Day.

We’re at my Dad’s ranch in East Texas where I grew up. It’s so fun (and kinda surreal) to take my kids to do all the fun things we used to do growing up.

Tossing the football in the yard…

Getting the chicken eggs…

Catching all the bass we can handle.

We have a ton to be thankful for.

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Most would say it’s been a crazy 2020. But it’s also been a great opportunity to re-assess priorities, identify weak areas in our businesses, and ultimately fortify our businesses – and our lives – for the better.

And I’m thankful for that.

But I urge all of us to stay focused on gratitude every single day. Businesses get so caught up in the technicalities of pandemic life, gratitude can fall by the wayside.

For example, if you walk into a biz/restaurant/store/whatever without a mask on, they’re quick to say, “Excuse me, please put on a mask.”

That rarely gets skipped.

But of the hundreds of in-person interactions I’ve had since COVID started…

I can count on 1 finger the number of times someone has told me, “Thanks for coming in to see us. We really appreciate your business.”

And while that may seem like a little thing… the fact that nobody does it makes it really easy to stand apart when you do.

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So a couple things:

For one, I want to thank you.

Thank you for reading my emails. For taking action on the nuggets I share. For trusting us to train your team, or assist with your marketing needs, or map out your review gathering efforts.

Secondly, I ask that you stay focused on extending gratitude to your patients. Remind them that you value them, their business, their referrals, their reviews.

(And make sure your team knows to do this too)

Give thanks for the business.

It goes a long way to making a lasting impression with patients.

And a nice byproduct – it ultimately results in more business for you.

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Alright, I hope you have a great Black Friday doing whatever Black Friday activities you enjoy.

(For me, that’s working this morning, rainy golf this afternoon, and a few more helpings of sweet potato casserole mixed in along the way. We can get back to grilled chicken and protein shakes on Monday…)

Be blessed,

Troy “Thankful” Cole

Planning 2021 like a Roadmap or a Playbook?

I’m currently en route to the Deep East Texas Pineywoods for Thanksgiving at the ranch where I grew up.

(Fun fact: we raised miniature donkeys. Yes, I used to show them. But that’s a story for another day…)

But I wanted to send you a quick message re: 2021 planning today.

This is a hot topic right now with practices… and with the media reps who want your money.

OOOOOH the media reps. They slither out of their caves and start creeping into our inboxes, don’t they? “Hey doc! Don’t ya wanna give us a spin in 2021? C’mon…”

(I know plenty of media folks who are good people. Regardless, they must own this. Because they know it’s true.)

Here’s the issue:

Many people look at annual planning like building a roadmap. Which is severely limiting at best, and destructive at worst.

So they might say, “For this year… Here’s what we’re gonna say, and here are the ways we’re gonna market, and here’s the path we’re gonna take to the end goal.”

And that sounds good in theory. You get your media lined up, do all you buys, pre-plan all your campaigns, and you’re ready to rock. Right?

In a perfect world… with no variables and completely predictable human behavior…

Then a roadmap is the perfect tool for your annual planning.

But what happens when like, I dunno… a Global Pandemic hits? And all of a sudden a volcano has erupted and there’s lava all over the highway that your “Road Map” told you to take?

That’s why it’s more useful to look at annual planning more like a playbook than a roadmap.

– You know the goal – to win the game.

– You have an idea of what you need to do to win the game, so you start there.

– But if that plan doesn’t work, you have other plays you can go to.

You need to have a bunch of plays in your playbook – the in-person consultation play, the virtual consultation play, the Co-Management referral play, the 5-star review play, the patient referral play, the webinar-to-consult play, etc.

Think about it like a football game. “Their secondary is all over our receivers, and we can’t get our pass plays to work. So we’re going to try running the ball with some rushing plays.”

Sounds a lot like you back in April… “Our ‘in-person evaluation’ play isn’t working right now because the government shut us down. Time to run the ‘virtual consultation’ play.”

Or on the flip side – “This play is working well. We have an advantage with this play. How do we run more of it?”

Plenty more examples of this concept, but you get the idea. I wanted to put this out there to help you with your thinking as you look to finish the year strong and make 2021 epic.

Enjoy your Tuesday,

Troy “Playmaker” Cole

PS – You can have a great playbook, but it’s worthless unless you have excellent players to execute the plays.

Don’t get distracted by the glitz and glam of a Super Bowl ring… and overlook the team that’s taking you to the championship.

Executing plays, gaining yards, scoring and ultimately winning – require preparation.

For example – when was the last time your phone team had a legit, honest-to-goodness lesson on how to identify and convert leads into consults? For most practices, the answer is “never.”

That’s like Ezekiel Elliott never practicing, never watching game film, never working with trainers… and then going out on the field and trying to score touchdowns for the Cowboys.

Makes no sense. It’s a set-up for failure. Yet that’s standard for most elective practices.

If you wanna execute the right plays, move the ball down the field and SCORE…

Fix your phone game first. Reply to this email and I’ll tell you exactly how to do it.

[VIDEO] Are you in the Wedding Business or the Funeral Business?

I recorded a short Thursday Thunder video for you, on my way home from the gym this morning.

I’m hearing way too many practices who sound like they are in the funeral business, when you’re supposed to be in the wedding business.

(I explain what I mean in this 4-minute video)

It’s costing you new consults, and it’s handicapping your patient journey.

Which means I guarantee you’re losing surgeries over it too.

2 quick things –

1. Give it a watch.

2. Forward this to a Physician CEO or fellow admin along with anyone on your team who needs to hear this…

Are you underpricing your procedures?

Had a call last week with a practice that was thinking about raising their prices.

“We’ve tried to stay a few hundred dollars less than our competitors, but we’re thinking about increasing for the first time in a while.”

I had a lot to say about that, and I wanted to share my comments with you.

We could go deep on price and pricing psychology, but I want to keep this brief today.

A few notes:

1. There’s no advantage to being in the middle of the pricing pack.

Renowned business coach Dan Kennedy talks about how “Offering the second-lowest price has no advantages.”

He’s right. Because if someone is price shopping, they are just going to go with the cheapest. Period.

And there are people like that in every market. Some more so in the market for groceries vs. healthcare.

But some people – as ridiculous as it is – price-shop for elective procedures too.

Thing is, they’re not your clientele. Those people don’t make good patients. And you already know this.

So if you’re going to try to compete by being cheaper, you’ve gotta be the cheapest.

(As you probably guess, I don’t recommend this)

2. Higher prices attractive higher quality buyers

You don’t want Cheapy McPricematch in your surgery suite. One way to ensure that doesn’t happen is to charge a premium price.

You’ll attract a higher quality patient who appreciates the value you provide vs. the corners you cut to keep your prices low.

3. Higher prices inherently convey value

If someone said, “Hey, I’ll sell you this brand new Porsche 911 Turbo for $12,000.” Your first question would be something like…

“Sooooo what’s wrong with it?”

Low price isn’t always better. Sometimes it actually draws suspicion.

Something that is expensive must have some special value – otherwise, why would it be priced so high?

The key: you have to be able to communicate that value.

4. High price is a differentiator

“Why do you guys charge so much more than the practice down the street?”

On it’s face, this sounds like an negative comment. Most phone specialists and patient counselors see it as such.

But in reality, it’s a great opportunity for you to agree and explain exactly WHY you are priced where you are.

So you can spend more time with each patient. So you can invest in the best technology. So you can pay your team members well and keep them around for years. So you don’t have to cram your waiting room full of people, with hour-long wait times.

Price is only an issue in the absence of value.

Make sure you can build value in what you offer, and price becomes a peripheral issue.

But before you raise your prices, there’s one thing you *must* doe:

Get your team to buy in to the extreme value you provide. This is actually the hardest part.

Your salespeople will tell you, “We have patients that we don’t convert at our current price. There’s no way we can book folks if we increase our prices by $1,000.”

This is a limiting belief. And that limiting belief needs to be replaced with an empowering belief around the value you bring to the marketplace.

If your team doesn’t BELIEVE in the value you provide… they’ll never be able to convey your new price with conviction.

(And if that’s the case – they aren’t able to convey your current price with conviction either. So you have a problem either way).

When we work with our clients, we spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on beliefs and value.

Tactics are great. But you’re far better off having rock-solid beliefs and minimal tactics vs. a book-full of tactics and a lack of empowering beliefs.

(We help clients with both so they have a 1-2 punch)

The result is that when you visit our clients’ offices, everyone on their teams believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are:

A. The best practice in the state

B. Provide the best outcomes

C. Take care of their patients in ways no other practice would

D. They know they are worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY they charge for their procedures.

Get your team to that place, and you can charge what you want.

Like I said, lots more we could talk about pricing, but this should be enough to get your wheels spinning.

Have a great day.

– Troy “Premium Price” Cole