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[VIDEO] How 5 Practices “Developed” New Patients, Real Estate Mogul-Style

There’s a big piece of property on the highway exit to my house. Previously, it was a giant, overgrown field without much value.

But a couple years ago, developers bought it and put in a nice outdoor shopping and dining center.

They took an asset that was worth little, and developed it into something worth much more.

Which leads me to today’s Case Study… 👇

Much like Real Estate investors, you can find an “opportunity” for new patients and “develop” them.

Unlike Real Estate, it doesn’t require years of work, huge budgets, and loads of risk.

In fact, we have a process that allows you to “develop” a windfall of new surgery patients for $0 cash outlay…

And it can be done in a matter of weeks, not years.

Tap here to watch the video and discover how 5 practices did just that.

– Troy “Developing Patients” Cole

PS – After you watch the video, email me (troy at troy cole dot com) for details on how to do this for your practice.

I wanna commend you on this (wrapping 2020)

You did it, my friend.

Yeah, this year was weird as heck. Yeah it was tough.

But you did it. You made it. You survived.

Your practice is still alive.

Back in March, you were faced with the unthinkable situation. Of all the different challenges you could anticipate…

Closing your practice was probably not on the list.

But you did it. You adjusted. You made the hard decisions. You got creative. You figured it out. You made it through.

And you learned a few things.

You learned about your weaknesses. You learned about your gaps. You learned about your inefficiencies.

And you corrected them. Pivoted. Improved.

Your practice looks different today than it did in January.

Fewer team members. More masks. But fact of the matter is, you made it through.

This pandemic thing isn’t over. It may not be over for a long time. (It may never be over, if we’re looking at it honestly.)

But you proved to yourself you can do it.

And as much as people wanna hate on 2020 (which is totally understandable), this reason alone is worth a short but important celebration.

As for 2021…

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Fun Fact: 21 is the winning score in Blackjack.

And as you’ve seen from the growing number of patients selecting vision correction and other elective surgeries, there are many chips to be won.

21 is the year you play to win.

Because while the lockdowns and public fear certainly ravaged your practice (and many businesses) for a moment…

It also created opportunities. And you see creative companies that have pivoted and taken advantage of those opportunities.

12 months ago, Zoom was a niche tool used by a small section of B2B businesses. Now, “Let’s do a Zoom” is in the public lexicon.

Amazon Prime, UberEats, Peloton and more. They’ve all taken advantage of the New Normal.

Are you Jeff Bezos? No. But you can look at what people like him and all these companies are doing, and see that opportunity is fresh and ripe for the taking.

You adjusted, pivoted, innovated to make it through the lockdowns. My advice to you?

Don’t Stop.

Your entire industry is built around innovation. Your research, the treatments and surgeries you perform, the results you get for your patients.

They’re all centered around innovation and development of new technologies and techniques.

You are an innovator. Don’t forget that.

It’s easy to coast when times are good. But as we saw in March, times can go from great to god-awful in a matter of hours.

Hopefully that doesn’t happen again. But recent history tells us we need to be ready for anything.

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This whole “New Normal” thing – as much as I hate the term – is real.

Hopefully some aspects of the New Normal – like mask mandates – will go away. (I’m not holding my breath)

But other parts – like the new home-centric lifestyle that the pandemic has brought on – won’t change.

Why? Because this lifestyle is convenient. And people like convenient. Convenience always wins.

Your takeaway from the companies I mentioned?

How can you craft your Patient Journey to hit the same notes they’ve successfully hit in their customer experiences?

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What does that look like?

Convenient Access. You can order groceries or Amazon packages or log into online workouts with the push of a button. It’s dead simple = convenient.

Convenient Interfaces. The user interfaces of all these apps and products are intuitive. Easy to use. Mobile-centric.

Convenient Communication. Phone, email, chat, text. These companies make it easy to communicate with them. They don’t try to reinvent the communication wheel. They look at the wheels we are already using and model them.

Convenient Adaptability. These companies leverage what you’re already doing. You’re already online. You’re already sending DMs and Text messages. You’re already on Zoom and FaceTiming. You’re already on social media.

These companies don’t try to force us down a completely different track. They build their customer experiences around what we’re already doing.

If my Instacart shopper needs to substitute an item I ordered, she sends a DM right within the app. It’s easy. It’s fast.

Simple. Fast. Convenient. Enjoyable. Magic.

That’s what all these companies have in common.

Note what I did NOT include? Cheap. Most of them aren’t the cheapest option.

Hasn’t kept them from making money hand over fist and growing their user base.

It’s proof you can have a premium price and grow your volume…

As long as your patient experience is dialed in.

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The practices who get this right will be the ones who dominate 2021 and beyond.

And for many reading this, that means fundamentally overhauling the Patient Journey.

Better communication. More personality. More education. Streamlined processes. More convenience. Mobile-centric.

For most practices out there, their Patient Journey looks and feels more like a Nokia 5160. It’s time to upgrade to an iPhone 12 Max.

It’s better for your team. It’s better for your patients. And it’s better for your bottom line.

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Questions? Comments? Challenges? Reply. Engage.

But don’t just sit there thinking or wondering or frustrating about what to do.

Figure it out and make it happen. And if you need help, ping me.

Happy New Year, and here’s to winning 21.

– Troy “Blackjack!” Cole

🙏 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