Everyone thinks Kanye wrote it. Well, not everyone. But a lot of folks.
Yeezy released “Stronger” on his third studio album Graduation, which dropped in 2007. The familiar tune can be heard in commercials, sports stadiums and club around the world.
BUT….. West’s chart-topping track heavily sampled the original tune – a 2001 track from French electronic music duo Daft Punk – entitled “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”.
If you’d like a nice soundtrack to the rest of this article, click here for the Daft Punk original. Turn it down to a reasonable volume within which you can still focus, yet loud enough to bob your head along as we dive into this.
Now, let’s talk shop:
A couple months ago, we teamed up with Zeiss on an epic webinar covering the results of their 100-practice “Digital Lead Secret Shop Study.” (The most comprehensive secret shop study ever done in the industry, from what I can tell).
It was me, Mike from Glacial, Dan Haddad and Carol-Anne from Zeiss. Discussing the data, sharing takeaways and recommendations for booking more leads into consults.
And based on the data in that study, combined with our experience in this game for 20 years, Daft Punk gives us the best 4-word summary for success in lead conversion. Let’s look at the data and see…
Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (by the numbers)
HARDER – You’ve gotta go harder on new patient leads than any other calls / emails / contacts you have. Meaning prioritize them.
The data showed 43% of leads received a response AFTER 1 business day, OR not at all. This shows a lack of priority.
When a new lead comes through, it needs to be highlighted, and a siren needs to go off and it’s a red alert until someone reaches out to them. Because your practice is fueled by new leads turning into consults. They’re the lifeblood of your operations. So make sure everyone is treating them that way.
BONUS: Magically turn digital leads into phone calls so you aren’t trying to track as many patients down from the web. How? I got a guy for that.
Dan Haddad (who did the research study with Zeiss) has a fantastic tool that converts web leads into phone calls for your team to simply answer – easy to plug n play for your practice, and super cost-effective. Let me know if you want more info on it, I’ll make sure you get the T-Cole special.
BETTER – if you wanna turn more leads into consults, it also takes better quality lead followup. According to the study, more than 40% of leads were NOT contacted personally by a human.
Not only should EVERY lead be contacted by a person, but it should be a high-quality interaction. Positive, high-ish energy (whether you talk to them or leave a voicemail). Engaging. Add value.
Importantly, lead the interaction. You are the trusted advisor, not them. We train on this ad nauseam in our Green Room Coaching Community – how to lead, how to regain control, how to make patients feel like they are in charge while you still guide them where they ultimately need to go, etc.
And we’ll get into it even more in the upcoming “Specialty Tracks” Leadership is KEY to more conversions.
BONUS: you want everyone getting off the phone with you thinking, “Wow, that person really likes her job, and wants to make sure I’m taken care of. That must be a good practice.”
FASTER – we touched on this in the “harder” section – speed to lead is crucial. Get back to leads within 5 minutes for highest response rates. Data shows after 10 minutes, there’s a 400% drop-off rate in connections with leads.
And if that’s not enough, 78% of consumers will choose the first business to respond to their inquiry. Yet another reason FASTER is BETTER.
BONUS: What about evenings and weekends? Pay someone on your team to contact those leads for you in real-time. (And Dan’s software mentioned above can help too)
STRONGER – Be stronger from an endurance angle. How many times does it take to connect with a lead? HBR research tells us that 80% of sales leads require five follow-ups after the initial contact, but only 8% of salespeople actually follow up this many times.
So you need to be have strength and endurance in your followup. It’s often a marathon, not a sprint. But people too often get hung up on the number of times.
Bonus: To make this easier, think less about “how many times” or “on what cadence.” There’s no specific magic number (6+ should be your floor in the first 72 hours). And cadence should always be multiple touches in the first 48 hours (including 2 texts and 2 calls) and then recalibrate from there.
When trying to connect and get leads scheduled, you’re better off focusing around accomplishing these 3 steps:
- Connect with them somehow
- What is their “Why now?”
- Next step to solve for “Why now?” (Book a consult)
Thinking of it in this manner opens the box of creativity for you, vs sticking to rigid scripts on a strict schedule and wondering why they aren’t working. With our short checklist, it becomes a challenge and makes it fun for you and the prospect.
Because there’s no guarantee JUST because you contact them 5, 8, 10 times that they’re gonna book… especially if you sound robotic, boring and needy.
Alright, enough for today. Share this with your team and get in touch with me for more info on any of the resources mentioned here, or if you just want more toe-tapping electronic jams.
– DJ T-Cole
PS – If you want a recording of the webinar where we went over all this, reply “webinar” and I’ll send that to you as well. Geez I’m full of goodies today…