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How to Attract Affluent Cosmetic Patients (Ep.125)

How to Attract Affluent Cosmetic Patients

Welcome to “Beauty and the Biz”, where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery and how to attract affluent cosmetic patients.

I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of “Your aesthetic practice – What your patients are saying”, and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and profits. ​

How to stop discounting your cosmetic services

How to Attract Affluent Cosmetic Patients

How would you like to charge twice as much as your competitors?

This would allow you to either double your revenues with the same amount of patients or work less for the same amount of revenues.

For example, let’s say your competitors charge $5K for a bleph so you charge $10K.

The math is easy….Your competitors need to attract and serve 200 cosmetic patients for a $1M cosmetic practice while you need only 100.

What would that mean to you in terms of time, money and energy focusing on the needs of only 100 patients versus the 200 “generic” patients that everyone else is attempting to attract?

Focusing on the 100 affluent patients versus the 200 “anybody’s” makes very good business sense so let’s look at how you make it happen.

It’s Not About Your Skills at This Level

This will be counterintuitive but important to grasp:

It’s not about being 2x better at a bleph to charge 2x more.

Board-certified trained plastic surgeons do a nice bleph. That’s true or you wouldn’t be board-certified.

And this isn’t about supporting your higher price simply be creating better value propositions.

That works well for the “mass market” but not for the upscale, affluent market.

Because this assumes everybody is a value buyer and that’s not the case when you go up the food chain.

The masses buy for all sorts of other reasons, but affluent cosmetic patients DON’T buy for value.

The further up the ladder they are – the less “needs driven” they are.

So, it’s all about what they WANT to do – not what they NEED to do.

They think differently than the average patient.

They are not buying by need and function, so they are not buying by price and value.

It’s more about the intangibles and what this procedure means to them that is driving their decision.

The Affluent Patient’s Frame of Mind

Affluent patients pay more because doing so makes them feel more like the person they either wish they were or envision themselves to be.

At this level, you are hardly talking about the surgery.

It’s the intangibles of the surgery that attracts the affluent patients to you.

The affluent patients are looking for superior service providers….even if it’s based on perception.

They believe they deserve the best, so they want the best.

This group will pay to buy certainty.

By the way, trust is the single most important issue because the affluent patient wants to feel like they are getting the best.

How to Make Price Disappear from the Equation

So, knowing that, what are the things that make price disappear from the equation and YOU the only choice for affluent patients?

The answer is YOU.  It’s more about you than your product.

How to Attract Affluent Cosmetic Patients

You stand out from the crowd by doing what others won’t do or can’t do.

The quickest path in today’s world is to either marry one of the housewives on Bravo TV or at least be their go-to plastic surgeon.

But if that’s not possible, here are 3 other strategies that help make price go away:

1.Peer Recommendations

The affluent are reached more through peer referral than any other avenue. This group of cosmetic patients value trust more than anything else so they turn to others they trust.

Knowing that, you’ll want to identify who those patients are in your own practice. Give them an excellent result and an exceptional patient experience.

Now make them part of your VIP Club where you have private events they can invite their friends to.

To make it special, add a charity component to it and invite the media.

It’s the exclusivity that gives the affluent patients the feeling of status they want and expect.

2.Be The Expert

Although you are well versed at all sorts of surgical procedures, the affluent patient wants to go to the BEST.

They want the surgeon who specializes in blephs, has done 10x more blephs than the average surgeon and who has tons of social proof of hundreds of other happy bleph patients.

It would also be helpful if you are considered, “The Eye Guy” because you have been interviewed by the media and you even train other surgeons on your innovative bleph techniques.

3.Use Social Media to Connect with Affluent Patients
Social media has made it possible for you to develop your own fan club quickly and easily. Regularly post before and after photos of your bleph patients and tell their story.

Shoot short Instagram video stories answering bleph FAQs. Respond to anyone who comments on your posts and find out if they are social media influencers who also have a healthy following they can introduce you to.

The point is after enough communication, familiarity, reinforcement and social proof, the affluent patients now have sufficient trust in you to choose you as their go-to plastic surgeon.

Conclusion

Attracting the affluent patient takes a different way of thinking.

If you believe you are worth double what your competitors charge, set your practice up to cater to the affluent patients that are attracted to your higher prices and better patient experience because, they too, believe they are worth it.

If you want to talk more about your specific situation, just leave me a message at:

https://www.CatherineMaley.com

…Or DM me on Instagram at:
https://www.instagram.com/CatherineMaleyMBA

📖 Get a Copy of Catherine’s FREE Book: https://bit.ly/CatherinesFreeBook​​

​📲 Schedule a FREE 30-Minute Strategy Call with Catherine: https://bit.ly/FreeCallWithCatherine​​

👁 DON’T MISS THESE INTERVIEWS 👁

​➡️ Robert Singer, MD FACS – Former President of The Aesthetic Society:

Ep.86: Robert Singer, MD – Former President of The Aesthetic Society


​➡️ Grant Stevens, MD FACS – Former ASAPS President:

Ep.44: COVID 19 Update with ASAPS Past President Dr. Grant Stevens


​➡️ E. Gaylon McCollough, MD FACS – Former President of AAFPRS, ABFPRS, AACS:

Ep.88: E. Gaylon McCollough, MD FACS – Former President AAFPRS, ABFPRS & AACS

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Catherine Maley

Catherine Maley

Catherine is a business/marketing consultant to plastic surgeons. She speaks at medical conferences all over the world on practice building, marketing and the business side of plastic surgery. Get a Free Copy of her popular book, Your Aesthetic Practice: What Your Patients Are Saying View Author Profile.

BEAUTY AND THE BIZ

Beauty and the Biz is for Plastic Surgeons who know they don’t know everything and are open to discovering the pearls to grow and scale a sellable asset when they’re ready to exit.

Listen in as Catherine interviews surgeons who talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery and listen to Catherine’s pearls from consulting with plastic surgeons since Year 2000.

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TESTIMONIALS

5/5
"Catherine outlined a plan that put key metrics in place, gave us a clear plan to follow throughout the year and trained our staff to increase their conversions by at least 10%. Since engaging with Catherine, I’m happy to report that revenues are up 15% over the last three months - 22% in the last month alone! I highly recommend Catherine’s consulting services to any practice looking for “best practice” additions to their operation."
Robert Sigal, MD
Robert Sigal, MD
"I have finally tapped into the most efficient way to grow my cosmetic practice and that is to “fish in the pond of my own patients”. When patients return to my practice, over 85% will purchase another service, product, or procedure. Not only was it worth over $200,000 in revenues this past year, it also reminds my patients I’m still around so they don’t wander off to my competitors. Catherine’s group has far exceeded our expectations and goals we had set up for them to achieve."
Victor Ferrari, MD
Victor Ferrari, MD
"Our consult conversions were running at 40-50%. Then we attended Catherine’s online training and implemented her strategies. They immediately increased conversion rates to 75-80%."
Anthony Corrado, MD
Anthony Corrado, MD
"I know how to run a profitable practice; however, it was not without major staff issues, inefficiencies and unproductive drama. With Catherine's guidance, I reorganized staff, set up processes for them to carry more of the workload and hold them accountable so I have more time to focus on patient care. The changes we put in place and the staff training to convert more callers and consultations will easily increase my revenues by 15% as well as save us time, money and costly mistakes. "
Evan Sorokin, MD
Evan Sorokin, MD
"Working with Catherine and her team has been very profitable. We’re only half way through the year and I’m up $200K and I’m booked out for the next 2 months even though we typically go into our slow summer months now. Her recent promotion brought in an extra $63,782 with more surgeries scheduled. I never realized how much money was sitting in my patient list but I’m a believer now!"
Robert Langdon, MD
Robert Langdon, MD
"Catherine Maley has one of the best Marketing Minds in the aesthetic industry, bar none. She understands the aesthetic patient and she also understands the challenges and frustrations we face as aesthetic surgeons. You will benefit from Catherine's tools whether you are new in practice or a seasoned professional.Turn to Catherine for guidance - she knows what she's talking about."
Edwin Williams, MD
Edwin Williams, MD
“Catherine’s Cosmetic Patient Marketing Service has been a great addition to our practice-building overall plan. While we still invest in our online presence, we also found immense value in the internal marketing efforts. We especially like that all results are tracked so we know we are getting a great return ... last year it was 1,148% and no staff time was used. That’s a much easier way to grow my cosmetic practice.”
Mark Mason, MD
Mark Mason, MD
"Catherine Maley turned our practice around. We converted more consultations in one week than we did in an entire month. Our practice went from a painful 50% no show rate to a remarkable 85% show rate. Even more impressive was our close ratio - from 35% to 80% and still increasing. We would recommend her to any practice that’s looking to not only increase their profits today, but sustain a healthy flow of income for many years to come. Thanks Catherine!"
Sam Assassa, MD
Sam Assassa, MD
"Catherine found me the best patient care coordinator I could have asked for. She worked out a payment plan that was fair to me and motivating to my coordinator. She also provided training tools to help my coordinator convert better, even though she was already experienced. The results have been phenomenal. So good, in fact, that my income increased 250% and I’m booked out for 3 months. Don’t waste any more time or money doing it yourself. Outsource to someone you trust!"
Andrew Lofman, MD
Andrew Lofman, MD
"Since we’ve been working with Catherine and her team for the past 5 months, we’ve brought in $79K in surgeries and have booked an additional 17 surgical procedures and 20 non-invasive body procedures since then. This does not include the additional new patient referrals and revenues we are seeing from the on-going nurturing of my current patient database."
Verne Weisberg, MD
Verne Weisberg, MD
"I had given my staff the goal to convert at least $35K per week in surgeries AND I gave them the tools to help which was Catherine’s Online Learning Center at More Patients Academy. They watched Catherine’s modules and implemented her strategies and converted $80K! That equaled a 2,550% ROI. Nice!"
Adam Stein, MD
Adam Stein, MD
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