Ep.60: How to Convert a Prospective Cosmetic Patient
What I’ve learned from consulting in this industry for 20 years and writing the book on it, the #1 reason cosmetic patients do NOT choose you is that they didn’t feel a connection with you.The good news is you can improve that fairly easily to increase your closing ratio and that’s what this podcast is all about.
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How to Convert a Cosmetic Patient
Converting rates can be frustrating in today’s competitive world. You’ve spent the time, money and effort in getting prospective patients through your door, yet too many of them don’t book for some reason.
So then you ask, Why not? Is it the competition? Is it your marketing? Is it your staff?
What I’ve learned from consulting in this industry for 20 years and writing the book on it, the #1 reason cosmetic patients do NOT choose you is that they didn’t feel a connection with you.
The good news is you can improve that fairly easily to increase your closing ratio and that’s what this podcast is all about.
First, consider what an aesthetic patient is really buying. Emotionally, some are buying time, recognition, prestige, happiness and love. Some will tell you they want to stay competitive in the marketplace, look better now that they are newly single, are going to a class reunion and want to make an old boyfriend jealous. Things like that..
The bottom line is that your patient wants to feel better – period! They believe looking better will make them feel better about themselves. Now, they just need to find the right surgeon to help them.
Knowing this, you must address their wants, needs, fears and disappointments. The aesthetic patient is buying hope. hope that you will give them a good result, with minimal pain and discomfort and that their lives will improve.
You are in the business of feelings. The aesthetic patient wants to feel special, understood, important, comfortable, significant and respected. They want to know you care about them as a person and you will give them what they want.
They expect to be treated nicely and respectfully and, frankly, if they don’t get those warm fuzzy feelings from you and your staff, they will go to your competitor who will treat them better and they’ll take their friends with them.
So how do you make that connection with a prospective cosmetic patient?
The connection starts with the initial telephone call they make to your office.
Your receptionist must have the personality and the training to build a relationship with the caller quickly.
She’s got to be friendly, professional, caring and trained to use her tone of voice and strategic scripts to “lead” the caller to book a consultation with you.
For example, she needs to introduce herself first and then learn the caller’s name so she can use it throughout the call to help her bond with the caller.
Then She needs to be skilled at asking questions and getting answers from the caller that moves them through the steps to schedule a consultation with you.
Now you want to build trust with this new prospective patient so they come pre-sold on you before you meet them, so here’s what you do…
Send them a formal patient information packet or digital packet that contains a welcome letter from you and include specific information about your procedure(s), your credentials, photos or you and your office, your cancellation policy as well as your PR pieces and practice newsletter if you have one.
Also include your before/after photos, reviews and links to patient video testimonials. This helps the patient feel comfortable with your skill and expertise.
the next step is to Evaluate every aspect of your practice from the patient’s perspective. Many surgeons either overlook this or give it only passing attention. Every detail is either building rapport or destroying it. Be sure your office is clean, organized and aesthetically pleasing. Be sure your staff is presentable and personable. Be sure you are.
Your patients want to identify with you, your staff and your office. If you can make the prospective patient feel good, important, and comfortable as well as understand their needs, they are yours.
Now you and your staff want to build rapport with the visiting prospective patient.
Rapport is that bond you build with your prospective patient so they trust you. You do it through words, tone and gestures as well as commonalities since:
7% of what is communicated is through words
38% through tone of voice
55% body language – facial expressions, gestures, and movements
Building Rapport is simple but it takes a little time. You just have to care enough to go the extra step to connect with your patient.
It can also be the difference between a prospective patient booking surgery or continuing to shop around so here are some tips:
1 ) Show interest in prospective patients as a person first, patient second. Smile when you see them, extend your hand, make eye contact, show enthusiasm and use magic words and phrases such as:
• “Hello” with a smile and “Glad to meet you”
• Use the patient’s name often
• Ask them how are they doing
2) Create or discover things in common with the patient:
– perhaps it’s your patient who referred her
– or you both grew up in the same town
– or a friend of yours works at the same company they work at. Then you want to :
3) “Mirror” the patient’s breathing patterns, posture, tonality and gestures
– if the patient talks fast, you talk fast
– if the patient talks loud, you talk loud
– if the patient is meek and quiet, you slow things down
– use the same terms and phrases the patient uses, such as nose job.
When done right, the patient will feel that you listened and understand her and that’s when she starts looking at you as the perfect surgeon for her.
Next, you want to communicate clearly your degree of competence, skill and mastery, since patients can’t see what you are offering and must go by what you are “saying and showing” them.
Be able to explain what you do clearly so your patient can easily grasp it and relay it back. Use non-medical language, to explain clearly, the procedure, the result, the recuperation and the risks.
And sometimes less is more. Some patients don’t want to know how you made the clock. The just want to know what time it is.
In other words, be brief and then confirm they have heard enough or they would like more detail.
Here is the touch part…. LISTEN!
Listening is a skill. It’s also one of the most important skills you can perfect to close more consultations. The prospective patient needs to know you heard them, you heard their concerns and you understand what they are saying.
Effective listening requires more than hearing the words said. It demands that you find meaning and understanding in what’s being said. Meanings are not in words, but in people.
Try to see things from their point of view or frame of reference. Listen with empathy.
Remember, while you’ve been through this thousands of times, this may be her first time and she’s out of her comfort zone.
Note your listen-versus-talk ratio. It’s always better to listen more than you talk so you can hear and address the prospective patient’s concerns.
The next stage is to Educate Your Patient and Set Expectations
Expectations come from word-of-mouth, personal needs, and past experience. Expectations must be understood and then addressed and that begins with how patients learn and take in information. People learn information in three different learning styles – visual, auditory and kinesthetic:
Visual people want to see the results
Auditory people want to hear about the results
Kinesthetic people want to touch and feel the results
All of us have elements of all three modes but usually one mode dominates. So, you want to present your message in a way that gets through to the patient in the way they understand it best.
To keep it simple, your consultation should have something for everyone – something visual, something auditory and something kinesthetic. Show them things, let them hear things and attach feelings and emotions to them. Some marketing tools to help:
Computer Imaging – 96% wanted it
Before/After Photos Books they can hold
Videos of procedures on ipad they can hold
Patient video testimonials
Prospective patient calling former patients
Let them touch and feel implants
Patient information packets with PR pieces, articles you’ve written, your credentials, your practice brochure – again, something they can touch and feel
Now, let’s move on to The Consultation
The consultation is your opportunity to learn more about the prospective patient. The prospective patient has a problem that they want you to solve. Find out how big the problem is and how it is affecting their life because you need to attach strong emotional reasons for them wanting the change.
Then assure them there is a solution and back it up with real evidence and social proof so they see you as the best choice.
Start with an open-ended question and then let them answer you without any feedback or interjection from you. Something as simple as “What can I do for you today?” gets the discussion going.
Whatever they say to you, repeat back to them so they know you heard them and that you understand how they feel.
Then I hope your coordinator has asked some of these questions to assess the patient and their expectations. You are looking for the red flags to NOT do surgery on them such as:
– How many consults have they been on and are they talking negatively about your competitors?
• Do they have a history of dissatisfaction with previous surgeons?
• Do they have history of previous lawsuits?
• Do they ask repeated questions on material just covered?
• Do they exhibit awkward social relationships/hostility/excessive demands on your office staff?
But also gather helpful information so you know where you stand with them, such as:
– What’s their timeframe? Do they have an event coming up or other time constraints?
– What do they know about the procedure they are interested in?
– has anyone else they know had this surgery and, if so, what was their experience like?
You’re looking for any preconceived ideas they have that you may need to dispel.
Now, Be sure to compliment the patient and ensure her she is perfect just the way she is; however, if she insists, you could help her.
The patient must feel like you have their best interests at heart.
And another tip is to not oversell. For example, if the patient wants her eyes done and you advise her that she could also use a brow lift, neck lift and face lift, most patients will be shell-shocked and insulted. Tread lightly here.
And, make sure their reasons for having cosmetic surgery are based on reality. Have them look at all the aspects of their life – both dark and light. Cosmetic surgery won’t bring their spouse back or get them the big job promotion. Plastic surgery has its boundaries and limitations.
Now, it is time for them to listen to you – especially if what they want is not in their best interest. But don’t tell them no, tell them why what they want won’t work, why you would be remiss in giving them what they want, and be sure they know that just because a procedure was good for one person (celebrity) it may not be good for them. Be sure they know that false hope can get them into trouble and you are here to be the voice of reason.
Explain again how you can help them and focus on the good results you’ve gotten and talk about the risks, downtime, etc. but don’t harp on it during the consultation. Give them just enough information to address their risks, fears and concerns so they can make an informed decision.
Now establish your value even more and do some tooting of your horn but do it professionally. For example, mention that you have performed this procedure hundreds of times, you just gave a talk on this very subject at a medical conference and/or you wrote a paper on this. Mention anything that distinguishes you from your competitors.
My last tip is to have a closing statement that transitioins them from you to your coordinator who will discuss pricing and scheduling.
Patients love to hear they are the perfect candidate for this procedure and reassure them you are confident they will be pleased with their result and you look forward to seeing them again soon.
Ok, that’s it for today and, obviously, there much more to this because you are dealing with emotional, irrational, unpredictable humans but if you can make a connection with the patient, you’re that much closer to a yes!
Transcript:
Beauty and the Biz
Ep.60: How to Convert a Prospective Cosmetic Patient
Catherine Maley, MBA: Hello and welcome to Beauty and the Biz where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery. I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of your Aesthetic Practice and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and more profits. And today we’re going to talk about how to convert a cosmetic patient. And I mean, you’re probably just fine added, but in case you’re frustrated with your competitive marketplace, and having a lot more trouble converting patients, it’s frustrating as heck. So, I’m going to give you a few insights of my own. And this comes from being a cosmetic patient, and working with plastic surgeons for 20 years, and I even wrote the book on it, I interviewed the patients to see what they wanted and didn’t want.
So, here’s my point, you have spent so much time, money and effort in getting these prospective patients through your door. But so many of them don’t book. And you have no idea why. So, half the time you’re saying what the heck happened there? And you know, what’s the problem? Is it the competition? Is it the marketing that you’re doing? Is it your staff? And what I’ve learned from consulting in this industry, and writing the book on it was this, one of the biggest reasons a cosmetic patient did not choose you is that they didn’t feel a connection with you. Now, the good news about that is you can improve that fairly easily to increase your closing ratio. And that’s what this podcast is all about.
So, first, consider what an aesthetic patient is really buying. And by the way, I’m basically talking about females unless you’re running some other kind of practice, it’s still 85 to 90% female, so let’s just focus there. So now you have to deal with the emotions of a female too, because some are trying to buy back time. Some are looking for recognition or prestige, and most are looking for happiness. And that includes love. So, some will tell you that they want to stay competitive in the marketplace, or they want to look better now that they’re newly single, or they’re going to a class reunion, and they want to make an old boyfriend jealous.
It’s always things like that. But the bottom line is your cosmetic patient wants to feel better, period. And they’ll pay for it, they believe looking better will make them feel better about themselves. And now, they just need to find the right surgeon to help them. So, knowing this, you’ve got to address their wants, their needs, but also their fears and their disappointment. Because the cosmetic patient is buying hope, hope that you’re going to give them a great result with minimal pain and discomfort, and that their lives are going to improve. So, you’re in the business of feelings, and I know you, you men love that. But it’s true, the aesthetic patient wants to feel something, they want to feel special and understood and important and comfortable, and significant and respected.
Especially as the decades were on, trust me on that one I know, they do want to know that you care about them as a person, and that you’re going to be able to give them what they want. So, they’re expecting a lot, they want to be treated nicely and respectfully. And frankly, frankly, if they don’t get these warm, fuzzy feelings from you and your staff, they’re going to go to your competitor who does treat them better. And they’re going to take their friends with them. So, this is just so important, this thing about feelings. So how do you make that connection with a prospective cosmetic patient because obviously, there’s a huge difference between you know, a Board-Certified surgeon and a patient who doesn’t know what’s going on. And you’ve definitely been down to different roads of life. So, you’ve got to figure out how you’re going to connect with them. And it starts frankly, with the initial phone call to your office, your receptionist, I hope to god you have put some time, money and effort into your receptionist, they have to have the right personality and the training to build a relationship with the caller quickly.
And she’s got to be friendly and professional and caring and trained to use her tone of voice and use strategic scripts to lead the caller to book a consultation with you. So, for example, she needs to introduce herself first and then learn the caller’s name. So, she can use it throughout the call to help her bond with the caller because that’s all she’s got on the call. All you have is the tone of your voice and the words you’re saying. But then she needs to be skilled at asking questions and getting answers from the caller that moves them through the steps to schedule a consultation with you. Now you want to build trust with this new prospective patient. So, they come pre-sold on you before they meet you. And here’s what you do, you can send them a form patient information packet, or I know everything’s digital now.
So, you can send a digital packet. And hopefully they’ll get it in the email because that’s getting to be a real pain in the neck. But if you do send something digitally, make sure you have stamped a call to confirm that they received it. So, this packet, this digital packet that you’re going to send or mail, it’s going to contain a welcome letter from you. And it’s going to include specific information about the procedure the patient’s interested in, and then your credentials and your photos and you and your office and your cancellation policy, as well as your PR pieces. And even a practice newsletter, if you still do that. The point is, first you give them what they want, which is more about the procedure, so it’s more about them, then you tell them about you. So, it’s you know, procedure first, you second. And then you also want to include obviously before and after photos and reviews. And if you have links to patient video testimonials, those are golden.
The whole point is the patient needs to feel comfortable with your skill and expertise. Now the next step is to evaluate every aspect of your practice from the patient’s perspective. Now, many surgeons either overlook this or they give it only passing attention, but every detail is either building rapport, or destroying it. So be sure your office is presentable, clean and organized, aesthetically pleasing, be sure your staff is presentable and personable as well. And then be sure you are, you know, your patients want to identify with you, your staff in your office.
So, if you can make the prospective patient feel good, and important and comfortable, the word comfortable kept coming up in my book when I interviewed the patients, I mean, isn’t that just as logical if you think about it, we all just want to be comfortable doing business with people that we enjoy being around, right. So, the better you understand all of that the closer you’re going to get to that connection you need. Because now, you and your staff want to build rapport with the visiting prospective patient, and report that funny thing, it’s that bond you build with your prospective patient. So, they trust you. This is all about trust, and connection.
So, if you and you’ve got to do that through words and tone, gestures, as well as commonalities, because 7% of what is communicated is through words, I’m sure you’ve heard this before. 38% is through the tone of your voice. And 55% is your body language. So, building this report is simple, but it takes a little time, which means you can’t be seeing 50 patients a day, if you’re trying to convert, you have got to stop and give this patient a second to bond with you and build a connection.
Quite frankly, I honestly believe where we’re heading. Now, this is much more a game about quantity, quality, not quantity. And you’ll see it in your reviews when they say it felt like a factory, he didn’t spend any time with me, blah, blah, blah. So, you just need to have enough time with that patient. So, they know you care about them. I mean, you care about them enough to connect with them and ask them questions and be with them not be you know, 10 other things going on in your mind really be with them. So, it can also make the difference between a prospective patient booking surgery or continuing to shop around. So, here’s some tips. Number one, show interest in prospective patients as a person first patient second. Please remember that you can even put that in your lunchroom, person first, patient second. This is good for you and your staff to remember, you want to smile when you see the patient, you want to extend your hand, make eye contact.
So, many of you are working with these EMR systems that you never even look at the patient anymore. You just look at the screen. You want to show enthusiasm and use magic words and phrases such as Hello with a smile and glad to meet you and you also want to use the patient’s name, often not too much where you’re annoying, but enough where they love I mean, we just love to hear our name so please use it and then ask them how they’re doing. And then Zi pi, stop and let them answer. And then here’s number two, create or discover things in common with the patient. This one can be tough, because how much could you possibly have in common together, but there’s plenty just maybe it’s the patient that referred them to you. Maybe you both grew up in the same town where you practice, or maybe a friend of yours works at. Or maybe your kid works at the same company that they work at any of that try to find that commonality. Hopefully, your coordinator has done some of this heavy lifting for you. And she can tell you some of those commonalities already so you don’t have to hunt for them. And then here’s number three and this one’s a little woowoo but You have to mirror the patient’s breathing patterns, posture, tonality and gestures.
And I’ve seen some sitcoms where they’re doing that. And it’s been, it’s really funny, but it’s really true. If you can try to talk and sit like the patient is, it helps them feel a connection to you. But to keep it simple, just do things like, if the patient talks really fast, you talk fast. And if the patient talks loud, you talk loud or if the patient is meek and quiet, you want to slow things down. And you also want to use the same terms and phrases the patient is using, such as nose job, I noticed on Instagram, most surgeons are using the medical terms for all of the body parts. And I guess they’re doing it because it’s showing that they’re skilled. But it’s also super annoying when you’re using this super long medical jargon. I know it’s not connecting, but maybe that’s the point. Maybe you want to look smarter than them. I don’t know, I personally would. If they’re saying nose job, frankly, I would be saying nose job as well.
Anyway, when it’s done, right, the patient’s going to feel that you listened and you understood her. And that’s when she starts looking at you as the perfect surgeon for her. So, do you see how it’s not so much about you just yet. It’s about the patient and how they’re perceiving you is where we’re going with this. So now, you want to communicate clearly your degree of competence and your skill and your mastery. Since patients can’t see what you’re offering, because it’s so intangible. They have to go on what you’re saying and showing. You said a lot. What do you say and show to determine why you’re the best choice? And you want to be able to explain what you do clearly. So, your patients can easily grasp it and relay it back. And that means talk normal. explain clearly, the procedure, the result, the recuperation and the risks. I will tell you something, though, quite a few times I have heard cosmetic patients say to me, the doctor talks too much. He just was talking, I just didn’t need all of that. Sometimes patients don’t want to know how you made the clock. They just want to know what time it is.
And you really have to feel that out. Because here’s my guess, most surgeons are fairly analytical, and they’re introverted. So, they’re much more comfortable connecting by talking about what they know. And that could go way too deep. The patient maybe just wants to know, you know, what kind of result Am I going to get? And can you give it to me? Are you confident with that? So, in other words, please be brief. And then confirm the patient’s heard enough, or, or let them tell you they want to know more detail. But I would start with less is more for right now. Now, here’s the tough part. You have to listen, dear Lord, listening is a tough one, huh? Listening is a skill. Most of us aren’t very good at it is also one of the most important skills you can perfect to close more consultations. Now the prospective patient needs to know you heard them, you heard their concerns, and you understand what they’re saying. And you can’t do that unless you zip it and let them talk to you. And oftentimes you don’t you have a tendency to want to present to them, rather than have a two-way conversation. So, I would really take a look at that. And make sure you’re allowing enough time for two-way interaction. So effective listening, it requires more than just hearing the words being said, it really demands that you find meaning and understanding in what’s being said. Because then people say things, and there’s oftentimes things underneath that, that they’re they really mean, and you’re trying to figure that out. That’s why you want to listen a bit more. Because if you didn’t understand something ahead of time, or you think something’s going on behind the scenes, just ask a question, just guess.
Tell me more about that. You know, that’s a good open-ended question. Tell me more about that. And let them say it in another way. So, you catch it. Because you’re trying to hear things from their point of view, and their frame of reference. And that’s why empathy is needed here. And it really is a skill. It’s a tough one. So, remember, while you’ve been through this 1000s of times, this may be her first time and she’s way out of her comfort zone. So just remember that it really helps to note your listen versus talk ratio. It’s always better to listen more than you talk so you can hear and address the prospective patients concerns. Because as a patient who is scared or confused and is still a no.
And you’re trying to avoid that. And oftentimes there’s somebody sitting there, stoic with no facial expressions. I do believe that’s a hint that you’re doing too much of the talk. And she’s not had a chance to express herself. Now the next stage is to educate your patient expectations. Now, expectations come from word of mouth, whatever their friends have said, whatever they have seen themselves and personal needs, what they really want. And if they want something, they can’t hear anything else, and also their past experience, because expectations have got to be understood and then addressed. And that’s going to begin with how patients learn and taking information. Now, people learn information in three different learning styles. And I’m sure you’ve heard this, it’s the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. And all that means is visual people want to see the results. And auditory people want to hear about the result. And then kinesthetic people want to touch and feel the results. Now all of us have elements of all three of those modalities, but usually one modality dominates.
So, you want to present your message in a way that gets through to the patient in the way they understand it best. But to keep this simple, your consultation should have something for everyone. Something visual, something auditory, and something kinesthetic. That’s just easy. So now you can show them things and let them hear things and attach feelings and emotions to things when they touch and feel them. So, here’s some ideas, you can use computer imaging, I will tell you 96% of the patients wanted it. I would get comfortable with it, you can give them before and after photo books that they can touch and feel. You can have them listen and watch videos or procedures on your iPad that they can also hold. You can have them here and watch patient video testimonials on a PC or on a flat screen monitor. You can have them call your other former patients so they can get their story and hear what their journey was like.
And then of course, you can have them touch and feel implants, if they’re there for a breast dog. Or give them something to touch and hold like your PR pieces or articles you’ve written or a practice brochure or something again, that they can hold. Some people really connect that way. Now we’re going to move on to the consultation. This is the opportunity to learn more about the prospective patient from your angle. So, the prospective patient has a problem that they want you to solve. Okay, easy enough. Now you have to find out how big the problem is, and how it’s affecting their life. Because you need to attach strong emotional reasons for them wanting to change and then you want to assure them there is a solution. And of course, if there is, if there isn’t tell them that but if there’s a solution, but then you need to back it up with real evidence and social proof. So, they see you as the best choice.
So, you want to start with open ended questions and then let them answer you without any feedback or interjection from you. It can be something as simple as what can I do for you today? To get the discussion going, whatever they say to you, please get used to repeating back to them what they said. So, they know you heard them, and they see that you understand how they feel, then I hope you’ve got a coordinator who has asked some of these questions to assess the patient and their expectations. Because you’re looking for the red flags to not do surgery on certain people. And some of those would be how many consults have they been on? And are they talking negatively about your competitors? Do they? Do they have a history of dissatisfaction with other surgeons and other surgeries they’ve had? Have they ever sued anybody? You might want to check them out on Instagram or Facebook and find out if they’re bad at talking to anybody at all?
You can find out? Like do they keep repeating the same questions material that you just covered? And are they at all awkward? Do they have any kind of hostility or excessive demands on your office staff? Frankly, are they rude to the staff but nice to you. That’s always a big one. But then you also want to gather helpful information. So, you know where you stand with them such as, what’s their timeframe? You know, do they have an event coming up or other time constraints on what they already know about the procedure? Because what you’re going to try to learn is, what do they think they already know that might be misinformation or outdated? Also, do they have anybody else in their life? Who has had this surgery? And if so, what was their experience like? Because that’s going to also affect their belief system in what they think and what they think they know about the procedure if they if somebody else had something done, because what you’re looking for are any preconceived ideas that you might have to dispel before you even start presenting a solution.
Now be sure to compliment the patient and of course ensure her that she’s perfect just the way she is. However, if she insists you could help her. I have to tell you, women love that. We’re not kidding, we love to hear you say even though we know it’s baloney, we’d love to hear Oh, no, you’re perfect just the way you are. You’re a beautiful woman. And so, I would stick to that. It’s, it’s nice. But the patient also has to know that you have their best interests at heart. So truly, you know, if she’s not a good candidate for something, let her know. But if you know you can help her boy, it’s a disservice if you don’t, because there’s a chance she’s going to go somewhere else and not get such a great procedure done. So, another tip is not to oversell. And I know you, you don’t like that word, oversell. But whatever you want to call it. For example, I have heard so many times where a patient comes in for her to get a bless she wants her eyes done, she doesn’t call it a blepharoplasty she calls it her eyes, she wants her eyes done. And in a surgeon advises her that she really could use a brow lift and a neck lift and a facelift. And most patients will be so shell shocked and insulted by that, that you’ve completely lost them. You really want to tread lightly here. By you have to you have to really know your audience, some women will appreciate that you are telling them all the things that they need, most will not. So, you know, just please think that through before you do that, and then make sure their reasons for having cosmetic surgery are based on reality, haven’t looked at all the aspects of their life, both dark and light, because we all know cosmetic surgery is not going to bring back their spouse or get them that job promotion. It has its boundaries and its limitations.
So, you want to make sure you have somebody with their head on straight. But now it’s time for them to listen to you. Especially if what they want is not in their best interest. But you don’t tell them no, you just tell them, frankly, through pictures and through materials, like a third-party place of why what they want won’t work. Like you can show them bad work from celebrities that wanted what they had and look what happened to them. And why you would be remiss in giving them what they want. And then follow that up with a procedure that would be good for them, you know, that they would be happy with. But at least you’ve done your part if they’re not happy, and they still want to go and find somebody else to give them that Michael Jackson knows, then so be it you’re what’s called when you’re dodging a bullet, you’re dodging a bullet.
So, look at that as a good thing. And then you want to explain again, how you can help them and focus on the good results you’ve gotten in the past, and then talk about the risk and the downtime, but don’t harp on it during a consultation for right now, you’re still just getting them to trust you and build a relationship and a connection. And give them just enough information right now to address their risks and fears and concerns. So, they can make an informed decision. And then all the other stuff is for their pre op, you know, you have plenty of time to discuss all this. But right now, at the consultation, it’s still a positive thing. You also want to establish your value even more. And now it is time for you to toot your horn, but you want to do it professionally. So, for example, mentioned that you’ve performed this procedure hundreds of times, or you just gave a talk on that very subject at a medical conference that was probably virtual at this point, or you wrote a paper on it, or maybe even wrote a book on it, mention anything that distinguishes you from your competitors. And then here’s my last tip, I would always have a closing statement that transitions them from you to your coordinator, who will then discuss pricing and scheduling. Now, here’s what I know, patients love to hear they are the perfect candidate for this procedure.
So that’s what you say, Sarah, and you look them straight in the eye, you have a great eye contact, confident look and reach out your hand and say, Sarah, you’re just a perfect candidate for this procedure. And I’m very confident that you’re going to be pleased with your result. And I look forward to seeing you again soon. Okay, that is how you convert a cosmetic patient. And that’s it for today. But obviously, there’s so much more to it because you are dealing with emotional, irrational, unpredictable human beings. But if you can make a connection with the patient, you’re that much closer to a yes. So, I hope you enjoyed this and if you do me a favor and subscribe to Beauty and the Biz, I sure would appreciate it and if you like the value, give me a five-star review would also be very much appreciated. And if you’ve got any questions or other topics you want me to cover or anybody you want me to interview, I’m happy to get that message at my website catherinemaley.com or you can always DM me on Instagram at catherinemaleymba. Thanks so much and I will talk to you soon.
