Value Engineering: 10X the Value of Your Clinic| Audio Book Part 4| Dr. Allen Nazeri DDS MBA

Value engineering strategies to 10x the value of your clinic and dominate the market Part 4 Chapter 3 Become an ultimate Sales Machine.

I titled this chapter after the famous book written by now deceased sales guru author chet Holmes in 2007, where I first learned about the 12 strategies in building a successful business. Chad previously worked for Charlie Munger, co founder of Berkshire Hathaway, and coached thousands of business owners in sales and growth strategies. Attaining high revenue is only possible by companies that adopt and organize the well structured and and a repeatable, disciplined sales process. The healthcare business is not an exception. Although many professionals shy away from the world of sales. If you're reading this book, chances are you're unlike others. There's an entrepreneurial DNA seeded within you. You appreciate the importance of sales in generating revenue and profitability.

Further, you understand that the quality of care could be compromised if a company cannot generate enough revenue to hire the best talent or acquire the technology needed to provide the best care to its patients. The better we become at controlling each phase of the sales cycle, initial contact, discovery, presentation, handling objections and and closing, the higher the treatment acceptance level resulting in improved revenue. Unfortunately, this is one area most healthcare practices ignore often because they try to ignore the necessity of a sales department within a health organization. They are usually basing their opinion on the stigma attached to the word sales. However, this generally stems from the lack of knowledge of or misconception surrounding sales.

Those clinics that genuinely understand the importance of sales cycle and implement systems to control the entire patient journey end up with not only much higher revenue than their rivals, but raving and loyal patients. The proof shows up often in surveys like the Net Promoter Score or npfs. The reason is patients gauge the quality of care QC based on their overall experience, referred to as QoE. The quality of experience is measurable by patients and is directly related to the phases of the sales cycle. Most healthcare providers don't understand the sales process is nothing but an effort to enhance the patient experience beginning from their initial contact until they have completed their treatment. It even continues with courtesy follow ups after patients have returned home. Accomplishing predictable sales growth is achievable only when founders are fully committed to understanding and appreciating the necessity of formal and ongoing sales training. Coaching allows companies to become more patient centric by mastering communication skills. This acquired mastery has proven to me over the last three decades that it always results in happier patients, more engaged and motivated employees, and a raving fan base of loyal patients who become the backbone of consistent revenue growth. Any significant increase in revenue certainly builds a strong momentum, making daily operational challenges seem negligible and workable. It is growing the top line and the bottom line numbers on the P and L that will become the primary driver of value appreciation. The consistent growth offers investors peace of mind in assigning high EBITDA multiples when bidding for an acquisition. When I prepare clients for a complete exit or a partial one, such as helping them raise capital through equity, I always begin coaching the organization in mastering sales and communication. With communication mastery, everything improves the employee engage more with customers, the customer service improves, leading to increased revenue and profit.

One of the significant problems I have witnessed as a consultant and often not quantified by founders, leading to substantial revenue loss is lead conversion. When a potential patient contacts the office via telephone, social media, or merely walks in, they never convert into becoming an appointed patient. Somehow they are not convinced to make an appointment and become a new patient. Their unwillingness to become patient is often related to their lack of confidence in practice and providers or the patient experiencing an emotional turn off in their journey. The second area of failed conversion is right after an appointed patient receives an initial consultation, but they never accept the treatment recommendations nor return for additional treatments. Examining why conversions fail and targeting training programs to improve our patient acquisition and treatment acceptance ultimately results in higher revenue and profitability. Regardless of whether a founder is considering an exit earlier or later. Improving the conversion rate is unarguably one of the fastest ways to improve results and higher valuation. A practice with lead generation of 80 new customers. A conversion rate of 50% means spending almost twice the amount in customer acquisition costs than a business converting at least 90% of the leads to an actual first appointment. There is no magic in closing this gap. It is only possible with formal, consistent and documented communication training and monitored coaching. I will discuss later in the book how a business measuring results through implemented KPI.

Can demand a much higher valuation and how a savvy and experienced investment banker is can use them to defend the desired asking price for a client.

The importance of communication training is even more critical when scheduled patients arrive at their first consultation appointment. Understanding consumers, buying psychology, and eliminating emotional turnoffs during a customer journey ensures patients want to remain within a practice and revisit us. All of which leads to building a loyal base of raving fans, leading to higher revenue, lower marketing costs, and lower patient attrition. I continue to witness clinics with no formal coaching and training in communication, sales, or internal marketing that underperform their counterparts in my consulting practice. They typically suffer from unpredictable sporadic growth, higher patient and employee turnovers, and higher than average practice Overhead Another advantage of becoming an ultimate sales machine is realizing higher revenue through increased transaction per appointment. Employees must learn how to upsell, cross sell and use bundling techniques properly to help increase revenue while remaining 100% ethical. Simple and well monitored Phrases such as would you like to purchase this as well at the time of payment for other services can sometimes translate to a whopping growth rate of 150% in a small average practice. The McDonald's corporation earns millions of dollars every day by merely training their employees to ask would you like fries with that.

Becoming an ultimate sales machine is an essential and vital part of any healthcare business looking to increase immediate results with long term plan to grow its valuation. For this reason, all my new clients begin their valuation coaching program with communication mastery as it can produce massive results in just a few short weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions.

I understand that the sales is essential for any business, but I don't want my patient to feel they're under pressure. How can I make sure this does not happen in my clinic?

No one likes to feel pressured into buying something they don't need. However, everyone loves to buy what they want and they're willing to pay for it. If your idea of sales training is what you may have experienced by non professionals or have watched a sleazy salesperson in the past, it is reasonable for you to think like this. However, what we teach in our coaching programs are consultative sales technique where no employee ever has to sell anything but creates an environment where for customers to desire and to want your services.

Question we get many leads through social media. Once we contact these patients they go silent. How can we convert them to patients?

This concern is common among many practice owners. One of the significant issues is not understanding that social media is is about engagement. Your reach via social media could be very high compared to other forms of marketing. However, those who know how to engage patients emotionally tend to have a higher chance of a conversion. The key is not to give up early but continue to offer value. If you try to close a customer, even if it means only getting them to agree to make an appointment, it will not work. Through a step by step process of dripping information to your customers building trust with them, you will find the opportunity to have a more virtual face to face contact leading eventually building a relationship with them.

We often hear patients to say they only want to do what their insurance pays for. How can we convince them to pay otherwise?

This question is loaded but I will try to answer it in a short version. Patients focus so much on their insurance because of your team's daily actions, which generally stems from your way of thinking. A patient who does not see value in services offered typically respond in the same way. Mastering communication is so critical to for businesses facing the same concern from patients. Our job as providers is to create value for patients from their first contact point until the work is completed and through ongoing follow ups. Without creating value, we are just another provider and patients become price driven and are less loyal to a practice. If you follow these patients around, you will find that they eagerly spend money on other discretionary services.

Question if a patient requires lots of work, is it best if I break down the treatment plan without giving them a sticker shock?

No one wants to get the sticker shock or become surprised by pricing for services. Building value early on minimizes this risk, but you certainly have to be cautious about the timing when presenting a big treatment plan or when the patient is not aware of specific problems. Our coaching program covers various scenarios and teaches our clients how to build value from customers initial contact and use incubation period to avoid sticker shocking a patient.

End of Chapter three Please proceed to Part five.

Chapter four.