How to Get Your 1st 10 Patients | 10 Effective Steps | Episode 6

Hey everybody, let's talk to you about getting your first 10 clients. Yep. Let's say you're getting ready to start a cash practice and you don't have a list or you've never offered cash services before. I'm going to talk to you about that today on the Practice Profit System podcast. Hey everybody, it's Matt. And today we're going to go really deep into a favorite topic, how to get your first 10 customers. Now, a little bit of background. In my world, we like to test business ideas, right? So again, I've been an entrepreneur since I was 16 years old. That's almost, well, 40 years actually that I've been an entrepreneur. And here's what's interesting. I get a lot of people that come to me and go, oh, I got this great business idea. And you know, I'm thinking about getting a loan and what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go get an SBA loan or I'm gonna max out my credit cards or I'm gonna borrow money from my mom and I wanna open a coffee shop. I'm like, Great. Why? Well, you know, people really want good coffee and they're tired of Starbucks or whatever, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, right? My answer is, and they go, what do you think? And I think what you should do is you should fail as quickly as you possibly can. Let me explain. So if you're getting ready to start a business, this is the scariest time in the world because what you're doing is you're basically turning your back on what you have been doing over the last X amount of years and you're going into a new place. And you're going into the unknown. And the problem with going into the unknown is obviously not just the unknown, but the scarcity and the fear that comes with that. And so having been bankrupt before, having been broke a couple of times, I'm going to share with you my ideas of how you can quickly test to see if people want what you have so that you know that you can survive, that you can make it. Okay. So I'm going to break this list down into two different groups. The one group is going to be how to sell your first ten if you have an existing list of patients. This is somebody that has their own insurance practice, and they're trying to see if they can make the cash side work. The next one is going to be for those of you that are starting from ground zero. Okay, so let's start with the first one. First, let's talk about those people that have a list of patients. Now what I hear all the time is I hear well, you know, I've tried to offer cash services to my patients before. And people didn't want it, and they thought the price was too high, and they wouldn't buy it unless that insurance covered it, and blah blah blah blah blah. I'm going to show you how to get rid of all of those objections. Okay? So here's the first thing that you do. Okay? This is gonna be a lot of fun. All right? Here we go. First idea, first thing that you do is that I want you to sell ten to your existing list. And in order to do that, here's what you have to do. Okay, one, price it higher than you ever thought possible. I'm gonna say that again, price the procedure higher than you ever thought possible. Now here's what most doctors do. What they do is they think, well, you know, my patients can't afford it and, you know, they don't have a lot of money and so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna offer it cheap and if that works then what I'll do is I'm gonna gradually raise prices. Don't do it. Don't do it. Every 10% discount that you offer, you have to sell 22% more units to make the same amount of money. And if your intent is to get it to a place where you're going to be charging premium dollars so that you don't have to see 100 patients in a week, just start there. Just start at the best price. Okay? So price it higher than you thought possible. Please, for the love of God. Number 2, do not call everybody else in your marketplace And figure out what they're charging, and then decide charge just a little bit less than them. Because what you're doing is you're getting advice from a bunch of other broke doctors who don't know crap about pricing. Okay? Don't pay attention to what the market is doing. The market has no clue. Okay? Trust me on this. This is science of pricing. All right? I've been doing this for 25 plus years or longer. I've been doing it. I've been an entrepreneur technically for 40 years if you count the car wash business I had at the country club. Okay? So set your price higher than you ever thought possible. Okay? Don't call around and check with everybody. All right? Number 3, raise your prices again. I do this all the time with my clients. I just had a client in Scottsdale, Arizona. Pain management doc told me for months that his patients wouldn't pay more than $1,500 for PRP. Finally got him to charge $3,000 for a single PRP procedure. Guess what? He's converting everybody that he makes the offer to. Okay, you want to know what my advice to him yesterday on the call was? Raise your prices again. Yeah, raise them $500, because if nobody's saying no, then you're not charging enough. Okay, 4, don't hold back because you think they can't afford it. Don't hold back if you think they can't afford it. Now, I have clients all over the US, I have clients in Canada, and I hear this all the time. Big thing that I hear all the time. My patients don't have any money. I work with Medicare and Medicaid patients. I work with an older age group. I work with a younger age group. I work with people that are middle class. They always tell me how they don't have any money. Bullshit. Okay? They have money. Believe me, they have money. Everybody has money for the thing that they desperately want. And if you're selling a procedure, you're never going to sell them. If you sell an outcome, you'll always sell them. Okay, keep that in mind. We'll talk more about that in another podcast. Okay, so don't hold back because you think they can't afford it. They can. You're just not presenting it in the right way to them. Okay, this is number five: switch an insurance procedure for a cash procedure. Switch an insurance procedure for cash procedure. Now, in orthobiologics regenerative, what we do is we start to tell our clients, "Look." Steroid injections/cortisone injections are not any good for the patient. They weaken the ligament. They have long-term negative impact. They don't last very long. Sometimes they don't work at all. Okay? They're painful. So what you want to do is you want to switch out the cortisone shot for a PRP injection. Okay? Now, what happens when people say, oh, is this covered by insurance? It doesn't matter. You're just not presenting it the right way. Remember, the average American household at the time of this recording has an average annual deductible of $10,000. That's if they have a premium plan. This is defined by the federal government. 60% of Americans have what is called a premium plan, okay? And that's not within Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act, okay? That's a premium plan based on corporations. The average have a $10,000 deductible. And by the way, that number's going up, okay? The next is you're going to run what's called a 5130 email to your list. What is that? Well, 5130 email is something that we do for our clients in Business Mastery Fellowship, and it works like this. I'm looking for 5 customers that want to fix this one problem in the next 30 days. So we're looking for 5 patients that are suffering from knee pain that want to see significant improvement without pills and surgery in the next 30 days. If interested, hit reply and type interested. That's the email. Okay? Now, there's some steps that have to happen after that. I'm not going to go into that, but you run a 5130 email. If you don't have email addresses and all you have are phone numbers, then run a 5130 text campaign. Okay? Next. Follow a proven script. You got to have a script. If you don't have a script on how to close people and how to move people into buying transactions from you, remember, a doctor's role is to advise, guide, and recommend. That's what sales is. Shocker, I know. That's what sales is: advise, guide, and recommend. That's it. Okay, I'll talk about selling in a completely— advising, guiding, and recommending in a completely different podcast, and why you've been told a lie that you should never ask for money. All right, but that's— that'll be another podcast at another time. Okay, did I tell you this? I'm gonna say it again. Offer it to everyone. Don't hold back. Offer cash services. Offer PRP, anti-aging, longevity, whatever you're doing, medically guided weight loss. Offer it to everybody. Okay, here is the, the next one, and then I'm going to give you the real humdinger, as we like to call it. Run a webinar. What's a webinar? Well, it's like a 30-minute, 40-minute commercial that you email your list and they get to watch it, and at the end they've been educated and then they buy, okay, or they book an appointment. And finally, create a welcome video to explain what is going on. Now this is really one of my favorites, and the reason why this is so powerful is it creates a consistent message. And so my clients like Josh down in Texas, this is what he does, and Trevor does this up in Buffalo, and Mark is doing this. We're doing this all over the country. Donnie Buford is doing it. Everybody's doing this. Works powerfully. You create like a 5 to 8 minute video that the patient watches before you come into the room, and that video explains this new thing that you're offering, and it educates them, and it creates an opportunity for them to ask you about it. Well, if they ask about it, then they're going to be more likely to buy. Okay. All right. So those are the 10 if you have a list. Now, how in the world are you going to do this if you don't have a list? Well, let's talk about that. So what are you going to do if you don't have a list? Let's say you've left the hospital, you've left the ER, you're starting from scratch, okay, and you're opening up your clinic. Now here's some of the big mistakes that people make. They go out and they get a ton of training beforehand, and they invest in a bunch of machines, and they sign too long of a lease, okay, and they wind up with 2,500 square feet, 4,000 square feet, and they don't know if it's going to work or not. I can't tell you how many clients Or doctors, I should say, I've talked to over the years that I have said, please, for the love of God, do not buy a $150,000 machine. And they go and they buy a $150,000 machine and they have crickets and they have no money left to market their facility. So here's what you do. Remember, the whole goal is we want to prove that people want what you're offering. Okay? So before you go and invest in a bunch of machines, let's say you need a machine. Let's say you need an ultrasound or C-arm probably isn't a good example, or maybe you need like a laser. Find one of your friends that has one and borrow theirs for the first 10. Let's just see if we can get this going. Let's keep your expenses low. Don't sign a long-term lease. Sublease space from like a chiropractor or a med spa or a family practice office or something. Do not go on the hook for a lease. Most, I will tell you, Dr. Nabi, Dr. Jameers, Dr., I mean, the list goes on and on. They all started very humbly with like subleasing space in a med spa on Fridays and Saturdays because they were closed and those are the days that they could work. Okay, so those are some bonuses. Okay, now how are we going to sell the first 10? Okay, one, you got to keep your expenses low. Okay, keep your exposure and your expenses low. 2, go through your personal email list of contacts. Yep, we're We're going to go through your personal list of email contacts, and what you're going to do is you're going to craft a very simple email that says something like this. Hey, I'm looking for 5 patients who suffer from knee pain, chronic weight gain, type 2 diabetes. Okay, whatever. I'll use the knee pain example and want a non-surgical solution without any pills. Do you know anyone? That's it. Now let's think about this. What do you think their response is going to be on the other end when they get that email? Their responses are going to be one of two things: nope, I don't know anybody, or tell me more. Right now, when they say tell me more, they either have a friend or a family member, or it's them. Now, who are the easiest people in the world to sell? The people that know you, that like you, and trust you. And if they're on your personal contact list, pretty good chance they know you, they like you, and they trust you. Okay, so that's the first thing. Go through your personal email list and email everybody. Don't tell them— don't send them this long email, oh, I've decided that I'm going to start my own practice and I'm getting a location and we're going to do regenerative medicine and this is groundbreaking stuff, or I'm going to do anti-aging and hormone replacement therapy, or I'm going to do medically got— don't do it. Don't tell them any of that, because what are they going to say? Oh, that's great. Good luck. Right? And then when you go ask, do you know anybody? They'll be like, nope. Okay? Create curiosity. All right? The second thing you're going to do is you're going to go through your Facebook list of contacts and you're going to message them. Do not post something on your overall page right now. Okay? You're going to do the same thing on LinkedIn. And by the way, I really don't care if they're in your market or not. Doesn't matter. You never know. You may have somebody on your list that's like, God, I've been looking for somebody to fix my knee or help me lose my weight. I'm going to be in town next week. Hey, why don't I come by and see you? Cha-ching. Okay, so you're going to go through Facebook, you're going to go through LinkedIn, go through Instagram, go through all your social media and create a list. Okay, and you're going to do the same thing. The next thing you're going to do, and we talked about this, but I'm going to say it again, to keep your expenses low, do not sign a long-term lease. What I want you to do is I want you to sublet space at a chiro or a med spa, whatever, and ask to market to their list. Just ask them if you could run like a seminar. Ask them if you could put some— a flyer up in their office space. Ask them if you could host a wine and cheese, right, and email their list. Just do something, okay? Don't go out and invest in a ton of Facebook ads. Don't build this big fancy-ass website. Don't do any of that. I'll tell you, I can't tell you how many businesses I've started that we didn't have a website ready, okay? That we didn't have an office space. I mean, hell, when we started advertising the ED clinics, we didn't know if we were going to get our certificate of occupancy the day that we opened. We got it like 2 days before, right? Like, these are all the things you just— this is what entrepreneurs do. We learn how to do this for as cheap and as inexpensive as we possibly can, okay? Next. Start creating content. Now I'm going to tell you right now, creating content is one of the most powerful things that you can do to grow your business. I've been asked countless times, if I were to start a practice from scratch today, what would I do? Okay, now in addition to all of those things, if I started a practice here in Charlotte, let's say I wanted to open up a laser lipo center or something like that, or an anti-aging clinic, what I would do is before I even had a location I would start creating content before I knew what my price was going to be. I'd start creating content. I'd find out what is the market asking, and I would start creating content. And the reason why I start creating content right away is your first 10 to 20 are going to suck and suck bad. In fact, you may find that your first 50 suck and suck bad. Go back and listen to my first 25 podcasts, my first 30 podcasts. They were awful. They're still there. I don't delete them. People still listen to them. But in my view, they're not very good. Okay? So I want you to start creating content. Content is like compound interest. If you invest $2 every day into a retirement account, it's a lot better than investing $200 every other month. That money is gonna compound more and more and more and more and more and more and more. Okay? So create content every day. By the way, you wanna know what else I would do? I would do this right here. I would let everybody know that we were opening up I wouldn't spend any money on advertising. I would just do this. Okay, next, charge more. Charge more. Charge more than you thought you were going to charge. Now, I talked about this. I think one of the stupidest things that business can do is you start out by dropping your prices thinking, oh, I'm going to build this foundation of people and then as I raise prices, they're going to stick with me. No, they're not. Here's what the science shows us. Discount buyers, people that buy on discount, scientific study, okay? Here you go. People that buy on discount are less loyal buyers, okay? The second thing that we know, this was a study that was done, God, 30 years ago, and I heard it in business school and it's stuck with me ever since, and it's still true today. And Southwest Airlines, back in the day when they had like, I don't know, 5 routes or something like that, what they did is they had an offer. You could pay $19 for a one-way ticket And get a bottle of Crown Royal with it, or you could pay $10 and not get the bottle of Crown Royal. You want to know what most people took? They took the $19 price with the bottle of Crown Royal. Now here's the interesting thing. The bottle of Crown Royal cost $10 or $9, I think, whatever it was, or $8, right? So you could have taken the discount. You'd go buy the bottle of Crown Royal and you'd probably still have a dollar left, but it Like 80% of the people took gift with purchase. Gift with purchase is infinitely more powerful than discounts. Discounts create the worst buyer ever. Okay? So don't make the mistake of saying, I'm gonna start cheap. Nope. Start above average pricing in the marketplace. Okay? Be priced above your competition. I've— well, true story. I have had one client who has tried to raise prices and it didn't work. And I don't think it's because of the marketplace, because they're in one of the top 30 markets in the US and they're well known. I think it's because they don't believe that they're worth it yet. Okay, but of the hundreds and thousands of clients that I've worked with over the years, or thousands and thousands of clients, I can only think of maybe 5 instances where raising prices didn't work. Okay, so raise your prices, create your pricing higher than you thought it should be. And to do that, do not discount. Do not discount. Do not discount. Do not discount. Okay? Have a script. Practice it. Okay? We have a script for people that are in BMF. Have a script and practice it. And then the last thing is make them ask how much it is. Okay? That's part of our scripting. Okay? But these are the powerful things you can do. Look, there is no reason why you can't get 10 customers even if you don't even have a location yet. Assuming you've been in your marketplace, if you just moved there, people will follow you. If you just moved from New York to Southern California, it doesn't matter. You have friends that know people there, okay? And I'm telling you, this is what we do to start businesses all the time. We risk as little money as possible. If it doesn't work, if the market doesn't bite, we make a decision if we continue or whether or not we fold shop. I'm going to tell you though, I'm going to leave you with this: the market is killing. They are desire— they want desperately another option that doesn't include Big Brother making their medical decisions. Patients want control over their medical decisions, just like you want control over what to give the patient. Don't think your patients can't afford it. I have clients that are in lower middle income markets that do this, and it works. I have clients that have 85% Medicare and Medicaid patients. And they buy, they pay cash. Don't edit. Give it a try. I promise you, you won't be disappointed. All right, that's it for today. Okay. Hope you enjoyed it. As always, don't forget, check out our free book, The Anatomy of a 7-Figure Medical Practice. There's information here in the podcast that you can get. Check us out. Come to one of our events. Let us help you. Check out all the great free resources that we have. We have a podcast, we have YouTube channels, we have it all. Check it all out. We'll talk to you soon. This is Matt Gillogly. We'll see y'all later.