04 - How to Follow-Up Without Pestering Your Prospects

Are you ready to book? Are you ready to book? Are you ready to book? That's not how you follow up. It's your boy, Troy. Welcome to a fresh episode of the Practice Growth Machine podcast. We continue today talking about follow up. You'll remember in last episode, episode three, we talked about how frequently you need to follow up with your leads if you want to turn those folks into actual consultations. A lead comes through your website, you call them back, maybe they answer, maybe they don't. How often do you need to be following up with those folks? We go over all of that in episode three. If you haven't listened to it, go check that out. Suffice it to say, you probably need to be following up a lot more than you're doing. So just keep that in mind. Go back and check that one out. Today we're going to talk about three very simple ways to do that follow up without sounding like a broken record while actually providing value to your prospects and really increasing your chances of connecting with them and getting those consults booked from the leads you're following up with. All right, so let's talk about that. Let's get into it. I see a lot of folks on my client sales teams fall into one of two camps and most of them fall into the I don't want to bug people camp, so they don't do enough follow up. And you'll also have a few folks who fall into the I'm going to beat them into submission camp. And so they just follow up, follow up. But we're just asking and asking and asking. Hey, when do you want to come in? When do you want to book? Are you ready to book? When do you want to do this? And neither one of those directions is going to generate the results that you want. So let's look at three very simple tips you can use when doing your follow up. Whether you're connecting with folks, you're leaving voicemails, These will apply. You can use these starting today. Number one, provide value. First and foremost, we want to provide value. So you've heard of the term give and take relationship. You're not yet in a take relationship with your prospects. At this point. It is all give. So how can you give value in your follow ups? Well, look, remember at this point that the prospect probably doesn't know much about your practice, don't know a lot about what you do, how you work, and really what you have to offer. They are nowhere near as educated as we hope they would be at this point. And we're gonna Help get them there. But very simply, one way to create value is to tell them. And that is the reason for your call. So you wanna have a reason. Let's talk about reason for just a minute. You wanna have a reason for your call that is bigger than just, hey, I'm calling to book you. Do we want them to book a consult? Of course we do. And you're gonna book more and have better conversations if you use these tools that we're talking about. So let's talk about examples of having a bigger reason which allows you to provide value on that follow up. The reason for my call today is to let you know about a special payment plan that we're offering right now. My patients are loving it. I wanted to make sure you didn't miss that. The reason for my call is that I wanted to make sure you got a copy of our LASIK info kit. If you can confirm your email address, I'll get it over to you asap. And which will help you as you navigate your LASIK decision. And those are a couple ways that you can create value, start a conversation and to give rather than to take. Number two. We want to create scarcity. Scarcity is a big driver of action. Scarcity and time constraints. Some people say those are two sides of the same coin, but it's a powerful force. And another way to look at scarcity is through the lens of fomo. So if you've heard the term fomo, fear of missing out. People don't like fomo. People of all ages, they hate fomo. Right? So if we can set up a scenario where it's clear that some FOMO is going to occur, then you can get folks to take action in that way as well. So let's talk about a couple of examples of creating scarcity and utilizing fomo. Hey, the reason I'm following up, we just had an afternoon evaluation appointment open up at 3 o' clock on Thursday. These are super popular appointment spots and I thought you could take advantage of it on your way home from work. Hey, Prospect, we have many patients who are booking their procedures now, so they're ready for summer vacation. You mentioned swimming and outdoor adventures are something that you love, so I wanted to call and check in. Or you can even structure it so that someone's booking before a certain time if you have that info. Hey, Prospect, you mentioned that you had a big wedding coming up here at the end of June, so you just want to make sure you have plenty of lead time. So your vision is what you want before you go to that big event and that's why I'm checking in today. And number three, use the info that you have. I gave a couple of examples of how to do this in bullet point number two, but look, sometimes you're able to connect with a prospect. They maybe they weren't able to talk right then they had to talk to their spouse, whatever, they haven't booked yet but you've gotten some info on them or maybe they filled out your self test on your website and you have some insight into what their pain points are, what they're trying to solve, etc. So you want to use any info that you have in your follow ups. If you can use that info, you can tailor your approach to those prospects. So bringing up the wedding, right? Bringing up somebody you're going to go to a wedding, you have a wedding that you are in, you've got a big vacation coming up. If you have this info, you need to help build a plan and structure their treatment around that big milestone or that big lifetime experience that they're going to have. Another example prospect you mentioned in your self test answers that you're interested in getting booked asap and we actually had someone reschedule their appointment from this afternoon. That spot's got your name on it. Let's get you in here. Use any information that you have on your prospects to help tailor the experience to them. So let's talk about what we have learned today. When you follow up, have a reason that is bigger than simply asking for the consultation. Bring value, create scarcity and use all the info that you have to create a compelling case for connection and for your prospect taking that next step. Now that we've talked about how often to follow up in the last episode, the great ways to follow up today. Next time we'll go back to the beginning, the most important follow up point in the whole process, the very first connection. And we're going to talk about what the data shows on how quickly that has to happen and some ways that you can make it happen to give yourself the best chance for success. On that note, I hope you have an amazing day. I wish you well and we'll see you on the next show.