06 - Avoid the "Right Answer Trap" on the Phone

You don't want your phone team falling into this trap. What is up, my friends? It's your boy, Troy. With a fresh episode of the Practice Growth Machine podcast. Today, we're talking about mindset, and specifically, we're talking about a situation that happens a lot on the phones, and it's what I call the right answer trap. The right answer trap. When I'm working with phone teams and I ask, so, what's your job on the phone? What are you doing? A lot of them will say, well, you know, we're answering questions. We're trying to answer questions for people who call us. And others will say, well, we're trying to book a consult or book an evaluation. But if I dig deeper and say, okay, literally, how do you do that? It still comes back to, well, we need to make sure that we're answering all of their questions when people call in. And the thing is that answering questions is the one thing that we should not be doing on the phone. So let's talk about why your office takes calls every day, and you are well versed in the ways of your procedures, the language you use, all the technical aspects of it, et cetera. But think about this. How. How well versed are your prospects? In a lot of cases, they don't know much about what you do at all. They may know that you offer a certain type of procedure, and they've heard of that procedure. They've heard of Lasik or a facelift or whatever it is, but they probably don't know a lot about what you're actually doing or how it works. What that means is they don't really know what to ask. And so what do they do? They do what we all do when we're talking about things that we don't really know about, and they end up asking random questions to fill the space and try to carry the conversation. And a lot of times, that's a price question. Sometimes it's a technology question. Doesn't really matter. The thing you need to know is that people are asking questions on autopilot because they really don't know what to say otherwise. And this is where the trouble starts. The trouble starts when we start trying to answer these questions. And we think we need to answer questions, but that's exactly what we should not be doing for a few reasons. Number one, when we're answering questions, we are being responsive to the caller. And at face value, that sounds good. It sounds like, hey, that's good. We want to be responsive, but we're also put in a position where we're being reactive. We don't want to be reactive to whatever random question a caller may throw out at us. We want to guide and be in charge and take the lead on the call. So getting into a rhythm where they're throwing questions at you and you're answering those really puts them in the driver's seat. They are the ones that are guiding the call and not you. And that's a problem because as we already discussed, these callers, the prospects calling into your practice, don't know a lot about what you're doing, don't know a lot about the value that you provide, how you're different than your competitors, et cetera. So we don't want them guiding the call. You need to guide the call number two. It's important to remember that every question is born out of a concern. So if someone says, how much is it? What they're really meaning, what they're really getting at is, is this a good value? Is this a good use of my money? Is this a good investment in myself? If someone says, hey, do you do all laser procedures? They're really getting at the idea of, hey, you know, do you have the latest technology? Can I trust the technology that you offer? Is it the latest and the greatest and the best? So people are asking questions and they're rattling off these inquiries, but. But really they're revealing what their. Their true concerns are. So if we can pull back a minute and not focus so much on the question, but the concern beneath the question, that is what we want to address on the phone. Rather than answering questions, we need to address concerns. I'll say that again. Instead of answering questions, we want to address concerns. And there's many ways you can do that. You can do it by telling stories, by talking about what other patients have shared with you through anecdotes. You can talk about what you've observed being in the practice and working with other patients. That's a topic we'll deep dive in another episode. But the big takeaway here is that if you get a phone call and you answer 20 questions, but you get off the phone without some kind of a next step, then we failed. You may think your job on the phone is to answer questions, but it's not. Ultimately, your job is to help someone make the right decision for themselves. Booking a consult is great. That's not actually what our ultimate goal is. We want to help someone who calls into the practice make the right decision for them. And in many cases, the right decision is to take the next step. And come on in, meet with the doc, have a consult and see what their options are. But think about this. If someone has 20 questions, doesn't really matter what those questions are. The fact that they have 20 questions shows you that they need to come on in and take that next step for a consultation and learn about what their options truly are to move forward with a solution that you provide. In closing, don't think of yourself as a glossary, but as a guide. Your job is not to answer questions, it is to address the concerns of the prospect as you guide them through the call. And ultimately, you want to help your callers make the right decision for them, which in most cases is to take that next step. Come on in for a consultation. So go forth today. Don't just answer questions, but address concerns and help your prospects make the right decision for them. We'll see you next time.