12 - Don't Forget to *Ask* (A Costly Conversion Mistake)

Don't forget to ask what is up, my friends? It's your boy, Troy. Welcome to a fresh, glorious episode of the Practice Growth Machine podcast where we teach you the persuasion tips and strategies you can use to command higher prices for your premium procedures and fill your surgery schedule. It is all about the ask Today, people. Ask and ye shall receive. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. These are sayings you've heard throughout your whole life. And guess what? They totally apply to your practice and your patients. I see so many practices who are leaving money on the table simply by not asking a few basic questions to their patients. So today let's talk about the three asks in your practice that are the biggest levers to get more patients on your books. If you're not doing these, you are not capitalizing on the amazing brand you've built and the incredible results that you give your patients. So let's get into it. Number one, you need to ask for reviews. 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. But with as many happy patients as you serve, you don't have anywhere near as many five star reviews as you should. Kind of crazy, right? Well, have you ever noticed how people who are upset or dissatisfied seem more than ready to go on and leave a bad review, but happy patients just don't. And this is not just a medical thing. This goes for restaurants, bars and you have course your practice. Well, why is that? When you think about someone who's upset and they feel slighted, they want some kind of justice and they want to vent, the best way to do that is to go out and tarnish your brand in public by leaving you a bad review on Google. Why don't happy patients go and leave reviews on their own in the same way? Here's the thing. When everything goes like it should and people are happy, they aren't thinking about you. They're out living their lives to the fullest, which is what you helped them do. Delivering great results is, in a way, it's a double edged sword. It's absolutely what you want to do and it's the most forgettable thing to our patients. It's great for them, but it's awful for your reviews. So how do you get five star reviews from happy patients? Consistently? You have to ask. I recommend asking in person, but you can also do it electronically, via text or even via email if you don't have time to engage the patient while they're right there in the office. I have clients that use our review tool review grab to 10x their 5 star reviews exclusively using email invites. So it's doable. There's a lot of ways you can do it, but the point is you have to ask. You have to ask for that feedback. You have to ask for the review. All right. And on that same note, you also want to ask your happy patients for referrals. Number two, we have to ask for referrals. Patient referrals are some of your highest converting opportunities. Have you heard of the know, like and trust trifecta? For somebody to do business with you, they must know you, they must like you, and they need to trust you. Marketing works to do this over time, but referrals speed up the process. So think about it. My friend or family member had surgery with you and they had a great result. That's awesome. I know my friend or family member already has that know, like and trust developed with you, and I can basically piggyback on that as a shortcut. Your patient referrals are also very highly educated. They've asked their friend or family a thousand questions about the procedure, does it hurt? How long was the recovery, how much was it, and so forth. And these are a couple of the many reasons that personal referrals are so valuable to your practice. So how can you get more of them? One way is through a strong post acquisition marketing campaign which we covered in detail in episode 10. If you missed that, go back and check it out. Another great way is to simply ask, hey, do you have friends or family that's struggling with this same problem that we just solved for you? If so, please, please, please have them give me a call. This is actually how most people find out about us and we would love to help them out as long as they're as awesome as you are. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. You give them a handful of your business cards to hand out and that's it. All you have to do is ask. That's the operative word here, as I'm sure you're well aware. Number three, you have to ask for the business. Now, this one's for your phone team and for your counselors. You must ask for the business, meaning you have to ask the person to take the next step. This seems obvious, but you'd be surprised how often I listen to call recordings or I shadow consults. And the counselor never directly asks the person to take the next step. It's as easy as saying, hey, well, let's go ahead and get you scheduled for your consult. Hey, let's look at surgery dates and get you set up for your big day. It's that simple. But so many times it just doesn't happen. It's almost like we're waiting for the patient to take action of their own fruition. And unfortunately that just doesn't work most of the time. The reason People don't like making hard decisions and they don't like breaking from the status quo. We really like staying the same. So unless someone is guiding us to the next step on a transformational journey by asking us for our business, we rarely go there on our own. So let's make sure that at every step along the way of the patient journey, you ask for the business. All right, let's recap. So what did we learn today? Asking is one of the easiest ways that you can get more patients, but it's also one of the easiest things to forget. Happy patients are generally happy to comply or help you out if you just ask the three most high value asks to reinforce in your practice. Ask for the review, ask for referrals, and ask for the business. Now get out there and ask your way to a full surgery schedule next week and we'll see you on the next show. For more persuasion tools and scripts, visit the free resources tab@troycol.com.