Take a look at this month's edition of the Elective Medical Spectator!
5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY TO INCREASE YOUR CONSULTATIONS IT’S TIME TO END THE COVID-19 SLUMP!
Here’s the hard truth: We’re seven months into this pandemic, and it’s pretty clear that it’s not going anywhere. If you put your marketing on pause back in March and have been hoping to hunker down and ride it out, let this be a wakeup call: You can’t hunker down indefinitely! Your practice needs new consultations in order to survive and thrive. Deep down, you know this — it’s time to get back in the game. In last month’s newsletter, I talked about a few things my team and I have seen elective surgeons do to get through this tough time successfully. Now, I want to take that a step further. I’ve created a list of five things you can do TODAY to increase your consultations and get patients through the door. 1. Start a re-engagement campaign. We talked about win-back campaigns in last month’s newsletter, but I want to bring the idea back because I really have seen it be incredibly effective during this time of social distancing. This summer, one of our clients used a re-engagement campaign to bring in an additional $93,754 in revenue. Another was able to book 151 new surgeries to the tune of $588,900. It was the best month ever in the history of their practice. The best win- back campaigns I’ve run have been over text or email. They’re one-time offers, and the practice is transparent that they are uniquely offered because of the coronavirus. 2. Make a video. Videos are a great way to build trust and rapport with leads, and you can make one in just a few minutes. This video doesn’t have to be fancy. You can use your smartphone to shoot a selfie video inviting patients to book a virtual consultation or giving a quick tour of your office. If possible, try filming the video alone so you can avoid wearing a mask. It’s a lot harder to build trust with a person whose face is partially covered! Once you’ve made your video, add it to your website and social media. 3. Double down on social media. Through this strange time, it’s important that you continue to remind your patients and leads you’re open and practicing. Make sure you’re posting regular updates on social media (organic traffic) and also investing in
retargeting with ads (paid traffic). You can use your new videos for the latter!
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4. Do a website audit. How long has it been since you updated your website? If you’re not sure, then it’s probably not providing maximum return. Improving your website is the cheapest, easiest way to increase your conversion rate, because it’s often where leads get their first impression of your clinic. My team specializes in website audits. If you request one today through our website, ClinicMarketingSystem.com, we’ll give you an 11-point audit for FREE. We want you to bounce back from this pandemic, too.
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5. Set up your team for virtual
consultations. As you might imagine, virtual consultations are far superior to in- person ones right now. They help patients feel safe, save time, avoid traffic, and get all of their questions answered from the comfort of their homes. We’ve seen this process convert phenomenally on Facebook and Google Ads. In fact, one client whose win-back campaign funneled to a virtual consultation saw an increase in their average weekly conversation rate from 35%–41% to 50%–60% this spring. It’s pretty easy to set up a virtual consultation funnel using Calendly and Zoom, and we’re happy to help you do it. You can schedule a free discovery call with us at ClinicMarketingSystem.com, or enroll in my upcoming online course, which includes a step-by-step guide. I hope these strategies prove as effective for you as they have for my clients. If you’re ready to take them on but aren’t sure where to start, reach out to me today. I’m here to help you succeed. – Michael King 1 206-437-0529
“Your practice needs new consultations in order to survive and thrive. Deep down, you know this — it’s time to get back in the game.”
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BY ENHANCING THEIR LEADERSHIP QUALITIES OPTIMIZE YOUR SALES TEAM Think about the traits of a leader. You may be thinking of
ANALYZE TRAITS. Leaders do have defined traits, but no two leaders are alike. Pinpointing the qualities that make each team member an effective leader — and therefore great at their job — can help you identify sales teams or partners that will function harmoniously. (Coincidentally, this process will also show you who should not work together.) The best pairs feed off one another. Maybe you have one salesperson who is the best at explaining the technical aspects of your product, while another is the most empathetic and emotional seller. Together, they’re a winning combination. PROVIDE LEADERSHIP TRAINING. Learning is an essential part of sales. Salespeople have to understand the demographic, cater to trends, and be the first to admit when a sales tactic is wrong. In addition to learning skills specific to their position, salespeople should also undergo leadership training. Many of these courses and teachings target managers who have employees, but when you encourage your team to apply these concepts to potential clients, they will learn what leadership skills they must nurture within themselves to get more sales. You can also take managerial leadership training and convert it into a program that targets your sales team.
someone who can take charge, isn’t afraid to fail, communicates clearly, has a passion for helping people, and is extroverted.
Now, think of a successful salesperson. Do you see any overlap in characteristics? The answer is likely yes.
Salespeople are natural leaders. They lead consumers to the best product or service, and they effectively push our economy and businesses forward. However, having multiple leaders on one team can create friction. As an entrepreneur or sales manager, you must create a work environment that nurtures your leaders in the sales department without causing issues. Those with an innate sense of leadership still need the right training and work environment to optimize their skills and excel. When you provide these, the confidence of your team increases, their ability to sell effectively is boosted, and your sales numbers improve. It’s a win‑win‑win for you, your team, and the company.
You can create a plan for cultivating leadership with these two steps.
THE FUTURE OF ELECTIVE SURGERY IS HERE, AND ITS NAME IS THOMAS! MEET THE FIRST ARTIFICIALLY INTELLIGENT NATURAL-LANGUAGE CHATBOT IN THE FIELD
For the last five months, our team has been working with artificial intelligence and digital marketing experts to create something brand-new in the elective medical field: an artificially intelligent, natural-language chatbot that can book clients for virtual consultations. The bot’s name is Thomas, and after months of tweaks and trial runs, it’s ready to go to work! Before Thomas, our clients were stuck in a lose-lose situation when it came to live chats. On the one hand, a live chat feature can be a great way to keep an elective medical lead on your website and move them down the sales funnel. But there were only two options for running a live chat, and neither of them were great. Option 1: Pay a real person to sit at the keyboard 24/7 to answer client questions. This is a pretty expensive option. Worse, if a message is overlooked, the potential patient could get annoyed and take their business elsewhere. Option 2: Use a standard chat bot. This is less expensive, but it’s imperfect. These bots are typically pretty low on the intelligence scale and don’t have natural-language features, so potential patients have a hard time holding a real conversation with them.
Again, there’s the possibility the patient could get frustrated and leave your site.
So, enter Option 3: Thomas! Thomas is a chatbot that can actually answer your patients’ questions in a natural, almost human way. Even better, Thomas is fine-
tuned to work for LASIK surgeons. To make this possible, the team at AI Thomas — including mastermind Dan Gamito (who you can read more about on Pg. 3) and digital marketing guru Molly Pittman — programmed Thomas to answer hundreds of common questions about elective medical procedures. To get these questions, they pulled from our webinars, chatted with surgeons, and looked at past patient chats. With that information, Thomas can answer questions like “How much does LASIK eye surgery cost?” in a snap and guide a client toward a virtual consultation. Right now, we’re getting ready to roll out Thomas to LASIK practices, soon to be followed by other elective medical areas. If you work in LASIK and want to learn more, call us today at 206‑437‑0529.
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Years ago, Clinic Marketing System CEO Michael King met Dan Gamito, who was then the vice president of growth at ManyChat, a messenger bot platform. They started working together and quickly became friends. “Michael has a proven track record of seeing technologies early and knowing which to invest in and which to stay away from,” Dan explains. “He saw bots and this new marketing strategy and immediately knew where it was going.” Dan has a long history of working in marketing and artificial intelligence (AI). For the last three years, he’s been focused on an emerging field called conversational design. “The job of a conversational designer is basically to invent new ways of communicating with people using machine learning and artificial intelligence. Basically, you think of a conversation you want to have with your customer, map it using machine-learning tools, and make bots that can have conversations like humans,” Dan says. Thomas, the AI chatbot you met on Pg. 2, is one such revolutionary bot that was created specifically for the LASIK surgery industry. Dan co-founded the startup that created Thomas, Thomas AI. As Dan explains it, AI works like muscle memory, learning from and remembering patterns, which it can complete instinctively over and over. As we mentioned on Pg. 2, Dan taught Thomas the patterns of conversation surrounding LASIK using a vast array of data. Then, he went a step further. “The coolest part of this project is that we’ve had real LASIK surgeons review Thomas’ answers, so he’s been trained with some of the top LASIK surgeons in the world,” Dan says. “Trained” is the right world. Just like a human employee, Thomas learned how to book virtual consultations from the experts. Dan and his team also check his performance periodically just like they would a new receptionist or salesperson. It’s truly a new level of AI for the industry. Though the bot is a modern innovation, the name Thomas has old- school roots. Dan was inspired, in part, by the 13th-century Italian philosopher Thomas Aquinas. “He was a scholar with a brilliant mind — someone really impressive who was one of the earliest, best communicators of technology,” Dan says. PARTNER SPOTLIGHT: DAN GAMITO THE AI MASTERMIND WHO CREATED THOMAS
TAKE A BREAK
We can’t wait to see Thomas live up to his legacy.
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INSIDE THIS ISSUE
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5 Things You Can Do Today to Increase Your Consultations
2 Steps to Cultivate Leadership in Your Sales Team Meet Thomas, the First in a New Breed of Chatbot
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Partner Spotlight: Dan Gamito
Is Stress Making You Forgetful?
HOW TO COPE WITH DAILY TRIGGERS IS STRESS HARMING YOUR MEMORY?
Stress can cause more than just a bad mood and low energy. Over time, mental exhaustion from stress can lead to forgetfulness and reduced cognition. This can hamper your ability to do your job and enjoy life. Though stress is unavoidable, there are steps you can take to mitigate some of the negative effects of mental exhaustion, including forgetfulness. First, consider the source of your stress. These days, a common stressor is social media. If your feeds are full of bad news and negativity, shut them down. Many researchers suggest that spending less time on the internet leads to better health. Several studies have found that constant internet use, including time spent on social media, is negatively impacting our memories. Research from Harvard, Oxford, King’s College London, and Western Sydney University all confirm this: Too much internet use is a bad thing. Of course, it can be easier to delete a social media app than it is to eliminate other types of stressors. Coping with a stressful coworker, for example, can be difficult. You have to figure out why they’re causing you stress and how the situation can be remedied. Dealing with a work-related confrontation can be hard, but having that difficult conversation and resolving the problem can ultimately lead
to less long-term stress and improve your mental health.
Another thing you can do to reduce stress is avoid
multitasking. Taking on multiple projects or doing too much in too little time can leave you feeling overworked. Plus, studies have found that multitasking is not effective. You cannot deliver
the same results when your attention is scattered as you can when you are focused on one thing. To make matters worse, multitasking takes a major toll on memory and cognition, according to a study from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. If stress is impairing your memory, judgment, or cognition, take the above steps to reduce it. If you find your memory and cognition aren’t improving, consider speaking with a mental health professional to discuss your best next steps. Mental health and stress management are important, and the more we do to improve these areas of our lives, the healthier and happier we will be.
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