Once you have your advertising in place and it is getting you leads, your next challenge is to master the second element of effective marketing – Sales.
A complete marketing system would create a balance in media costs by effective use of conventional and more contemporary media, and combined with efficient inside and outside sales functions will eventually dominate its marketplace.
What is your call conversion rate? Small refractive practices tend to stay small because they have too many people wearing too many hats. If your front desk people are also answering incoming calls from interested refractive prospects, you are shooting yourself in the foot. Front desk people will always take care of live bodies in front of them more effectively than they will deal with people on the telephone.
- Are your phone-answering staff well-trained? The people answering your phones need to be well-trained at converting inquiries into consultations. Even utilizing a refractive coordinator in this capacity is less than optimum, because when the refractive coordinator is performing consultations or assisting with surgery, the phones are not being effectively answered. This can be a tough one – but there’s a simple solution.
- Inquiries, Consults, New Patients, Returning Patients, Deliveries and Visitors. If your front desk is a cross-roads for all of these it will be a Bermuda Triangle of lost sales. Each type requires a very different style of handling; mix those styles up and you lose conversions.
- How much money are you leaving on the table because of poor conversion rates? Most practices have a Calls to Consults conversion rate of somewhere between 45% – 55%. This should be 75% or higher and the Consults to Surgeries is usually somewhere between 50% - 60% when it should be 85% or better. This one factor alone can be the difference between just getting by and being quite profitable.
Example
For purposes of this example we’ll use a LASIK practice that is doing 35 consults per month and a fee per procedure of $2,200.Conversion Rate: 55%
35 consults X 55% conversion rate X 1.7 procedures = 33 procedures X $2,200 = $72,600 / month.
Conversion Rate: 85%
35 consults X 85% conversion rate X 1.7 procedures = 51 procedures X $2,200 = $112,200 / month.
$40,000 is being left on the table instead of going to your bottom line!
- Do you have an outside sales function? Having one or more outside sales people can do wonders for your practice’s volume of refractive patients. By developing Vision Care relationships with local corporations and participating actively in health fairs and other community events you can create an effective outside sales team. But the keys to success here are proper training, motivation and marketing tools.
- Do you have a functioning OD Co-management network? This can also be a function of an outside sales person or team. This approach depends largely on your attitude and philosophy, as well as the competitive landscape – perhaps another practice has already established such a network. However, an effective OD Co-management network can significantly raise your volume of surgeries.
Establishing and managing an efficient telephone answering function that converts more than 75% of the Incoming Calls Into Consultations, a functioning outside sales/OD network, and a well-trained and motivated sales team that converts at least 85% of Consultations into Surgeries are vital elements in your practice’s success.
