Increase Aesthetic Medical Practice Revenue: Generate Leads and Optimize the Sales Process


Acara Axiom: Your marketing program generates leads while an optimized sales process maximizes revenue.

Need to grow your aesthetic business?  Wish you’re practice was generating an increase of $10K or more each month on the top line of your income statement?

What is the answer?  First, strengthen your marketing program and drive more leads; second, tighten your sales process and assure each lead is properly optimized to maximize sales.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure.  Here’s what Acara’s successful clients are measuring and monitoring in their aesthetic medical practices:

  1. Track lead source.  Implement a tracking system into your marketing program.  CallSource is a tracking system that many of Acara’s clients utilize with great success.  Through unique telephone numbers it tracks where each lead heard about your practice. (You will still need to ask each caller “how did you learn about our practice” since there are always the leads that call because of a referral and not an ad or other marketing communication).
  2. Track lead to consult conversion.  Track how many of the leads (telephone and internet) are converted to consultations. Acara Axiom: Do not qualify leads on the phone; focus on converting them to consultations.
  3. Track consult to patient conversion.  Track how many performed consultations are converted to new patients.
  4. Track average purchase per new patient.  Track what the average purchase per new patient.

If you have multiple sales consultants at your practice then the above numbers 3 and 4 should be tracked by individual consultant.

Now that you’re measuring these basic, but important, marketing and sales metrics you can begin to monitor the success of any best practice implementation that has an objective to increase your cosmetic medical sales.

Here are a few examples of sales and marketing best practices that Acara oftentimes implements for our clients:

  • Identify what marketing efforts are working and increase those budgets to drive more leads.  Example: if you’re local print ads are successfully driving leads then increase the frequency or possibly run 2 in the same publication one with a focus on body and the other on face.  Something to remember when advertising: Keep the message focused; don’t sell your practice, sell results (i.e. permanent fat removal) thus when an ad is focused on the face its generating telephone calls from people (leads) specifically interested the face work listed in the ad (wrinkle reduction, smoother skin, getting rid of age spots, etc.).
  • Identify your lead capture methodology (i.e. what info prior to passing the call onto the sales consultant, can the receptionist book a consults, etc.) and assure that all personnel answering the phone are fully trained.
  • Review the metrics on a weekly basis and coach your team to support their improvement.
  • Give your sales team incentive to encourage them to do a great job.
  • Review how you currently package your procedures.  Possibly adjusting the protocol to increase the standard number of procedures per package will provide the client more benefit and increase your average patient sale.  Dr. Patrick Bitter Jr, a highly regarded cosmetic dermatologist, believes that optimal benefit is achieved after five photofacials.  (He also offers an excellent training program that teach his laser techniques.)

All of the above are best practices that have to be implemented with rigor and discipline and a big dose of passion and drive in order to experience success.  It doesn’t happen overnight but with consistent implementation you should see a bump in your top line within 6 – 8 weeks.

FXA

Acara Announces Q1 2012 Complimentary Webinars for Cosmetic Physicians, Aesthetic Medical & MedSpa Industry Professionals


There are six new Webinars in the Q1 series, and some are back by popular demand, including topics on development, management, marketing and sales. 

Here are the new 2012 Q1 Webinars:

2012 Top Aesthetic Medical Trends

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 — 1:00 pm, ET / 10:00 am, PT
Join Francis Acunzo, cosmetic medical business visionary as he discusses his top 2012 Aesthetic Medical trends and how you can stay on trend to strengthen your business in 2012.

Securing Financing for your Medical Spa or Aesthetic Medical Practice

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 — 1:00 pm, ET / 10:00 am, PT
Leading Medical Spa business expert, Francis Acunzo, will review the basics on financing your Aesthetic Medical Practice or Medical Spa. How do you determine your financial needs for a new medical practice, re-capitalization of an existing business, or the cost of acquiring an established Medical Spa? Learn how to analyze your risk tolerance and decide what your debt-to-equity ratio should be based upon your business and personal needs.

Opening A Successful MedSpa or Cosmetic Aesthetic Practice

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 — 1:00 pm, ET / 10:00 am, PT
The Acara team visits Aesthetic Medical Practices and Medical Spas nationwide on a regular basis; most of the time we find great clinical services, but mediocre customer service. This is a difficult problem to fix, because most of the time it is cultural: deep-rooted customs or practices in which business is being conducted day to day.  This is not a situation where a set of protocols will solve the problem.  So how do you implement change?  What is the solution? How do you create a Customer Centric Medical Practice?  Join Francis X. Acunzo, Acara CEO, as he discusses how to convert your Practice into a Customer Centric Organization.

Maximizing Medical Spa Interior Design

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 — 1:00 pm, ET / 10:00 am, PT
Francis X. Acunzo has opened and/or acquired over 75 Medical Spas nationwide. He will provide insight into Acara’s methodology when working with top architects and designers to ensure a successful design.  In addition, he will share his pearls of wisdom when developing Medical Spa interiors that are aesthetically pleasing, functional and profitable.

Top 10 Questions When Buying A Cosmetic Laser

Tuesday, March 6, 2012 — 1:00 pm, ET / 10:00 am, PT
So many laser companies – so many different types of lasers! The process of buying a cosmetic laser can be overwhelming. Find out what questions you should ask prior to even speaking with laser companies and then what questions you should ask once you begin the process of identifying the right laser company for your cosmetic practice or medspa. Francis X. Acunzo has been purchasing cosmetic lasers for the past 15 years. Throughout his career he has placed orders for over 70 lasers. Join him while he shares his experience with you

Practice Success & the Physician’s Role: It’s About Leadership not Management

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 — 1:00 pm, ET / 10:00 am, PT
Francis X. Acunzo has successfully led individual medical spas and cosmetic practices with teams of 10 to large multi-site organizations with 37 locations and teams of 1,000. Join Mr. Acunzo as he shares with you his experience in leading a team to success.

To read the Press Release: Acara Announces Q1 2012 Complimentary Webinars for Cosmetic Physicians, Aesthetic Medical & MedSpa Industry Professionals.

iPads in Healthcare


This is an interesting news article concerning the use of IPads in healthcare.  Its not about cosmetic medicine but interesting to see what is happening to advance patient care through technology.

We actively promote the use of IPads and tablets in the cosmetic medical environment; starting with displaying before and after photos.

In addition, there are various EMR and medical software systems that allow the medical team to be much more efficient within the practice.  PatientNow is one that is setup to work with tablets even allowing patients to sign their consents directly on the tablet.

iPads in healthcare – Healthcare Global.

Medical Spa Interior Design


This blog’s number one post is about interior design for medical spas.  Due to its popularity, I’ve decided to present a webinar on the topic.  If you want to read the post the name is Maximizing Medical Spa Interior Design.

During the Webinar, I will share the pearls of wisdom I have learned by overseeing the design of over 25 spas, medical spas and cosmetic practices.   My focus when developing Medical Spa is to insure that they are aesthetically pleasing, functional, and profitably.

Join me on Tuesday, May 11th at 1:00 p.m. EDT to hear more.

Register Here

FXA

Building a Customer Centric Cosmetic Medical Practice


The Acara team visits Aesthetic Medical Practices nationwide on a very regular basis.  Most often the first visit is to assess the business and the marketplace.  Almost 100% of the time the quality of clinical services is outstanding.  Almost 100% of the time the quality of the customer service is mediocre to poor. (for the purposes of this post I am using the term customer: a person whom exchanges money for goods or services versus patient or client)

This is a difficult problem to fix because most of the time it is cultural; deep rooted customs or practices in which business is being conducted day to day.  This is not a situation where a set of protocols will solve the problem.  So how do you implement this change?  What is the solution? How do you create a Customer Centric Medical Practice?

Here are a few steps to begin the process:

  1. It starts at the top, do not even attempt to spend time improving customer service unless you, as the physician or manager, are willing to completely embrace the process and lead by example.  You must become a Customer Centric Leader.
  2. Practice makes perfect.  You need to show not just tell your team what excellent customer service looks like.  Script each interaction that your team has with your customers (phone and in person).  Then hold a team meeting where everyone is involved in the role playing of the scripts.
  3. Make every business decision based upon the customer.  Hours of operation, quality of care, accounting practices & principals, phone system, staffing levels, equipment purchases, facility management, etc.  Each time you make a business decision ask yourself and your team: “with this decision will customer service improve, remain the same or be reduced?”  Based upon the answer to the question you should have your decision.

Customer Centric Organizational Chart



FXA

$60K Medical Spa Event


The Acara Team once again developed, marketed and executed an extremely successful MedSpa Event for one of our East Coast Clients.  Sandi Unkrur, Acara’s MedSpa Sales Guru, was onsite to facilitate the presentation and sales coin-stacksprocess.

 

Over 60 people were in attendance, 27 received consultations that evening and sales were almost $60,000.00!

 

It’s exciting for our Client to start the year with record sales and in addition, I’m very proud of the Acara Team.  We have now held numerous events nationwide for Medical Spas with the average sales at $35,000.00.

 

FXA

 

The Pied Piper


I’m sitting here by the campfire overlooking a mountain pond enjoying life in the great outdoors of New Hampshire’s White Mountains.  It’s incredible to think that by 10 a.m. I will have come down off the mountain, stopped by the local coffee shop with free internet access and uploaded this post for the entire world to read.

This peaceful world seems so far from the craziness of our economy and the ever-changing landscape of the Medical Spa segment of the spa industry.  I recently read an article in the OCRegister written by Colin Stewart titled “Slumping economy hits Medspas”.  (click here to view the entire article: OCRegister Article )  The basic claim of the article was that the downturn in the economy is what caused the closing of most of the medical spa chains. 

I’m in total disagreement with this assumption.  Clearly the economy has tempered people’s spending on medical spa services but a contraction of MedSpa purchases is not what caused the National Chains to close their doors.  In reality, most of the locations didn’t shut down it was just the Franchise operations that closed. 

It really saddens me that the spa industry, into which I have poured my heart and soul for the past 25 years,  has somehow been tainted by so many non-industry professionals who saw the Medical Spa segment as an opportunity to make a “fast buck”. 

What really amazes me is how rapidly so many jumped into the Medical spa world launching franchise operations and chains without having the right foundation or the structure in place that is essential to building a national multi-site business.  It was as if the Pied Piper came along and so many intelligent entrepreneurs and doctors followed the Piper’s tune (most of them non-spa professionals) of promises for financial gain and success through their proven systems but the Piper failed to ever deliver on any of the promises. 

This is why so many closings have occured; they’re due to an instable business structure, lack of knowledge and understanding of the industry and a wreckless under capitalization into many of these Medical Spas. 

It’s too bad because Acara has proven many times over that with sound business practices and principles, even in a downturn economy, a Medical Spa can succeed.  I now look forward to spending the next year or so re-building the integrity of the Medical Spa segment of the spa industry and watching it become a cornerstone of spa in North America.

FXA

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