Not Selling Educating

Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Business of Aesthetics podcast show. This is Naren, your co-host. Today, we have an exciting topic. And I'm joined by my dear friend and fellow co-host, Jeff. How are you this afternoon? Good afternoon, Naren. Doing great. Beautiful day here. Thank you, Jeff. I want to kind of dive deep today and talk about this idea of, you know, educating versus selling. And one of the challenges I hear from doctors all the time is, I don't like to sell. I didn't go to medical school, you know, to sell people stuff. And they really, really kind of hate that part of their job, the consult part of their job where they feel like they're selling. So let's start with that. Like, you know, the topic is not selling educating. Let's talk about the mindset. I mean, how many doctors have you worked with? Hundreds, if not more, right? Personally?

I mean, how many doctors have you worked with? Hundreds, if not more, right? Personally? Yeah, definitely. Hundreds, hundreds. And this is something that, I mean, it just comes up over and over again. And not only do they not like it, I can tell you from experience, most are not very good at it either. not very good at it either. They just don't do a good job educating patients because of that mindset, because they feel like they're selling. So we can talk about that mindset a little bit. I don't know, Naren, you and I have had these conversations in the past about mindset and why. I don't know if there's still a stigma with aesthetic medicine. And because it is a fee-for-service, typically, or cash pay service, cash pay procedure, that physicians feel like it's outside of the medical realm or maybe that they're profiting differently from it. So I'm not sure if that has to do with the mindset. I would just remind everyone, we all know that when you look in the mirror and you smile and you feel good about yourself, good things happen. The rest of your health benefits.

So, you know, taking hair off somebody's face or getting rid of the ala telangiectasia that bothers them or, you know, some sun damage from prior sun abuse and now they're more cautious. Doing those things for people can have terrific impacts on their life as well. So I just want to make sure that, you know, when patients come to us as scientists, as physicians, you're really educators. And if you can change the mindset of people are coming to you with a need and they're looking for a solution and you have the information, you've done the study and the work to understand what their need is. You can support them with that education, which is exactly what they're looking for. Nobody likes to be sold to, but everybody loves to be able to make informed decisions. sold to, but everybody loves to be able to make informed decisions. Yeah, the way I could, another analogy for this is, you know, Starbucks is a new phenomenon. You come from the Pacific Northwest, so Starbucks is your homegrown company. I mean, we pay $5 for a coffee and stand in line and waste 20 minutes to get that $5 coffee, where we could have that same copy for 50 cents, you know, at home or at another restaurant, right? But we don't feel guilty about it because the people who go through that is their choice and they're indulging in that. For them, it's pleasure, right? And every morning, and I know some people have a habit, like every morning they go and get that coffee and it's expensive and it takes time, but still they do it. like it's like a ritual so maybe it's maybe like this idea of spending money on looking good and feeling good this is a new

idea it didn't exist just like starbucks didn't exist in the 50s but this is what happens when i guess society you know grows you know they have more discretionary income and they want to spend money on things that maybe our parents didn't think were wise use of money you know for them maybe it's buying that house but the people today their values and what they look at so maybe it's just kind of understanding that the world is always changing and you know spending money on looking good is something that a lot of people kind of appreciate and value so you know your job is to realize that and, you know, and not feel guilty about the $5 Starbucks coffee, you know, because it's the eye of the customer, right? Yeah, yeah. I like that analogy and I don't like that analogy. But I like the analogy because I think you're right. It is discretionary spending. Where I don't like it is coffee is truly discretionary. This, I feel like, is somewhat more need-based for many people.

And I think that that's one of the challenges that physicians face as well is they guess. They guess a lot at the patient. They guess a lot as to why they need something. Maybe they need it to look better. But maybe they have acne scarring and remember those scars of being teased as a child. And as an adult, it's affecting their confidence being able to go out. Or maybe they're a newscaster on television or, you know, want to look their best because they're getting back into the dating market again and want to be confident. So there's any variety of reasons. Part of that is none of our business and part of that is all of our business, you know, understanding that. But we'll talk about it again, but the takeaway from this point, I would say is don't guess. Don't guess. And as we talk about the, go through the process of the consultation, if we really listen and understand the patient need, we won't need to guess.

listen and understand the patient need, we won't need to guess. So you're saying your advice to doctors is, I know one of the common mistakes you and I talked about is doctors assume a lot of things about the patient. Oh, he can't afford it or she can't afford it and et cetera, et cetera. And now those assumptions are driving the conversation as opposed to giving the patient the best options. And of course, other options in addition to the best option and then letting them decide. Talk about that a little bit. And how would you advise a doctor who makes this mistake all the time, let's say? He just doesn't share ideal treatment. share, you know, ideal treatment. He just shares what he thinks the patient can afford. Yeah. Again, mindset. If a patient's sick in medicine, we offer them the, we educate them on the very best treatment options available. If we have something that's not mainstream yet, or let's say not covered under insurance, and we thought it was a good option, even though it may be cost prohibitive, we would still say, look, we have this other drug, but it's on trial. And right now it's very expensive, but you know, maybe you can this or that. It doesn't really, you know, matter the situation, but anything medical, we always give the patient the best information we can, what's the best treatment we can give them. We don't think about money as much because we think of it,

you know, it's going to be insurance covered or covered under insurance. But that same educating style should carry through to all of your medical procedures, including cosmetic. So we offer the patient what we think is the very best treatment for them based on, again, understanding the patient need. Too many times we'll see, you know, a patient drive up in an older car. Who knows if they have a, you know, Sunday, you know, Ferrari in the garage that they take out on the weekends and during the week. 80% of aesthetic procedures are done by the middle, middle upper class. So it's a huge percentage. It's not the wealthiest people. Wealthy people tend to do a lot more prevention. They tend to come more regularly and do less dollar size procedures. So when you think about the majority of our dollars coming from the middle upper class to begin with, already we're not dealing with necessarily the most wealthy people.

And we're guessing at their wallet, guessing at their priorities and, uh, and other things as well. So, um, yeah. Absolutely. Let's jump in. Let's talk about kind of like a loose process of how you would do this consult. And again, the theme is educating, not selling. So that's the number one thing, right? You as the doctor has to see yourself as here to educate because you know a lot more than the patient does because of your experience, because of your training. And your role is to kind of share that with the patient. So let's start with validating the patient for coming to the office. And I think that's really, really important. Yeah, you know, the patient, so they just either got a referral from a friend or a family member. Perhaps they searched on the internet and found you. As we use Equa, you know, so we have great, great SEO. And we're found very often. So for us, that's a common way people get to us, but they have to educate themselves and do a certain amount of work and look at reviews and decide who they want to come in and do a consultation with. So they've already put in a good amount of work. They've already probably called the office, spoke with the front desk person, maybe got a little information over the telephone on a consultation, and now they want to schedule an appointment with, you know, Dr. Jones so she can explain to them all the great things that she's doing. So I think it's important when you first meet a patient to acknowledge

that by just very simply saying, we're happy you're here. We're happy you found us. So you're inviting the patient into your family. You're starting that relationship. You're telling them you're happy that they are in that, you know, in your building or in your place. And you're in essence congratulating them on having found a trustworthy and credible and terrific place. And that helps them validate their choice in you, not only right now before they're about to make a decision about procedures, but also it starts that moving on, you know, forever. Yeah, you're making an excellent point because people sometimes do have a little bit of a doubt, even after they make a decision. So something happened on the phone, and they were convinced enough to now show up. They're here, right? But you have to reassure them that they made the right choice. For example, let's say a wedding is coming up, and they're worried, oh, you know what, can this doctor do what I need done on time? So like understanding where they're coming from and understanding where that subconscious or that worry that's in the back of their mind is, and then kind of reassuring them.

Because if they're not reassured, they're going to be second guessing. They're going to be, you know, like not being a partner, so to speak, going forward to help them accomplish what they want to accomplish. But they'll be like, you know, pulling the tree out to see if the tree is growing every three minutes and that's not healthy for them, nor you. So do you see that a lot where people need to be reassured that they made the right choice? Yeah, I think there's a certain amount of shoppers that are very focused on price that we hopefully will take them away from that so that they can focus on just getting the best procedure done. And that may mean that they're not able to do everything they want to do all at once. But what they do choose to do, at least at your practice, you'll do very well for them and win the right to continue to help that patient for many years to come. But yeah, I think patients, when they walk in, they don't, they've heard about things, but they don't know exactly the procedure. They don't know the place. They're still worried about pain and downtime.