The ugly word that most practices refuse to even think about.
Hi everyone, Angus Pryor here, multi-award-winning practice growth specialist. Recently, my team and I have been surveying our clients, looking for ways to improve our services. As a marketing agency, we want to ensure our efforts are delivering and that our clients are achieving the results they need. One of the things we’ve noticed, which isn’t new but has become more significant in today’s competitive environment, is the apparent gap between marketing efforts that generate leads and actual patient bookings. And that word, which many of us shy away from, is sales. As my friend Jesse Green says, “If it sounds like a duck, looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.” In healthcare, we have marketing to generate interest, and then we have sales to convert that interest into action. I’m not talking about being pushy; rather, it’s about having a structured process. It’s often said that marketing gets people to the door, and sales bring them through it.
Our data and years of experience with various practices make one thing clear—many practices struggle with sales. I understand the sentiment; it’s easy to think, “I didn’t get into healthcare to be selling things.” However, the reality is, without some level of sales, you risk going out of business. In today’s increasingly competitive landscape, getting each part of the business process right is essential. Earlier this year, a guest on my podcast remarked that healthcare practices are often paid well for mediocrity. That might sound harsh, but from a business standpoint, it rings true. Historically, you didn’t have to be skilled at the business aspects, but now it’s crucial to excel in both marketing and sales, especially as much of it happens over the phone. If your team isn’t trained to track how many potential patients reach out, or measure conversion rates, handle price shoppers, cancellations, and Preferred Provider queries, it can undermine your business’s success. So, the word we may hate to admit we need? It’s sales. While we don’t want to be “salesy,” we do need to sell. See you next time.