How to Double Your Per-Appointment Revenue (Part 2)

Andrea (00:04):
Well, hi there. I am Andrea Watkins, and if you're listening to this while juggling three patient calls, checking in a couple patients, taking a payment, selling skincare, and trying to catch your doctor in between procedures, you might be working in an aesthetic practice.

Blake (00:18):
And I'm Blake Lucus, and this is PracticeLand. This is not your doctor's podcast.

Heather (00:25):
Well, welcome back to PracticeLand. I am Heather Hughes Hardy, registered nurse, retired patient care coordinator, and your sometimes host here on the podcast. In case you missed it, last week, Jenna Hennig, nurse injector and aesthetic sales specialist who has worked in almost every seat in the practice, took us through step one of how to 2X your revenue in two easy steps. And today she's rejoining us to break down step two, using payment planning to get patient service today while paying over time. Jenna, thank you so much for joining us again for part two.

Jenna (00:55):
Yeah, I'm so excited to be back.

Heather (00:57):
Yay. Well, last week we kind of started the conversation by acknowledging that providers and allied staff alike struggle to consistently execute two simple tactics that can easily help them 2X their per appointment revenue. And we left off with the following question, and that's when you think about your role working in a medical practice, what really is the ethical right choice when it comes to acknowledging finances in the treatment planning process? Should you refrain from recommending what you feel would work best to meet the patient's needs out of concern for their finances or completely remove that from your mindset and treat it as a purely prescriptive conversation and lay finances totally to the patient, or is it somewhere in the middle?

Jenna (01:40):
Yeah, this is where that second tactic really offers an easy and repeatable framework to remove all of the back and forth contemplation.

Heather (01:47):
So then walk us through it. When it comes to offering payment plans, there are a lot of ways to go about it and typically more than one option to choose from. So if someone wanted to get good at having this be a part of their process, what would be step one?

Jenna (02:01):
Yeah. So the number one step is understanding the offerings at your practice. A lot of us have a lot of different options, but sometimes that can be information overload for the patient. So really have to make sure that you understand things at a high level and things like, do you have in- house financing or do you have third party partners? If you do have those, you want to know who they are, what they offer. Third parties will typically offer things like medical credit cards that act as like an open line of credit. And then you also have companies like PatientFi who I love to use that offer more structured credit with an installment-based financing. So I won't go too much into the thick of things, but I would highly recommend connecting with your reps so that way you're able to really have those conversations and that way you feel like you have a clear understanding of what your practice actually offers so then you can relay it to your patients.

Heather (02:48):
I 1000% identify with this. It is really overwhelming when you're first starting out. You have tools in your tool belt, but then you're like, "Hmm, is this a wrench or is this a screwdriver? I don't know. How do I actually use this tool?" And getting to know what it is that you have and how it actually can help people is so important. But I think a lot of people get stuck here and they kind of just stop. They're like, "Whoop." So what would be step two? And I imagine you've learned it. How do you then go employ it? Is it just bringing it up?

Jenna (03:27):
Exactly. Just bring it up.

Heather (03:28):
Then maybe let's run through some scenarios because I feel like that's going to be what's most helpful here for this. And so let's start it from the top and maybe a patient's calling and they're inquiring about something that they know is going to have a high cost associated. Maybe they're like, "Hey, I want a full mommy makeover." And they're calling and they're inquiring about price. How would you handle that on the phone to best serve the patient and bring up this piece of the pie?

Jenna (04:02):
I mean, I would say first and foremost, the number one thing is when someone calls your office and asks for the price, don't immediately give price. You're going to lose any opportunity to discuss any of these options with them. So first, get a little bit of information, discover that emotional driver. But once you do make it to the appropriate time to discuss what the total investment would be, at that point, the way that I typically like to handle it is if a patient's calling in, like you said, for example, for mommy makeover, you've already figured out why they want to do it, why it's important to them. You've already asked all your pre-qualifying questions. In that, in my initial intake of them, basically, I'm usually asking them, "What's your ideal timeline? And is there an ideal monthly budget that you're hoping to put towards this?

(04:42):
" And then when we're able to have that conversation, they ask, "Okay, well, all that sounds great, but I need to know if I can even afford this. What does it look like as far as what I'm going to be paying?" And so the biggest thing when you present, I like to use a technique called anchoring. So when you present your pricing, you're first building the value saying, "Okay, so our mommy makeover includes X, Y, Z, X, Y, Z, X, Y, Z, blah, blah, blah, blah." And the total investment for that procedure with all those inclusions is going to be $1 million or whatever one million divided by 12 is per month for 12 months, and that's anchoring basically. So you give them a initial larger number and they're like, "Holy crap." And if it is a big sticker shock for them, which it won't be for everybody, but if it is, they're like, "Okay, wow, big number." And then you follow it with that smaller investment number.

(05:30):
So whether you're choosing a 12-month interest-free financing plan or if you know what your rates are for 24 or 36 with fixed rates, you can offer them based on what they told you their monthly budget allowance was, you offer that lower anchor number to them so that way it makes more sense like, "Oh, well, yeah, I mean, 36,000 sounds like a lot, but I could do $500 a month. Tell me more about that. " And it makes it very easy to offer two options that they can then inquire about which one fits best for them and you already know what their monthly budget was and you fit it in there.

Heather (06:00):
It's interesting, I've never heard someone bring it up like that of when someone's asking the price, you ask them what their monthly budget is. And so I'm curious, how do patients often respond? Because if you were to ask me, if I was calling and I wanted to get a breast augmentation and someone asked me what my monthly budget was for that, it might stump me. And so how might you explain that if someone was like, "What do you mean my monthly budget? I just want to know the cost."

Jenna (06:28):
Yeah. So usually you're bringing this up a little bit later in the conversation because that way you've already built a little bit of rapport. I have had a few instances where I get a lot of pushback and I'm like ... So I do think time is important because I had a few patients where I would bring it up and like, well, I would ask them what the monthly budget was and they're like, "Well, I mean, it depends how much is it overall." And I'm like, "Oh, well, I just want to make sure we're able to present you with all the appropriate options." So we have a total investment amount, but is there another amount monthly that you're comfortable spending so we can present you with the best overall plan? And they're like, "Well, it depends on how much it costs." And I have gotten a lot of pushback on that.

(07:05):
So I think phrasing it in a way where it's in your investigative questioning initially of how long have you been looking into this? What other options have you looked into? Do you have an overall ideal investment that you're looking to spend? And then do you have ... That's usually when I ask the question then, do you have a monthly number that would feel comfortable if we were able to pace out payments for you? And then that way it's not at the point that they're asking for the total cost. It's in your investigative questioning that you're getting that monthly number. And then that way when it comes to presenting the cost, then you can say, "Okay, perfect. I know we discussed X, Y, Z, so the range of what you're looking for will be X to X. I know you mentioned that you'd be comfortable with a monthly spend of blah, blah, blah.

(07:51):
And so with our fixed interest rates at a blah, blah, blah, we would be able to get you in at this amount, which fits perfectly within your budget." Either way, whatever you decide with your provider when you meet with them in office, they're going to create a custom plan to address X, Y, Z concern, mirroring it all back, mirroring it back to the emotional driver, not just focusing on the financial aspect.

Heather (08:11):
Yeah. I like that a lot because I think just like you're saying, regardless when you're sitting at the front, you know what the total cost is going to be and if you have a tool that has calculated all of your as low as prices, it's really nice, like you're saying to say it could be $10,000 or as low as $500 a month, depending on how you choose to tackle this investment. So I really like that. Now, I imagine it's probably a little bit different from the front desk when they're first just kind of giving some of that information versus when you're the person that's in the room that now you've actually really gone deep, you're the clinician, you're the one that's prescribing a full treatment plan. What is your stance there as far as if you're the provider, is it your responsibility to talk finances or is that something that you prefer your allied staff to do?

Jenna (09:08):
For me, I don't like to leave the money in somebody else's hands. For the sole purpose of, I feel like the more that you filter it through, the less chance you have to make adjustments if needed. And I care about if I'm going to get that patient to their end result. It's not that I want them to book, I want your money. That's not it at all. What I want is if we're talking about a plan and this does not fit an overall investment for you, whether that's monthly or total, I don't want you to go talk to somebody else and have them be like, "Oh yeah, well, let's talk about other options." And then they're like, "It doesn't work for me by." What I want is price is literally never, ever, ever, ever an obstacle or barrier. You can always make adjustments.

(09:52):
And so just reprioritizing that conversation of if we're discussing option one and then I give them that anchoring option, total investment or a monthly investment of X and like, "Oh, I don't know. It just doesn't really make sense for me. " First, I'll tie it back into the emotional driver. Well, I know that you mentioned that you've been struggling with this for three years, that you feel like each year it's getting worse and you've avoided taking family photos because of X, Y, Z. This plan is built around supporting each one of those concerns and making you feel really confident in those photos so you can finally get this family portraits you've been planning. If that still isn't resonating with them, then we can reevaluate. Okay, let's just take a step back. Let's look at our plan. What about our plan? Do you feel like most support's getting you to your goal?

(10:35):
And let's rank it in priority order. And then they're ranking what's most important to them. You can also ask them if they want more immediate results or more overall long lasting results that will also help you rank. And then I can tie it back to, okay, this is not something we have to do all in one. This is our total treatment plan. We don't have to do it all tomorrow. Let's pace this out. Let's look at our different options so we can get you a monthly number that feels really comfortable. It's not threatening any sort of financial stability for you, something that fits well in your lifestyle because all of this we can adjust to where it does just that. And then that way they're not leaving the room feeling like I don't care and I'm pushing them off to somebody else. Not that anybody doesn't care, but I want to be able to have those conversations instead of calling them two weeks later, three weeks later and adjusting the plan.

(11:19):
I want them to know that I really care about the results and that we can adjust this however we need to and that I'm with them every step of the process. Nothing is wrong with having someone else discuss the finances, but for me personally, I find that I have a better experience with my patients than them with me when I do handle it directly.

Heather (11:35):
No, I really like the way that you've explained it too. And hopefully if there are happen to be providers listening to this, that it feels really empowering that anybody can discuss finances if they so desire because I agree with you, there's nothing wrong with having Allied staff help you with these pieces of it. But if you're a provider and you want to discuss it and you feel like that's within your scope and it's part of your treatment planning, that you absolutely can do it and there is a way to go about it. I'm curious though, as a busy provider, I'd imagine a good chunk of your patients are talking with someone, at least for your high value service appointments before they're coming in with you. And how might a seasoned sales consultant partner really well with you when it comes to discussing finances ahead of time and then communicating that to you before you see the patient so that you have an idea when you're creating that treatment plan where they're kind of sitting at?

Jenna (12:36):
I think that's a really important piece of information not to get too hung up on, but it is really important in your initial planning for the appointment. So if you have a sales consultant who has done a really good job at asking their introductory questions, they know exactly the timeline that the patient wants to treat, how much they want to spend, what they've already saved, this is also a really cool technique I'll talk about. But if they have all this information, then in communicating that to you, you're able to really make the patient feel like you already know them before you walk in the door because a lot of times they feel like they already know you. They've watched you on social media, they've done a lot of research, they already are excited and they feel like they know you. So when you have that background information, they also feel seen as well.

(13:18):
Walking into the room, say my patient has planned that they have their daughter's wedding coming up, they really want to focus on some skin tightening. They want to just look a little bit more youthful and refreshed. They saved about $3,000 and that's what they're planning on spending for their appointment. The last thing you want to do is get a patient focused on the number instead of the goal, right? So first off, it's building that treatment plan with them, focusing on what's really bringing you in here, what bothers you the most. Let's create the plan, build the vision. This is what we're working towards. I'm going to really mirror your concerns and show you exactly the goal that we're going for that you stated in your own words. Here's how we get there. Then you create your planning process and you tell them, I know you mentioned your daughter's wedding is next year, so we have about 12 months.

(14:05):
There's a lot of things we can do in 12 months. We've ranked our priorities by this, whatever. For our total package investment, if we were to do everything we have on the list, what we're looking at is a total investment of blah or a monthly investment of blah. And then if they're like, "Oh, I don't know. I saved up 3,000, so I really would just, that's what I had saved up. And so that's when I'm comfortable spending and say their package is 5,000." Absolutely. I totally understand. We've ranked these different items here, and so if there's a couple different options we can do here, with your top three items, this is the result you're going to get X, Y, Z. You won't notice change in these concerns X, Y, Z. Is that something that you would be feeling comfortable with? Sure. Or maybe not. I don't know.

(14:51):
Who knows? Okay, maybe not. So if you really want to see change in these other areas too, there is another option. What we could do, you've saved $3,000. That's wonderful. I'm so, so happy to hear that you've already spent so much time investing and saving in your overall goal That just speaks volumes about you. I know how important this wedding is to you. We could put that $3,000 down and then if there's a monthly sum of X that feels more comfortable, a low payment of $50 a month to get you to that final 5,000 and we can split that over X amount of years. That ensures that we get you to your final goal. You feel super confident you're not hiding away from those pictures. That area on your job that really bothers you is going to be really nice and lifted, and that's how we get you to your goal.

(15:34):
If these areas would really make a big difference for you, we can still really value that overall savings that you put into it, have a really comfortable monthly payment and get you there. Or option B is we can prioritize the areas that feel the most important to you and tackle the other ones later on. It's not something we have to do in this first year. I just want to make sure that we're getting you to the point that you want to be in an area that feels comfortable for you by your daughter's wedding and that way you're presenting both options, still honoring their initial investment or comfortable total while offering some different options that you can do.

Heather (16:10):
It's really nice to hear you talk it through because there's a clear differentiation when you're talking about money, but from the viewpoint of really caring for your patients versus sometimes you go to these conferences and you hear these sales trainings and they're very aggressive and a little bit abrasive. And I'm going in as someone hoping to learn something and I'm hearing people say things that I would just absolutely never say to a patient because it's just mean. Someone says, "Well, I don't know if my husband would be approve of that. " Well, do you ask your husband for approval? That's literally something I've heard a sales trainer say that you should say to a patient and I just never would. So I love hearing really tactical ways that you can have these conversations that are still patient centered and caring about the people that are sitting in your chair.

(17:11):
And it's truly not just about the numbers because the numbers are important, but what's most important to all of us that got into healthcare, it's the people and feeling like you're really helping someone. So it's really nice to hear you say this and for it to resonate and be like, "That could actually work." You know what I'm saying?

Jenna (17:28):
Yeah. And the goal is a relationship. This isn't a single transaction. And so people need to feel cared for, not dismissed. And when you take the time to discuss with these items with them, that's the result you get. And who knows? Maybe they're like, "Oh, it's just too much." And they leave and they come back next week or maybe you do phase it out and your one-year plan becomes a three-year plan. The goal is to get them to their goal. And so anytime that you push or pressure somebody into something, if you're too abrasive with it, usually you end up with cancellations or unhappy patients because they weren't really committed in the first place. Any objection means that they're just unsure. Figure that part out first, figure out where that unsureness is first. It's never about money. I should say it's really, really, rarely about money. So figure out where the true hesitation lies and go from there.

Heather (18:17):
Well, I know I said it's not all about the numbers, but this episode is about 2 Xing your revenue. So I'm curious, if we were to tie a bow on it and you were to give us some insight here, tell us a little bit about what you started noticing when you started implementing these. So A, how it felt when you were first putting focus on this, and then B, give us just a little bit of a taste. And you can round numbers. You don't have to do anything super in depth, but what does it really look like for you and how long did it take for you to hit something or are you still growing with your per appointment revenue, things like that? What has it looked like since you put focus on this?

Jenna (19:00):
Yeah, for sure. So when I first started practicing exercising the sales muscle of mine and being more intentional about the tactics I was using and trying to really adopt this new method, it felt very awkward. And I would walk in there and getting the flow was difficult at first, but the more that you practice, and I actually use my best friend chat often to practice scenarios of examples.

Heather (19:26):
ChatGPT?

Jenna (19:27):
And the more you practice ... Yeah, chat or chat. Yeah. It becomes a lot easier. So practicing with a friend, practicing with your AI best friend is really, really helpful, but knowing that you're going to go through that initial discomfort is normal. And then, gosh, I'd have to ... I haven't run my numbers this month yet. Overall, I have increased my revenue by over two times is what it was. Not only that, I've increased specifically my med spa appointments, because when I first started, we were in this big wave of the weight loss medications, and that was a really big surge of patients.

(20:06):
So I was doing well, but I wasn't seeing a ton of med spa patients. My med spa growth has significantly increased by about 200%.

Heather (20:15):
Of just appointments?

Jenna (20:17):
I wouldn't say appointments. My appointments are not necessarily more. My revenue is.

Heather (20:22):
Okay.

Jenna (20:22):
So yes, my appointments have grown over time, but over the past year or so, they kind of stabilized. I'm seeing about ... It's actually interesting. I'm working a little bit less hours. I've been able to be a little more flexible on my hours and my revenue has significantly increased because my revenue per hour, per patient, per appointment, has significantly increased because those Botoxes that walked in that I used to be like, "Here for Botox, 30 units like last time. Okay. All right, see you later by." Have now turned into, "Tell me how you're feeling. Have you noticed anything different? What are you using for skincare?" Five extra minutes that then they leave. "Okay, so we've already talked about your plan. We're going to go ahead and get you booked for your next skin tightening treatment on X date, then X, X, X, and then we built out their treatment plan.

(21:01):
"So my volume, I don't have to see as much or work as many hours, but I'm seeing more revenue overall and I can choose to scale back a little bit on hours and still see my revenue increase.

Heather (21:14):
That's incredible. And honestly, I hope anybody listening to this feels really motivated to know that what a nice work-life balance that you've started to build just by being more intentional. And honestly, this sparks for me, and you're going to kill me because I keep doing this, but we're going to have to have you back to talk about retention and true treatment planning because I feel like that's just the easy next step that everybody's probably curious about. You're having these more intentional conversations. How many new patients are you really seeing? What do your books look like now that you've become more intentional? So I hope that you'll join us again to kind of dive deep into that, but I won't question you here just now. To tie this all together, is there anything, one tactical thing or one key takeaway that you hope someone has gotten from this conversation or a mindset shift, anything?

(22:04):
What would you hope that someone gets from listening to this conversation?

Jenna (22:08):
I would say don't be afraid to push back a little bit when it comes to questioning, whether that's a price objection or anything else, and don't be afraid to talk about money. The biggest way you can disservice your patient is being afraid to offend them by talking about one of the most important things to them, which is their investment. So practice it, know your options, and please, I mean, discuss it with your patients or make sure you have a well-trained staff member who can, so that way they feel cared for and they don't feel like just another number.

Heather (22:40):
I love it. Well, until next time, until we drag you back on, where can we find you if we want to connect and see more of you?

Jenna (22:48):
Yeah, you can find me on Instagram and TikTok @AustinBeautyboss or on LinkedIn at Jenna Hennig. Amazing. Thank you so much, Jenna. We've loved having this conversation today.

Heather (22:57):
Of course, thanks so much for having me.

Blake (23:01):
Got a wild customer service story or a sticky patient situation? Send us a message or voicemail. If your tale makes it into our "She did what?" segment, we'll send a thank you gift you'll actually love. Promise, no cheap swag here.

Andrea (23:13):
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