MSD Insider 0:00

Welcome to MedShark Insider with Bill Fukui, your expert host on all things medical marketing and SEO.

Bill Fukui 0:08

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to another episode of MedShark Insider. And today, I’ve got with me one of the industry’s consultants, who really has a unique pathway to getting into this industry, as well as kind of what she delivers with clients. So I have with me today, Lisa McNevin, who is the owner and consultant for Accelerate Aesthetic Consulting. Welcome, Lisa.

Lisa McNevin 0:36

Thank you so much. I’m so grateful to be here. Thank you for having me.

Bill Fukui 0:40

Yeah. Well, you know, we just recently got connected we, we both have been in this busines, gee, I know we both been in in this business for longer than 20 years. Right. Yet, we, it’s only been fairly recent that we’ve, we’ve crossed paths got got to know each other. And that’s why I wanted to have you on the show. So if you could do me a favor and just kind of share with our audience, a little bit of your background so they can get to know you as well.

Lisa McNevin 1:07

Yeah, absolutely. So you know, as you mentioned, I’ve been in the industry for a number of years, and my path to get into consulting was a little bit different than, than many others. One of the things that differentiates me from my perspective is the fact that I’ve sort of have a 360 view of the industry. So I started out in laser sales. So I worked for a company where I was selling lasers. I sold Clear, Brilliant, Fraxel and Thermage. And then moved from there into training. So I trained on those different modalities and different devices. And then after several years with with that particular company, I moved over to Allergan so I was on the facial aesthetic side, selling Botox and fillers in a territory that generated about $12 million a year. So I had an opportunity to really see the growth of those particular products, the demand, and really understand the vendor relations, you know, between injectables and lasers. And after I left, Allergan moved into a position where I was in national, in national accounts for a dermatology device company. And during that time, when I shifted over to dermatology device, which was about five years ago, I found many of my previous emp- or not employees, but previous contacts with Allergan were calling me because they were leaving bigger practices to start their own aesthetic practice. And because we had built such a rapport and had built a rapport at the time, they were really interested in my input and feedback. And so it started out just as an opportunity. I love helping people, it’s sort of been a passion of mine, you know, whether it’s in the aesthetic industry, or just, you know, anyone that needs advice, I love to be able to be there to support and it sort of evolved into, one turned into two and two turned into three. And I found that, you know, helping people and loving it. And you know, sometimes it would be for trade, and sometimes it would be for free. And I recognized that there was an opportunity here. And so about a year and a half ago, I exclusively shifted to consulting in the aesthetic industry. And I think what really creates a unique perspective, when I’m working with my clients is I understand the vendor relations and I understand the importance of cultivating those relationships and the value that can bring not only to the practice, but to the patients because the promotions and offers that, that practices can have and have the support from the vendors can be very valuable in so many ways. So anyway, so that’s, that’s just that’s about me and how I got to where I am today.

Bill Fukui 3:56

Well, Lisa, I love your story on how you got into the consulting side. I hear or I know a lot of consultants who got into consultants simply because they they said oh, I want to start my own business, I want to do this and they did it with that as an end goal. I liked the fact that you stumbled into this and it wasn’t something that you had an agenda, that I’m gonna do this, and it just kind of naturally, you know, fell in your lap and and it was synergistic with your personality, helping, helping clients helping people in general. I think that’s such a an important aspect to have when you’re really trying to do consulting because it is such a relationship. This is not al I’ve got a system that I just plug into a practice. It is really this you know this engagement that you have with clients that I think take it to the next level and I love that about you guys.

Lisa McNevin 4:56

Yeah and I it’s, it is really you’re very right everyone is very different and unique. There’s, there’s always different strategies and different ways to view each practice based on where they are in the spectrum. So, you know, there’s, I work with everyone from startups all the way to established businesses that are just looking to increase profit and revenue. And, you know, maybe their SOPs or standard operating procedures aren’t in place, or maybe they’re just not really measuring the right things from a financial perspective. And it’s helping them sort of hone in on those things that create their individual roadmap to help them grow and succeed.

Bill Fukui 5:37

You know, you kind of mentioned the spectrum, you’ve got, you know, new practices, you’ve got more established practices that maybe are flat, or they’re seeing a decline and wanting to see an improvement. I mean, it’s across the spectrum. But I still find a lot of practices even across the board have never really worked with a consultant, they’ve gotten consulting, quote, advice from everybody, but they’ve never hired a consultant. So for those practices that are maybe considering it, you know, that before I spend a lot of money building my practice and stuff, maybe I should talk to a consultant before I, you know, go down this path and maybe waste a lot of money, etc. What would you say would be the, the, you know, some of the things that you do to get introduced to clients learn, you know, this, you know, understanding their their processes, what, what is your, your process of helping those practices?

Lisa McNevin 6:36

That’s a great question. So, so a lot of the clients that I am working with, a lot of people come to me word of mouth, I have quite a few that, you know, practices that I’ve worked with that have had good success, you know, a lot of it is referrals. But the first thing I do, and I always offer this to every new client potential client, is I offer a free consultation, and it’s usually 30 to 40 minutes or so. And prior to doing that, I have them do an assessment. And what that consists of is it consists of looking at what they’re measuring, and finance, marketing and operations, so I can get a really good idea of where they are and where the gaps might be. And and then I, I actually have them, tell me, you know, if they’re, if they’ve been established for a while, you know, what was it that motivated you to open your practice so I can kind of get a understanding of why they are doing what they’re doing what what was their vision? Has the vision that you had in mind? Has it come to fruition? And if it’s a new practice, what is your vision? Of course. And what are the three biggest challenges you have and share with me something that you’re doing that you think is working well? And then my final question, is really about looking at your practice a year from now, if you were working with me, and I was helping you, a year from now, what would you like to say about your practice that you can’t say now. And so by looking at that sort of collaborative approach, and that assessment, I can then I can assess everything that I’m seeing, understand the gaps, prioritize, where we would start, and then look to implement strategies to help pull it all together. And each, each practice is a little bit different. So you know, someone might be really savvy financially and have their goals set, measuring their goals weekly, monthly, and really have a grasp on that. And others believe it or not, you know, when I asked them, so have you, let’s take a look at your goals. Well, they don’t even have any goals. So it’s really dependent upon the person and where they’re at. So someone might be really financially savvy, but they need help with operations, and they don’t understand the marketing piece. So it really depends on [inaudible].

Bill Fukui 8:57

Yeah. So, you know, one of the things that I find and we kind of chatted about this earlier, was, you understand sales, right? You come from Allergan, you come from corporate, you understand the sales process. And, you know, sales for many years, when I first started getting into working with medical practices, doing advertising, TV, radio, print, that kind of stuff. It was taboo. The word sales was taboo. I think, you know, obviously, we’ve overcome that today. I think most medical practices, especially in this aethstetic you know, sector, they understand that this is a sales process, right. So, I think your background in, in, you know, really all levels of sales. What do you typically, you know, how do you find, you know, that sales process gaps, and I don’t even know if a lot of practice even really have a process. I mean, how do you determine that right? Right, they just kind of half the time they just fly by the seat of their pants.

Lisa McNevin 10:04

Well, you know, I think that the old concept of you build it and they’ll come, that’s, that’s really not the way it is, that it is anymore. So, you know, some of the things that I always look at first is, you know, do they know who their target audience is, because if you think about aesthetics, the target audience, typically as, are women between the ages of 25 and 65. However, based on your location, if you’re in a college town, or, you know, really, there’s a lot of variables, right, you have to really look at your target audience and maybe refine that a little bit, make sure that you’re targeting the people that you need to target. And then one of the first things I look at, and I know you and I have talked about this is, I look at their website, before I ever meet with them, you know, is their website, is it user friendly? Is it mobile responsive, you know, canopy optimized for SEO, PPC, all of those things, um what platform is built on. So I look at that, I look at call, the call to action, a lot of times people will say to me, Well, what’s a call to action? It’s, you know, this is where you’re asking your audience and the people that you’re targeting to reach out to you. Right? So kind of looking at that whole sales process. And I speak a lot about the importance of balancing paid and organic advertising. And, you know, most people understand that conceptually, but what are the things that might be a slow burn, and other things that they can do to get more immediate response so that they can start generating more leads. I think one of the things that I hear the most, is that I need more leads, I need more leads.

Bill Fukui 11:48

Hahaha! I need more, I need more!

Lisa McNevin 11:47

Yeah, I need more. And one of the things that that I really emphasize in the beginning, is, first of all, it depends on how long they’ve been in business, right? So sometimes they really do need me they need leads if they’re brand new. But there’s so many accounts I work with. And, you know, I first ask them, how many patients do you have in your database? And how, what percentage of those are retentive. So they’re coming back on a regular basis every few months to do something in your practice? And how many, what percent is dormant? So let’s take a look at some strategies that we can do right out of the gate that may not cost you a lot of money. And then we can really see what’s left? What’s you know, are? Are you converting the leads that you’re getting? What’s your process? Do you know your lead conversion ratio? Do you understand, you know, what it is that you’re looking for, and how to actually optimize the leads that are coming into your practice. And there’s a lot of strategies that sometimes it’s simply the practice itself, they’re getting the leads but they don’t have, the strategies is in place to convert those leads to consults or to services booked. And so it’s really taking a look at some of those things, and helping them refine what it is that they’re doing. You know, before I have them, work with someone like you. So kind of looking at those those things. Also, you know, what kind of content do they have? What, what kind of compelling content have they created? Do they offer incentives for referrals? You know, what kind of marketing campaigns do they have going? And I often hear this too, and I’m sure this is familiar to you, as well, Bill is, a lot of times we’ll hear well, I have four or five campaigns going on, concurrently. But I’m not really sure which one’s working, I just know, I’m getting this number of leads in. And until they’re able to really identify which of those campaigns are working most effectively. They might be throwing money out that’s not really generating leads, you know.

Bill Fukui 14:02

There’s no no question. It’s, it’s not a set it and forget it thing, and especially when you’re talking about doing multi channel marketing or multi platform, you know, you could be doing organic, you could be doing paid, you know, and even the paid, are we doing this because, you know, are we doing paid to fill in gaps where we’re not showing up organically, you know, or are we taking advantage like you said, you can get immediate exposure with you know, I typically see from this time of the year like, like early February, all the way through probably June. And sometimes as deep into July is there is a steady increase in search, you know, search volume. For all the cosmetic aesthetic services, whether it’s surgical, or non surgical. There’s a continued spike in interest and like a seasonality and even in markets where you don’t have to You know, I’m in Denver, we definitely have all four seasons in Denver. But there are markets like San Diego or Florida, where there is no quote, seasonal, you know, in terms of the weather, but there’s absolutely a seasonality when it comes to interest in in cosmetic and aesthetic services. And we need to take advantage of those things. And you know, that’s when, you fish when the fish are biting, right, you use your budget, right then and, and a lot of times, I always equate this spike in, in stuff is because, you know, I just filled, you know, got my W2, I’m filling out my tax stuff. And I know I’m gonna get some money, you know. And so mentally, we’re already thinking about where we’re going to spend it. Right. So now’s the time to get in front of them. Right. So you bump up your spend at certain times and not just run it throughout, right?

Lisa McNevin 15:54

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s so important too, one of the things that I have all of my accounts do is, is actually think about a marketing plan that spans the whole year. Right? And not that you can’t pivot and make changes from time to time, because you certainly can. But if you have slogans, and ideas of what you want to promote, based on seasonality, you know, because I always say, you know, beautiful bodies and skin are made in the winter, right? When everyone wants to do it. And you said, like, you know, you’ve got Florida, even Arizona, although right now it’s cold here. But you have those air times where you want to, you know, maybe do something that has a little more downtime, right now is the time to do that, that Q1 is the time to really do those things. And then you kind of shift depending on what services you offer. So sometimes, like the summer, you can do more fillers and toxins or, you know, feminine rejuvenation, if you offer that, you know, sometimes in the spring, we’ll do hair restoration. And then you can kind of circle back as it comes to holiday, you know, where you’re doing enhancements, and kind of shift the events that you do each quarter. But it really is based on, you know, what is the best time of year to be able to, you know, to do these things?

Bill Fukui 17:13

Yeah, and they can be special driven, they can be procedure or treatment driven. Because every one of them is going to have a different, you know, ebb and flow of consumer interest.

Lisa McNevin 17:26

Yes, for sure. The other thing, too, you know, and I know you and I’ve talked about this a little bit, but one of the things I always like to talk about is like intake strategies, and, you know, consulting or consultations, things of that nature. And one of the things I find that that really needs to be consistent, especially if you have a bigger staff, if you’re just a, you know, solo practitioner, have one other person, it’s a little bit easier. But when you have a full staff, it’s so important to make sure that there’s standard operating procedures on the intake forms, and customizing that and gathering all the relevant information that you need to understand what that patient is looking for and what the journey potentially will be. And one of the stories I like to share is that just in an intake form, this is just something so simple. I had one practice that I was working with, and she’s a physician, physician owned practice with two other injectors. And oftentimes a patient would come in, and she’d go in if they wanted filler, or toxin and she you know, hi, Lisa, it’s great to see you today. What are we going to do, we’re gonna do filler and toxin, and wouldn’t look at the intake form. And the intake form was there, but she really wasn’t looking at wow, this person has concerns about texture and pigment and is really concerned about some body contouring things that she’d like to do. And just that one simple trick that I you know, made apparent to her. She shared with her two other practitioners, just in a week and a half’s time, she increased her top line revenue by $10,000, just through looking at that intake form and saying, oh my gosh, I saw that, you know, texture and pigment was a concern. We have a micro needling promotion going on right now. And you know, would that be something you’d be interested in talking about? So just those little things can really make a difference when it comes to you know, conversations and having a protocol. So,

Bill Fukui 19:30

You touched on probably the one area that I would say for most marketers, is the biggest gap between this void between generating leads and seeing it you know, convert into revenue, right. It’s, it’s this intake and I would say intake a lot of practices always look at themselves and say, hey, if I can get somebody to walk in here, I’m gonna, we convert them. Right, that’s that’s what I hear all the time, but it is, and if it’s true. You know, sometimes it’s a little exaggerated, I think some, to some degree, but because they don’t close every patient, right? Nobody does. But the truth of the matter is, if they can get people in front of them, they have a much greater chance of turning that into patients, right? And except treatments, accepting treatment. But it’s that, how do we get them through the front door from the time they either fill out a form, or pick up the phone and call you when, and I will say, when it comes to marketing, whether it’s mobile, desktop, especially mobile, because we live in a mobile world, I would say, for most aesthetic practices, mobile makes up probably 60, in some cases, as much as 80% of the traffic that comes to their website is on a mobile device. And we know social media is all driven on on a smartphone. Right? So you’re probably looking at 80 to 90% of all the exposure you’re getting is on that little handheld device. It’s gotta be phone calls. And, you know, one of the things that we also found was that when I look at the traffic to existing, you know, clients, websites and stuff, almost without exception, you see a higher concentration of traffic coming during the week, during business hours, and usually heavier Monday through Wednesday, right? And if

Lisa McNevin 21:29

I would agree.

Bill Fukui 21:30

You know, and if that’s the case, those are prime times when people know that you’re open, if they’re on your website, they know that you’re open, you know, telephone calls, and live engagements, like text messaging with you, your staff, or you’re an intake person, is ultimately that’s immediate engagement is what should be happening. But even with that, what would you say would be the biggest tip or suggestion or problem that you see with practices when it comes to telephone intake?

Lisa McNevin 22:03

So that’s an excellent question. And, and it comes up a lot. Probably the biggest challenge is the swiftness in which those inquiries are answered. So whether it’s a phone call, whether it’s an online inquiry, whatever, whatever may happen, we really recommend within 15 minutes to respond. And part of that reasoning is because when someone’s you know, if you think about it, and I know all the women listening will understand what I’m talking about, unless you have someone, you know, that’s your go to Botox person that you wouldn’t divert. If you’re looking for some sort of a service, whether you’re interested in, you know, CoolSculpting, or toxins or filler, and you have that immediate, kind of passionate response, you’ve seen an ad or a friend has told you that they’ve just done something, you want to, you really want to immediately get a response about what it is that you’re inquiring about. And if you don’t, what happens? You pick up the phone, and you call the next person, right. So sometimes, you know, it’s that the swiftness of response. What we find is that, if you can, the industry average is about 25% conversion from the phone calls and inquiries that you get. And I always like my my clients to be at about 50%. But it’s that swiftness of response. Or you know, of course, if it comes in in the middle of the night while someone’s scrolling through their phone before they go to bed, that next morning when you get there, responding. If you don’t have the staff to do that, there’s a lot of different modalities that are available nowadays that can at least do an auto response and making sure that you implement something like that. So you are getting back to those potential patients really quickly. So that seems to be one of the biggest downfalls, I’d say the second. The second one is if you do have someone answering the phones, that isn’t savvy enough about what you offer, and doesn’t know the right questions to ask the patient. So if someone asks for a service, and you’re not sure what that service is, or if you offer it, one of the questions that I always train all of my staff members to, you know, when I do my staff trainings, is asking the question will you know, I’m not familiar with that particular device or procedure. share with me what it is that you’re looking to achieve? What is it that what kind of an outcome are you looking for? And so then that allows the person answering the phone to maybe direct them to something that they have that would fit that need, but oftentimes then I’ve heard a lot of recorded calls, where someone’s using, you know, a system where they can record the calls, and the person just says, you know what I really don’t know, or we don’t have that, hang up, right. So you’ve never, never really done their due diligence to understand what it is that the patient might be looking for, because they may have it right there in the practice, right. And so it’s educating and training the individuals that are answering the phones, about your practice, your procedure about the skill set that your staff has, you know, if you have a physician with 10 years of injecting experience, and facial balancing is one of their specialties, you know, credential that person, right. So, educating and training, that front desk staff, it’s, it’s so important to make sure that you’re hiring someone, even if they don’t have the skill set and understand all of those modalities, if they have the personality, and they have the desire and willingness, those are the people that you want to train because that’s that first interaction with the with the person.

Bill Fukui 26:01

You know, you point out probably, and I’m, you know, doing sales training, we used to, I used to fly out and secret shop, as a patient I used to, before we would start a TV ad campaign because that was a lot of money, doing a TV ad campaign. And the leads were really high volume back in those days, when we would run TV ads, the phone would ring off the hook. Right? And so what we needed was I needed to train people how to, you know, to dress and answer calls, because we would end up generating out of 100 calls we might actually get two of them booked for consultation, right? So obviously we got to do something, one of the things that we find in in any kind of sales, and this even happens in the practice level, when you really dissect it, it’s what you said at the very beginning is you have got to take control of the conversation and start asking questions, and not just selecting the questions that get fired at you. It’s not too different. You know, I would talk to a practice and say, okay, when have any of you sat in on a consultation with the doctor or with the provider? And they’re like, oh, yeah, we’ve all been been in there. I said, okay, who’s the one asking the questions? Is it the provider or is it the patient? It’s the provider, the provider asking questions like, so how long have you been thinking? What seems to be the problem? How long has it been a problem? How long have you, what have you done to address this problem? You know, what? So they’re asking really good, you know, peel back the onion types of questions, right?

Lisa McNevin 27:39

Absolutely.

Bill Fukui 27:40

That absolutely shouldn’t be any different than what you do on the phone. Because that’s how you establish authority trust, because, you know, like you said, get good questions to ask, right? It’s arming staff with really good questions, not necessarily the answers, right? We don’t have to have the answers. But we’ve got to be able to take control of the call, and switch it around, where we’re the authority, because we know more about what you need, than you will ever know.

Lisa McNevin 28:11

Absolutley.

Bill Fukui 28:11

So why aren’t we the ones asking the questions, right? So I love the fact that that’s the first thing you train people to do, because we are absolutely on the same page, is they have got to start asking better questions and start coming across as I mean, emulate what your provider does. I mean, most of the staff look up to their provider like, wow, she’s so knowledgeable or she’s so good. And patients love her. Well, that can happen on the phone too, right? That’s no different than what can happen on the phone. So kind of emulate, look at your providers. And I think they’re, that whole thing about experiencing what you have on the phone. And when they walk in, they have the same experience. That’s what we need to have happen. Right?

Lisa McNevin 29:01

We do. And I know, I completely agree with that. And another thing that I do when I start working with clients is I always like to find out what, what are the aspects that make you different from the competition, because, you know, as you know, asthetics is a highly competitive area, right? And there’s a Med Spa, almost on each corner, at least here in, in Scottsdale, other areas are different. But having sort of a market dominating position or a unique statement is really important. So I try to help them really, again, peel back the layers of the onion and is there something that really makes you unique and special, you know, maybe your physician owned, maybe, you know, like I mentioned you’ve got 10 years of injecting experience and facial balancing is your specialty and you have multiple patient testimonials that you can showcase. So it’s it’s being able to really find out what sets them apart, and then create that messaging all throughout your marketing and train your staff, you know, if, if there’s something really unique, make that part of the conversation when you’re talking to your patients. It’s like, you know, did you know that so and so, you know, she’s been practicing for 10 years, and dadadadada.

Bill Fukui 30:22

Yeah, I mean you really touch on some things that I think even, you know, from a web marketer, and this is what I would tell, tell practices are kind of like, what you’re saying is, what’s the differentiator or I visit their website, and it’s right there on the website, they promote the fact you know, they promote that, but they don’t do it when they’re on the phone. They don’t do it in their follow up, right. So I get off the phone with somebody, they’re interested in this stuff. I’ve got all these great things on my website. But in my follow up, I’ll send an email, hey, thanks for you know, the conversation, you know, blah, blah, blah. And that’s it. They don’t put links back to the things that you just talked about. Right?

Lisa McNevin 31:04

Right.

Bill Fukui 31:04

In your email, follow up, check out your website and see, what did you know if it like you said, those point of differentiations, if it’s the provider, then send a link to the provider page, right? If it’s reviews, and you got great reviews, especially if it’s about a particular procedure, or treatment, send a link back to all the reviews, like you have that on your website, and link back to those things in your correspondence with these patients. So it reminds them, oh, yeah, we did talk about that. And it gets your brand in front of them multiple times, because as you said Lisa, people will check other practices out, right, don’t assume that you’re the only one that got a phone call, and you’re the only one that’s following up, you need to differentiate yourself on the phone call. And even in your follow up materials, right. So

Lisa McNevin 31:57

100% , the follow up is so important. And, you know, especially if it’s an established, like, retention is such a big deal inaesthetics, it’s a big deal in any any business. But retention is especially important in aesthetics. And I always, you know, I’ll always suggest, if you have, you know, Mary Jones, that is your regular client that spends, you know, $5,000 plus a year in your practice, do a handwritten card, you know, on their birthday, or, you know, as a thank you from time to time, you know, for being a regular patient, and you know, that you really appreciate their business, something as simple as that. I mean, how often does someone get a handwritten note these days, so, just little things like that, that differentiate you from the competitors. So those are really, you know, really important.

Bill Fukui 32:52

You know, and especially those VIPs. I love the fact that you’re already thinking about, and you talk to practices about separating those people in your practice, these loyal patients that are not only spending money, but they’re the ones out there sending referrals and championing you guys, and you have that kind of relationship and having special offers to, you know, for them for my VIP, this is I don’t, you’re not going to find this on my website, you’re not going to find this on social media. But this is for you. Right, I just

Lisa McNevin 33:25

Absolutley.

Bill Fukui 33:25

It just makes you feel, you know, special. And they are, you know, I don’t want you to think think of them as oh, well. I’m trying to manipulate the relat- no! really They’re your friends. Don’t you give your friends your best deals?

Lisa McNevin 33:40

You do, and

Bill Fukui 33:42

At least I do! Or at least I try to. Yeah,

Lisa McNevin 33:46

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it’s interesting, too. I think another thing that comes up a lot is the fear of like some people are afraid to sell, right. And so, you know, even with the VIPs like I’ll say, okay, do a call out campaign to your top 15, you know, regular clients or patients that are coming in and spending the most money and sometimes they’re afraid Well, I don’t want to seem too salesy. But people feel special when you do that. And it’s really not about selling, it’s about educating, you’re educating them about a promotion that you that, you know, that they would be interested in based on their intake form. Because you know that this is something that they’ve been thinking about. They’re a retentive patient to your practice. They’re going to love the fact that you’re going to let them know maybe they’re not interested. But you know, what if they are, right?

Bill Fukui 34:38

Yeah. No, I think that’s, you know, that’s really important is to add that element that you, you have a rapport and a relationship with your clients. You know, and you know them, that you know them, right. If you’re not able to do that and everybody’s a number in your practice. then you should probably stop what you’re doing. Right? Your people need to have relationships with your patients because this business is recurring. This is ongoing. You want lifetime patients. Now one offs that come in and you’ll never see again, that’s plastic surgery in many cases, right? Yeah, that’s not med that’s spa business, right? This is-

Lisa McNevin 35:21

And just to your point, I completely agree. And I think to your point too, one of the things that I speak to quite a bit is I have had, you know, clients that have done Groupon, for example. And, you know, for the right thing, Groupon is fine. However, for medical esthetics, what’s happening is you’re getting the price shopper, and then that person comes in, and it’s kind of a one and done. And if you’re not giving them that special, quote unquote, deal, each time, they’re going to go to the next person. And so, you know, and I say the same thing about oftentimes, and, you know, I’m not gonna say never, but a lot of times, like maybe a resort will want to partner with a med spa. So they can send their, you know, their patrons over for, you know, on the weekend, they’re there. And that might be fine for a quick pop. But again, remember that patient is not going to become a retentive patient, because they don’t live anywhere near you. So you might get a surge of income. But that’s not going to be a continual source of income for you. And I think what practices really are looking for and they need are the patients that come in, memberships are great, I know, we haven’t talked about that, but I love a good membership, where people come in every single month, or, you know, the referral system where, you know, you’re, when they refer someone, maybe they get $100, off, you know, their next treatment, you know, different things like that, where you’re building trust, and you’re building rapport and consistency. And you’re when those patients are in front of you, you can then share all of the other things that you have, that you’re offering, in your practice too.

Bill Fukui 37:06

All of those things are, so, you know, you actually address everything from the external side, you know, your website, your social media, your calls to actions, you know, your SEO, you know, those types of things, as well, as, you know, inside the practice, what are you doing, and I will say, as a marketer, I would ask practices, how much of your busines is generated through marketing and advertising, and I know what they’re thinking, they’re wanting to hear big numbers, right, they’re gonna say, oh, I could probably get 70% of my patients through marketing, you know, we’re the, we’re the best marketing practice in the area, right. And when they do that, I’m like going, you’ve got a problem. I don’t care how much business you do, right? If 70% of your business is through external marketing, you either one and you have a bad product, and you’re not getting referrals and internally, repeat customers, or you’re just not you’re the best kept secret, you are not working this right internally. So one of the to either fix what you got, or start promoting more internal and because, you know, if you’re not making up at least 50%, I would say more like 60 to 70% of your business should be internal referrals, loyal patients, great reviews, you know that that’s a healthy business, that’s the kind of client I’m looking for. Right, I’m out there to save a client. They don’t have those things, I can’t, I can’t save it. Marketing can be like you said, you fill in a little bit of your surgical stuff. But you’re never gonna build a business off that. Right. It’s gonna be short term.

Lisa McNevin 38:56

Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree.

Bill Fukui 39:00

So Lisa, hey, this has been great. Is there any ending kind of, you know, tip or suggestion or just ending words you want to share with, with my audience that would be, that you would say, you know, if I have one thing to tell you, this would be, this would be it.

Lisa McNevin 39:18

I think if I had one thing to share, it would be you know, really take a look at those three areas that I mentioned, your finance, your marketing and your operations. And, you know, make sure that you’re you’ve got clear, measurable goals for your finance that operationally, that you’ve got standard operating procedures and you’re consistent looking, you know, with your with your operations, that you’ve got strong vendor relationships, if you don’t, you know, that’s a key area to work on. Operationally, also, knowing that looking at your costs, because cutting cost isn’t going to increase your revenue but it’s going to increase your profitability. So understanding that, and then with marketing, just making sure that you’ve got a blend of paid and organic, and understand, you know, I always share this little tidbit and it’s that 5 to 20, it costs 5 to 25 times more to get a new patient than it does to keep your existing patients and create more revenue from that existing patient. So I think those would be the things that I would kind of leave with, and and if there’s anyone that’s interested in a free consult, then I’m happy to, to do one for you.

Bill Fukui 40:40

So that was my next thing, how can, how can our audience if they want to touch with you do the consulting, or even just have questions, you know, just ask questions, what’s the best way that they can reach you?

Lisa McNevin 40:55

So there’s two ways, my website it’s www.accelerateaestheticconsulting.com. So just like it sounds, or you can email me at lisa@aaconsult.net

Bill Fukui 41:11

Super, super. I encourage practices that are just even interested in doing things or finding out about what they can do better. There’s no reason you guys shouldn’t, you know, reach out to practices or consulting firms, you know, like, Lisa, it’s a barrier, you know, I don’t know why. But it whether it’s a pride, or I don’t need a consultant or consultants, or I’m telling you, you, you are missing out on great opportunities by not doing this stuff. [Inaudible]. And Lisa, thank you again, for all your pearls. What I’d like to do is also maybe in the future, there are some things that you touched on that I’d like to maybe dig a little bit deeper in and maybe, you know, have a lot more actual, you know, what do you need to do, like things that you would be sharing with your clients, those trade secrets. I’d like you to be able to share some of those with our audience because I know they they can benefit from you.

Lisa McNevin 42:20

Yeah, I would, I would absolutely love it. I’d be honored.

Bill Fukui 42:22

Super. Well. Have a great day. Lisa, thank you for everybody for joining us and we’ll see you on the next episode.

Lisa McNevin 42:29

Yeah, thanks Bill.

MSD Insider 42:31

Thanks for joining us for the MedShark Insider with Bill Fukui join us next week for another dive into all things medical marketing. All episodes can be streamed at www.medsharkdigital.com/medshark-insider