Tea Nguyen, DPM (00:53.998)

You're getting impressions on your ads, but no patients. Here's why. If you own a service-based business, you're not selling products primarily. This is more of a relationship that you're building, which is a lot of us here, doctors, proceduralists, surgeons. That means that your revenue lives and dies with one thing, the right patient showing up. And before you spend money on ads, here's what you should know.

The backstory for me, when I opened my practice in 2018, was that I thought I could just outsource the marketing. So I paid an agency lots and lots of money every month to create my creatives, the Google ads that show up when somebody types in foot doctor in Santa Cruz, for example, and all of these other doctors or businesses or corporations would show up. What I didn't know back then as well as I know now,

Everything before the ads need to be optimized, meaning you have to be very clear about who you want to attract and speak their language. You want to be sure that you have service packages that will pay itself. So if you have one service package that can pay for your ad for me, that's worth it. But if you're putting money into ads and it takes a lot of patience to make up for that, then I kind of questioned that a little bit. What I mean is when I paid the agency, let's say I spent $500 a month on ads and then $2,000 for them to manage the ads to optimize the performance and so on. 

That means that if I'm spending $2,500 that month, if I get one patient, at least I would break even. So I have a service that I promote at $2,500. And if I sell one, then it's a win. I didn't lose anything. I got more exposure. Right. And of course, the goal is always to make a positive number, not a negative one.

So in order for that to happen, you have to streamline, the things before you start paying for those ads. And what does that look like? Well, first, let me step back a little bit and help you clarify your message. Your messaging is about what you do and who you do it for. It's the way you show up on social media, online, even your blog articles. And if you're writing emails, there's a way that we convey information that will attract certain types of people. And if you're the kind of doctor

Tea Nguyen, DPM (03:16.43)

who right now you're saying, everyone is my patient and I provide all the services under the moon and the stars. This is actually costing you because when you speak broadly, you end up speaking to no one. Nobody hears it. It sounds too generic and people are really distracted. So if your message is not clear, it's not hitting on their pain point. It doesn't feel like it's resonating with them. It dissipates. So you're literally shouting into the void.

and then that message disappears. It doesn't cling as well. So you want to define who your best patient is, and we're not talking about their income. We're talking about their buying behaviors and what pains they're dealing with. And then you tell them what the outcome is. So we talk about the solution-based messaging, where you're talking about if you've got foot pain, if foot pain is in your arena, and the solution is, not having foot pain, where you can go back to living your day-to-day life without pain. 

That's what we're talking about. We're not talking about the tech specs, meaning all of the things you get in this package. That's a second layer level of messaging. Initially, you want to target what's bothering them, AKA foot pain, and you want to teach them or help them see life without foot pain. So you're painting a picture. You're a storyteller now.

And in order for them to get there, then they would purchase the package. Then we talk about the tech specs. So there's a process involved in getting really clear on who you're talking to and the end result that they want. And then you talk about how you help them in that. So first the hook is about the specificity of who you're talking to, the specificity of the services that gets them to the end point. And then eventually,

What does your package entail? But you don't lead with the package. You don't lead with the tech specs. So the next thing to know is marketing is a numbers game. And doctors tend to get this wrong because we were never taught this. It's not your fault. What I mean by this is this is not a vending machine. You don't just put $2,500 in your marketing ads and the people who run it for you and expect $5,000 in return.

Tea Nguyen, DPM (05:38.956)

You don't even get $2,500 in return, especially when you're in the beginning stages of your practice and you're building these systems. When you're employed, they were already set up. You showed up to work, your schedule was full, somebody else was doing this for you. But when you pivot into a direct care practice where you now need to run your marketing strategy, you also have to realize that you're setting up systems for longevity. So you get to talk to exactly who you want to talk to.

provide the services that you wanna do, and this takes a little bit of strategy. So understanding that everything that we do is really a numbers game is going to help you untether yourself or not personalize rejection. When somebody doesn't want to accept your offer, you're not bothered by it because you know that it's a numbers game. You know that you have to get more exposure. You know that you have to do a little bit more work to get more people to know you, to like you, to trust you, and then to do business with you. 

So if you want to increase the chances of your success, you got to get more exposure. A lot of doctors end up marketing before they understand this pipeline, meaning they put in $2,500. They want to get a lot more money back, right? That's not really how it works in the beginning. Once you set up the systems, you'll get there. Understanding the language that your marketer uses, they're going to tell you that they got a lot of eyes on your ad, that the impressions were up.

that they got a lot of exposure, they were bidding your money in a certain way. And keep in mind, solo practice owners like mine and other direct care doctors, we have a smaller budget. So we are competing for other entities, corporations who put a lot of money into ads where they get a lot of exposure, they get a lot of impressions, and they end up getting a lot more businesses because it's a bidding war showing your ads based on how much money you're willing to put in. That doesn't mean you have to spend the most money. It just means you have to be strategic about your marketing efforts and not solely relying on Google Ads because that's very expensive. The best return on investment for direct care practices are always word of mouth. Putting money in your ads is adding fuel to the fire that has already started. So realizing this,

Tea Nguyen, DPM (08:00.684)

When your ad agency tells you we got a lot of impressions, but you on the other side in your clinic, you're not seeing the right patients show up, you have to figure out what's the missing link. And a lot of people might erroneously blame the agency and say, well, you're not giving me quality leads. So let's figure out what's wrong in this pipeline. What I didn't know back then was that I was having the exact conversation with my marketing agency. I was like, I'm struggling to make money.

I'm spending all this money on ads, but I'm not seeing the right patient and they're not buying or they didn't come prepared to buy. So they weren't pre-qualified. And I think the agency had a hard time articulating to me what the real problem was. What they see and what they know is on their side. They know what their job is, is to get your ads in front of a lot of eyes, but they don't always understand the problem on the clinic side.

If the breakdown is when those impressions make the call, what's happening on the caller side, the receptionist side, your side, your business side, right? They don't know if you have service packages that make sense to put money into ads for. So if you're selling a hundred dollar visits, I personally don't think that's really worth putting money into ads for because you need a lot of those visits in order to cover your ad expenses. That's just a personal opinion. I don't have data to support it other than my own experience. So I teach doctors how to create packages where putting money into ads actually makes sense. So there's a pipeline. If there's a lot of people who know about you, those impressions are up, they make the phone call into your practice. Do you have a way in educating that caller on whether or not you are a good fit for them or not? And that comes in a way of a script. So just like prescription medications, there's a protocol for how to do things, how to get better.

There are protocols in your practice that you gotta follow in order for things to work right or to work correctly. So I'm gonna tell you exactly the five step phone script that will help you improve the conversions of those impressions, those people who are calling your office into a viable qualified lead. And this was the thing that I didn't have when I started putting money into my ad agency and then I felt like nothing was working, I was struggling to pay bills.

Tea Nguyen, DPM (10:27.734)

and then go into panic mode and it felt like it was out of my control. But in reality, this is all in my control. So let me tell you the stuff that nobody really taught us, but you're going to know it now and you'll be more prepared once more people get more eyes on your ads. All right. So here's the structure, the five step phone script that helps you get those phone calls to turn into qualified patients. 

Step one: Very simple. You're going to think this is not rocket science because it's not. It's just a script. Get their name and their number. The first thing you do is you greet them. Hi, mister or missus so and so. Can I get your phone number in case the line drops? And what you're doing immediately is you're creating a relationship. You're not just answering the phone. Hi, how can I help you? What do you need? What do you want? I get this so often when I call other offices for my own medical appointments.

I'm so unimpressed with the way they answer their phone. It sounds like they hate their job and it's probably because they do. So you got to train yourself or your staff how to answer the phone call like they're excited to be there, like they're looking forward to helping the next patient. And it does start with getting their name, addressing their name, using their name often in the phone call, and then grabbing their number and or email. If you've set up a newsletter campaign to communicate with them, what you're doing here is you're capturing them.

and making sure that if the phone call does drop, you can contact them back or you're continuing the conversation outside of that phone call through an email, through a newsletter, et cetera. So if you have their permission to do so, capture that first. Step two, simple question here. What made you call today? So you're starting to open the conversation. It's a human conversation. It's what is it that made you call today?

And can we actually help? So that's the thought that I have in my mind when I answer my phone calls or my staff is trained to do that. And it makes it very simple. You're just having a casual conversation. It doesn't need to feel scripted. That's the last thing you want people to feel. It's like you're a robot. You're reading a script. You don't really want that. You just want to know what made you call today. Super simple, right? You can do this. Let's keep going on. Step three, you want to start pre-qualifying them for your practice.

Tea Nguyen, DPM (12:48.526)

So a good pre-qualifying question is what have you already tried? So I talk a lot about the ideal patient for my practice who are usually those who have tried other things already. And I understand their frustration. They've tried their insurance options. They've tried Google. They've tried YouTube. They've tried X, Y, and Z. So I want to know, my pre-qualification is have you already tried the easy stuff? Have you already tried your insurance option, for example?

I'm not the best practice if I'm your first touch point because I am asking you to pay out of pocket. Unless you don't have insurance or you're savvy and you know you want to pay out of pocket because your deductible is super high or your insurance coverage you already know it doesn't cover anything, that's my pre-qualification question. Have you already tried other things? So that puts in my mind, okay, we're on the same page. Let's keep the conversation going.

Four is introducing to them how the practice works, my solution. So here's an example. If they came in for foot pain and I've already pre-qualified them, they've already tried steroid injections, they've already tried their insurance doctor, but they can't be seen for another six months. And now I'm agreeing with them. I'm letting them know, yes, I understand those things may not always work. So here is how I do things differently and why I don't work with insurance. So I've educated them.

and I've given them an answer to a question they're asking, do you take my insurance? So I tell them briefly, this is not an essay, this is not a prolonged conversation, it's telling them exactly what they need to hear. They want to know how to get better. My solution for that is X, Y, and Z. This is how I get over 90 % patient success, and that is also why we don't work with insurance in order for you to get that care.

You've got them on the phone, you're having a human conversation, you're telling them what you do, why it works for most of your patients, and then you continue on with the last conversation. They're asking, you take my insurance? Step number five, here's how payment works. You'll come in for your initial consultation. The cost for the consultation is $275, and together, we'll come up with a plan that works for you. I'm able to fit you in this week.

Tea Nguyen, DPM (15:13.57)

because I don't bill insurance. So you can have some variation of that conversation, but ultimately you're being very concise. You're giving them the benefit and the value all in one breath. I'm able to see you within this week to guide you to your next step, right? I'm not telling them I've got this $2,500 package that comes with 12 visits, that comes with all of these things, bells and whistles, right? I'm not inundating them with a bunch of stuff that they're not ready to hear.

but I am pre-qualifying them and preparing them on how this actually works. So you wanna make sure that you create this conversation script and you let people know that you exist. Here's the reality. People may hang up on you when you tell them you don't bill insurance and that's actually okay. That means you gotta get in their reps to refine this conversation, this script that you've got and just do more of them.

The more practice you have, the faster you'll be at identifying and pre-qualifying the right patient, the faster you'll be able to understand if they're fit for you or not. And oftentimes people say, let me call you back. They find their other options. go through their other options and they do come back. It's like a boomerang. So we're not trying to claw our nails into their skin and force them into our practice. They are coming in with their free will, understanding their limitations, understanding the other options was just not good enough, and then they finally come into your practice and they say, I should have just came here in the first place. And then you just simply agree. Once you nail down the phone script, what comes next? If you've nailed down the phone script, you've got people's attention, they're converting, they're at least scheduling an appointment and they show up.

There could be other leaks in the pipeline as well because the conversation doesn't end when they end up in your exam room. It doesn't guarantee that they're going to buy your package or your services. So here's what you want to keep an eye out for. You want to walk through certain checkpoints. The first one I just shared with you is the pre-qualification that comes from your ads. Your ads gets them to call your office. Your office has this phone script to have the conversation. And then you start

Tea Nguyen, DPM (17:34.638)

planning for the intake experience. How does the patient experience care in your office from the phone call till they walk in? Is it seamless? Do you have digital forms? Is it paperwork? Whatever that looks like for you, you want to make it easier for them. And then they end up in the exam room. And from that point, you're having the conversation in real time. You're listening empathetically. You're understanding their point of view. You know their frustration. 

You tell them what your plans are, what you recommend, and what it costs, and at that moment, you ask for the payment. But it doesn't stop there. At the point at which you ask for the payment, many may say no, or not right now. Don't make that a personal thing. What you're doing from there is educating. You're providing them with your education, it's your duty to do so, they've got options, and the secret is in the follow-up.

Once they leave your office, even if they didn't buy, you can ask them. I understand you need time to think about this. We've addressed some of the reasons that come up. It's the cost, it's the time, it's the uncertainty, will it work for you and so on. My staff is instructed to call them the next day to follow up with any loose ends or questions I didn't answer or things that need clarification, just so that we can close the loop. And that's really important. If you don't do the follow up, you're leaving money on the table.

You're leaving a patient to their own device who don't really know what you know. And at the end of all that, they won't get better. And that's the cost of inaction. What's really important in understanding is that being indifferent or leaving them in silence or avoiding these hard conversations, being neutral, bypasses your duty to inform. Let me say that again.

If you think being silent or avoiding the sales conversation is a neutral activity, you're actually providing a disservice because you're not giving them all of the information they need to make a decision. Our jobs as physicians is to inform patients of the risk and the benefits, is to share with them what we know in a way that they can understand it, is to connect with them on a human level to have empathy and to guide them to a decision

Tea Nguyen, DPM (19:58.818)

that gets them to heal, to get them to a better place. They came to you for a reason. And all of these require processes and it's a skill that you can learn. So I want you to think about marketing as an investment. It's not a vending machine. You don't just put $5 in and you get $5 back, right? It's a stock market. You gotta put it in, do the work, let it sit there, let time do its thing, have your script, have a sequence of events that needs to happen, a protocol for it to take off like a stock market, it will give you a return on investment. 

If you're early in your practice or you're pre-contemplating, I know how overwhelming this can sound, but it's actually very easy once you go through it. Right now it just sounds very intellectual. It sounds like a lot of work to do, but it's really not because once you get in the groove of things, it just starts to work because you're doing the practice. You're having the conversations that no one has ever taught us to have, and you do it messy.

Now, if you had a good marketing agency, they would tell you exactly where the leak is. You've got the impression, you've got some phone calls, and they're not buying. Well, that's a skill set on your side. But if there isn't a good number of impressions, then that becomes a marketing agency problem. They need to figure out where their leak is. So it's two-sided and it needs to be bridged by a relationship, I believe, between the doctor who's paying the agency and the agency who wants to assure that they're also doing a good job. This was the stuff that we were never taught. We just simply were told to get a job and see the patients on your schedule, right? But life is a little bit different when you own your practice, especially when you have a direct care practice where there are systems we need to now create. So if you're somebody who wants to build this direct care practice your way, see your favorite patients every day and do the stuff you actually love and have a work-life balance,

I want to invite you to join me in the Launch Lab. This is where I guide you in the next eight weeks to open your direct care practice, setting this foundation, having this script, making sure your marketing is lean and you're not wasting money on it, and ensuring the financial sustainability of your practice so that you can finally practice medicine your way. I will put the links down in the show notes. Just follow the assessment, schedule the call, and I will talk with you next week.

Tea Nguyen, DPM (22:21.634)

Thanks so much for being here, take care.