 Brenda was a highly successful financial advisor when she decided to avail herself of obvious new business opportunities. A new hospital was being built about 10 miles away. She observed there were many medical and dental offices within walking distance of her own office. She wondered, "Why not work with doctors?"
She put together baskets of baked goods and distributed them to to the physicians and dentists in her neighborhood with a note inviting doctors to meet with her. No responses. Then she delivered more goodies, asking the gatekeeper for two minutes of the doctors' time. Still no luck. She was about to give up when a colleague suggested she call me. Brenda said, "I don't understand. I'm doing exactly what I did when I first got started. Why isn't this working with doctors?" Brenda was making a classic rookie mistake. She was trying to be all things to all doctors. The doctors she approached--the orthodontist, the Lasix ophthalmologists running a cash practice and the orthopedic surgeons--each have very different financial concerns. COVID has impacted them in different ways. Further, delivering brownies is not a great way of saying, "I really understand the financial needs of doctors just like you." Through my decade of experience helping financial advisors accelerate their growth in the medical market, I can tell you that you set yourself up for success --or challenges--at the starting line. The most successful advisors do not try to be all things to all doctors; they become the go-to guy or gal among targeted groups of doctors who network with each other. Here's the single most important question you should be asking if you want to join the high performers in the medical market: "How do I strategically decide which doctors to target?" Join us Friday, October 30th, 2020 at Noon Eastern/ 11 AM Central/ 9 AM Pacific to explore the question, "With what doctors should I work?" You will take away:
This webinar is intended to help both advisors who are new to working with doctors as well as experienced advisors who want to enjoy the next level of success in the medical market. Click here to register. Everyone who registers will get access to the replays. You may reproduce this blog with the following by line: © 2020. Vicki Rackner MD is an author, speaker and consultant who offers a bridge between the world of medicine and the world of business. She helps businesses acquire physician clients, and she helps physicians run more successful practices. Contact her at (425) 451-3777.
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 This week end I saw a movie Clouds that sent tentacles into the core of my being. This is the story of Zach Sobiech. Zach was diagnosed with a rare childhood cancer called an osteosarcoma at age 14. After many rounds of surgical interventions and chemotherapy, the tumor kept coming back. When Zach was 17, he was told that cure was not an option. It was just a matter of months before the cancer would take his life.
The movie tells the story about how this amazing teenager embraces life in the face of death. He wrote a song Clouds to say goodbye; days after his death the song went to #1 on iTunes. Yes, this is a difficult time for both you and your clients. The best therapeutic offering you can bring may well be hope. Surround yourself with hopeful people and hopeful messages. Watch the movie Clouds to see how it’s done. You may reproduce this blog with the following by line: © 2020. Vicki Rackner MD is an author, speaker and consultant who offers a bridge between the world of medicine and the world of business. She helps businesses acquire physician clients, and she helps physicians run more successful practices. Contact her at (425) 451-3777.  The incoming president of the American College of Surgeons started his keynote address with the words, "I work for hugs."
These four words help explain why so many financial advisors have difficulty engaging doctor prospects. How receptive do you think this physician would be to your message about how you help doctors build wealth? In fact, his wife may manage the money in the family. We all want to be successful. You, as a business-minded person-- or a "Suit"-- ultimately use profitability as the metric by which you measure your professional success. Just imagine sitting at the conference table with your team at the end of the year saying, "2020 was a great year. Profits are up 22%" Physicians and dentists and healthcare professionals--or "White Coats" --use patient outcomes as the metric by which we measure professional success. If you were in the doctor's dining room, you would never hear a physician say, "What a great year! Profits are up 22%." In fact, this physician would come under scrutiny. Your job is to help your clients get more of what they want. Each person ascribes a different value to money and to wealth. These questions can help you tease it out:
If you want to engage more doctors, take time to gain clarity about what's most important to your prospects and clients. Changes are good that they want to make a greater impact. Help them understand how you can help them serve in bigger ways. You may reproduce this blog with the following by line: © 2020. Vicki Rackner MD is an author, speaker and consultant who offers a bridge between the world of medicine and the world of business. She helps businesses acquire physician clients, and she helps physicians run more successful practices. Contact her at (425) 451-3777.  Would you like to work with more doctor clients?
Through my decade of experience helping financial advisors accelerate their growth in the medical market, I can tell you that the most successful advisors do not try to be all things to all doctors; they focus. Successful advisors become the go-to guy or gal among targeted groups of doctors. Here's the single most important question you should be asking if you want to join the high performers in the medical market: "How do I strategically decide which doctors to target?" Join us Tuesday, October 6th, 2020 at Noon Eastern/ 11 AM Central/ 9 AM Pacific to explore the question, "With what doctors should I work?" You will take away:
This webinar is intended to help both advisors who are new to working with doctors as well as experienced advisors who want to enjoy the next level of success in the medical market. Click here to register. Everyone who registers will get access to the replays. You may reproduce this blog with the following by line: © 2020. Vicki Rackner MD is an author, speaker and consultant who offers a bridge between the world of medicine and the world of business. She helps businesses acquire physician clients, and she helps physicians run more successful practices. Contact her at (425) 451-3777.  I was speaking with a frustrated financial advisor who asked, “How can I possibly compete with the national firms who run TV and radio ads? i’m just a small boutique firm.”
I told him that I liked his thinking. It’s important to think about how to beat the competition. However, I disagree about the identity of his—and your— competition. Your competition is not the national brand; it's your prospect’s current wealth-building plan. Every doctor has a financial plan. It may be a well-considered written plan. However, it could also be, “l’ll think about it later.” Or, “I know I’ll be working until I’m 80.” One doctor told me, “One day I’ll buy that winning Lotto ticket.” Please don't be lulled into complacency. The status quo is a formidable foe. Think about the brand of toothpaste you use. Why would need to happen for you to change brands? Here are some insights and tips to help you overcome the momentum of habit:
 I got a call from a dear friend and colleague who retired a few years ago. While I follow her international travels through her Facebook posts, we haven’t seen each other in years. We reminisced about the projects and meals we shared, and then she said, “How about if we get together for lunch? I know a great place with outdoor seating.” We put a date and time on the calendar. I couldn't wait! However, as the day for this get-together grew nearer, I noticed my growing dis-ease. I had just heard from another colleague who told me that he, his wife and young child were all sick with COVID. He has some ideas about how he got infected. His perfectly healthy pastor visited his home on the way back from delivering his daughter to college. They were careful to maintain a 6-foot distance. A few days later the pastor was sick. He also shared an outdoor restaurant meal with a friend who was well at the time who went on to lose his sense of taste. Fortunately, everyone made an uneventful recovery. I flashed to my experience at the grocery store that day. I saw a woman pick up a peach, evaluate it and then put it back. I wondered how many times my hands came in contact with the COVID virus. My friend is a two-time cancer survivor who is at high risk for a bad outcome if she got infected. I called her and said, “As much as I want to see you, I’m unwilling to take the risk of exposing you to my COVID exposures.” We agreed to postpone our lunch plans until we knew it was safer. Unfortunately there is little data about the true risk of getting on an airplane or sharing a restaurant meal or sitting across the conference table from your client. However, you and your prospects and clients and family all have a perception of the risks of any given activity. In general the familiar feels safer. How do you decide whether to get knee-to-knee with prospects and clients to support your business growth? Here are some tips:
 I was speaking with a physician friend—let’s call her Jan— who was in a state of panic. How was she going to pay her mortgage? Was she going to lose her house?
Jan, like many of your clients, feels the many financial stressors that accompany the COVID pandemic. Her employer asked all physicians on staff to take a 15% pay cut. She decided to place her kids in expensive private school so they would be in a smaller classroom environment. Less money coming in and more money going out added up to a crisis in Jan’s head. Jan’s a close enough friend so that I know that she could pay off her mortgage today. It sounded like she was talking about imaginary monsters under the bed. How did she get so disconnected from her current financial reality? Jan is suffering from financial PTSD. She is responding to events in the past as if they were unfolding today. This is like a soldier coming back from Iran, hearing a truck backfire and suddenly being transported back to the desert battlefield. When Jan was 5 years old, her family lost their house in foreclosure. Her parents were embarrassed and depressed and withdrawn afterword. She quickly learned that no one was to speak about this. Her parents were not available to help Jan process the many feelings she had around this loss. So, Jan did her best with her 5-year-old emotional resources and problem-solving skills to deal with this traumatic event. In PTSD, the brain believes the past is the current reality. It’s like Groundhog Day without Bill Murray’s insight that he is living a redo. Jan’s anxiety about her house was not a response to her current circumstances; she was responding to an event from the past. Further, in the grips of financial PTSD she was not an adult managing the problem. Suddenly she's running the brain software of a 5-year-old. PTSD therapist Cathy Thorpe would say that Jan forgot that she now has car keys and credit cards. When you find a client in a state of panic, consider that they might be responding to an old childhood trauma. Gently ask the question, “How was money handled in your family? Did you ever go through a time when you family did not have enough?” Sometimes that simple exercise is enough to remind the brain that the past is over. It's like shining a flashlight under the bed. Then you are in a better position to make a financial plan that responds to today’s financial reality.  A funny thing happened in my small cul-de-sac. And as a student of success, it made me think.
As my dog and I headed out for our morning walk, my neighbor Jim was outside observing the demolition of his concrete driveway. When I asked Jim what was happening, he told me that he was making an investment to avoid a big home repair bill. His contractor told him that the newly-observed water in the basement was caused by the house settling, leaving a separation between the driveway and the garage. Jim was replacing the driveway and sidewalks to eliminate the cracks through which water entered the basement. A few days later, I admired the pristine uniformity of Jim’s freshly-poured concrete. I will admit to having driveway envy. I saw the cracks in my own driveway with a fresh set of eyes. The next week, loud construction noises interrupted the webinar I was delivering. (Sorry if you attended that webinar and heard the din.) My next-door neighbors had decided to upgrade their driveway. I wanted a fresh driveway, too! I walked over to my neighbors' house and asked for a quote to replace my sidewalk and driveway. The driveway guys said they would deliver the bid when they returned next week to replace a third neighbor’s driveway. That’s at least four new driveways poured in a cul-de-sac with 16 houses in the middle of a COVID pandemic. And the driveway guys did not ring a single doorbell, distribute a single brochure or approach a single neighbor. Here are some ideas to help you duplicate the driveway company’s client acquisition success. Make a plan to connect with prospects who NEED you. Jim got the name of the driveway guy from his contractor. To whom do doctors turn first as they think about managing their finances? Here are a few “power partners” with whom you can build relationships:
Make a plan to connect with prospects who WANT the outcome you deliver. Wants drive purchases. At least 75% of the driveway guys' new clients in my neighborhood wanted the look of a new driveway. What do your doctor prospects really want? Make the invisible value visible. The beauty of Jim’s new driveway created longing and inspired neighbors to get new driveways. If you help doctors legally and ethically lower their tax bills, give them two sheets of paper--one with the tax bill they would have paid and another with the tax bill they will pay after implementing the strategies you recommended. Circle the numbers in red. Write "tax savings of $53,400" in red. Now doctors have visible reminders of the value you delivered. Harness the power of people influencing people. Doctors influence doctors just like the neighbors in my cul-de-sac influence neighbors. Give your doctor clients the language to talk about you with their colleagues. Recruit doctor evangelists. They make a huge difference!  “I hate selling!” I said those words over and over as I made my transition from a practicing surgeon to an entrepreneur two decades ago. I loved what I did in my fledgling consulting business. As an introvert, though, I hated making cold calls, tooting my own horn and persuading prospects to give me money. My bank account reflected my aversion to activities that lead to client acquisition. I knew that if I wanted to run a profitable venture, I must reinvent marketing and selling in a way that worked for me. First, I changed my mindset. I decided that marketing was simply the act of engaging prospects in conversation, and selling was inspiring people to take action. Second, I launched marketing campaigns that worked for me. I decided to show prospects I could help them by actually helping them. I distributed ideas in the same way vendors pass out samples at the grocery store. My new mantra became, “Selling is serving.” And my bank account started to grow. The physical/social distancing associated with COVID 19 means that you are engaging prospects in a different way. We are reinventing the way in which we conduct conversations and build relationships. Would you like some ideas about how to do that? You’re inviting to my upcoming complimentary webinar “How to Grow Your Practice in a Time of Social Distancing” on Tuesday, August 25th at Noon Eastern/ 11 AM Central/ 9 AM Pacific. Introverts are welcome! Click here to learn more and to register.  If you're on my mailling list, you will notice a new look to the newsletter. Gone are the style elements that make the emails look pretty.
Why did I do it? I learned that plain text newsletters outperform newsletters with pictures and lots of links. How well do you keep up with best practices, and incorporate them into your marketing campaigns? I’m on an email list of a marketing guru. Every time I get an email from him, I get three. I just noticed that the subject lines are slightly different. He’s testing to see which subject line does best! I wonder if he’s on his own list and knows that he’s sending out three emails to each subscriber. When you launch marketing campaigns, everything counts. Test and tweak to make sure that you’re optimizing the performance. |
