Episode Details

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Hello, and welcome to Beauty and the Biz where we'll talk about the fastest path to more patients & profits. Additionally, we'll discuss the general business and marketing side of plastic surgery.

As always, I'm your host, Catherine Maley, author of "Your Aesthetic Practice – What your patients are saying." I'm also a consultant to plastic surgeons, to get them more patients and more profits.

Presenting today's episode titled, "Fastest Path to More Patients & Profits — with Catherine Maley, MBA."

Obviously, your lowest hanging fruit will always be those who know, like, and trust you already. Additionally, those who USED to know, like, and trust you—and now they're gone because you have been ignoring them, so your competitors nabbed them. Furthermore, those who have friends who could also know, like, and trust you.

The point is, your patient word-of-mouth referrals are everything in our industry. I don't know why practices don't focus more on that and only focus on PPC ads or directories and other expensive advertising. This is because your patients will bring you all the business you need if you set it up like that. Here's what I learned.

Whenever I'm consulting with a practice, I ask them to pull a report called Revenues by Referral Source. Typically, this is what happens: The majority of your referrals for your surgeries are coming from word of mouth, friends and family, patient referrals, staff referrals, physician referrals, and existing patients.

By the way, if that is not the case for you, just know you are working twice as hard when you have that "one and done" mentality.

So, I like to focus on word-of-mouth referrals because it's faster, cheaper, and more effective than other types of marketing.

Let's keep in mind how powerful and profitable a good cosmetic patient can be for you now and in the future. We cosmetic patients have endless needs. For example,

"Wrinkles" is the absolute number one keyword in our industry. Nobody wants them, and we'll pay a lot to get rid of them—and that's just the beginning. There's also sagging face and neck, blotchy skin, crepe skin, crooked nose, tired-looking eyes, chin fat, big ears, thin lips, small breasts, unwanted fat pockets, and it goes on and on for decades since the aging process is relentless.

Because a cosmetic patient who cares about their appearance today will care about it tomorrow and next year, as well as when social trends kick in, such as when they are getting married or suddenly single.

Moreover, have you noticed your patients starting so much younger nowadays?

I'm sure social media has a lot to do with that. However, whatever the reason, these patients end up having multiple cosmetic procedures throughout their lifetime.

So, knowing this, do you want a patient one time or for a lifetime? Obviously, for a lifetime. The most successful practices focus on this, so they have a steady stream of patients who come back again and again and bring their friends with them. This is because they have changed their focus from "one and done" to "patients for life" who return and refer.

The shortest distance between you and new patients is from your patient talking to her girlfriend, mom, sister, aunt, neighbor, gym buddy, or yoga friend about YOU. That person trusts that other person, so now they trust you. That transfer of credibility is golden. The referred patient is less price-sensitive, more open to your recommenda