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"Je me souviens" is a phrase coined by the French speaking Quebecois in Canada commemorating a massacre by the English in the 18th Century. "I remember" has been a rallying cry of the French speaking Canadians to fight the English and their influence to this day. You doubt me? Just look at any automobile license from the Province of Quebec, and whether the driver is French or English speaking, "Je me souviens" will greet you.
Have you guessed what this phrase has to do with our industry? How often have you heard a patient say, "Don't try to sell me anti-reflective coating or a Progressive lens. I can't wear them. I REMEMBER that they did not work for me 20 years ago (or even that they did not work for Uncle Joe), so I won't consider them now."
Now how much does your practice profit from the initial sale of either of these products: $100, $200, $300? When you listen to your patient and don't even try to educate them about these products, you are losing $200 to $500 in profits from each of these customers. Are you doing the best you can for your practice and for your patients when you make this choice?
Even Opticians and Optical Doctors REMEMBER. After all the Continuing Education we are exposed to in this industry, after learning that the mega-stores are selling higher percentages of AR or PALs than the independents are, even after learning that in the European Union Opticians and Optometrists are dispensing AR to 80-90% of their patients and the Japanese are selling a higher percentage, many dispensers feel they "know better" and refuse to dispense these products. There are dispensers who will not promote PALs, "especially to my older patients," and will only dispense bifocal or trifocals. Some Optical Doctors will even write prescriptions with a note "Do not dispense AR or Progressives to this patient." Some dispensers will not educate their patients, "especially the older ones," on the advantages of AR. "It's more trouble than it is worth," they say.
As a salesman I have often heard Dispensers, both Opticians and Optical Doctors, observe, "I can't make money in this business. Do you have a way of bringing in more customers? If I had 20-50% more customers, then I would really be making a good living."
If I earned $10 for every optical practice I have visited over the past 25 years who has made this observation, I would be a rich man. You do the math. I visit 3-10 practices a day for the two hundred business days each year. That is an average of only $350,000 in earnings. Now if you, the dispenser, could make an additional $200-$500 per Rx . . . That would be, on average, $350 X 600 (3 patients/5 day business weeks in a year). That's $210,000 each year X 25 years = $5,250,000. Is presenting AR and PALs to patients really "more trouble than it is worth"?
I have met many former Opticians and Optometrists who have left private practice for the mega-stores for the "bennies," or to become an Optical salesperson, because they could not find the "magic" that would bring more paying customers into their store at the location they were in. The magic is in your hands and in your brain: you do not need to look beyond your mirror to become more successful in this profession. You do not even need to become a "salesman," pushing unneeded technology on your patients in order to increase your profits.
When you give yourself the time to educate your patient base on why new technology IS new technology. When you give yourself the time to educate your patient base about how this new technology can better preserve and enhance their visual experience. And finally, when you give yourself the time to truly give them the opportunity to choose what they want for themselves, then you truly will not be so pressed for time "to see the next patient" or increase your patient flow by 20% to 50%.
I find that the successful practices I visit are finding ways to present these new technologies to their patients. They are educating their patient base sufficiently so that a large percentage of patients are welcoming the opportunity to look better and see better by using these new technologies. The mega-stores are successful and claiming an ever larger percentage of the optical business and are spending mega-bucks to do the pre-selling of AR and PAL's that all of us in the optical industry can benefit from.
And for me the clincher is that none of these above mentioned practices are whining about how to bring in more customers so that they can make a profit. They are too busy going to the bank and too busy educating their patient base that supports their bank trips.
In future articles I will discuss selling PALs, AR, and other new technologies to your patients? Want to learn a method of presenting new technologies to the skeptical, and succeeding in those patients choosing them? And finally: If you present, and they choose, are you really "selling"? |
