So many lenses, so many practitioners;
How to make your practice stand out from the pack - Part 2

Dr. Gary Gerber

This article is the second in a series of practice management articles from one of the foremost practice management experts in the US and founder of “The Power Practice”, a leading practice management consultancy . Dr Gerber has presented in the UK several times now and has seen many similarities between US and UK practice.

In the last issue of Contacts In Practice we ended by talking about the way car marketers, the Hummer H-2 specifically, define the core benefits they want to sell to their customers. In their case, it was selling that the H-2 is the perfect car if you’re interested in survival and protection from disaster.

Well, if a 4 wheel drive company sells vehicles by touting survival and not talking about the size of its’ gas guzzling engine, should we as contact lens practitioners talk about the 175 Dk/t of a contact lens, or should we instead explore what that means to a patient and talk about that instead? Savvy practitioners will choose the latter.

So, what then exactly do we sell with contact lenses? I don’t believe that high oxygen transmissibility is what makes a patient say, “Yes, I want to wake up in the morning and stick two pieces of plastic in my eyes.” Instead, I believe that patients wear contact lenses for a more basic life changing benefit, namely freedom. And not just the obvious benefit of freedom from glasses as you’ll see below.

Consider the following patient. He’s a 14 year old male. Very intelligent and quite reserved, his proud mother talks about his prowess in science class. After hassling and hounding his mother for two years to have him fit with lenses, this -2.75 OU quiet and shy teen is in your office. After completing your examination, you determine he would be a perfect candidate for Focus DAILIES. While your assistant is struggling with him trying to apply the first pair of lenses, you are in another examination room or completing some paperwork in your private office. After the lenses are in place and a few minutes after the reflex tearing has subsided, you enter the examination room. Have you noticed what this shy fellow is not doing? If you remarked, “Well, he’s usually not sitting down” you’d be correct.

With the discovery of his new unencumbered vision, he has been released from his myopic spectacle cage and will be seen pacing around your examination room. With a smile on his previously stoic face he beams to his mother, “Mum, I can look out the window and see license plates . . .without my glasses on! This is so cool!”

Yes, it is cool! More importantly, on an emotional level, it’s absolutely liberating for the patient. This sense of freedom is the reason the parent and patient tell their friends, “He just loves his contact lenses and is doing so well with them!” They don’t get excited about lens to lid interactions or ½ of mm movement with the blink. However, a life changing event is certainly something worth bragging about to their friends and family who will ultimately become your new patients!

Of course, this continues when the mother returns for her follow-up visit next week and tells you, “I can’t believe what’s happened. Since he’s been wearing these lenses, he’s come out of his shell. He’s not as introverted. He’s speaking up more in class. It’s absolutely amazing how contact lenses have affected him!”

To use this concept to your practice building advantage, just like H-2 uses survival, tap into these sentiments when discussing contact lenses with your next patient.

“Mrs. Jones, you are going to love the freedom, self-confidence and assuredness you get when you wear contact lenses. They are going to change your outlook on life and I know it’s hard to believe, but you will find yourself smiling and enjoying routine day to day tasks like never before.”

Yes, it’s a powerful statement and claim, but as our young patient showed us, and you’ve seen a hundred times before with new wearers, it’s true!

 

Copyright Dr Gary Gerber, 2007

This article was written by Dr Gary Gerber and is reproduced with his permission. Views expressed in this advice may not be those of CIBA VISION (UK) Limited