Welcome, everyone, to the webinar, Close More Sales Using Your Front Office Staff. We're so glad that you could be here today to learn more about utilizing your front office staff to help close more sales. Our moderators for today are me, Ed Anas, Senior Marketing Specialist, and Fran Vincent, Marketing and Membership Manager. Our expert presenter today is Russell Armstrong. Russell has an extensive background in sales and sales management, and he entered the hearing health care industry six years ago, where he built, opened, and operated multiple hearing health care practices in Illinois and Northern California. Russell now lives in Michigan, where he owns and operates his own practice. We're very excited to have Russell as our presenter today, but before we get started, we have just a few housekeeping items. Please note that we're recording today's presentation so that we may offer it on demand through the IHS website in the future. This webinar is available for one continuing education credit through the International Hearing Society. We've uploaded the CE quiz to the handout section of the webinar dashboard, and you may download it at any time. You can also find out more about receiving continuing education credit at our website, IHSinfo.org. Click on the webinar banner on the homepage or choose webinars from the navigation menu. You'll find the CE quiz along with information on how to submit your quiz to IHS for credit. If you'd like a copy of the slideshow from today's presentation, you can download it from the handout section of the webinar dashboard, or you can access it from the webinar page on the IHS website. Feel free to download the slides now. Tomorrow, you will receive an email with a link to a survey on this webinar. It is brief, and your feedback will help us create valuable content for you moving forward. Today we'll be covering the following topics. What you have to offer that the others don't. PCCs and front office staff are extensions of you. The intake form is more than just paperwork, and then we'll get into patient trust. At the end, we'll move on to a Q&A session. You can send us a question for Russell at any time by entering your question in the question box on the webinar dashboard, usually located to the right or the top of your webinar screen. We'll take as many questions in the time we have available. Now I'm going to turn it over to Russell, who will guide you through today's presentation. Take it away, Russell. Thank you, Ted. I appreciate your introduction, and I appreciate everybody that's listening today and giving us the opportunity to talk more about your front office and using it to close more sales. First I want to tell a little more about me. I've been in the sales industry a long time, basically since I was about 16 on. I've sold everything from cars, computers, electronics, insurance, but I job hopped a lot because I never found something that satisfied me, and then I actually had a friend that told me I wanted to actually do something that mattered. He had an idea for me, and he connected me with the hearing aid world, and I've been connected to it ever since, and I've loved it. A lot of what I brought to the industry was a lot of sales knowledge from kind of that hard-close style of sales, and what I learned quickly is that that doesn't work. I came to the industry thinking that I had it all figured out, and I figured out real quick that I didn't. Part of that came from a psychology background. I have a bachelor's in psychology, and I was thinking about pursuing further education with psychology. During that time, I worked as a research assistant in a psychiatric institute, analyzing counseling methods and analyzing different forms of therapy. As I started to work in hearing aids, I learned that they're not that far separated because selling hearing aids is not like any other sales I've ever done. I took my time and tried to learn from the best, and part of what I'm presenting to you today is what I learned working with many people in the industry and building a technique that worked really well, and it worked really well because it was something that set me apart, and that was a big key to me because I needed to find out what made me unique because people who've been in the industry long enough know there's competition around every corner, whether it's a big box store, whether it's online shopping. I know some people don't think that's a big issue. In other areas, it seems to be a big issue, and when you're competing with online shopping, you're competing solely with price. I would even say convenience because it's very inconvenient if they ever need any changes done. As well, you have independent dispensers down the street. A lot of manufacturers are getting their own dispensaries set up and they're backing dispensaries, and to go with all that, you still have ENTs. A lot of ENTs sell hearing aids. In Michigan, that's a major issue I run into because there's a lot of ENT offices that have their own audiologists. As a matter of fact, almost all of them. It's hard to connect to them for that reason, which just means there's more competition in more different areas. So I found to be successful, I had to find something that could separate me and my office from every other person that's around the corner from me. We all use lifestyle charts, solution charts, call it what you will, and they're all selling tools that we use. But it doesn't separate us because whether you use this chart or your own chart you made or whatever system you use, it doesn't separate us. They all say the same thing to people and they're really there to help show them what hearing aid is best for them. And we all use the audiogram. And the big secret I'm going to tell you is the audiogram never sold a hearing aid. I don't believe it. I guess I know I've not been in this industry for 50 years, but I haven't seen it yet in the six plus years that I've been selling hearing aids. I've never seen the audiogram actually sell a hearing aid. All the audiogram for me has ever done is show them they have a loss or not, and then it's up to me to explain why they would want that hearing aid, why they need the hearing aid, and why they need to improve their life. But the audiogram itself, if you can't walk somebody into your office, sit them down, give them a test, and say, see, here's your loss, which hearing aid are you going to buy? I haven't had that work for me yet. If you have, I congratulate you because I'd like to know your secret. So for me, I had to start to find out what was unique. What did I have that nobody else had? And the answer was three things. I had me. I have my personality. I have everything about me is unique. I have my PCC. My patient care coordinator is unique from yours. It's unique from down the street. Even within a big chain company, all the PCCs add a different flavor and a different style to that office. And of course, your office. My office doesn't look like anybody else's office. It is unique. It is something that stands out and that I've learned can become a big tool in helping me move people through that process to better their hearing. And I think I did mention you, because in the end, that is still the one thing you'll always have. No matter what company you work for, whether you own your own business or in business for yourself or somebody else, you have you, and I don't want you to ever forget that. So what is it about you that's unique? What actually sets you apart? We all have the same answer. We care. When somebody comes to my office, I like to think the reason I'm unique is because I care. We like to think it's because our patient care coordinator also cares. That they're in there, they care about their job, and they care about that person they brought in that office, because they want to help them hear better. And your office, it's a statement of you. When I said you're unique, your office is an extension of you, and I think your office needs to become an extension of you if you aren't using it that way. But what are we really selling? You're not selling hearing aids. You're providing a valuable service to better someone's life. So here comes secret number two. The fact that you care is not unique, because as I sit here now, I can think of a couple people just around me, and I know they care. And I know they treat their patients and clients with the utmost respect, and I know they want to help them hear better. There's a big ENT service down the street, and I would be lying if I said they didn't care. So what separates you from somebody selling a commodity is that you care. So what do you do when you have people around you who also care? You have to find that unique. So now we know what doesn't make you unique, how do we utilize what does? Since most people are selling better hearing, you can create an experience that nobody else can, using your entire office. So what makes you unique is the combination of yourself, your PCC, and your front office together, because nobody else will be able to match all three of you together. So the first thing you need to do is learn to use what you have. A combination of your front office and yourself can change the experience of what people have when they come in your office. People will buy hearing aids from you because of the way they feel in your office, compared to competitors. And I like to emphasize that word feel, because I look at the entire process of hearing aids as being a very emotional journey. And that's where I told you I had to relearn sales for hearing aids, because I had to learn it's not about the silver tongue close, it was about creating this emotional journey that you can bring people along with you. When I first started, my first three months in the industry were a very rough ride. I wasn't doing well, I wasn't helping people here, I couldn't figure out why I was failing. And I came to the realization that there was something missing, that these really slick closes were bringing me a lot of returns. Was it the product, was it me, was it how I presented, was it how I fit them? I had worked with a lot of audiologists and really, I think, understood fitting, really understood product, but for some reason, things weren't working out the way I expected to work out. So I had to find a way to turn my office around, and so with the help of some very high professionals that understood sales and they understood people, I came to formulate this plan, and part of it was their plan, of using my front office as an extension of my back office. I had been so concerned about what I was doing when they sat in the chair of my office, in my consultation room or in the hearing room, that I forgot that there was about a 20-30 minute window that I was wasting for that. The first thing somebody sees when they walk in your office is what? And I can't answer that. Everybody's office looks a little different. If you have a TV, maybe that's the first thing they see. What is being shown on that TV? I am not here to tell you that there's some secret show that you can display. I've seen I Love Lucy put on the TVs, I've seen Andy Griffith's show, I've done nature shows, I've done informational pieces about hearing aids. Currently, I like to show a loop of different hearing aid missions, simply because I want people to see who I am the moment they walk in, and who I am is somebody who wants to help people. And I want them to see on that TV, this is what I believe in is helping people. What is on your walls? Posters, a product, art pieces, like I said, that's up to you and what you're trying to say about yourself. On my walls, I have a poster up for a foundation I work with. Another one, I have a poster about Alzheimer's, dementia, and hearing loss. I try and put informational pieces up. I try to get out of the idea of commodities, so I personally don't display pictures of hearing aids or new product, because nobody knows what brand I use, nobody cares. What they care is, if I care. And what I put on my walls, I want to reflect that I'm trying to help them. The real question you're going to ask yourself is, does it feel like a place that you would be comfortable sitting and waiting in? We've all sat in doctor's office, we've all sat in some really nice doctor's office that were really impressed, maybe they have a fish tank, and we've all sat in the doctor's office, there's white walls, beige carpet, and you feel like you're just going to go crazy sitting in there too long. When I first set up my offices, the first thing I like to do is I like to go sit in my office for a couple hours. And I mean, when I say my office, I mean my lobby. I sit in the lobby, and I just sit. I look at everything on the walls. I look at magazines or whatever I put out. I watch the TV a little bit. What I'm trying to feel is, do I know who I am from sitting in that office? Can I sit in there and feel comfortable, or am I just waiting to get out of there? Many people come to your office nervous. This is your first chance to calm them down and give them a sense that they're in a good place. Bring a friend to sit down, a spouse, a child, whatever you want, and let them sit in the office as though they were waiting there for an appointment. How do they feel? Are they anxious? Do they feel calm? Do they feel relaxed? Do they feel like they're gaining something from sitting there? Because you have a goal in your physical office. And the question I'm going to ask is, what do you hope to accomplish while they're waiting? Are you trying to entertain them? Are you trying to distract them? I have a different opinion. That's that you should be preparing them for the appointment. They need to be calm, because when they're going to this appointment, many people are a little anxious. They don't come to you because they're excited to come get their hearing checked. They come to you because they're anxious because they know there's going to be a lot of money possibly spent, and nobody wants to hear that something's not working the way it should. Nobody wants to go to the doctor and hear they're sick. It's the same thing with you. So here's your chance to start preparing them for that appointment that's coming up. The first way I do this in my office is I have a book. The book I put in my front office has some articles and information. Basically I put all the articles I can find in the back of the book, and in the front I have some informational pages that summarize them. Not everybody looks at this book, but a number of patients will sit at the table that it's at when they sit down, and they'll start flipping through, and the first page they're going to see is about dementia and hearing loss, and it's a short synopsis of the article from John Hopkins Hearing that they've released over the years, because I want to start preparing them for what we're going to talk about. It doesn't mean I'm going to talk about dementia and hearing loss, but I am going to talk about the consequences of not doing something about your hearing loss. Well, I saved myself five minutes of conversation, because they've read that book, they've looked at it, and now they already have a sense of what's coming. I want my patients to be engaged the moment they walk in. The book itself has never sold a hearing aid, but it's given me talking points, and it's helped my PCC have something to talk about. I had a patient come in a few months ago. The spouse was a nurse, started looking through the book. First page they saw was that page, and you could hear their audible gasp in the office, and they started talking to their spouse about, you know, I've noticed that your memory's not what it should be. I wasn't trying to scare her into anything, but it started a dialogue that carried into the sale, because now when I went to do that dialogue, they were prepared to talk about hearing loss and dementia, and how it affects the brain, which really gave me a good segue into why he needs to fix his hearing now, and not keep putting it off. My PCC reports back to me if they've looked through it, and their reactions to it. And that's the most important part of my office. The book is important, what I put on the TV is important, but nothing is more important than your patient care coordinator. So what are they doing for your office, if they're that important? Because I'm going to break it to you, answering the phone is not the important job of your patient care coordinator. Your PCC is probably great at answering the phone, and you have a great script for them to follow, so that they bring people in. But what good is answering that phone? They could take a hundred calls a month, if you don't sell any hearing aids to the people they bring in for you. And that's where I'm going to argue that that phone call is not the most important. If you have a script they're using, the chances are they're following it, and it's bringing people in. They don't have to put a terrible amount of thought and energy into it. My patient care coordinator is very good. I don't even feel I have to really work with her, much because she's very good at bringing people in, at a very high rate. So that's not where my focus is. The focus with my patient care coordinator is that the most important person they're going to talk to is going to be standing right in front of them. It's an old retail adage that the most important person is right in front of you. So if there's somebody in front of you, phone's ringing, and you have a job for your boss, your manager, you need to get done right now, what do you do first? And the answer is you deal with the person in front of you. So why do we treat our patients differently? When the patient comes in, why do we let our PCC spend so much time on the phone, doing insurance paperwork, instead of engaging that person that came to the office, if they're really that important to us? So what is your coordinator doing when somebody's in the office? The most important information that you're going to gather from that patient is going to come when they're in the lobby, or the waiting room, whatever you want to call it. Because when a new patient comes in the office, the first interaction they have is going to change that appointment. So what is your coordinator doing? Are they doing the work, or are they engaging the patient? From a salesman I worked with that was very good, he taught me a phrase he called lobby love. At first I hated the idea, I was a little resistant to it, because the way he lined it out, I just thought there's just no way this is worth time, and how am I going to get my coordinator to even buy into this? What I found over time is it was probably the most successful element I've ever added to my sales pitch. So what is lobby love? Engaging the patient on a personal level. Your coordinator needs to engage that person on a personal level, and really get to know them. So whether your PCC sits behind their desk, or beside the patient and talks to them, the most important part is that they are talking and engaging them. I prefer my coordinator to sit next to them, leave the desk, go sit next to them. When somebody comes in, I know it's a habit that the PCC hands them the intake form, says please fill that out, when you're done bring it up to me. It's very impersonal, and I feel it's a little bit of a turn off to patients that come in. I prefer my PCC to ask them to have a seat, pick up the paperwork, walk it over to them, and walk them through the intake. That is probably the best 7-10 minutes your patient care coordinator is going to spend that entire day to help the office. Your PCC can help set up your close. Does your PCC have to repeat themselves multiple times to that new patient? There's your close. Mr. Jones, I notice you're having trouble hearing me. Has that been a problem for a while? Well yeah, well I'm glad you're in here today, because if you're having this much trouble with me, and I get told I'm easy to hear and understand, we need to do something about that. That's a closing question that your PCC essentially just asked, and a statement that's going to move them towards better hearing. Does your care coordinator talk to them about price or style? Most likely, yes, on the phone. Most likely, the conversation came up, how much are your hearing aids? Well, they range from a couple hundred, a couple thousand. That opened the door for that conversation about price. Mr. Jones, on the phone, you're asked about prices. Have you shopped hearing aids before? Oh, you have. What kind of prices have you seen? Or was there something about these other offices that turned you away? What about your budget worked with our office? Whatever it might be, there's a conversation that can already happen about money, which saves you the trouble of having to fight that later on. Mr. Jones, I noticed you came in with that ad for that little mini hearing aid. Is that something you're looking for? Are you looking for something invisible, for something really small? Well, great, we have some of the smallest hearing aids in the industry, and we're excited to show them to you. Once again, it's setting up that close, and it's your PCC that's gonna do that for you through those conversations. How else do they sell hearing aids? Your patient care coordinator can do a lot, not just help you close new patient, but upgrades. There's your PCC, clean hearing aids. Well, after they clean the hearing aid, I noticed your hearing aid's really dirty, and they're seven years old. There's a lot of new technology out there. Have you tried some of the new hearing aids? You might wanna talk to my practitioner, and see if he'll let you demo a new set of aids. You'd be amazed at how much better you might hear. Or can they diagnose dead hearing aids? Mr. Jones, I noticed this is the second time repairing your dead hearing aid. It's been out of warranty for a while, and the new one-year warranty runs out in a month. Rather than renew the warranty, maybe you should look at getting a new hearing aid that has a new warranty. Have the patient set out a warranty, same dialogue, or even upgrading that warranty. Coming from your PCC, it's gonna be a little more successful than yourself. When people tend to talk to you, in my experience, they tend to be a little guarded. They tend to worry, because you're the sales guy, or salesman. You're the salesperson that's gonna try and push something on them, because you're trying to make more money. You are vested in your business. You get paid because you sell hearing aids. Your PCC typically doesn't. So because of that, they don't see your coordinator as a salesperson who's trying to sell and make more money. They see them as somebody who cares. If they've built that relationship from the moment they walk in the door, they're gonna see your coordinator as somebody who's just got a good idea to help them, not somebody who's trying to make more money for the office. And there are just so many questions, and so little time to do it, that when patients get less guarded around your PCC, they're gonna open up more, and they're gonna answer questions you haven't even asked yet, which is gonna save you from having to ask them. This helps you from having to spend additional time trying to find the same answers that your PCC can find. When I started using this technique, I started saving almost 20 minutes off my appointment time. And I'll be honest, at first it was really weird. It felt really odd that my appointment could suddenly get done in less than an hour. And I'm not advocating that it's about speed and trying to get done quick, but I could accomplish the same goal and save that time. I was in a very busy office in Illinois. I was in an office that had been purchased, it was over 15 years old, had a very large patient file, and I had people pouring in, it seemed, every day. I had a lot of time in the middle of an appointment, I'd get two, three people would walk in because they weren't hearing any cleaned or repaired or whatever. Well, I wanna spend time with everybody I could. So saving 20 minutes off my appointment time became crucial to making my day a little easier and a little shorter. It was nice going home at six o'clock at night instead of seven o'clock at night because I can get done sooner. But all those techniques and using your patient care coordinator doesn't help anybody if you aren't listening. When your coordinator asks a question, it's gonna be much more powerful than filling out an intake form. So are you listening to the answer that they're giving you? We all have busy days, we have busy time, and we're trying to get a lot done. Whether you're fixing a hearing aid or putting in patient notes, updating charts or whatever you might be doing, it is something that I think is too valuable to not make time for it. A lot of the time, just the way my office is built, I leave my door open so that I can hear what's going on in the lobby, and I'll sit and work on whatever I need to work on, but you can bet that once that person comes in, I pay more attention to what's being said out there than what I'm doing, because that's gonna be much more important. Make your patient care coordinator a part of the office success. Your coordinator's opinion is gonna be one of the best ones you have in the office. I trust my PCCs, and I let them know that they're an important part of the success of the office. I don't diminish the fact that without them, and without their success, I don't have any success. I've done the job of my own where I had no coordinator for a while, and I was the coordinator and the practitioner, and the insurance biller, and the money collector, and you really begin to appreciate how much they do for you. When you start to use your coordinator, as we're talking about today, you're gonna put even more understanding into how integral they are to that office running. I had three offices at one time in Illinois, and the best numbers came from the office that had the best PCC, the PCC that would take her time, she would walk through the intake, sit next to the patients, and get to know them. She was the one that brought in the best numbers. So building a positive relationship with your care coordinator is gonna reflect in the numbers, and it's gonna be crucial to helping them buy in to what we're talking about. I like to include my coordinator in the sales process. Before I meet that patient and come out and grab them, my PCC will come back and meet with me to talk about what she noticed, what she heard. She's gonna tell me if there's anything she picked up on, if she thinks they're in denial. I wanna know what she knows. They're eyes and ears, and they have a brain in between that has great opinions. Sometimes from her short conversations between the phone and the lobby, she has a pretty good take on exactly some issues that I might need to know about. She'll give me little notes, little post-it notes on the intake, with little notes saying they read the book, but they were busy doing this, and their spouse was doing this, or they were in there commenting on how expensive hearing aids were. The comment, I wanna know as much as I can about what she saw and heard. The problem is care coordinators don't always know what you want to know, and they don't always ask the questions that you need to know the answers to. It's up to you to teach your coordinator what you want to know. I've taught my coordinator, what I wanna know is if she thinks they're in denial or not. I wanna know, does the person seem to be resistant? Do they seem to be anxious? I've given her a list of things I wanna know, and they may not be the same things you wanna know, but they're things that help me in my presentation. Are you monitoring their phone calls? And I don't monitor my coordinator phone calls so that I can hit at her saying, hey, I noticed you didn't ask this. That is not what I do. That's not the purpose. I listen because I wanna hear the conversation, because a lot of the time she's gonna put her notes on my patient person when they're coming in, and I can see what she put down. But amazingly enough, I've had 20-minute conversations between a care coordinator and whoever called in to the appointment, and I've had three sentences of notes on the actual appointment, and part of it is time. She just didn't have a lot of time to write a novel for each person. Well, if you can take a few minutes out of your day and just cut some parts of the conversation, you might pick up on something she didn't write down. As well, if you teach her what you wanna know, she'll know which notes to put down. Your care coordinator could put the five things that matter to you most in those notes, and I've actually had a list of things that she put, and she would mark yes, this, no, this, yes, this, yes, this, and that was the information I wanted off that phone call. I got to the point where I didn't need to listen very often because I knew that she was gonna find the information I wanted. In truth, your parent and care coordinator can ask questions that you're gonna ask and get a better answer. I really fully believe that. They can discuss budget, and the person will just spill exactly what they expect for cost. You ask that same question, and they shut up, and they wanna just know, well, what do you want? When a patient meets with you, it's a game. It's the sales game, as I call it. Car sales, we used to call it the big con. They wanna be lied to, and you wanna be honest, but you have to lie to them because they already believe you're lying. You know, I used to have that conversation a lot with people in the hearing aid industry as well. We talked about that game, and people see it as a challenge. When they come in your office, the money challenge is there. They wanna see what you're gonna offer because they don't wanna tip their hand of how much they're willing to spend. I hate the game. This is not why I sell hearing aids. It's not why I'm in this business. I hate the game. I want it out of it. This is a way that I got out of it. I try and have my patient care coordinator always try and discuss budget, and that's my personal preference because like I said, they've talked about it over the phone. That person had no problem asking my patient care coordinator how much our hearing aids cost, so why are they gonna have a problem when they're in your office furthering that conversation? I don't think they will, but you ask that question about budget, and lips get zipped, and then they're done. Patients will tell PCCs the reason why they made the appointment, and then they'll go in your office and give you a different answer. That's part of why I have my coordinator ask those questions. I've had them tell my coordinator, I came in because I couldn't hear my grandson, and it frustrated me, and they get in my office, and I ask why they came in. Well, that's all you're at. Okay, is there something that's bothered you lately that made you come in? No, it's just getting progressively worse. I've just noticed it more. For some reason, they didn't wanna tell me what they told my patient care coordinator. Because I had that information, I could get more specific and ask. Is there somebody, a grandchild, that you've been struggling to hear, and that it's been frustrating you? Well, you know what, yeah, I have a grandson, Michael, and a granddaughter, Jane, and I've been struggling too. He said, I love you, I couldn't hear it. And suddenly, the floodgates open, and now I have something I can work off of. I can now take that appointment to the level it needs to go to help them hear better. Because that is your end goal, is to help them hear better. And if you're using your PCC as a file clerk, a receptionist, you're wasting their talents, and you're wasting their time and yours. I mean, you could hire somebody to answer your phones for a few dollars an hour, that's easy. But you took the time to hire somebody that you felt was gonna come into your office and help your office. And then you have them filing paperwork, and insurance paperwork, and answering phones. Most likely, you hired somebody that's a people person, somebody that you thought would interact well with patients. So let them, force them, make them, whatever you need to do. Most your PCCs want to do more. They wanna be a part of something more, something bigger. Let them, don't stop them. Don't say, why are you talking to that patient? You should've been filling out paperwork. You should've been filing insurance. That's not what we say. I believe 100% your coordinator can get the same thrill and satisfaction from a sale as you do. Every time somebody comes out and starts filling out the purchase agreement with my PCC in the front, and she goes over the terms and money, how they're gonna pay or whatever, I can see their face smiling. I know she is just as thrilled that that person's gonna better their hearing as you are. Because as I said at the start, you care, and your PCC cares. If your PCC does not care, I personally find one that does. So now your patient care coordinator showed lobby love. They walked them through the intake. They went over the questions. This is the start of your introduction. You need to use what your patient care coordinator just did to start your close. So why do we use an intake form? The intake form doesn't sell hearing aids. Has anybody come into your office, filled out an intake form and said, okay, I'd like that one, please. How much is it? 5,000, here's my credit card, have it, thank you. It has never worked that way. The intake form is merely just a part of the process to gauge interest, and of course, fulfill that requirement that we have their written information, their address and phone number. So if that's all you're using it for, why are you including all that information? Why make them fill out two pages of information if all you want is their name, phone number, and address? Just have them fill out a little card with that on it, you're fine. The reason you have that other stuff on that intake is it's a tool to start a conversation, to gauge their interest, and find out how motivated they are to be in your office today. I have a question on my intake form that asks, how motivated are they to fix their hearing? From a scale of one to 10. It's pretty interesting, I've never had somebody mark a two, generally walk out with a hearing aid. But I've had plenty of people mark a seven, or six, or five through 10, which means they've thought about it, they're aware. So don't mistake that, so when they come in and say, oh, I'm just here for a test, they've already marked that they are motivated to fix their hearing. They just told you that, so if they're walking out, and you're not putting the effort in, it's because you missed something. Utilize their answers, don't let them go to waste. They filled that form out for a reason, and they put those answers for a reason, don't ignore it. That is why I like my PCC to do the intake, not the form. The form is merely almost a script for my PCC. I have her walk them through that intake, she asks them the questions, and they're still writing while she's talking to them. There's a certain way, I don't force it, she just organically words it, so that she's still answering those questions, and I notice a lot of the time, the answers on the intake when she does that are much more accurate to what they tell me, versus if they just fill it out in silence, while my coordinator's doing paperwork. Your coordinator can ask the same questions as what's on the intake form, and get a better answer. And the information gathered by the PCC is gonna set up your next step, which is your introduction. Because that intake is about showing them you care. From the moment they walk in, that is your goal. I was an apologizer, and I wanna apologize for being an apologizer. I learned I have nothing to apologize for on that intake. I used to hand it to them and say, I'm sorry, it's short, it's only a couple pages, I'm so sorry you had to take all this effort to fill out this paperwork for me. My intake's much more powerful than that. So the intake's not just paperwork, it is how you're gauging that appointment, it is how you are building that relationship with them. Stop apologizing for it like I used to, because when I did, I found my intake became much more powerful, and much more helpful. The real truth is, nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care. They don't care how good of a doctor you are, or a practitioner, or a dispenser. They don't care how good of a hearing test you give. And I've met people who have just phenomenal hearing tests, and people who just cut corners when they're lazy. And you know what, I don't think patients cared as much as we think. They don't care about your lifestyle chart, how pretty it is, how beautiful the pictures are, how easy you made it to read. They don't care how good you are explaining the ear. I've heard the ear explained very well. Even I just thought, man, I learned something new, and I think I know a little bit about the ear. I like the way they explained it. None of that matters, and none of that's gonna sell a single thing for your office if they don't know first that you care. How do they know you care? From the moment they walk in that door, they were greeted, they were given attention, the intake showed, I wanna help your hearing. Everything screamed, I want to help you. If your office isn't screaming, I wanna help you, don't be surprised when people don't seem to care when you give them a hearing test. The first five minutes are gonna show them how much you care. Once they come back to your office, and you show them that they didn't file out that intake for no reason, that you talk to them about what they put on there, you ask them about their family, you ask them about something you'd heard in the lobby. I had a good advice I got one time from an audiologist that had been very successful in multiple practices, and she has two rules. She said, everybody that comes in gets one compliment and two physical touch. Whether it's a hand on the shoulder, a shake of the hand, a hug, whatever it is, every patient gets physical contact, and they get a compliment. I like your shoes, I like your scarf, that's a great looking hat. That was her way of starting this conversation to make them more comfortable. It shows she's paying attention to detail. Small talk's a very powerful tool before a sales question. It makes people much more comfortable, and it makes you much more personable. But remember, small talk doesn't start your sales appointment. I separate that, a sales appointment starts when you ask a sales question. Small talk is not how you start that sales appointment. It is how you build trust so that they are ready for you to ask that next question. Asking hard questions isn't hard if you know them on a personal level. And that's the difference between an interrogation and information gathering. It's difficult to dig deep into their pain points if they don't trust you, and they will not trust you if they've sat out in that office not talking to anybody because they haven't had time to trust you. When they trust your coordinator, that coordinator's an extension of you, and they will, in turn, trust you. I promise that. If you set the appointment up from the moment they walk in the door, then asking these questions is just a part of the process, and it flows naturally. They won't feel interrogated. They're gonna feel that you're just trying to help. Makes a big difference in how they answer and how they're going to react to your next questions. And there are no magic formulas or questions. I don't have some great question you can ask that's gonna change everything. I have a question I ask that had changed everything for me, but it may not work for you. You gotta find what works for you. The goal of your questions is to get past the canned answers. Each question that you ask needs to follow with another question because that's how you get past the canned answer. Why'd you come in today? Well, I saw your ad. That's your canned answer. What about my ad motivated you to come in? That gets past it. Well, I know my hearing is not good, and I needed to get my hearing checked. That's a canned answer. What has been bothering about your hearing that we can fix for you today. What has been the issue? You're getting past that canned answer, and now they start to open up. So what are ways to open? How do you follow up with questions? Like I said, there's no magic formula. Tell me about your ears. What about my ad brought you in today? What have you experienced that made you seek help for your hearing? What bothers you the most about your hearing? On and on and on, there's multiple questions. The one secret to all these questions is they're all open-ended. And I'm not overly leading. I'm not trying to force them into some area I want them to go to, but everything's open. Tell me about your ears. They're good. Nobody's gonna say that. They're bad. They're gonna say, well, I noticed this ear isn't working as well as it should. What about my ad brought you in today? I like red. I like blue. No, it's, well, I saw your price, and that's something that I noticed. Oh, so you saw that price, and what about the price if you look at other ads? Yeah, and yours had the cheapest price. Well, great, now you have an understanding of what their motivation is. Each one of these questions is open, and they're gonna force them to answer in a way that's not canned. It's personal questions. Personalize those questions that force them to give a personal answer. But it's all in how you phrase it. It's all in how you say it. What you ask and how you ask is gonna set the tone for the entire appointment. I always love text messages that are kind of funny, and this is one that I've always kind of kept around because it always reminds me. It's all in how you ask it. A man asks a date out, will you go out with me? No. What was my question? Will you go out with me? Yes, I will. It's a funny way of just showing that how you phrase it and how you get there makes a big difference. So here's how I phrase my question that's gotten me the best response. Why me, why today? Has been my strongest. question I've ever asked my office. It's not easy. Not everybody can ask that question the way I ask it. I'm a fairly blunt person, um, kind of in your face, and it works with my personality. And if people know me from my coordinator and from spending that few minutes of small talk, they're going to know that I'm going to get pretty blunt, but it will give me the most productive response because it requires a frank and honest answer with all the other ads you've seen. Why did you choose my office? And why is today the day do something about your hearing? You wouldn't believe the answers I've gotten a lot of time. I'll ask why me, why today? And they stare at me with the most blank expression you can imagine on their face. And it doesn't faze me because I'm letting them think and chew on it for a minute. And then I'll back it up right with this. I'll say, let me phrase that. With all the ads you've seen, why my office and why is today the day, so you're hearing, you've told me your hearing has bothered you for two years. What changed that today is the day to do something about it. If you set this whole appointment up from the moment they walked in the door, you're going to get the answer you're looking for. This starts the appointment for me. This question is how I open up and start my sales appointment. It builds trust, puts them at ease. It's an opportunity to show that I care about their time, their health, and them as an individual. I'm not here to waste their time. I want to find out and get to the bottom of why they're here to see me in the quickest way possible. this. Why, why, why, why, why, why, why? I have two children of my own and they're always asking why. Dad, why did you do that? Because of this. Well, why? Why did you put that in the garbage? Because it was broken. Well, why was it broken? Well, because you broke it. Why did I break it? Because you're playing with it too rough. Oh. In other words, there is an end to the whys, eventually where it makes sense, or you just don't know. Kids understand that need to question and further question, but as adults, we tend to shy away from it. We get shy of asking too many questions. And how you react to that question, the why me, why today, come again the close. Whatever they answer, follow that up with another question, and each question is helping to move them on their journey to better hearing. Use next question to address their whys. More than that, use the next question to address the conversation they had in the lobby with your coordinator, because that's what you're trying to get at, is what that conversation in the lobby entailed. You're trying to get the why of that conversation. Now, why do you even care? Why do you care about my hearing and my time? Well, I can't tell you why I care about your hearing and your time, except I care about people. I can show you. I want to talk to their family member and caregiver. I want to ask the same question. Why today? Why are you here with him today? Why are you here with her today? Why are you here with your parent today? Each question should dig further into their pain points. I want to know more about why you demanded your parent come get a hearing test. Each question is going to dig further and further and let them know that you understand that there's an issue and you have a solution. So how can I help? The audiogram doesn't sell the hearing aid. The technology doesn't sell the hearing aid. The best way to help them is to show that we care and we take their hearing and quality of life to heart. Patients come to the office with three questions. How can you help me? Why should I trust you to help me? If you can answer those first two questions and that first 20 minutes of the appointment, from the moment they walk in, the third question just becomes a formality. How much will it cost to get your help? The close happened at the start. If your patient doesn't trust you, administering a hearing test isn't going to fix that. Answering that third question isn't a close either. Strong sales closing questions that you can ask in the introduction are going to make a difference. If we find a hearing loss today, are you prepared to do something about it? I cannot ask that question if I have not already gained their trust from the lobby. Are you tired of missing out on family conversations? I can't ask that question unless I set it up in the first place. That first question is the most powerful question I believe you can ask because there's only two answers, yes and no, which breaks my open-ended question rule for one reason. I want a yes or no because if they say no, then I know that they're not serious about fixing their hearing, which means I can spend my appointment finding out why they aren't prepared. If the answer is yes, fantastic, then let's give you a hearing test, let's pick a solution that works for you, and let's fix your hearing today. That is a closing question. If your closing question is how they're going to pay for it, it's already too late, you already missed it. Hearing is an emotional connection, requires an emotional close and an emotional open. Are you here to sell hearing aids or are you here to improve their life? If you're here to sell hearing aids, then there's some great sales presentations from people outside the industry that are going to teach you all about how to give the hard close, about how to corner somebody to get that sale. If you're here to improve their life, that will never work. It's too emotional. Hearing is too emotional. I have a mother with hearing loss, she's been wearing hearing aids for six years now since she got in the industry. She probably needed them much, much, much longer than that. In high school, I had a lot of conversations that she missed and, you know, the best therapist was the wall behind her because she never heard me. The wall heard everything. It's an emotional connection I have with my mother when she got hearing aids and I use that and I know everybody used that in the industry. Treat the patient, treat the client like your own mother, like your family. I'm moving beyond that. I want to emotionally connect to them as an individual, not like my mother, like that patient is. Like Mr. Jones, I want to connect to Mr. Jones as Mr. Jones. Your front office will set that up for you. The most exciting thing I ever had is I had a patient who came in and after buying hearing aids and looked me in the eye and said, I did not buy hearing aids because I like you. I bought hearing aids because I like Nicole. From the moment I talked on the phone to the moment she sat next to me in this office, that is why I purchased because I know she's here and she cares. By extension, I know you care. That was a validation of what this process did for me and he reminded me every time he came in that he did not come in here for me. He came in because he thought she was fantastic and you know what, I'm okay with that because it's a validation that I hired the right person and I ran my office the right way. It showed that I didn't have to be some masterful closer. I had a great front office that was doing that for me. So in closing the day, just remember your best close is in your open. It's in your introduction. It's in the setup of your front office. If you set the appointment up for success, closing is just a natural part of that process. It's not some great silver tongue, got to be a great used car salesperson. It's already been set up. You just got to ask the question and let them know you're here to help. The Audiogram Lifestyle Charter tools. Use them. Use them to help them pick up the right hearing aid. Just remember they don't sell your hearing aid. Don't rush to try and get to the hearing test. If you didn't spend 20-30 minutes in the introduction, you're probably not going to do very well selling that hearing aid. Just help them choose the right one. And your PCC is your strongest sales tool to close early. Use them. They're there. Train them. Make them part of the success of your office. Whether you give them bonuses or incentives or simply just feel good doing it, let them be a part of success. When you see you have a good month, you make sure they know they were just a part of that as you were. Don't be afraid of the hard questions. They aren't hard if you care. So I want to thank Ted for inviting me to present today and talk about what I've learned over the years. I appreciate everybody that tuned in and listened. It's been great to present this and just be able to kind of move this idea forward and help people understand how you can have success with this. I'm going to turn the time back over to Ted. So, Ted, take it away. Great. Thank you, Russell. Russell, I'd like to thank you for an excellent presentation. And we're so excited that we've had over 200 of your fellow colleagues that have joined us today on this webinar. We do have some time for questions. So if you have a question for Russell, please enter it in the question box on your webinar dashboard. And, Russell, our first question is from Elaine. And Elaine asks, where can I find a script of what questions my PCC should be asking patients? You have one. I mean, I know that sounds like a cheesy answer. Your intake. So we all have a different intake. So look what's on your intake. So my intake asks, what motivated them to come in today? How motivated are they to buy hearing aids? And I have a spot where it says, is there a family member that said something about your hearing? I use those. So I like to keep it fairly organic, but that's her script. So my current patient care coordinator knows that intake back in front, and that's what she follows. Oh, well, I saw you brought your, you know, spouse with you today. So has your spouse been bugging you? Is that why you came in? Oh, no. You know, so they use that as a script. So I don't want to get too scripted, because I want it to be very organic. I want the conversation to move where the PCC needs to move it. So I found coaching them to your intake, and tell them what you want them to ask. Pick five questions, and say, I want you to ask these five questions, and leave that alone as your script. That's the best advice I can tell you. It's, I've had numerous coordinators, and they all have done a little differently. I wouldn't say one's been that much more successful with what they asked on another, as long as the conversation is organic. Great. Thank you, Russell. Russell, our next question is from Mark, and Mark asks, how do you address a situation where the patient has brought up cost very early in the conversation? So when you're giving that presentation, and they address costs, I like to address it kind of up front. If your coordinator did their job out front, if they did that, hopefully cost came up, and they've already talked about it. I like to move the question away from cost a little bit, using what your PCC talked about. Hey, I understand cost is important, and there's budgets we try and stay within. It's going to be hard until we do the hearing test, and know exactly which hearing aid works for you. So I understand cost is important. Tell me more so I understand what hearing aid will work for you, so I can give you a cost. What problems are you having? So I like to steer it away, and let them know that I can't tell them cost until I actually know what we need to fix. Great. Thank you, Russell. Russell, our next question is from Mary Ann, and Mary Ann asks, do you keep asking questions if the patient isn't responding well? I do. It gets really difficult. That why me why today, I've had people who won't answer it. They just stare at me. When I rephrase it, they kind of just stare at me, and I wouldn't say all those appointments have been bad appointments, because what I found a lot of times that happens, it means the dialogue up front didn't happen, and I've even had my patient care coordinator write on a note card and bring it back to me with the intake saying they won't talk. So I kind of went into that appointment, that introduction, knowing they won't talk. So what I try and do is do more small talk. I've had appointments where I do 15 minutes of small talk until I found something in common with them that we could agree on. Oh, we both love, you know, whatever, Detroit Tigers baseball. Let's talk about that for 15 minutes, because once you do, then the why me today gets easier for them to answer. A lot of times they don't talk to you, it's because they don't trust you. Great, thank you, Russell. Russell, our next question is from Stephanie. Stephanie asks, how do you take the time to really involve yourself with the patient as a patient care coordinator when you're running the front counter as the receptionist and office personnel? You know, I am very aware that patient care coordinators get a lot thrown on them. I had to take on some additional tasks myself just to relieve the pressure from my coordinator, because the phone's constantly ringing, she's constantly answering it. And I do tell her, if it's a little strain on your coordinator, but when that person's in the office, and like I said, I like them to sit next to them out in the chairs and actually talk with them and go over the intake. They literally point line to line at the intake on some of it to help them answer questions. I took a little bit of that on, so I try and follow a rule that when I am in my office waiting and she's out there, I'll answer some of the phone calls so that she can do that specifically. Or I even tell her, let it go to voicemail. And you can, as soon as I get in the appointment, you can go answer the voicemail and handle it. Because if you're constantly interrupting that process to answer phones, then you're going to really destroy the chemistry. I feel it's not as good. So unless it's certain calls, so they have a cordless phone, they'll look and if they know it's an important call, they'll take it. But generally, I like them to sit up there because I don't want them taking a new patient call while they're up there with that person and then they don't even talk to them for 30 minutes after that. It literally undoes everything I was trying to do. So taking on some of the tasks myself and just helping prioritize those tasks. So teaching them how to really prioritize what's most important tends to do that. Whether it's you take on paperwork at the end of the day that they maybe would have done, inventory or whatever, reconciliation forms. If you do that yourself so that they have more time to spend with the patient, that's going to help give you more success. Thanks, Russell. Russell, our next question is from Morgan. Morgan asks, how long does it typically take for you to realize that the patient is just not committed to treating their hearing loss? I can tell you about five minutes to seven minutes after they come to my physical office in the back. Because that interaction with the patient care coordinator usually tells me. You wouldn't believe how many times I've had a patient care coordinator come back and say, you know, they're just not into it. They just, I can't even talk. They just, they told me after their conversation that they're just here for the hearing test. I will still spend the first seven minutes digging to find out if that's true. I'm not going to lie to you. My patient care coordinator has been wrong at least once. I had times where I made a sale and she's going, how'd you do that? They told me they weren't interested. I said, they came in with their guard up and I was able to figure it out through these questions I asked. Because if you dig deep enough, you're going to get the answers you need. But in that first seven minutes and as soon as you ask why me, why today, and when I asked that, if they don't respond and I can't get any answer, sometimes they flat out will say, I'm just here for a test. I, my hearing's fine. Well, you know what? You can spend three hours maybe selling hearing aid, but good chance they're in such denial they're not going to, going to handle it. So sometimes you got to cut, cut losses around a little bit. But that first seven minutes, you will have already technically had a 30 minute worth of conversation between your coordinator and the intake and then their five minutes you spent with Smalltalk. That's great advice. Thanks, Russell. Russell, our last question comes from Stephen. Stephen asks, what do you do in a situation where your PCC tells you what they think of a patient, but it turns out they may be completely off base? I guess I kind of just answer that. It's going to happen. You know, I said when I have my PCC give me notes about what they heard and thought and felt, I don't take that as gospel truth and say, well, since you say they're not interested, shoe mount the door. But what it does is it more tells me if they say they're not interested, it means I'm going to dig to find out if there's denial or if they really just have normal hearing. Some people just want their hearing checked because they just, you know, got scared about something. So you can't take it as gospel truth. You have to dig a little deeper, but it tells me I need to dig. That's what I use it for. If they come in and say this person's ready for a hearing aid, it doesn't mean you glance over the thing because, hey, it's a golden sale. They're just going to come in and buy. It simply tells you what direction. Do I need to start digging deep for that pain point? Do I need to spend an extra 10-15 minutes digging? Or can I kind of cut the, you know, the little small talk and cut to that sales question? So that's kind of what it tells me is I don't take it for gospel truth, but it does give me a direction to go. And occasionally, one out of 50 people, they're completely wrong. And it's going to happen. But if you do your part and you do your due diligence and still do your sales presentations, you do it. Your evaluation presentation, if you still do it the way you do it, just cut out some of the questions you don't need because your coordinator did it. You're going to find success and you're going to find not too often they're completely off base. Working with your patient care coordinator long enough doing this, you'll start to build a relationship where they'll get really in tune with what's going on and what you expect. And it was amazed me after six months of doing it with this coordinator. I mean, I felt like we had telepathy. I mean, whatever she thought, I seemed to have thought. And it just, it was organic and it was beautiful. I mean, it just really worked well. Great. Thank you, Russell. Russell, on behalf of IHS, I'd like to thank you for an excellent presentation today. And I'd like to thank everybody out there for joining us today on this webinar. If you'd like to get in contact with Russell, you may email him at Russell underscore Armstrong at NUEAR.com. That's N-U-E-A-R dot com. For more information about receiving a continuing education credit for this webinar through IHS, visit our website at IHSinfo.org. Click on the webinar banner or find more information on the webinar tab on the navigation menu. IHS members receive a substantial discount on CE credits, so if you're not already an IHS member, you will find more information on our website. Please keep an eye out for a feedback survey that you will receive tomorrow via email. We ask that you take just a moment to answer a few brief questions about the quality of today's presentation. Thank you again for being with us today, and we will see you at the next IHS webinar.

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