https://youtu.be/VCadkrchYgM

Show Notes:

Speaker 1: (00:00)
Welcome to the simplified integration podcast, Episode number 24, How Not To Become a STEM Cell Timeshare Salesperson.

Speaker 2: (00:08)
[inaudible]

Speaker 3: (00:11)
Leonardo de Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. And I agree you see the problem with the way that most consulting groups approach medical integration is anything but simple. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's expensive, it's complicated. And quite frankly, it's exhausting enough is enough. There are far too many amazing integrated clinics that are struggling well. I'm on a mission to change that. What I've come to find from over five years, working with integrative practices is that simplicity really is the secret. The old saying of less is more, is true through a streamlined approach. I was able to create multiple successful seven figure integrated clinics. And now I'm going to show you how you can do the same. Join me as I share with you the secrets to successful medical integration and practice growth. Join me on a journey to greater sophistication through innovation. I'm dr. Andrew Wells and welcome to the simplified integration podcast.

Speaker 1: (01:10)
Hey doc, great to have you here. So today on this episode, we're going to talk about how not to become a timeshare salesperson. When it comes to presenting cash services like STEM cell therapy, regenerative medicine, and it's even applies to things like decompression or functional medicine or whatever cash service you, uh, you're offering in your office. And this, the reason I'm talking about this is because this is a topic that's coming up more and more now, as chiropractors have gotten into regenerative medicine, we're seeing now the longterm results of, uh, of this therapy on practices. And one of the concerns that doctors are having is they don't want to offer this and then have it end up ruining the relationship. And the reason doctors are talking about this is a lot of chiropractors have adopted what I consider timeshare sales tactics to sell more regenerative medicine.

Speaker 1: (01:56)
Now here's the thing about timeshares. So as STEM cell therapy, for this matter, most doctors who are using this in their office, like you, you go through, like, we have a, um, you know, live lecture that could be in like a hotel conference room or a dinner event where you're educating patients on regenerative medicine. And in the past, I've been accused by other chiropractors and patients as being a timeshare salesperson. So people will say dr. Wells, this is just one of those timeshare presentations, which is totally an insult. And I didn't really, I knew what that meant, but I'd never been through a timeshare sales process. And I was always curious about it. And the reason I was curious is I like sales processes. I like to be sold on stuff. And so I wanted to know actually what, what the timeshare sales process looked like.

Speaker 1: (02:42)
And one day I got that opportunity. So it was, this was years ago, my wife and I were just brand new in practice. And we were working really hard and we hadn't taken a vacation a long time. So we planned on a one Memorial day taking extended weekend and going to Charleston, South Carolina, uh, Charleston's an amazing place. And we're, so we're walking around the city, going to restaurants and, um, just having fun. And as we were walking back and forth between our hotel and, and around the city, this guy was standing on the street and he kept trying to offer us free tickets for things. And, and so one time we pass him and I said, listen, like why, why do you keep trying to offer us free tickets for stuff? And he said, well, we're actually a timeshare company. And if you sit through an hour long presentation on our timeshare, we'll give you two free tickets for a carriage ride and for a boat tour and for these other activities.

Speaker 1: (03:31)
And I'm like, you know what, sign me up. Like, I want to do that. And my wife is pulling out my arm. She's like, we're not going to go do that. We're on vacation right now. And I don't want to sit through a timeshare presentation. And I'm like, I know, I know, but I've never done this. I want to see what it's like. And my curiosity, this is where my curiosity came from is that it's tough to sell a timeshare. And I'm not saying anything bad about timeshares, but the reality is, is they're very expensive. They have a lot of hidden fees and like upkeep fees. And in fact, there's an entire industry of companies and lawyers. Their whole purpose is to try to legally get their clients out of longterm timeshare commitments. And the general public knows this, but every year thousands of people buy timeshares.

Speaker 1: (04:14)
So I was like curious about how they actually did this. So we went to the presentation and we're in a room of about 20 people. And it's set up just like, if you're going to do a regenerative medicine lecture for, for potential patients and the lady leading the presentation was very charismatic. And the first thing that she said when we're all sitting down was, um, raise your hand. If you're here to buy a timeshare and one guy raised his hand, but I think he was joking. And she said, I realized that no one is here to buy a timeshare. In fact, you're probably here because we offered you tickets for a carriage ride, right. And everyone starts laughing. And she said, my goal today is to sell you a timeshare because I think that they're worth it. In fact, about half the room here at the end of this hour will be convinced that a timeshare is the right thing for their family.

Speaker 1: (04:59)
And I'm like, man, that's a pretty bold claim. And so as she went through her presentation, she was really interactive. And she, she, she went around the room and asked the couples two things. She wanted to know when their last vacation was and when their next vacation was. And so she finally got to my wife and I, and she said, so mr. Wells, when was your last vacation? And I said, well, actually this is our first vacation. We haven't been on a vacation in a long, long time. We just opened a business. We've been working really hard and she looks at me and she goes, wow, that's really sad. I'm like, wow, thanks. And then she said, so when is your next plan vacation? And I said, we have no plan vacations, uh, on the books. And she looks at my wife, she looks at me and she goes, well, don't you think that your wife deserves a vacation since you guys are working so hard?

Speaker 1: (05:43)
And I'm like, damn like knife to the heart. Right. And the whole room started laughing, but it's funny. Like, I, I wasn't offended because I knew the sales process, but the, like that herd mentality, like actually made me feel like kind of a crappy, like, yeah, my wife does deserve vacations. And, um, so anyway, we went, we went through the process, uh, and then we went back after the presentation was over. We went back to their headquarters and we sat down in front of the closer. And so this guy's job was to ask really emotionally manipulative Mo manipulative questions. And he said, listen, I know you guys, aren't interested in buying a timeshare, but what do you think will happen if you work too hard and never go on vacations, what will happen to your relationship? I'm like, damn, like, that's a really personal question.

Speaker 1: (06:27)
And he kept asking these questions like, uh, like, do you enjoy vacations? Why have you taken a vacation? What, like, kind of get all my objections, right? Classic sales process at the end of his spiel, he said, here's what we're offering. It's XYZ. It's cost this much money. Are you interested? And I said, no, thank you. And, but thanks for the presentation and the offer. And he said, hold on one minute, I'll be right back. He left. And then instead of coming back, he sent back the real closer. So this other lady came up and said, listen, I know you're not interested in buying a time share, but I just have one final offer for you. And this offer is good for the next 15 minutes. And I'm like, man, this better be good. And so she said, not only are we going to provide you with XYZ, we're also going to give you this and this and this.

Speaker 1: (07:11)
And we're also going to reduce the price by 50%. So drop the price by half immediately. And for a split second, I'm like, man, that's actually a really good deal. And then, then my brain snapped back to reality. I'm like, no, I'm not buying a timeshare. And, uh, but it was a really, like, they ask a lot of, um, really targeted questions and their goal, um, as emotionally manipulative as it is, their goal is to remove all of your objections and get you to part with a lot of money for a longterm relationship on a, on a timeshare. And they're very good at it. And they're very manipulative. And the problem with this is that it works. And the funny thing is a lot of people in our group who had not planned on buying a timeshare, like people started, like I could see people signing, signing on the dotted line and I'm like, man, people are actually buying timeshares.

Speaker 1: (07:57)
I was amazed by it. So the thing is, it works. It absolutely works. But here's the problem. If you were to ask a hundred people, what do you think about timeshare salespeople? Do you think they're highly ethical and have a lot of integrity or do you think it's kind of like a, um, like a sleazy, like sleazy type used car salesman type person, and most people would say the latter, it's like a sleazy process. Now we as doctors and chiropractors, a lot of doctors implement the exact same strategies in their STEM cell program because it works. But the problem is the more you use these types of sales tactics, the worse it affects your relationship. And it will absolutely work for the first few months and years. But eventually if you keep doing using those kinds of sales tactics, it affects how your community and how your town perceives your clinic.

Speaker 1: (08:45)
Now the, uh, and so what, uh, the types of, of strategies that we use sometimes as chiropractors and I've used them before, um, are the same emotionally manipulative sales tactics that people use in timeshare. So for example, a patient comes into your office and you're doing a consultation. What a lot of docs are trained to do is to paint the patient into a corner where the only option and the best option for them is STEM cell therapy. When that may not be the truth. And so these are questions that I hear doctors asking in consultations is look, um, I've seen, uh, you've had mrs. Jones. You've had knee pain now for 15 years. That sounds awful. Tell me about that. And the patient talks about how bad their knee pain is, and then they look to the husband. Uh, how does, how do you think that knee pain affects your husband?

Speaker 1: (09:33)
Well, he has to do more work around the house. And, uh, do you think it affects your relationship? Yeah. Yeah, it definitely does affect my relationships. So what happens if you don't get this fixed? What will happen in the next five years or 10 years? Well, I'll probably be worse off or, uh, you know, it's going to be really bad. So chiropractors try to get patients to paint this doom and gloom picture, right? Like they don't get their knee fixed or if they don't get their back face, it's going to be awful on their relationship. It's going to be awful for their health. It's going to affect their quality of life and all those things are true. Right? All those things are true and they're relevant questions. But the problem is, is that patients who are aware of that sales process will instantly be triggered and like, ah, this is a timeshare, a sales process.

Speaker 1: (10:14)
It's going to offend them. It's going to piss them off and it's going to affect your, your, uh, your reputation. And then finally, so you, you paint the doom and gloom picture then finally. All right. So it sounds like you want to get this fixed. Is that correct? Mrs. Jones? Yeah. I definitely want to get it fixed. That's why I'm here. Okay. So let's talk, let's talk about regenerative medicine. And then you paint this glorious picture of regenerative medicine and how it's going to solve all your problems and it'll fix your knee and it will do the dishes for you and all these things. And while regenerative medicine is fantastic, oftentimes doctors will overstate the benefits of the therapy to get patients to realize how valuable it is. So there's this value proposition because you're charging four or five, six, 10, $15,000 for a series of injection or injections.

Speaker 1: (10:59)
You're trying to get the patient to realize that this is a very valuable thing, and it's going to have a tremendous impact on your life. And it does. But so often we crossed the line and here's some things here's some ways that doctor has crossed the line is that we say, uh, you know, this, this product has millions of live STEM cells. Well, if you are doing regenerative medicine, chances are, you're doing amniotic tissue or Wharton, Shelly, or PRP or exit poems. None of those things have live STEM cells, doctors and labs will claim that and reps will claim that, but it's not true. So we're putting this type of therapy in the wrong class, and that's not, it's not a live STEM cell product. Um, sometimes we tell doctors or patients will, if you have this injection, you will be able to cancel your surgery or your knee replacement, or you'll never, you'll have to have one injection and that'll fix you for the rest of your life.

Speaker 1: (11:49)
Uh, we've had patients that had one injection and they were good for years and never saw that person ever again. They did really well, or we saw them on re-examine and they, you know, they were doing great. Um, we've also had patients that didn't get any results. They got really bad results. And that stinks when it happens. Cause the patient's disappointed. They've spent money on it. We're disappointed because the patient we want the patient to do well. But when we're saying that, like, you know, almost like almost like guaranteeing results, patients are aware that that's like, that's a sales tactic and it comes off the wrong way. Um, so that's one way you can ruin your reputation, then painting the patient into a corner and saying, this is your only option. You've tried cortisone. You've tried. Anti-inflammatories you've had arthroscopic surgery. The only thing left for you to do the last option is regenerative medicine.

Speaker 1: (12:34)
Uh, when that's not always the reality, you could always do physical therapy, chiropractic laser therapy, knee decompression. Uh, you could do PRP instead of amnio. So there's all kinds of different options. But when you're attempting to paint a patient into a corner, if that patient, like, if you're trying to say, listen, your only option to have a good quality of life and to make your wife happiest, to do a timeshare, like this is gonna piss me off, right? It's a, it's not a good sales tactic. The same thing is true with regenerative medicine. If you tell me, listen, the only thing that's going to work for your knee, the only option left is regenerative medicine. I will walk out the door because you're not being honest with me when there are other options. So understand like your patients aren't stupid. They, they will recognize that this is a sales process, many of them.

Speaker 1: (13:19)
And if they do, it's going to affect not only your sales, your cash sales and your regenerative medicine sales, but again, affects your reputation. Uh, here's another one, uh, uh, this promotion is only good for today. So if you sign up today, this is the, this is the price. If you come back tomorrow, the price is something different. Uh, well, that's a really good sales tactic. Um, the reality is some patients don't want to make a decision that day. And the reality is, if you let the patient walk out the door, they're probably never going to come back. And that's something that you had to contend with, but there's a way to present that that's honest and ethical and there's a way to present it. That puts a lot of it can be very heavy handed with your patients with that kind of strategy and will, it will come back to bite you.

Speaker 1: (14:03)
And then finally, uh, oftentimes doctors will start like discounting the cost of their care plan. We had a patient one time, she came to us and said, Hey, I went to that office down the road and I didn't want to do regenerative medicine there. And I said, well, why not? And she said, well, I went through the lecture and I went through their office and they presented me with a care plan. And it was like 5,000 bucks. And she said, I thought that was a little bit expensive. And so then what happened was the doctor, the doctor who is offering this to her said, uh, yeah, I understand that's expensive, but this is the price. And she said, well, I don't, I don't think I could afford that. So he said, hold on one minute, he left the office, came back a minute later and said, I talked to our clinic director.

Speaker 1: (14:43)
And instead of being $5,000, we're going to do it for 50% less today. It's only going to be 2,500 bucks, but you have to make a decision today. And she's like, that was like she said, that was a really strange thing to just discount it by 50% and like the first three minutes. And she goes, it really came off as a salesy type process to me. And I lost all like, lost all trust for that doctor. And so that's why I'm here. And she said, I want to do regenerative medicine. It's going to be a stretch for me financially. So we had to help her figure out that financial part, but we charged our full rate and we were way more expensive than this other doctor, but she was willing to pay that because we were very honest in our sales practices with, uh, with the patient.

Speaker 1: (15:24)
So, um, so I hope this makes sense. So there, there are, uh, I'm not saying that you should not use sales tactics. You absolutely need a sales tactic, but your sales tactic needs to be, in my opinion, more on the more distant from the timeshare, heavy handed, emotionally manipulative sales tactics that are used in other industries like the timeshare industry. So the thing here is that you can use regenerative medicine as a fantastic tool. It's great for patients without harming your reputation, um, without losing referrals from other patients, um, without running the risk of going into compliance issues by overstating the benefits of regenerative medicine. Um, so you can do this in a very ethical way that makes money for your practice helps your patients is a fantastic tool, but I would steer you away from using these, these kinds of emotionally manipulative tactics, because it'll, it'll work for you for a period of time, but eventually over weeks, over months to years, patients will realize that, and they're not going to want to come to your office because they'll see you as the timeshare office of your community. So I hope you found this beneficial doc. I hope you resonate with this approach. If you have any questions about this or have any concerns or want to, or want to tell me something about your sales process, uh, shoot me an email info@simplifiedintegration.com that's info@simplifiedintegration.com. Thanks for tuning in today. I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode and we'll see you next time. Have a great day. Bye bye.

Speaker 3: (16:54)
Hey innovators. Thanks for listening to the simplified integration podcast fact that you're listening tells me that you're like me, someone who loves simplicity and the truth is those who embrace simplicity are some of the greatest innovators. So hope you got a ton of value from what we covered on today's episode. Be sure to subscribe and share with other docs that you feel could benefit from greater sophistication through simplification and innovation. If you've got specific questions that you'd like answered on this podcast, or you've got specific topics that you'd like me to discuss, just shoot me an email at info@simplifiedintegration.com that's info@simplifiedintegration.com.