Business Growth Formula for Your Aesthetic Practice Success

This blog post draws inspiration from the business growth formula created by Alex Nottingham, JD, MBA, CEO and Founder of All-Star Dental Academy. Alex tailored this formula for dental practices, drawing from insights learned from Jay Abraham during his time at Tony Robbins. Alex shared this formula, which can also be adapted to aesthetic practices, while he was a guest on Episode 92 of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast.

When it comes to running a thriving practice, growth is more than just a goal – it’s the ultimate aspiration. Every aesthetic practice owner envisions their business flourishing, drawing in new patients, boosting revenue and leaving a lasting mark on their community. Yet, substantial growth isn’t a stroke of luck; it requires a strategic mindset, a dedication to excellence and a deep understanding of the factors driving practice success. In this blog post, we delve into the business growth formula designed to ensure the success of your practice. This formula aims to optimize conversion rates, elevate patient retention, amplify referrals and harness the power of effective marketing strategies.

What is the Business Growth Formula?

The business growth formula for your aesthetic practice success is a strategic approach that nurtures the expansion of aesthetic practices through incremental improvements across key phases. These phases encompass handling phone calls to schedule appointments, ensuring appointment attendance, obtaining treatment acceptance and fostering patient referrals. Through careful refinement of these fundamental components, aesthetic practices can cultivate a self-sustaining ecosystem of growth.

Derived from successful business practices and adaptable to various industries, the business growth formula presents a strategic framework that unleashes growth potential. Commencing with effective marketing strategies, both internal through referrals and external through tactics like SEO and pay-per-click, the formula seeks to captivate potential patients. The initial touchpoints, often involving phone interactions, lay the foundation for the conversion journey. The pivotal step is converting inquiries into solid appointments, with a paramount focus on minimizing cancellations and no-shows.

The subsequent phase involves leveraging appointments to present and secure acceptance for treatment plans, thereby significantly influencing revenue generation. Beyond individual patients, happy clients evolve into valuable referral sources, establishing a continuous cycle of growth. Essentially, the formula systematically guides aesthetic practices through the process of attracting, engaging and nurturing patients.

Handling Phone Calls to Schedule Appointments

The entire business growth formula centers on the art of transforming potential leads into loyal patients. Given that initial patient contact often occurs through phone conversations, it’s crucial for you to ensure that your team is well-trained in the best practices for managing these incoming calls. They should be kind, helpful and always strive to guide patients towards scheduling an appointment.

Enhancing the quality of your interactions will enable you to make gradual improvements in the percentage of leads that successfully convert into patients. In the subsequent illustration, we’ll delve into how minor adjustments can accumulate to yield substantial outcomes!

Illustrating the Power of Incremental Improvements:

In Episode 92 of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast, Alex Nottingham, the CEO and Founder of All-Star Dental Academy, offered an illustrative example backed by researched data that underscores the significance of incremental improvements.

Imagine a starting point with $5 million in potential opportunities. Applying a 35% conversion rate yields $1.75 million. If paired with an 85% appointment show-up rate, the total slightly decreases to $1.5 million.

Continuing along this path, a 60% treatment acceptance rate results in $900,000. Furthermore, a 15% referral rate adds to a final revenue of approximately $1 million.

Now, let’s consider the scenario where we enhance each aspect of the formula by a mere 5%, showcasing the power of incremental improvement. The $5 million in opportunities, which initially resulted in $1.75 million at a 35% conversion rate, is now transformed with a 40% conversion rate, resulting in $2 million. This indicates an additional quarter-million dollars from the previous step due to a 5% improvement in phone skills. As a result, the subsequent steps also see a 5% enhancement: show-up rate at 90%, resulting in $1.8 million; treatment acceptance at 65%, yielding $1.2 million; and referral rate at 20%, culminating in a final revenue of $1.4 million—$400,000 more than the previous total generated.

Likewise, Alex Nottingham provided a concluding example where he increased the percentages of each step by 12%. Starting with $5 million in opportunities, with a 47% conversion rate, you now reach $2.4 million. Achieving a 97% show-up rate, the total becomes $2.3 million. With a treatment acceptance rate of 72%, you reach $1.6 million. A referral rate of 26% leads to $2 million, effectively doubling the revenue compared to the original amount generated.

Ensuring Patient Appointment Attendance

Having grasped the potential of achieving substantial outcomes through incremental improvements, let’s now dive into additional critical steps of the formula.

Following the initial stage of receiving a phone call and scheduling an appointment, the subsequent key step is ensuring patient attendance. As we’ve seen in our earlier example, a show-up rate of 97% yields remarkable benefits. This metric indicates the proportion of scheduled appointments that patients honor. Achieving such a rate demands strategic appointment scheduling, effective patient communication and well-timed reminders aimed at minimizing instances of no-shows.

By implementing enhanced communication strategies and leveraging reminders, the practice can significantly expand its patient base without the need for additional resources allocated to marketing efforts.

Obtaining Treatment Acceptance

As patients step through the doors of your practice, the task of securing treatment acceptance takes on paramount importance. In Alex Nottingham’s example, he mentions the possibility of striving for a treatment acceptance rate of 72%, which corresponds to the portion of patients who agree to the proposed treatment plans. Effective treatment acceptance hinges on building trust, achieved through open communication, comprehensive explanations of the benefits and potential drawbacks of your procedures and treatments and addressing any concerns that may arise.

By maintaining a consistent approach of transparent and timely patient education and communication, you can experience elevated revenue and increased patient satisfaction levels.

Fostering Patient Referrals

Delighted patients naturally transform into enthusiastic advocates. Alex Nottingham stresses the significance of attaining a referral rate of 26%, which indicates that around a quarter of your patient base actively recommends your practice to others. Remarkable experiences, personalized attention and outstanding outcomes inspire patients to embrace their role as advocates.

Through the enhancement of patient experiences and the nurturing of relationships, the practice can actively strive to elevate its referral rate. This effort culminates in the attraction of new patients via word-of-mouth recommendations.

Empowering Your Team for Success: The Leadership Factor

While the business growth formula relies on data-driven metrics, the human factor remains pivotal. Effective practice growth hinges on a motivated, skilled team. This is where leadership steps in. Practice leaders should focus on recruiting those aligned with the practice’s vision, creating an environment fostering growth and camaraderie.

Consider a practice prioritizing team empowerment and leadership development. Nurturing a team aligned with goals and values results in enhanced patient satisfaction, operational efficiency and a positive work culture.

The Power of Continuous Team Training

Continuous team training is vital. Training goes beyond skill enhancement; it instills a culture of excellence and continuous improvement. Steve Jobs was once asked, “What if we spend money on training and they leave?” to which he responded, “What if I don’t train them and they stay?” This question underscores the value of investing in training, even amid potential turnover. A well-trained team plays a pivotal role in growth and patient satisfaction.

Envision a practice committed to robust training initiatives. By elevating competencies across skill sets, deepening product knowledge and embracing patient-centered communication, the practice undergoes a remarkable transformation. The result? Elevated interactions, amplified acceptance rates and a profound sense of loyalty from patients.

Balancing Marketing and the Business Growth Formula for Your Aesthetic Practice Success

Marketing unquestionably holds a pivotal role in propelling practice growth; however, a comprehensive approach is imperative. The business growth formula underscores the importance of reinforcing core components: conversion rates, appointment attendance, treatment acceptance and referrals. Simultaneously, investments in strategic marketing endeavors are essential. Allocating around 5% of your budget to marketing and potentially up to 10% for more aggressive campaigns, establishes a harmonious equilibrium between organic expansion and external promotional efforts.

In today’s competitive landscape, the presence of a website is non-negotiable. This platform assumes a decisive role in the digital realm, but the key lies in striking a delicate balance. During the initial phases of website development, pay-per-click strategies often prove indispensable. As organic and SEO (search engine optimization) initiatives gain momentum, the prominence of pay-per-click may diminish. Yet, the factor of visibility remains an imperative. Overlooking the significance of being seen poses a vulnerability, as competitors can exploit the opportunity to attract attention.

In the realm of marketing campaigns, it is advisable to engage in A/B testing to determine what resonates with your unique practice and brand. This tailored approach ensures that your efforts yield optimal results.

Conclusion

Navigating the competitive landscape of aesthetic practices requires a purposeful and strategic approach. By meticulously optimizing conversion rates, appointment show-ups, treatment acceptance and referrals, while also nurturing a motivated and skilled team, practice owners can pave the path to sustained growth. Each step of the formula empowers practice owners to elevate their aesthetic practices to new heights of success in the dynamic world of aesthetics.

Schedule Your Free Consult & Learn More!

Are you searching for expert guidance to navigate every phase of your practice’s journey to success? Our team of professionals is ready to provide the assistance you need! Schedule a free consult with our award-winning expert, Jay Shorr. We are excited to walk every step of the way with you to help you maximize profit, reduce costs and ultimately thrive in your aesthetic practice!

To learn MORE about the business growth formula you need for your aesthetic practice success, watch episode 92 of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast “Strategic Expansion Framework: Unlocking Growth for Your Aesthetic Practice with Alex Nottingham”!