3 Reasons WHY your Higher Price Plans AREN'T Converting

You've just finished an initial consultation and your patient is ready to begin their treatment plan next week.

When you explain the expected duration, which for the example of this blog, is six weeks - you see their face change and they say 'umm... I'll get back to you.' 

You sit there awkwardly for a bit before you say 'oh yeah just let me know'. The patient leaves and if you're lucky, you hear from them again in the next week. But most times, the patients never end up 'letting you know.'

In this blog, I'll break down how understanding these three key mindset shifts will prevent this situation from happening again. They are:

1. People act on the emotional and logical data they have at that present moment. 

2. Most longer term and/or higher priced plans require higher emotional commitment (trust) and the only way they can get there is either through higher pain or by prior experience with you.

3. Even if you cater to both logical and emotional components, most people prefer to be asked again instead of expecting them to come to you. 

Now if you'd prefer watching a video, you can view it below. If not, keep reading!

1. People Act on the Emotional and Logical Data they have in that moment

This sounds a lot more in depth than it really is, but decision making has to make sense in the head, and feel right in the heart. It's a rare individual that can override how they 'feel' in the heart to go with their head. It's common to have individuals that override their head and go with their heart. 

Now logical data is easy - and in fact most services in health make sense from a logical point of view. If your job is MSK pain oriented, as is the case for physio, chiro, osteo, the logic behind investment in healthcare is to facilitate healing so you get back to normal as fast as you can. There's plenty of data that supports this.

In the case of medicine, if you have high blood pressure and it can be lowered by medication in a matter of hours, this also makes sense. There are also numerous studies that demonstrate this.

If you're in something like dentistry and your patient has rotting gums that produce incredibly bad breath - it makes SENSE that you should get gum treatment and/or cleans. There are not only anecdotal accounts but clear papers that show this.

But if every purchase we made in life was due to logical data - many services in health would be sold more easily (and inverse, many products that don't make sense will die). 

Except... that's not really what happens.

What actually happens is patients fully understand the logic behind treatment, but they're missing important emotional data. The tricky part with emotional data is it cannot be reasoned. It has to be experienced. 

That's why, no matter how many times you tell someone that 'the worst thing that can happen if you try is you don't make it' - 99% of people STILL don't try because they don't feel emotionally safe. The paradox here is, unless you throw yourself into something you feel 'unsafe' in, you never end up feeling 'safe'. 

So when it comes to investing time and money into a treatment program, the emotional data that they need most commonly comes down to this:

1. Do I even trust this person to take me to full recovery?
2. Do I feel like spending this money is a 'safe' investment?
3. Will this treatment even work for me?

The shift that you need to understand here is no logical data can help consolidate these questions. The data they need is experiential in nature. And that's why it cannot be  completely explained away.

Let's use an example to illustrate this point. Say you want to improve your rebooking skills and you're interested in working with me 1-1, but the only experience you have with me so far is reading my blogs and watching my free content. 

Although my online free content is useful to you, I wouldn't pitch you my 1-1 coaching services, which starts from $247 per week - because I understand that 

a) It can be a considerable investment for you and
b) You haven't experienced any of my paid products yet (so what if you pay for bullshit?)

That's why I wrote a book that you can purchase for $25, a high value tool that 300+ clinicians have used to improve their performance in clinic. $25 is not an issue for most people, and I poured at least 80% of what I knew at the time into the clinic. 

Now after you've used that book and SEEN my teachings work in front of your very eyes, you have emotional data that

a) I can trust Phil's products
b) I've already made money back from investing in his products

Are you more likely to be okay with 1-1 coaching that is a higher price in nature?

Of course.

But what does this mean for you? If you know your product is a higher investment both in time and resources, it makes sense for you to create low commitment options that answer emotional data.

2. The Bigger the Plan, the More Trust (or pain) You Need First

 Let's now take a look at how this plays out in clinic, using the two examples - a psychologist and a dentist. 

Psychologist
To be frank, I've never used a psychologist personally so I don't know exactly how a treatment plan works, but having consulted in business for a psychologist in the past - it looks very much like a fortnightly or monthly check up that focuses on key action steps regarding a behaviour or pattern that creates 'issues' in their life.

So I hypothesise (and I'm completely talking about of my ass here), that in the first session, the psych will take a detailed history of the patient and throw out a pitch like, it might take you 6 months to build the cognitive habits that will set you up for success. 

But if this is the first time the patient has seen you - unless their problem is incredibly urgent (like they've now gone through their second divorce and they don't know why they keep having the same fights), it's probably unlikely they'll commit to 6 months of therapy - even if they have the money.

And the reason for that is aforementioned - they don't have the emotional data that makes this a 'safe' decision.

However, let me pose a slightly different scenario. Let's say that the best treatment approach is still six months of therapy - however, now you are cognisant that it is a big ask, and the patient really doesn't have the emotional data to commit to six months.

You will say this instead:

'So most patients with this issue tend to need a lot of time to become aware of their habits, before making small changes that last. Now the process can take up to six months, but it is a big commitment right off the bat. So instead, we just focus on one key goal in the next 4 sessions and if you're happy with that, we can speak about longer term strategy. Does that work for you?'

Can you see how I've completely changed the way the information is interpretted if I were the patient?

First, I make them aware it's going to take a while.

Then, I say - I understand this is a big commitment so why don't we start with something smaller? This is to respect the emotional requirements needed to make the 6 month decision. 

Now the important part is to deliver fantastic results in four weeks - so when you do revisit a longer term commitment, now they have the emotional data to say yes. 

Dentist
In the case of dentistry - a root canal exchange is $1000 with additional expenses on top (P.S please forgive me if I get dentistry wrong because I don't actually know TOO much about it, however I'm getting a lot of dentists buy my book so I give you guys a shoutout). You could just say to a patient, 'hey you need this treatment, it's going to cost $1000, when do you want to come in?' which will work for some patients.

But for most patients, it probably won't. 

So what can you say instead? Well, like the psychology example, you need to provide a lower commitment so they can experience your service first hand before you make the ask. Let me show you a simple way to do this.

'After you perform the assessment, you will outline the root canal procedure and cost involved. Then, you will say this - 'now there's two options that we can move forward with, the first option is for patients who just want to get it over and done with, which we can book you in for right away, or if you want to experience more of what we do here and whether it's the right fit for you, we can start off with a deep clean that should help reduce your symptoms for a little bit, and we can follow up with you in a few days to confirm next steps.'

Can you see how this works? First, you educate them on the canal procedure and the full costs. Then, you show them a low commitment option with a clean, explaining what it does and then respecting their decision by following up in a few days. 

Imagine you're someone whose on the fence, wouldn't the second approach be a far better way to convert you into the full root canal treatment? 

After you've done all this hard work, it's still important you follow up because patients may STILL need reassurance, which brings me to point number 3.

3. Even if you've done everything right - you still need to ask

But won't my patients just come to me and ask?

Maybe... 1/10. Most patients aren't as forward as this - because most have an issue admitting they need help. But if you ASK them, it's much easier for them to say 'yes'.

Using the psychology example above - after you've gone through three sessions, simply say 'Hey [name], before you come in next week, what would you like to do with our arrangement? If you'd like to finish up, we'll spend next week coming up with independent strategies. If you want to proceed to the longer term plan, I'll come up with a new plan for next week.'

Whatever they say, it's now open what the next move is. If even half of your patients elect a longer term treatment, over a long enough time course - you'll be booked out consistently.

In the root canal example - if someone chose the deep clean, and the treating dentist called up 3 days later to check in and ask whether they'd like to move forward with the procedure, it's highly likely that as long as the deep clean helped, they are more likely to say yes to the $1000 treatment. 

The counter argument to this might be - 'well, what if they say no?' If they say no despite you providing full education, with both logical and emotional components catered to - isn't that an informed choice? As long as you tell them that the root canal will get worse, and leaving it longer will cause further eroding of the gums (which is all true, I think), if they choose to leave it - that's on them.

Another counter argument, especially in higher priced products is 'well, what if they just go somewhere else that's cheaper?' The answer to this is a problem with your offer and service, and not the problem of the patient. If there is a clinic out there that can do the same procedure for cheaper, and provide the SAME level of service (this is not the same as the procedure), then that's a completely different issue which will not be covered in this blog.

The central idea is this - you always need to ask politely after the low commitment option has been completed. This is an 'upsell' in business terms but if I reframe it as trying to solve problems for people, it's just like solving a small problem for someone to ask whether they'd like your help to solve a bigger one.

In conclusion
By simply understanding these three concepts, you will completely change the way you view how you pitch treatments plans. Putting patient trust and experience FIRST will seem slower in the beginning, but goodwill and trust compound over time - and that is how you develop true word of mouth that never fails you.