It takes a lot of money and effort to get the phone to ring with a potential new patient!
The marketing cost for each inbound surgical prospect call is between $200 and $500 – depending on your location.
Whether your prospect books a procedure and how much they spend is depends on the quality of the phone call and the skill of the person answering the phone. Most staff just do the minimum required – they answer the prospect’s basic questions or just take the order – but they don’t do much influencing or selling. That’s where Phone Skills Training comes in.
For 15 years, I owned a Catering Venue for wedding receptions and events. Prospects at our Venue (mostly brides) would make a phone enquiry and ask us questions about two main things – either price or availability – and staff would politely tell them the answer and be off the phone in a few minutes or less.
Most prospects were pleasant but never called back, and we lost a huge number of potential sales as a result. Our phone call sales conversion rates were below average and our business really struggled financially.
30% of the time, the calls went unanswered; sometimes they said “all the information is on the website” or “we are already booked out for months”. Effectively killing the enquiry and the sale. They never wrote down the details of the person enquiring and rarely ever phoned anyone back.
Some of our front desk staff even had a nickname – “Professional Sales Murderer” or “Seven Eleven – we never close”. They were so busy looking after reception duties at the front desk, they had NO time to answer the phone and wanted to get off the call as quickly as possible.
That’s when I discovered that hiring a good phone enquiry person and organising professional phone skills training is essential.
It wasn’t until we learnt the technique of asking great questions that we made those additional sales and turned the business around. Selling is NOT telling – selling is all about asking questions and active listening. Don’t just blurt out your price – always discuss your value before revealing your price! It would be like a doctor prescribing a cure without effectively diagnosing the problem.
A single question (just 15 words) turned the business around and made us our first million dollars. Five years later we found a power phrase (another 20 words) which was the key to “selling in off-peak times” – filling up in our low season and quieter times.
Let’s start at the beginning with answering the phone – Have you ever noticed that different staff answer the phone in different ways? Some staff are much more effective than others at getting names and building rapport early in the conversation. A happy attitude and voice tone is important – but the specific opening words you use are vital for making more sales.
We found adjusting to the pace and mood of the caller was critical – matching a fast or slow speed (quick and loud or slower and quiet) and a focus on either results or relationship (sense of urgency and the amount of small talk required) were important.
We developed and practiced a detailed phone script – a structured list of the best possible questions to ask in any phone enquiry. Using the phone script doubled our sales conversion from phone enquiry to sale. The trick with the phone script was not to ask all the questions hurriedly or rudely like the Spanish Inquisition, but to build lots of rapport with the prospect during the diagnostic process – and spend more quality time on the phone.
Compliments, common bonds and appreciative enquiry techniques helped build rapid rapport. Use of question softeners like “Do you mind if I ask…” helped build trust and respect quickly and sales grew substantially.
It was crucial to find out fast whether they were a past customer or had much experience in our industry, so we developed several great questions to find out the source of the enquiry up front.
Sales confidence and competence was important – prospects could tell when you were new or not very confident. The fastest way to become an expert was to really know your stuff – we trained and trained and drilled our staff on the “seven Reasons Why?” and sales role-playing paid dividends. With each enquiry potentially being worth thousands of dollars, it was too expensive to let newbies handle the customer enquiries.
The SAS commandos have a great saying about training – “It’s better to sweat on the training ground than bleed on the battleground”.
Using a few special words really made a difference to sales conversion – for example, just saying the words “because” or “which means” turns any feature into a useful benefit for the customer.
We prepared some phrases and great responses for overcoming the most popular objections and practiced them under we knew them confidently.
Most prospects buy on emotions so the choice of closing question was important. It needed to be tailored to the particular type of customer, using for example, “How does that look?, How does that sound? or How do you feel about that?” for different types of people. Don’t ever ask “What do you think?”
Once we had landed the sale, we would go after the high-profit Add-ons.
The classic favourite at McDonald’s is “Would you like fries with that?” but did you know there are even better ways to ask for add-ons?
McDonald’s stores make the bulk of their profit on Fries and Soft drinks – so now they say “Would you like to make that a meal?” or “Would you like to upsize that?”
Depending on the way you ask, you can get either a poor result or a spectacular one. Techniques such as using your personal recommendation, use of visual and tactile sales aids, using the magic nod, offering staff incentives, future pacing, and telling success & war stories can really boost the sales of add-ons and extras.
Repeats and referrals are the key to any business – you can turn one customer into many sales. Asking questions that explore further possibilities – Think ”What else?” and “Who else?” when talking to your customers. Offer a “sushi menu” in the medspa – give them a personal pictorial checklist of all the great products & services you offer.
Ask for patient referrals – ask if they know anyone who’s your target prospect of the month.
Build a Call Conversion Success Kit
Keep a shared folder or system with:
Make it easy for staff to refresh their language and confidence anytime.
Introduce simple KPIs for your phone team:
Review monthly in team huddles to show progress and keep the focus on performance.
Make a laminated quick-reference sheet for every desk. Include:
Once your best receptionist or phone handler is consistently converting:
Peer-to-peer training creates pride, buy-in, and cultural reinforcement of excellence.
Q: Why is answering the phone poorly such a costly mistake for a business?
Q: What’s the biggest mistake Clinics make when staff answer price or availability questions?
Skilled phone staff ask smart questions first — building trust, identifying needs, and framing benefits — before quoting or checking the calendar.
Q: How can a single phone question boost conversion rates dramatically?
Q: Why do so many staff fail to follow up with phone enquiries?
Q: What’s the impact of tone and pacing on phone sales performance?
Q: What’s the danger of having untrained front desk staff answering sales calls?
Q: What makes a great question during a phone enquiry call?
Q: How do you overcome objections without sounding defensive or pushy?
Q: What are some alternative phrases to “Would you like fries with that?” for upselling?
Q: How do you train staff to ask for referrals or repeat business during a call?
Q: What’s the best way to train new staff in phone skills without overwhelming them?