Three Tips to Increase Consultation Conversion Rates in Your Aesthetics Practice

Are you converting 70% of your consultations into booked treatments or surgeries? Or do you struggle with getting patients to convert and aren’t sure why? Learn how to increase consultation conversion rates in your aesthetic medical practice with our three tips for success.

In the competitive world of aesthetic medicine, standing out means more than just having degrees or offering the latest treatments or procedures. It’s about delivering an exceptional consultation. More importantly, understanding the real reasons people buy anything and what questions you can ask in the consultation that will uncover the patient's emotional needs and get them to say yes.

At Terri Ross Consulting, we specialize in empowering medical aesthetic practices just like yours with expert sales training skills that will transform your consultation process. Our proven sales methodologies help aesthetic practices learn the skills necessary proven to increase consultation conversion rates. This works for all aesthetic practices and providers and is based on real-world experience.

3 Tips to Increase Consultation Conversion Rates

While we could write an entire book on this topic, for this blog we’ll focus on making just three changes to how you conduct your consultations that will help you increase consultation conversion rates and increase your profitability.

1. Increase Consultation Time.

Dedicate more time to each consultation to ensure it is thorough and comprehensive. One of the key differentiators of a successful aesthetic practice is the time dedicated to each consultation. The most successful practices understand that a thorough and comprehensive consultation is essential. We recommend 45 minutes as a rule of thumb–longer if you are a plastic surgery practice.

By allocating more time, you can delve deeper into your patient’s needs, concerns, and goals. This not only helps build a strong rapport but also ensures that your patient feels acknowledged, validated, valued, and understood. A rushed consultation can lead to miscommunication and dissatisfaction, but a well-planned session with a cadence and flow sets the foundation for a long-term client relationship.

While it might feel “salesy” to think of a consultation as a sales opportunity, shifting your perspective to an educational mindset often helps. Think for a moment how you feel when you have any kind of sales interaction. If you go to a car dealership to buy a new car or buy a new computer and feel rushed, pressured, or that you are not getting your questions answered before a big purchase, you will likely have more objections, feel put off, and leave needing to “think about it.”

Spending extra time answering questions, explaining the benefits, showing before and after pictures, discussing recovery time, and anticipating and diffusing the most common objections is a surefire way to increase consultation conversion rates.

2. Charge for Consultations.

Implementing a consultation fee is one of the quickest and most effective ways to filter out non-serious inquiries, attract committed clients, and reduce the number of patient no-shows.

Once you determine what you are comfortable charging (we recommend anywhere from $50-$250 that will apply toward the cost of the service/surgical procedure), you must train your front desk concierge team to be able to credential your practice and providers and succinctly and effectively explain your consultation fee policy and WHY.

Here is an example script:

At New You Plastic Surgery, what you can expect is that we will schedule you for a 45-minute consultation where Dr. Smith will get to know you, discuss your concerns, explain the best treatment options for you that will help you achieve the outcome you are looking for, review the procedure and recovery time, and answer any questions you have. There is a $250 consultation fee that will be applied toward the cost of the surgery when you schedule the procedure. We have an opening on Tuesday at 10 am. Can we schedule that for you now?

While it may seem uncomfortable at first if you have never charged for consultations, we promise it will help:

• Focus on patients who are genuinely interested and committed to making the investment
• Position your practice as one that values professionalism and respects your providers’ time
• Streamline your operational efficiency by reducing your no-show rates

Patients who are willing to pay for a consultation are more likely to appreciate and trust your recommendations, leading to better patient outcomes while helping you increase consultation conversion rates.

3. Use the LAER Method of Communication.

If you want to increase consultation conversion rates, enhance your consultation process, and ensure your patients feel heard, understood, and confident in your expertise, mastering the LAER Method of communication is a critical strategy. It is one of the cornerstones of our sales training at Terri Ross Consulting.

LAER is an acronym for LISTEN, ACKNOWLEDGE, EXPLORE, and RESPOND.

• LISTEN. Actively listen to understand your client's needs and build a strong connection. This involves intuitive, active listening and is more than just hearing their words. It is paying attention to their emotions and body language behind their words. By listening on a deeper level, you can uncover their true motivations and concerns which will help you diffuse their objections.
• ACKNOWLEDGE. Acknowledge and validate your patient’s feelings and concerns to help build trust and rapport and make them feel understood and heard. This is crucial in establishing a strong patient/practitioner relationship.
• EXPLORE. Learn the top 13 questions you must ask in the consultation to uncover the patient’s emotional needs. Dive deeper into your patient’s goals and previous experiences. These questioning skills are invaluable so that you can understand the WHY behind how they are feeling and preemptively handle any objections and tailor your approach to alleviate any concerns.
• RESPOND. Provide personalized solutions that are specifically tailored to your patient’s needs. Highlight the features/benefits of the recommended treatment or procedures and how they align with their goals. A personalized response reassures the patient that you have their best interests at heart.

From here, you’ll be able to build a personalized treatment plan that includes a series of services and products. Patients who receive tailored treatment plans are more likely to adhere to your recommendations, leading to improved patient outcomes and helping turn first-time patients into lifelong patrons of your practice.

To sum it up, using the LAER Method not only enhances the consultation experience, allowing your patients to feel heard and understood but also facilitates a personalized treatment plan and increases consultation conversion rates.

These sales strategies to increase consultation conversion rates are just the “tip of the iceberg” but a great place to start. There's so much more to learn and apply in your practice to improve your sales methods, increase consultation conversion rates, and grow your revenue.

Increase Consultation Conversion Rates and Go Further, Faster, with Terri Ross Consulting

If you want to “Go Further, Faster” and increase your revenue by $1M+ this year, our team would love to help. Book a Discovery Call with us today.

Take a moment and listen to our recent podcast episode of InTouch With Terri, where our founder Terri Ross explains how to turn leads into consultations.