The Marketing Plan That Pays Off Your $50K Equipment

You're listening to Podiatry Marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome to this week's episode of Podiatry Marketing. With me, as he is every week, the man himself, the the the legend of podiatry marketing. It is Big Jim Mac. How are doing today, Jim?

So you would call me a podiatry legend? I think there's a podcast name, but I'm not totally sure.

You've been on a couple of times.

A few times. Yeah.

You've been on a few times. I think Jonathan Smallhull's record, think he's been off 15 times at Yeah. Various various stages. But how you been anyway?

Things are good. Things are good here in Montreal. It's summertime, and the live in is busy, but a little bit easy. So so, yeah, no complaints in Montreal.

Oh, yeah. Kansas, we're getting to winter now. It's freezing. We we got down to four overnight, like 18 degrees. 18 degrees Celsius overnight.

Fretched weather for you. I know. Bundle up.

And the best thing about Cairns is pretty much well, not pretty much. You can't. You just do. You you wear shorts all year round. You don't actually have to put on long pants.

But every now and then, you get a bit adventurous. You gotta throw on some tracky decks, some exercise yeah. Long long exercise pants to keep yourself warm, but not really required.

Yeah. That that's the way it is there, and we we live in different places. So

Okay. So what are we talking about today? What's on the agenda?

Yeah. Today's agenda is the marketing plan that pays off your 50 k equipment and more. So

Oh, yeah.

You know, if people, you know, people out in the audience have probably either in the market have looked at, you know, expensive pieces of equipment, whether it be a laser, shockwave therapy, a store's device, you know, anything kinda cash pay, you're probably asking, you know, the wrong questions. And, you know, what most podiatrists ask is, you know, can I can I afford this device? And that's really the wrong frame entirely. The better question is, what's the marketing plan that pays this off in twelve months or or or faster? The equipment doesn't pay for itself.

Patients do. And patients don't show up unless you've actually planned for them to. So I think it's really, really important that, you know, as people are looking at different forms of treatment, you know, how are they gonna actually make sure that it's it's used and that patients are aware of it.

I love this topic. I have done some talks on this before and also a couple of webinars on this subject. And this is one that people really need to pay attention to because so many people will just go, oh, they're at a conference. That piece of equipment looks good. They they commit to it that they're gonna spend $50,000 without any thought going into everything else about it.

How they're gonna market it, where they're gonna put it, and everything else they're gonna do with it. So I'm looking forward to digging into this.

No. Absolutely. I think it's gonna be good because you know, today we're gonna walk through the kind of a five part marketing plan that turns that big equipment purchase from a financial gamble, you're not really sure what's gonna happen to something more predictable when it comes to to grow in your clinic. So

Okay. Well, I know we went through all this when we got our laser for fungal nails, when we got a shockwave. Most pieces of equipment that were expensive, we went through this process before we ever purchased it. So dive into number one.

Yes. So number one is, you know, run the math backward before you sign the lease. So most podiatrists make a $50,000 equipment decision and then, you know, hope marketing figures it out for themselves or just hope the you know, even without marketing, you know, that this thing just kind of brings in the patients, which is really backwards thinking. You know, before you sign a lease on a, you know, storage device or a laser, you know, run the math in either direction, you know. So it and is the equipment, you know, that cost $50,000?

You know, how much is it gonna bring in per treatment? You know, if something brings in, you know, $1,500 per treatment, that'd be 33 cash patients in twelve months just to break even. You know, if it's somewhere around along the lines of like $500, that's more like 99 cash patients to do that. So the real question isn't can I afford this? It's what does my marketing need to produce each month to pay this off and actually put money back into my pocket?

Yeah. Well, this is exactly what we did when I bought the laser. I think at the time it was 30,000. It was an arc laser. And I went, how many patients do I need to see at x amount to pay this thing off over?

And we were talking the same thing, like a twelve month period. We worked it out and we we worked up the number we needed to see in the twelve months, we did it in ninety days. Just by by really thinking and planning beforehand, which I know you're gonna get into all this. But in having a game plan, putting it into place, yeah, we hit that target in nine days and everything after that was just just cream on top.

And I think it's I think it's really smart you did that that way, and it's one of those things where, you know, you have to know what stage you are in your practice to see whether it makes sense or not. You know, someone that just new into practice, you know, bought this, you know, basically has a lease on a building, bought a bunch of chairs, has a lot of kind of overhead when it comes to equipment already. You know, maybe that's not the best first step because, you know, maybe you don't have those like, you know, 20 to 15 to 20 patients per month that you know could use that type of device or that modality. So it's something where you really have to kinda know what what stage you're in. And you know most podiatrists make you know a 6 figure purchase you know decision without really that kind of corresponding marketing budget decision attached to it as well.

So if you're just buying the device and you don't you haven't set aside you know some money to you know, talk about the diagnosis that this thing will treat and and kind of build a plan around it, that's where people get into trouble. Just, you know, making the purchase and then trying to figure out what to do later is kind of a recipe for disaster.

Yeah. But if you haven't thought about it beforehand, and that's what I mean. Sometimes people will be at a conference and they see something, they get all excited and they commit to it. And I'm thinking, no matter how good the deal is at the conference, usually taking a step back and then spending some time planning out, thinking about the purchase, you're gonna make more money and you're gonna make far more from it than that small amount that they're actually you're gonna save. Unless they're giving it to you 50% off, then, yeah, for the money you save, contact you or I, Jim, and we'll just tell you what to do.

Like you said there, you got you got to aim a little bit higher than just break even. Right? You have to have a plan in place to make sure you're, you know, hopefully in the in profit by, you know, eight to ten months, and that gives you some margin, you know, in case there's you know, it's if things don't kinda work out exactly as the spreadsheet said. So you definitely wanna spend time on that front end to to make sure you know your numbers, to make sure it is a sound investment that you have kind of a plan behind it. So that kinda leads into, you know, like, the marketing aspect of things where the kind of the the second step, and that's you really wanna mine your patient date database, you know, thirty to sixty days before the equipment arrives.

So your your best new patients for a new piece of equipment are already in your practice management system or in your EMR. You know, pull a list of every chronic plantar fasciitis patient, Achilles tendinopathy, you know, chronic tendon patient with who's been, you know, basically from three years ago who didn't fully resolve, that's your kind of your launch list, you know, maybe thirty to sixty days before the equipment arrives. You know, send people letters, emails, text message, whatever you have accessed, you know, basically, like a do even a newsletter, telling them you've added a new option for some of these more stubborn cases, some of the things I described earlier. So you might be able to book, you know, somewhere between 15 to 20 consults before the device has even been up and running. So it's something to to consider, you know, what diagnosis and treatments are kind of in your EMR that could benefit from a new modality.

That's a great place to start.

Yeah. And even talking about the the like the pre marketing is when we got the laser, that was one of the things we did is we we sort of surveyed our patients as they were coming through. Hey, you've got fungal nails. If we had this equipment that could do this and this is what it would cost to do treatment, how interested would be in that? And they're like, oh, that that would be fantastic.

So we had already surveyed a lot of our patients to go, this is a piece of equipment that our patients are saying, yes, that they want. Then we worked out, okay, how many do we need to, what we said, get to pay this thing off? So even when we ordered it, we were starting to book patients in. We were we were contacting all their patients in their newsletter saying this equipment's gonna be here at this time. And I think we pretty 50% of paying off the equipment was already booked in before we actually the equipment arrived.

I really like that. I think that's a it's a really smart approach that surveying almost doing market research. You know, sometimes people will pay hundreds if not thousands of dollars for, you know, kind of just surveying and kinda getting market research on a in an area or demographics. So just, you know, kind of surveying your own patients and seeing what they would be interested in, I think, is a really, really smart move. And kind of even seeds the idea in their mind, you know, that this thing might be available in the future.

So, you know, whether it be, you know, talking to them directly, developing kind of a multi touch sequence, you know, is gonna work better than just kind of a one off email. So, you know, like I said, sometimes physical letters, an email, a text message, all these things kinda spaced out over two to three weeks in kind of before it arrives. It's something to definitely consider.

It was yeah. It's one of those things that if you do it right from the beginning, and like you said here, just then digging it, got, you know, what do you call it? Mining your database. It's the return you're gonna get on that, like I said, that this is how you speed up paying this piece of equipment off.

Absolutely. And I think it's also it turns into wanting to you know, not only educate the patients, but also training your front desk staff kind of on the script before the device you know is in your clinic. You know, if a patient calls about it, and that you know, they send out those messages and the team doesn't really understand what you're trying to do or that that this is available for them, they can kinda fumble that phone call and you could potentially lose that consult. So, you know, team education and team kind of learning about what you're trying to do in this new piece of equipment is super important as well.

Yeah. And that's that's all part of the the pre work that you're doing beforehand. But even and when you said the the if you wanna pay it off in twelve months, even if you didn't pay it off for twenty four months, you still still need to have that planned out. If it it what how many you need after twelve or eighteen or twenty four months? Because if it was a $50,000 piece of equipment as well, if you work out the return on that $50,000, where else could you put $50,000 and get a better return?

So That's absolutely It's a it's a good investment. Sometimes it's a great investment buying equipment, but only if you go through all this first that you're about to talk about.

No. You have to have something in place. Right? And and most practices can kind of they can pull the list themselves, but, you know, sometimes whether it be the way it's written or kind of putting together these sequences of communication through either, you know, like traditional mail, email, or text message, sometimes those require different pieces or different skill sets. So sometimes it you have the team internally, great.

But if you need help externally and kinda depend on someone that can help earn their keep, I I think that's really, really important.

So the first one. So number one, run the math backwards before you sign the lease. Number two, line your patient database thirty six days before the equipment arrives. What's the next one?

The next one is to kinda build that landing page and ads around the condition it treats, but not the device. Patients don't search shockwave therapy near me. They search plantar fasciitis treatment that actually works, or why does my heel still hurt after a year? You know, if your landing page on your website leads with the device name, you're talking to yourself. Build the page around the condition in the patient voice, the patient's frustration, what the treatment is different from what they've already tried.

If you're gonna run Google Ads on the condition keywords, make sure you do it that way, not on the device keywords. The traffic is bigger, cheaper, and ready to convert when you speak in a patient voice. Your equipment is the answer, but only after you've named the problem that you're that that the patient's losing sleep over.

Yeah. That's funny because that's what I mentioned last week. As I said, nobody gets out of bed in

morning Sounds familiar,

Oh, my heel is killing me. I wonder in Cairns who has Shockwave. Nobody does that. So they're gonna search that that main problem, and then you're gonna have this sort of built in around it.

Absolutely. Like you said, patients search for symptoms and the frustration, not device names. So, you know, the way that websites are built with the the headlines and things should be about the condition and not necessarily the the brand of the machine. I don't think it's necessarily bad to have it on the machine on the page, but you wanna make sure that, you know, that the kind of landing page flow is the condition, the frustration of what they've tried, you know, why this is different, how it works, maybe some case studies or some proof in a real clear next step to, you know, make an appointment and come in for a consultation.

Definitely. So what's the next one?

Yeah. So the next one is, you know, activating kind of a local referral network that is one thing that kind of most practices ignore. Your highest quality referrals for new equipment won't come from Google. They'll come from the primary care physician down the street, the PT around the corner, an athletic trainer at the local high school. These are the people whose patients are already complaining about, you know, chronic foot and ankle problems and that maybe some forms of conservative or surgical care couldn't take care of.

So send a brief letter introducing this new technology to those referral sources, drop off a one pager, you know, offer, you know, a a lunch and learn. Most practices skip this entirely because it feels kinda old school, but but which exactly is why you should consider it because this local referral network is really golden and can lead to, you know, steady stream of patients down the line.

Yeah. And the interesting part about it, especially if you've been surveying your own patients prior to say purchasing the equipment, if you've got patients complaining to you about certain things and you know that a certain piece of equipment can help them, you probably find people within your referral network have got the same patients complaining about the same thing who are looking for a for a solution. So if you then have that solution, you're crazy if you don't let them know you've got it And then don't just tell them once. Just tell them multiple time after time again that you now have shock wave or you've got laser for, yeah, different types of treatment. You you have to just keep reminding them that you've got it because just just one message is not gonna get through at all.

Yeah. I definitely agree with that. I think, like, you talked about, you know, the you know, sometimes the primary care physician, sometimes PT, sometimes athletic trainers, but also could be other podiatrists. Some some podiatrists, you know, in your local area that don't have that modality. They have those, chronic heel pain patients or chronic tendon pain patients, and they're just like, you know, they have problems that they couldn't fix and that it's frustrating for them as well.

So if there's someone that has this device that you might get some referrals from those folks as well. So like I said, identify the kind of the 20 highest volume referral sources kind of within five miles or whatever kind of wherever you're located. Maybe you're in a big city, maybe it's less than that, or maybe you're in a rural area and it's larger than that, but prioritize those. Don't kinda spray and pray, you know, across, you know, the the whole, you know, like, the whole state or the whole region, but, you know, focus on those people that are sending you patients or that you think would be a good fit. And kinda do some specific outreach.

Like I said, kind of a short intro letter, one page about the treatment, and like I said, you can offer something like a lunch and learn to help them understand what this is and how it works and how it can benefit their patients.

Yeah. And especially what you said then too about other podiatrists in your area. I know when I had my podiatry clinic, Swift machines for treating warts was not around. But when I had my clinic, if there had been another podiatrist in town who had a Swift machine, and they said to me, hey, we've got a Swift for treating warts. If you get any wart patients, feel free to send them to us.

I would have sent every single patient to them because that was probably one of the number one things I did not like treating. And I wouldn't have a problem sending the patients there if I knew that the swift machine was going to help them. And I feel very comfortable that those patients would probably come back if they needed something else. So I think it's really important if you've got a piece of equipment and you're in an area with other podiatrists, you need to let them know you've got that if it can help their patients.

Absolutely. And I recently met a podiatrist in Iowa who she only takes care of fungal toenails, and that's like her entire practice is laser fungal toenails for, you know, fee for service or cash pay. And her number one source of referrals is dermatologists. They just don't want to deal with fungal toenails. They just that's something they don't enjoy.

They wanna like do the creams and the salves and the acne treatment and that kind of stuff, but they they want nothing to do with fungal toenails, and they just all send them to her. So, you know, you can be that local or even regional referral center for a very specific form of treatment if you're seen as that expert. And really your website and what you're putting out there really speaks to your expertise and the type of great care you provide.

That is so true. So what is we're up to number five now, aren't we?

So number five is track three numbers from day one, or you're just kinda hoping. Right? So if you can't tell me, you know, what your cost per consult, your consult to treatment conversion rate, and your month to month payback is sorry, your your months to payback. You don't have a marketing plan. You kind of have a lot of hope.

Yep. You have to track these numbers from day one. You know, what did it cost to get someone to book a consult? What percentage of those consults convert to paid treatment? And how many months until you, know, cash collect the cash collected covers the equipment cost.

So most practices skip this because it feels like more work than six months. They're kind of wondering kind of why the equipment isn't paying itself off. The the answer is usually that nobody's watching the numbers. So you gotta watch those numbers and just just see where they go.

No. It's some people just neglect numbers. For some reason, they they think, oh, I'm gonna buy the equipment. I'm not gonna put any thought into it. It's just gonna all fall into place because that's what's happened in the past when I've bought equipment.

The problem is if you do it the right way, you will just get a better return on the equipment faster. You'll pay it off faster. And these these numbers are the things that you need to be looking at. And then you need then you also know if the numbers aren't looking the best, what do you need to change to actually improve things? So numbers are super important.

Like I say, numbers don't lie. Only people lie.

No. For sure. And and by by tracking these three things, right, like I said, cost per consult, consult to treatment conversion, and months to payback, It gives you the data you need to make good decisions. Right? If you're killing it and things are just, you know, accelerating or you're moving towards payoff very rapidly or kind of on schedule, great.

But if things are slow, you're not feel like you're utilizing it as much as you should, then there's an opportunities to to mix things up a little bit in your marketing to get more you know, maybe you need to go out and do that lunch and learn, or you need to get you know, send out another five letters to those local referring physicians to make sure that they know what's going on, that you have this available. So it's one of those things where you just gotta know those numbers and make adjustments when needed.

And if you need to make changes, you make the changes. And even once you've got the equipment, and then even once you've got it paid off, if it's going well and people are using it, use those results in your future marketing and just keep and also prepare too. No piece of equipment lasts forever. So as part of your budgeting when you're going to charge for it to you charge your patients, is be aware. There's maintenance on the equipment.

There's parts that probably need to be replaced, and at some point in time, things are going to break. So take that all into account. What is the maintenance and ongoing cost of running that equipment and building that into what you're charging your patients? I remember we were doing laser. We used have this little filament thing that ran through the little pen, and they weren't cheap every time a podiatrist ran their chair over it, over the filament thing, and would break the cable.

Now it only happened once or twice until everyone knew that that wasn't the thing to do. But but but because it was new and it was was awkward and we were we were training and learning how to use it, People weren't thinking about where was the where was the cord running? It was so thin and small, it was very easy to get caught in the chair and and snap the thing. So there were replacement costs. When we had the shockwave, your handles need to get maintenance on them after so many so many percussions.

Take this all into account.

Now that's great advice. It's just kinda being prepared for the future. Not just kinda living in the moment and seeing where things are at, but kinda planning, you know, if you're doing well and providing great care of these things, like you said, they will run. They will kinda like, you know, wear out over time. So making sure you're kind of like ahead of things before that happens.

You know, to recap today, you know, five things that, you know, I really wanna kinda leave people with today is, you know, number one is kinda reframe from, you know, can I afford it, this piece of equipment, to what's the plan to pay it off? Also, mine your existing patient list before the equipment arrives. You know, build your marketing around the condition, not the device. Activate those local referral sources, whether it be primary care physicians, physios, athletic trainers. These these can be a real referral engine and track cost per consult, conversion, and kind of month, you know, monthly payback from day one.

So if you're considering equipment in the next six months, sit down this week, you know, run the math backwards, cost divided by average revenue per treatment cycle. That number is your twelve month, you know, patient target. If you can't see a marketing plan that's realistically hits that, the equipment, maybe you're not ready to buy this equipment. That's kind of a more valuable answer than, you know, than something you'll get from a rep or a spreadsheet from a rep or kind of a pitch. So just keep those things in mind.

Yeah. And if you're going to a conference, don't get sucked into the conference special if you haven't given any thought beforehand. You better leading up to the conference. What equipment are you thinking about? Start putting a lot of thought into it.

Put a plan in place. And then if you go to the conference and there's a conference special, then take up the offer. Save a little bit of money at the time.

Absolutely. And if you're looking to kind of, you know, have a couple folks that can help you build that plan with the be kind of more strategically with your business coaching. I know a guy at tyson franklin dot com that can help you kinda get to where you want to and make sure you can nail down your operations.

I've heard about him.

I don't think there's anyone to add there, Tyson.

No. No. No. I've heard about him. Luck.

Not him personally. But it is it's one of those things that I have done this with coaching clients. I have like I said, I've done webinars on this particular topic just it's more of a pre purchase purchase and then post purchase. And if you do it the right way, you'll pay things off so much faster. If follow these five tips that you've gone through, you're gonna pay it off faster.

And like I said, if you're investing $50, the return on your investment is so good. So it's it's a no brainer. You should be investing in equipment, but you gotta do it the right way.

Absolutely. So, you know, if you found this episode helpful, maybe you have a friend or colleague or yourself who's looking to to buy a piece of equipment relatively soon, pass this this podcast link along to them. And hopefully, they'll learn a little something from the show today, and it'll benefit them in the future so they can really have a plan before they even consider purchasing that piece of equipment about how they're going to, you know, market it, get it out there, utilize it, you know, improve the the lives of patients locally, but make sure that it's done in a cost effective way.

That is awesome advice, Jim. I think we've covered

it. Absolutely.

Okay. Well, I look forward to talking to next week.

Sounds great, Tyson. Okay. See you later. Bye. Bye now.

Thanks for listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and Jim Mcdonald. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.