GET RICH QUICK. Start a new diet and workout plan. Find a silver bullet. We want dramatic changes and we want it now! This happens in optical too. You read an inspiring article or come home from a conference ready to implement all the brilliant strategies. So, you host a training session but three months later not a damn thing has changed! Why?
Same reason the diet and exercise plan failed. Changing too much at one time is not sustainable. Changing too quickly only creates temporary results because the habits have not been formed to sustain the change. We all revert to old habits.
I work with hundreds of independent opticals. There is a clear line between thriving opticals and those that are hungry. Thriving teams successfully implement change. It’s simple. Notice I said simple, not easy. Simple because they have a plan and every day make small efforts to get closer to their goal. That continual mindfulness of the plan takes effort but creates massive success.
Think of a piece of paper. A single piece is thin, insignificant, and fragile. But, if every day you stack a piece of paper upon the paper from yesterday, before you know it, you have a thick ream, heavy and super sturdy. The offices proposing reams of paper at meetings create chaos and struggle to get changes to stick. The successful offices have team members make paper-thin changes that individually don’t seem dramatic enough to matter, but these paper-thin changes allow these teams to thrive in sales excellence.
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Here are two paper-thin changes that produce massive results in a few months:
Paper-thin Change #1 / Prepared Responses: At your next meeting make a “Patients Say the Darndest Things” list of objections or limitations patients have to purchasing glasses. Have each team member choose an objection and write it on the top of a page, then create different responses to that objection. Have each make an entire list of responses, then rewrite and restructure the responses until there is one they are proud of. Ask the team to adapt and memorize this response and use it with patients every time they hear that common objection.
Paper-thin Change #2 / Set Brand Allotments: Expectations of brands and the quantity planned for each brand is a clear standout of top performing offices. Having clear expectations for your team and reps when ordering will make your team more aware of numbers and sales data. If your plan allows for brand X to have 35 frames, do not order more than that. But, if the brand is selling well and you plan to increase to 45 then great! Because it was planned beforehand, it limits impulse buying.
Paper-thin changes are what set top performing opticals apart. The key is small, compounding change. Dramatic changes fail, old habits reemerge and nothing changes. Implement paper-thin changes and give your team time to adapt and create a habit before challenging them with another paper-thin change.
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