SELLING UP
A Win-Win Strategy for Survival
Selling up may sound like a retail game. But it's really a sound business strategy where both the seller and the buyer are winners
By Stephanie K. De Long

It's not a four-letter phrase. But to many eyecare professionals, the phrase "selling up" might just as well be. Why? Because many of you still see the concept of selling up--also known as top-down selling--as crass and commercial. Yet, in reality, it's customer service, plain and simple. It's presenting all the options. It's offering the best.

In theory, it's a standard of service. In practice, it's an approach that says to customers and patients, "You deserve to be offered the very best solution to your needs; and, it's my obligation as an eyecare professional to discuss them with you."

That takes care of the theory and practice of selling up. What about the bottom line of adopting such a strategy? Who profits if you sell an active presbyope out of bifocals and into progressives? Who wins when you sell a managed care patient with sensitive skin away from his plan's board and into titanium frames? And, who benefits when you sell polarized product to a water rat?

The answer is simple. You win because you make more money. How much? According to the Fisher Institute for Professional Selling at the University of Akron, selling-up strategies increase revenues an average of 20 percent. And, in an era of managed care, every percentage point you can gain helps defray some of the costs of participating in managed care.

But the consumer wins, too, because he's receiving a product that is tailored to his particular needs. And, even if he chooses another lower tech, lower cost product, he at least has learned about two important things: other product options and your expertise.

THE OPTOMETRIC CONNECTION

If you're an optometrist, you may be saying to yourself right around now, "That's fine for opticians, but I'm a doctor. I don't sell."

If doctors don't make recommendations, however, more and more of your peers have come to believe that they are, one, doing a disservice to patients, and, two, will be out of business if they don't take a more pro-active stance in the product arena.

Why? Because like it or not, most of the profits of a typical optometric practice--60 percent to be exact--are derived from the dispensing of eyewear. And, managed care isn't covering your chair-time costs. Accord-ing to Cleinman Performance Partners, in 1996, the average cost of chair time for its members who were surveyed was $77 per patient, but Cleinman also reported that those members were being compensated by plans at the rate of only $33 for patients. That's a lot of money to make up.

Those two statistics may help explain why, when Eyecare Business produced a training video two years ago on selling up, it was the optometrists interviewed for that program who were the most adamant that selling up (or top-down selling, as most prefer to describe it) is not only imperative; it's also good service. For example, Jack Schaeffer, O.D., owner of Schaeffer Eye Center in Birmingham, Ala., tells his staff, "It is nothing more, and nothing less than the obligation of the dispenser or doctor to say 'This is the very best solution we have for you.'"

Alan Leck, president of Primary Eyecare Network, a Calif.-based network of highly successful optometric practices, adds, "We tell all our doctors it is their duty to offer the options."

SELLING...STEP BY STEP

As the sidebar below stresses, developing a savvy selling strategy consists of several steps. Here's a look at each of them.

Control. Taking control of the dispensing or patient presentation process is critical. If you're asking what's wrong with the status quo, consider this: Statistics released by Transitions Optical indicate the average consumer spends half an hour selecting frames, but only six to 10 minutes picking lenses. Why? Because the U.S. optical industry has allowed the process to get out of balance. As consultant Valerie Manso, president of Manso Management Resources, reminds eyecare professionals: "Don't forget who the expert is. The consumer buys eyewear every 18 months, whereas you work with it eight hours a day. It's you, not that customer, who is the expert."

Easy to say, perhaps, but how do you do it? "You need to sit the customer down," explains Manso, "then set aside a frame they may have picked up, and say, 'That's a great frame, but before we get started in selecting product, I need to know how you use your eyes, what you do on a daily basis.'"

Needs. That conversation represents the perfect segue into the second step in top-down selling: conducting a needs analysis. There are great computerized systems and forms out there that you can ask patients to fill out so you have them on file.

But some of the experts we spoke to for our Secrets of Selling Up video agreed that face-to-face can be the best method. Connecticut consultant Howard Gottlieb, O.D., says it takes only two minutes. And, he adds, in refracting environments, that analysis needs to take place in the chair--not just the dispensary--so the doctor can make recommendations based on those needs.

Tim Fortner, a consultant with Transitions Optical, says all you need to do is ask three questions: What do you do with your eyes during the day--use a computer, etc.? What hobbies do you have? And, what problems are you having?

VICA spokesperson Carol Norbeck, who is also a New Jersey-based consultant, thinks a needs analysis is all about finding the customer's hot button. "Everyone," she says, "is motivated by something. It's their hot button, and when you listen to their needs, you're really listening for that so-called hot button. That," she continues, "is what you sell to."

Transfer. Nearly everyone who has adopted a top-down selling strategy says it's imperative to begin the product process in the chair. It's equally imperative, they add, to transfer that recommendation and the authority from the doctor to the dispenser.

First, the doctor needs to recommend product. But instead of thanking the patient at the end of the exam and saying, "See you in May for your next exam," consultants suggest the doctor escort the patient into the dispensary--or call the optician into the exam room--and say to the patient, "Mrs. Jones, this is James, our optician. James, I've discussed with Mrs. Jones why I think photochromics would benefit her more than the tinted lenses she's wearing now. Please show her what we recommend." This customer now views the dispenser as an expert, not as someone trying to sell something.

Is this an unusual strategy to apply? Not according to winners of 1997's Eyecare Business Retailer of the Year competition. In fact, two out of the three winners have had transfer strategies in place for several years. Regional Retailer of the Year John McDougall, O.D., of International Eyecare Center in Quincy, Ill., has a buzzer system in his doctors' offices. When the exam is nearly over, the doctor rings the "silent" buzzer, which notifies the optician in the dispensary that it is time to come in and review the product recommendations.

Independent Optician of the Year Alan S. Hunton, owner of Champlain Valley Eyecare, in Burlington, Vt., has another way. It's called his Doctor Power Program and in it, each location's optometrist escorts the patient into the dispensary and introduces him or her to the optician. At Hunton's five locations, sales rose 20 percent as a result of that program.

Managing Managed Care. Learning to position frame and lens allowances as a first step instead of the whole enchilada is key, say several experts, to upselling. Optician Gary Sheer, owner of Alvernon Optical in Tucson, did just that. As a result of training his staff to refocus patients' perceptions of their managed care dollars from a spending ceiling to partial discount, Sheer reports that 60 percent of patients on plans now opt to purchase a better frame, different lenses, or a second pair of eyeglasses.

Several consultants recommend the OLA handbook on managed care as a great source of helping retrain staff. The book, based on Transitions Optical research, is entitled Making Managed Care Work for You, and is available for purchase from OLA member labs.

Lenses First. In many parts of Europe, it's lenses that are presented first, not frames. That serves several purposes. It puts the emphasis on your expertise. It underscores the importance and value of technology. And, it helps you retain control of the dispensing situation.

In a meeting with executives from a medium-sized chain based in Paris, they recently explained how they initiated a new program that stressed lenses in signage and encouraged the dispensers to discuss the lenses first. Within the first three months of the trial, revenues from lens sales rose nearly 20 percent.

In a recent Eyecare Business survey, dispensers who do present lenses first to some patients told us that lens demos are critical to their program--and to the sale of today's newer, higher tech and higher ticket lenses. One optician in Denver even created what he calls an adult play area where customers are invited to "play" with the AR, polycarbonate, high index, and progressive addition lens demonstration units that are set up, along with product information, on an old pool table.

While pool may not be your game, increasing both service and profits certainly are. That's why it's so ironic that moneyphobia is such a common ailment in the optical marketplace. What is it?

Moneyphobia is the fear most eyecare professionals have about asking for money and justifying the cost of products to their customers. Instead, they're nearly apologetic when it comes time to close a sale.

All the upselling experts we've interviewed, however, agree that the only way to get comfortable with asking for money is to stress the worth of products by discussing their benefits, not just their features.

Carol Geurrien, a trainer based in Des Moines, says "Telling someone a progressive has a wider reading area than bifocals doesn't mean a thing. Tell them they'll be able to read better, and that does mean something."

The real key, adds Valerie Manso, "is to talk benefits by bringing the product back to the needs assessment. Then," she continues, "the benefits of a given product become your answer to what they said they wanted."

In other words, you're no longer asking for more money. Instead, you're offering them a solution to a need or a problem they told you they had.

Dr. Gottlieb says that when patients balk at price or say they want to take their Rx with them, you should say, "I want you to buy your eyewear where you are most comfortable. But before you go, it's my responsibility as an eyecare professional to tell you what is available." Then, he adds, "bring out an AR-coated lens for someone with night driving problems, for example. In other words, you're not selling. You're not asking for money. What you are doing is fulfilling your responsibility to show them the best options for their particular needs."

Whatever selling strategy you decide works best for your own location, remember that top-down selling is not crass and commercial. As all the consultants and eyecare professionals we interviewed for this article tell us, selling up is selling service. It's exceeding expectations by offering solutions. And, it's showing yout expertise. "That," concludes Geurrien, "is a combination that is sure to win."