The number one question I get from financial advisors who want to work with more doctors is this: "How do I get a doctor's attention?"

Giving the gift of a book might be the highest ROI campaign you can launch in the medical market. Click here to view an on-demand webinar about how to engage doctor prospects and clients with books. You can also download The 9 Money Mistakes Doctors Make and The Myth of the Rich Doctor from that page.

Here are three kinds of books you can distribute:

• A book that you have written.


• A book that someone else wrote that aligns with your own wealth-building beliefs and practices.  


• A hybrid book in which your name goes on the cover. Do this in integrity. I recommend against getting involved in projects in which you're positioned as the book's author when someone else wrote the book. I give financial advisors the opportunity to write a foreword and afterwork for my books. The book's front cover says, "Foreword by ....(Your Name) ..." Your picture and bio go below mine on the back cover. The afterword's call to action shows doctors how they can take the next step with you. 

The most important consideration when choosing a book to distribute? Make sure doctors like it! A book that financial advisors love may not speak to doctors. Test your books before you launch huge campaigns.
 How do you make sure the doctor ties the value in the book to you?
 If your name is on the cover of the book, the book speaks for itself.

If your name is not on the cover, you can bridge the gap with a custom bookmark. The bookmark can display both a picture of the book and your own picture and contact information.
Here's what I recommend you include on your custom bookmark:

The Front

• A picture of the book. You can create a picture from the book cover. 


• A one-line statement about why the doctor should read the book.  For example, if you're distributing The 9 Money Mistakes Doctors Make, the text below it could say, "Doctor, don't let millions of dollars slip through your fingers."


• A call to action. If you're distributing digital books, you can include language like, "Go to this URL for an immediate download of your digital book." The URL is the web address of your landing page where a doctor exchanges his/her name and email for access to the book. OR "Go here to watch our educational videos."

The Back

• Your picture


• Your logo (if you have one)


• Your contact information


• Your broker dealer may insist you include your disclosure somewhere on the bookmark.


• Your positioning statement. The formula is "I help (...this kind of doctor .....) (a result you help doctors achieve).  Some examples:

I help doctors take control of their financial destiny. 

I help doctors in private practice legally and ethically reduce their tax bills.

I help doctors explore ways to move up retirement.

I help early career doctors both pay off their medical school debt and build wealth.

• A second call to action. "Would you like to explore how to apply the ideas in this book to YOUR life? Call xxx-xxx-xxx or go here to set up a complimentary consultation."

Here are three ways to design your bookmark:

The design of your custom bookmark is important. You want a professionally-designed bookmark that looks like you, complete with your brand colors and fonts. Here are some options:

• You can design your bookmark at Vistaprint. They even have a free design service!


• Ask the person who designed your web site if they would be willing to design the bookmark for you.


• You can hire a graphic artist on Fiverr .

Here are a few ways you can use the bookmarks:

• Include 2 to 3 bookmarks with physical books. People hang onto bookmarks, so your name stays top of mind.


• Make digital books more tangible. People pay attention to things they can hold in their hands. Your custom bookmark can be that bridge between digital and physical. Let's say you're going to a medical ​meeting and you're giving away digital books.  You can hand doctors bookmarks that can include instructions about how doctors get their digital books.


• You can physically mail the bookmark to doctor prospects and clients, with an invitation to download the digital book.


• You can include the bookmark in your "shock and awe package." 


• If you're low on physical books, give the doctor a bookmark with a promise that you will send the physical book when they are in stock. 

When you're ordering bookmarks, you will find tremendous variations in price. Google "Order bookmarks" to see your options.

Think books! They're powerful marketing tools.

My best,

Dr. Vicki

They key to success in the medical market is not trying to be all things to all doctors. You want to strategically focus, and there are many ways of slicing the doctor pie.


An easy and smart way to focus is by serving physicians just finishing their training and launching their careers.


What are the advantages of targeting early career physicians?

• It’s a renewable resource. Every year there are new doctors finishing residency and launching their careers.


• You can make a huge impact. Imagine if you could help early career physicians avoid purchasing the starter mansion and instead dig in and get started with wealth-building!


• They have a problem that causes extreme pain. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) reported that the median medical school debt among the Class of 2021 was $200,000, not including their undergraduate debt. With a decrease in salary because of the current and impending Medicare cuts, this debt hurts even more.


• You have a client for life. In general physicians are loyal clients. The first advisor with whom they build relationships will be their advisors for life. 

What are the disadvantages of targeting early career physicians?

• They have lots of debt and few investable assets. However, with the right information—and your guidance—these early career physicians can quickly build assets. Remember, starting salaries are high.

How do you engage early career doctors?
As aways,  join a conversation your prospects are already having. 


Early career doctors are worried about how they will every pay off their medical school debt. Many describe it as a monkey on their back. They think of debt as inherently evil, and often make emotional decisions about money management. They often defer wealth-building until the loans are paid off.


If you can help early career doctors distribute their incomes between the “bucket of bucks” in a smart way, you now have a way to join  conversation they’re already having.


My best,
Dr. Vicki

The rate at which your clients build wealth is tied to the rate at which they generate and keep revenue.

A recent report published by MGMA lays out benchmarks on expenses, charges and revenue physicians navigated in 2022.

Here are the highlights:

Physician-owned practices saw decreases in total medical revenue in 2022 across primary care, surgical and nonsurgical specialties.

Most practices — with the exception of independent surgical practices —have experienced a decrease in the number of unique patients.

Many practices reported increases in outstanding A/R in 2022 and subsequent bad debts.
 
How can this data help you engage more doctors?


1. Educate yourself. Click here to get your own copy of the report. Study it.

2. Focus on salient points in the report that address issues that arise un conversations with your doctor clients and prospects. Share them.

3. Offer to send this report to doctor prospects and clients. When you do, alway add value. Given your interpretation of the data, and make recommendations.

4. Ask your prospects and clients, "How does this data align with your experience?" Then follow up with the question, "As you think about your ability to retire, what are your top questions?"

What do you think?

To your success,
Dr. Vicki

We physicians are very fortunate to have a long history of being well-compensated for doing the work we love.

Further, we recognize that we have fared better as a group than many people who have lost lives, businesses and hope in the COVID pandemic.

So, the information I'm about to share with you is not intended as an exercise in whining or complaining; it's my effort to educate you about what it's like to be a physician practicing medicine today.  

It's hard to describe the high level of frustration among physicians today. Many doctors are drowning in despair.

Here's the latest hit that reminds physicians about their lack of agency in their own lives--and their financial futures.

This month the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released its proposed 2023 Medicare fee schedule. Physicians' compensation will be reduced by 4.42%. This is after the 2% Medicare payment cut that went into effect July 1. These cuts hurt more in our current economic climate of record-high inflation rates, the rising costs of delivering medical care and physicians' utter fatigue.

What would you do if congress legislated a 6% cut in your compensation? 

It is almost impossible to imagine a situation in which other professions would consider accepting compensation cuts right now. In fact, many professional groups are asking for raises or proposing strikes. And yet, despite being asked to do more with less resources, this is exactly what is routinely being asked and expected of physicians.

Why is congress cutting physician compensation? It's an effort to lower healthcare costs.

But math does not lie. This simply does not make sense. 

Physicians' salaries make up less than 8% of healthcare expenditures. Cutting their salaries by 4% eliminates only ~0.3% of healthcare costs.

Why not reduce payments to insurance and pharmaceutical companies, who are posting record-breaking profits? These corporate giants protect their financial interests with huge budgets to lobby congress and influence their choices.  

Physicians, on the other hand, are easy targets for salary cuts. They don’t strike, and they’re not able to unionize nationally. With <1 million practicing physicians in the US, their ability to lobby effectively through numbers or dollars is limited. In addition, physicians refuse to compromise patient care as a bargaining chip, and their altruism is used against them.

How much should physicians make? Everyone has a different idea.

However, we all have a sense of what it fair. Asking healthcare professionals--the people described as "healthcare heroes" for fighting tirelessly on the front lines for over two years--to accept pay cuts today does not say "thank you", build good will or foster resilience.

Here are a few consequences of the Medicare cuts:

• Your parents might have a harder time finding doctors who accept them as patients as physicians limit their Medicare slots.


• The doctor who cares for you and your family may be burned out. They might not even want to be in the clinic or hospital.


• The doctor who cares for you and your family may be considering leaving medicine altogether.

As a financial services professional, you have a chance to help physicians take control of their financial destiny. You can help them do more with what they have.

I'm here to support you if you do!

My best,
Dr. Vicki

​How do you explain your business results--especially when a prospect says no?

I have a new side mission: empowering parents of college-aged kids with OCD. I know that I can build lists more quickly with paid traffic than with organic traffic. While I've had success with Facebook ads in the past, Facebook does not allow you to target by medical condition.

Then I clicked on a YouTube ad for company that creates and manages YouTube ads. I scheduled a call to learn more.

Here's how the sales rep lost a $6K sale at hello. Without asking anything about me, he opened the call by telling me all of the reasons Facebook ads don't work.

I felt like saying, "Yes they do!" However, I wanted to learn more about YouTube ads, so I asked lots of questions and listened to what he had to say. 

He might have thought the call was going well. He might have been surprised when I didn't buy. He might have told himself a story. "She thinks it's too expensive." "She's not committed." "She's indecisive."

Nope. None of those stories is true.

He lost the sale because he was more invested in proving himself right about Facebook ads-- that he was not even selling-- than in learning about my business goals.

He had nothing to gain by bashing Facebook ads. In fact, I could have told him why Facebook ads were not a good choice for me as I reached out to families trying to free themselves from OCD.

Don't bash your prospects' wealth-building beliefs or tell them that they are wrong. There are many ways to build wealth. Get curious about your prospects. What worked for them in the past? What didn't work?

A prospect might say, "I buy life insurance for the death benefit."  You could ask, "What is your plan for funding long term care? What if I could show you that you can use life insurance for that, too?"  

Here are two other reasons advisors who want to work with doctors lose the sale at hello. 

When you meet a doctor for the first time, use the doctor title. Don't default to the doctor's first name as is the custom in the business community. When you use the doctor's first name, you communicate that you do not understand how things work in the world of medicine. You will quickly be invited to us the doctor's first name. 

Second, make sure you're using the right words correctly. I frequently see the phrase, "we work with doctors and dentists" on advisors' web sites. Dentists ARE doctors. So are veterinarians, podiatrists and psychologists. So are Maya Angelou and Jill Biden.

Pay attention to all of the details all of the time. They all matter. They all contribute to your business results. 

To your success,
Dr. Vicki
Vicki Rackner MD FACS
​
Principal Engaging Doctors Helping financial advisors attract, engage and serve doctor clients
PS Thank you for your well-wishes for my father. This past week I spend time with him in his Florida home as he navigates his uneventful recovery.

PPS Do you have questions about working with doctors?  Click here to schedule brief conversation and laser coaching.

How do we make sense of the jump in physician burnout from 40% in 2021 to over 60% in 2022?

I believe we are seeing evidence of physicians' "Financial Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" or Financial PTSD.

We have experienced two historic financial events in the recent past: the global economic meltdown of 2008 and the financial consequences of the COVID pandemic. Many physicians experienced an 80% reduction in income in 2020.

You know about the Paleo Diet. It's the diet that our hunter-gatherer cave-dwelling ancestors ate 2.5 million years ago.

The Paleo Brain was focussed on one main thing: safety and survival.  It scanned the horizon for danger. The fight-flight-flee stress response helped escape the saber-toothed tiger. Once we were safely back on the cave, the stress switch went off.

For physicians today, money can be like the new saber-toothed tiger. When our core survival is at risk, the Paleo Brain software kicks into action; threatening financial events can trigger the fight-flight-flee response.

The problem is that our world is different than it was 2.5 million years ago. In our 24/7 news cycle, this stress response can stay on for days, weeks and even years. This is exhausting.

I believe that prolonged periods in the fight-flight-flee is a major contributor to physician burned out.

If you know anyone who grew up in the depression, you know what financial PTSD looks like. People who have millions in assets won't go on vacation because they fear that tomorrow they may be hungry or homeless. They are responding to yesterday as if it's still happening today.

Physicians with unhealed financial trauma can demonstrate financial PTSD.

Would you like to learn more about this, and see how this can shape what you say and do to engage doctors?

Join us for a complimentary training "Doctors and Financial PTSD" Thursday, April 13th at Noon Eastern/11 AM Central /9 AM Pacific. Click here to register.  

My best,
Dr. Vicki

Do you have clients who are frightened by the bank failures in the news? 

This is your opportunity to offer financial leadership.

Help your prospects and clients manage their fear. This “buys” you the trust to help them manage their money.
 
So, what are you doing proactively to calm jittered nerves?

As you consider your plan, here are a few thoughts about how the human brain works.

Think of the brain as a three story house.

On the top floor you find the thinking brain.

You have the professional discipline to stay in your thinking brain even when there are scary economic forces at play. 

Your ideal clients to make sound prudent investment choices with their thinking brains. 

However, the field of behavioral finance explains why your clients don't behave like ideal investors. Most of your clients make most of their investing choices with their feeling brains. Think of the feeling brain as the main level of the house. Feeling brains make predictable investing errors.

When scary things unfold and survival is threatened-- like the 2008 market crash, the COVID pandemic or a personal business failure-- our reptile brains are activated. We go down into the basement. The reptile brain only knows how to do a handful of things intended to survive an immediate threat: fight, flee, freeze or fawn.

To access better solutions and take smarter action, we ascend to the feeling brain or ideally the thinking brain. 

For some of your clients, news of the bank failures sent then into the basement with a fully-triggered fight-flight-freeze response.

What does someone in the basement need to hear to find the courage to climb up those stairs and take smart action?

Your clients and prospects who face financial threats want to hear, “You are safe.” 

Ideally, here's what you say, “Not one of my clients has ever lost a dime in a bank failure. Why? We build safety into our wealth-building process for unlikely events like bank failures.”

Sometimes you cannot protect your clients from losses. If the threat is ongoing, like the financial impact of the pandemic, you can reassure people with the message, “Yes, this is scary, but you are not in it alone. I’m here and I have experience managing situations like this. Further, I’m dedicated to finding the best ideas to get us through this crisis.”

I recommend that you reach out this week by phone or email or video and deliver a message that has three elements:

• Bank failures are scary.
  
• Even if your bank fails, you don’t have to lose a dime.
  
• We can walk you through the steps you can take NOW to protect yourself from losses when unlikely circumstances— like bank failures or other threats that you might not have even considered—unfold.

I recommend against delivering detailed technical financial information. Your prospects and clients don't need to know HOW you protect against losses. You can do that in a 1:1 consultation.  

All your prospects and clients need to know is that you recognize that bank failures can trigger fear, they are not alone, and you know how to deal with situations like this. 


What action steps are YOU taking?

My best,
Dr. Vicki

Medscape released its 2022 Physician Compensation Report.

Overall, things looked up financially for many physicians, as COVID’s harshest impacts receded.

Physician compensation increased significantly in early 2022 compared with the last two years of the pandemic as practices reopened, and elective cases ramped up. 

Still, many physicians reported bigger workloads, salary cuts and less staff.

I will summarize some specific findings. You can read the entire report by signing up for a free Medscape account.

• For the first time in Medscape’s 11 year history of reporting physician compensation, all specialities saw an increase in income from last year. 

 

• The highest earning specialties remained unchanged. 

 

• About 20% of physicians reported drops in their incomes from last year. Physicians specifically commented on the absence of COVID loans and grants as a contributing cause.

 

• Almost 40% of physicians generated revenue outside of their clinical practices last year.

 

• Self-employed physicians earned 20% more than employed physicians.

Here are some additional numbers:

• Since 2015, physician compensation increased by 30%, while cumulative inflation increased by 14.7%.

 

• The income gap between men and women persists, with men earning 25% more in primary care, and 31% more in the specialties.

 

• The income gap between white physicians and physicians of color is decreasing.

Despite the challenges COVID presented, the percentage of physicians who say they would choose medicine again as a career is higher than it was a decade ago.

Here’s what these numbers mean for you:

• Physicians have an ongoing interest in moving up retirement, paying back student loans more quickly and achieving financial independence. You can help them put their money to work and accelerate wealth-building.

 

• While physicians are catching up with financial losses sustained during the first two years of the pandemic, income is only part of their financial picture. You can help them KEEP more income by cutting their primary expense—taxes. 

 

• You can engage doctors by delivering value to the increasing numbers of physicians expressing interest in entrepreneurship. My physician beta readers offer very positive feedback to my current book How Doctors Build TrueWealth. Email me if you want to see the sample copy.

 Bottom line: physicians need your help! Is this a group you want to serve in 2022? If so, how well are you attracting and engaging them? What could you do better?


To your success!
Dr. Vicki
Vicki Rackner MD FACS
Principal Engaging Doctors Helping financial advisors attract, engage ad serve doctor clients
PS Thank you for your well-wishes for my father. Yesterday he had his open-heart surgical procedure, and it went well. This morning my dad was up in a chair eating breakfast. Our faith in the medical team, supported by their clinical outcomes data, is well-placed! 

PPS Do you have questions about working with doctors?  Click here to schedule brief conversation and laser coaching.

I have a confession. I purchase domains. Lots of them. I purchase URL's with the names of my books, "sticky" sound bites like dumb doctor deals, my programs and my initiatives.

I highly recommend that you own the URL of your name, your business name and variations of your business name. For example, if your business name is "Doctors Build Wealth" you can also purchase "Docs Build Wealth", "MDs Build Wealth" and "Physicians Build Wealth."

If you have a proprietary system or signature phrase like "Don't Outlive Your Money", you may be able to purchase that domain! I'm often surprised at the domains that are available. 

I own some high-value URL's that have been parked unused for many years. However, these URL's could help you promote your marketing efforts.

Let's say, for example, that you help physicians manage medical school debt. In your email signature file you could say, "Are you wondering how you will pay off your medical school debt AND build wealth? Go to www.debtfreedocs.com to get a free special report with my five top tips."

If you want to host a workshop, End the Money Drama, your registration page could be www.EndtheMoneyDrama.com. 

If you want to host a podcast featuring stories of doctors who have successfully gone through a process of reinvention, you could name the podcast MD Makeovers and own that URL. 

In the spirit of service-- and aligning with my massive spring housecleaning campaign-- I'm selling these URL's:

avoiddumbdoctordeals.com
avoidhipaafines.com
debtfreedocs.com
docsandmoney.com
docsinbusiness.com
docsmoneymistakes.com
doctor-preneur.com
doctorssidegigs.com
doctorwealthstrategist.com
dumbdoctordeals.com
endingmoneydrama.com
endmoneydrama.com
endmoneydramas.com
endthemoneydrama.com
hopeforphysicians.com
hopefordoctors.com
hopefordocs.com
makemoneywork4you.com
mdmakeover.com
mdmakeovers.com
mdsandmoney.com
WEALTHYDOCTORSOLUTIONS.COM

What is the investment to own a domain? I'll defer to GoDaddy's domain valuation. You can go here, plug the domain into the tool and find the purchase price.

Please respond to this email if you want to purchase a URL. Let me know which URL's you want to purchase. I'll respond on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Have a wonderful and blessed weekend whether you're celebrating Easter, Passover, Ramadan or the beginning of Spring.  

To your success!
Dr. Vicki
Vicki Rackner MD FACS
Principal Engaging Doctors Helping financial advisors attract, engage ad serve doctor clients


PS Do you have questions about working with doctors?  Click here to schedule brief conversation and laser coaching.

Hello,

Are you looking for a way to deliver value to the doctors your list? Here’s something YOU can do to demonstrate your commitment to helping doctors build wealth.
 
Invite physicians on your list to call Congress and urge them to stop the FULL proposed Medicare cuts THIS WEEK.
 
As you know, as of January 1st, 2023, physicians are about to experience a 4.5% Medicare payment cut. 

The American College of Surgeons and their coalition partners have been working diligently to prevent that from happening.

Congress still has the power to stop the full cut. We must ensure Senators and Representatives have heard from us— their constituents—to let them know that preventing these cuts in their entirety is a high priority. 

For the contact information for Senators and Representatives, as well as talking points click here.

Why would you be interested in communicating this message about the Medicare cuts? It demonstrates that your commitment to helping doctors build wealth is not just a mission statement on your web site. You are taking concrete action and showing physicians how they can too!

As a financial services professional, you have a chance to help physicians take control of their financial destiny. You can enjoy many rewards when you help doctors make their dreams come true.

I'm here to support you if you do!

My best,
Dr. Vicki