An Optometrist Who Achieved Unexpected Success with Direct-Response Marketing
We frequently hear success stories of how our members have implemented our strategies and how they significantly contributed to the member’s prosperity. Conor Heaney is one of those “overachievers.” I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Conor in 2016 and learned a great deal about Jones and Co., his unique optometry business based in the UK.
Conor has been a member of GKIC for about eight years; during that time and to the present, he continuously executes ideas that are radically different from the norm of his industry—as a result, he experiences grand success. He shared with me some of his “ah-ha” moments in his journey to improve his business model to provide what his target customers want.
Early on, one of the first things Conor learned from GKIC was the necessity for developing a clear business “USP”—a Unique Selling Proposition—that answers Dan Kennedy’s question “why should I choose your business over every other option available, including the option of doing nothing?”
This question really intrigued Conor, and he spent hours pondering the significance of the answer to that question: Why should the customer choose ME? When you look at all the options available to people these days, you begin to think more like your customer and less like yourself, the business owner. He not only tried to answer this question independently, but he also went to the source. He asked his customers for testimonials. As he did this, it became evident why they chose his practice; they told him what was most important to them. Armed with this valuable knowledge, Conor was able to identify the marketing message that would resonate more deeply with his clients—and ultimately helped him refine his business to meet those needs, specific to his market.
He learned that the one thing they hated most was how difficult it is to choose glasses. They didn’t know their face shape or what glasses would best fit their face. They struggled with the scenario of liking glasses on other people, but when they tried the same frame, the glasses didn’t look right. They disliked spending a large amount of money on glasses that left them feeling ho-hum or even disliking what they purchased! Customers didn’t understand how to select a frame that accentuated their positive features and basically found the whole process painful.
That was precisely the information Conor needed for his business makeover.
Right away, he began thinking, “How can I reinvent this process to make it more appealing” and present his process as the solution to anybody who struggles finding glasses?
Now, before you say, “Well, that’s fine for an optometrist, but my business is different,” let’s be crystal clear on this point: Your business is not different. EVERYONE who has a business has customers who experience pain—be it physical pain, emotional pain, mental pain, or financial pain.
When creating my USP, I really tried to delve into the mind of my customer. I started asking my customers as well. Early on in the business, I asked them for testimonials. One of the surprising things that came back from requesting customer testimonials was they almost told you why they chose you, and they told you what was most important to them. That really helped me identify a marketing message that would resonate with my clients in my market. That was really how it started.
Be creative here. How can you take what Conor figured out and apply it to your customers? Yes, I said customers—not to your business. Be THEM. FEEL their frustration. Then BE their solution. This is true for any kind of business, large or small, B2B or B2C. Read on and watch what he did.
But first, as a fellow eyeglasses-wearer, I completely understood what Conor was saying; heck, even my wife with her laser-corrected, perfect-distance-vision eyes struggles with finding sunglasses to complement her features. Here is the very typical experience: You walk into the store. There are rows and rows of frames. You walk around and try on one frame after another until you find one you think you like. You pay for them. You leave, then come back to pick them up in a week . . . hoping you’ll still like them with no regrets.
But Conor has refined this process to an art form. From his in-the-trenches research, he has learned to think like his customers. For them, the actual benefit of glasses is relatively easy to get; there are many frame shops that offer glasses to help people see well. Conor has learned that seeing better is secondary—nay, maybe even third on the list—to looking better and having a seamless experience. They don’t want a hassle. They don’t want inconvenience. They don’t want to be treated like a number.
Conor realized that those things apply to any customer seeking any type of service or product. Now it was time for him to apply it to optometry. It really just comes down to how you make people feel. That is the opportunity for everybody in every business.
As Conor discovered—which I have personally experienced and described—most optical stores are basically self-serve. He realized that not only is this approach painful for the customer, but that pain rubs off on the business owner. With this newfound understanding, he redesigned his shop. Now, when you walk into his store, there are no glasses in sight, no endless walls of different frames. Instead, it is a nice building, nice setting, and nice, friendly, well-educated staff. Customers book an appointment at Jones and Co. and come in to meet with an eyewear-styling consultant.
Conor removed the random, aimless search and refined it with information, clarity, and direction. The styling consultant guides a customer smoothly through the delicate process of choosing eyewear, showing them all the classy possible solutions, tailored to them individually.
It should be noted here that throughout the year, Conor and his entire team travel to eyewear tradeshows in places like Munich, Paris, and Milan in search of unusual and beautiful frames that clients won’t see anywhere else except in their store. They go out of their way to locate niche eyewear made by smaller independent companies that have a real flair for design.
In fact, Conor initially thought that stocking unique frames was going to be his USP—unique products, unique frames. But only after getting into the minds of his clients did he realize that while they cared about the product, they cared MUCH MORE about the process—his No. 1 priority was to alleviate the difficulty of choosing glasses. Fortunately, Conor learned to adjust and adapt quickly to the wants and needs of his market. By attending these tradeshows, the Jones and Co. staff is then able to offer unique, cutting-edge, latest, greatest frames to their customers.
Don’t miss a key takeaway point here: Conor takes the whole team to these conferences. This creates unbelievable buy-in, knowledge, and respect for and from the entire team.
When Conor first started the scheduling of appointments instead of the frames-on-a-wall approach, he found his team was better able to deliver a much higher level of service. Suddenly, they were in control of the process. They were able to build in choreography to how the whole experience worked. They were able to build in things to the practice that would WOW the customer: one-on-one attention, state-of-the art selection, specific guidance for frame style and fit, hassle-free, convenient. For Conor, it was all about taking control and knowing that when he was in command of the process, he could design a method that would be better for the client—and thus, ultimately, better for his business.
Some who read this will challenge the concept of price here. But what about the bargain, lowest-price shoppers who want to Google-search the frame and find it at a lower price? Conor experienced that early on as well. He initially had the walls and walls of unique frames and had people trying to price shop his store against others and the online options. He discovered that since the product is often the same from store to store, by setting his store apart from the others, he would see the benefit. People will pay for the positive experience. He knows of stores that carry some of the same frames as he does, but that doesn’t impact his business because he has developed a way to control the process of buying exclusive eyewear fit just for you by specialists.
Another thing that we at GKIC strongly advocate to our members is to publish a book on a topic in their field of expertise. This establishes them as authorities, earns market respect, enhances their credibility and their business model, and helps establish them as a trusted advisor in their field or niche. Conor did just that and published The Definitive Guide to Choosing Glasses That Make You Look Good. He had entertained the idea for years but was finally moved to action after seeing fellow GKIC members do it.
If you go to his website, www.jonesand.co, the offer is a free book, The Definitive Guide to Choosing Glasses That Make You Look Good. As we said earlier, customer ease is key to making a sale. If you go to the Jones and Co.’s website and put in your email address, you get a digital copy of the book immediately. How easy is that?!? Conor credits his book with the boost to his sales. It increases conversion rates because clients come into the store with a better understanding of what to expect and what questions to ask. After requesting the free book and reading it, they schedule an appointment and come in to a practice that is unlike any other optician they’ve ever visited before. Rather than coming in cold and not knowing what to expect, the book has prepared them for the experience. Conor’s book has already done a lot of the early heavy-lifting in the sales process—which naturally makes the sales process a lot easier.
Maybe you feel the way Conor felt a few years ago—believing that writing a book is daunting and overwhelming. The first step is to take the first step. As part of his preparation to author his own book, Conor looked at examples that fellow GKIC members had written, then made a brief outline of the main points he knew he needed to touch on. He figured there were going to be six to seven chapters focusing on the common mistakes that people make when buying eyewear. Based on his experiences selling eyewear, he knew the top issues and decided that each was going to become a chapter.
Conor wrote down the common questions that people would come into the store and ask. Then it was just a matter of expanding on the main topic with specifics. Conor’s book isn’t huge—maybe 70 pages, with some chapters only three to four pages long. He used testimonials to back up what he was saying and supported his content with images and client pictures. He admits to dragging his heels at different times of the book-writing process, but today, he wholeheartedly acknowledges the huge value the book has brought to his business, and he’s the first in line to encourage other business owners to do so, as well.
So successful are his methods, Conor was invited to write a chapter of Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent, Second Edition, book.
It all started by implementing the strategies from Dan’s first edition of that book. Essentially, Conor turned around a ten-year-old practice that he bought in 2009. The business had been struggling, had numerous loans, and had even gone bankrupt at one point under four different owners. Inspired by ideas and strategies to take the business and reposition it at the higher end of the market to attract affluent clients, to build in all the things he had learned about—sales choreography, sales process, establishing trust and expertise—Conor undertook the job of redesigning that flailing business.
As a result, the business has more than doubled. Perhaps the most significant thing that Conor gleaned from Dan’s teaching about marketing to the affluent was being aware that it isn’t a question of if the customers will buy. It isn’t a question of if they will buy at this price. The real question is, will they buy it at this price if we present it in this way, if we present it in this environment, if this person who has been trained presents it, if it is presented with this marketing and this message and this positioning? The key takeaway for Conor, as it applied to his business, was that you can name your price if you follow up and say to yourself: “Now what do I need to do so that people will buy it at this price point?” Work backward from there and design everything to set up the sale at the much higher price point.
Beyond the Traditional Business
It was at his first GKIC Info-SUMMIT in 2014 that Conor experienced clarity about how he could take his business a step further and turn his type of business into an information-marketing business.
“I think the fundamental thing has to be,” says Conor, “if you apply what you learn at GKIC in your main business, you can almost not help but have a successful, thriving business with a uniqueness about it, and then you have something of value that, if you can put it into a format where it is easy to share with others, then the info-marketing opportunity is there.”
Consequently, Conor has developed an academy specifically for opticians. You can check it out at www.opticalsuccessacademy.co.uk, a place for optical entrepreneurs. Much like what we are doing for all entrepreneurs, growing a GKIC tribe for entrepreneurs to come together and have support and guidance, Conor is doing it specifically for opticians. He has been working with 45 independent opticians in the UK to help them grow their businesses—and he readily attributes the skills and knowledge he has gained from GKIC to his success in helping others grow their businesses.
And why did they need help? While his business was thriving due to the implementation of new, creative GKIC strategies, large, corporate companies were squeezing other independent opticians out of the market. Conor wanted to help the independent opticians like him—GKIC’s Info-SUMMIT inspired him to take his business further. With his own business on solid ground, and a great team to support it, he felt confident to share his successes, failures, wisdom, and experience with his industry peers—and so was born the Optical Success Academy, a coaching organization for independent opticians. When I last spoke to Conor, he was planning on expanding his academy to opticians in the U.S., too.
At GKIC, we’re all about building positive relationships with clients. One of the best ways to do this is through a newsletter. Conor has not only experienced great success through his newsletter, but he encourages other opticians in his academy to do their own as well. He has found that they, like many other business owners, often think a newsletter is an unnecessary expense. However, based on his personal experience, knows that this way of thinking leads to huge missed opportunities. For him, a newsletter is a great way to be in the customer’s mind at least once a month. He writes his newsletter personally, each month, and is proud of the fact that it contains a lot of his personality. He conveys his values through the newsletter and keeps the connection (from the initial sale) going.
In his newsletter, Conor regularly collaborates with other businesses, recommending new restaurants that have opened up in the city or promoting upcoming events that his customers might be interested in (see Figure 17.1). Often, he shares information that has nothing to do with buying a pair of glasses, but that is part of the trust-building process. He keeps the dialog open and keeps his business in the forefront of people’s minds. Sending a simple newsletter once a month is an easy way to secure lifetime relationships with customers by investing in them, regardless of where they are in the buying cycle.
Conor’s story is not much different than many of the GKIC members I’ve come to know. Entrepreneurs who open or purchase a business, and after much blood, sweat, and tears, find they are no closer to the success they had planned to enjoy. But once they are introduced to GKIC and embrace its proven, direct-response marketing model, they experience exponential growth and success—and never look back.
FIGURE 17.1
If you’d like to hear my full interview with Conor Heaney, please call us at GKIC (800) 871-0147 to speak with a business consultant who will gladly send you access to the audio recording on our members-only site. We also publish a Marketing to the Affluent Letter that you might be interested in.