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Dive into the multifaceted world of aesthetics with a podcast that encompasses it all. From cutting-edge plastic surgery procedures and dermatological treatments to the nuances of practice management, we've got you covered. Each episode offers a blend of insights into the latest treatments, tools, and technologies, along with invaluable tips for managing and growing a thriving practice. Discover industry trends, gain insights from key decision-makers and influencers, and uncover the secrets behind the most successful practices. With a mix of clinical expertise and actionable business strategies, this podcast is a must-listen for both seasoned professionals and newcomers eager to navigate the aesthetics industry. Whether you're honing your techniques or refining your practice's operations, tap into a wealth of knowledge that propels you to the forefront of aesthetic excellence.
Alison Werner (00:11)
Hello and welcome to the Plastic Surgery Practice Podcast. I'm your host, Alison Werner. We're back with part two of our multi-part series with medical aesthetics industry consultant, Terry Ross. We're exploring key growth pathways and business strategies for medical aesthetic practices. In our first episode, we took a deep dive into the state of the industry, the importance of business fundamentals and the role of training in driving sustainable success. Today, we're continuing that conversation by exploring one of the most talked about trends in medical aesthetics, the ozempic weight loss craze.
This category is booming, but the key to maximizing its potential lies in integrating it as a vertical into your practice that fosters long-term patient relationships, not just quick transactions. Terri is a globally recognized practice management expert and CEO of Terri Ross Consulting. With nearly two decades of experience, she specializes in helping medical aesthetic practices achieve sustainable growth through strategic business development, team training, and data-driven solutions.
empowering providers to maximize efficiency, profitability, and patient outcomes. Here, she breaks down how practices can offer weight loss services the right way with strategic planning, team alignment, and a holistic approach to patient care. Let's dive in.
Alison Werner (01:23)
Okay, so Terry, the Ozempic weight loss craze is here to stay. And so now it's the question of how can you make it a vertical you offer that creates a continuing relationship with your patients and isn't just a one and done. and this category does offer growth potential. So, but you have to do it right to maximize the profit per patient. So what are you seeing first with this category of services?
Terri (01:40)
Hmm.
Yeah, it's a hot topic, right? It's a hot topic. It's growing rapidly. Certainly, I think there's controversy about it amongst, you know, surgeons and providers as a whole. Like, should I, shouldn't I, long -term effects. I think, you know, obviously I'm not a clinical provider, but what I see from a business side is that there's a lot of benefits to it. But if we're just thinking about
Alison Werner (01:51)
Mm -hmm.
Terri (02:19)
just wait in America as a whole. You roughly two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. And we have to really recognize that, you know, it's a, it's a problem. And the amount of money that is being spent in advertising and marketing this year alone is $882 million. Just in
Alison Werner (02:22)
Mm
Mm
Yeah.
Wow.
Terri (02:48)
marketing for weight loss drugs. That is massive. And there are, I think, you know, over 50 products in clinical trials. So what does that tell us? That we either can embrace it. And when we're thinking about our practice, and if surgeons don't have a med spa, they should. And if they if they're looking for other verticals, this should be one because
Alison Werner (02:49)
Okay. Yeah.
Hmm.
Mm
Okay.
Terri (03:14)
you know, what is that going to do? Obviously bring a new subset of patients in your door that weren't otherwise there that if converted or be given a treatment plan, that is massive opportunities for growth and lifetime value of one person.
Alison Werner (03:19)
Mm
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Okay, so what does that treatment plan look like to keep that relationship ongoing?
Terri (03:38)
Well, think about it, right? You have different groups of patients, right? You have your young patients, right? You have middle -aged, you have older older population, and everybody has unique sort of things going on, right? They have laxity, skin tone, fine lines, wrinkles, weight loss. mean, when they're on these medications for the right reason, now they're also going to be experiencing all these other things.
Alison Werner (03:51)
Mm
Mm
Mm
Terri (04:07)
which means they're going to need some kind of tightening. They're going to need some kind of fillers. They're going to need some kind of retail and facials. They're going to need perhaps surgery. And so think about that. Just if we're thinking about all of the treatments any practice can offer, know, whatever they're, I would say there's riches in the niches. We don't need to be everything to everybody, but if we are building a treatment plan that can combine these therapies together.
Alison Werner (04:25)
Mm
Right.
Terri (04:36)
and educate the consumer on what's possible along the journey. This isn't just like losing weight and, you know, we're all done here now. No, it's not. It's how do you make a person look and feel their best, which is going to require multiple, you know, multiple things. And I think that is a very big difference between, again, running a, you know, high volume practice and being transactional.
Alison Werner (04:45)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Terri (05:06)
versus being intentional and transformational to the patient. And that's a choice the practice has to make.
Alison Werner (05:10)
Okay. Okay. And then in terms of integrating this type of vertical weight loss related services, in terms of integrating that vertical, what's your advice to the doctor? And then how should they approach talking to their staff? What is it from that implementation side that they should be doing?
Terri (05:33)
Look, it's not as easy as I think people think. There are many doctors, and some are my clients, that are making millions of dollars a month and who have developed a program. I mean, you have to look, there's issues with compounding pharmacies, whatever manufacturer you're gonna get it from. There's the educational side on the provider side. Then there's a whole host of labs and genetic testing and genomes. There's so many things happening that...
It really is to say, let's sit down and identify, you know, do we have the right staff in place? Does everybody have a desire to do it or learn how? Is it going to be a program, not a product? It's not, I'm just selling a product. Is it, it is a weight loss program. Okay. At our 4S summit, let me just say this, if anyone's listening and very interested in this,
Alison Werner (06:19)
Mm -hmm. Mm.
Yeah.
Terri (06:30)
Dr. Johnny Franco is a plastic surgeon in Park City and he's literally running in December an entire weight loss program that is tied to our 4S Summit. And he's been very successful and he's in Austin. And so I think it's really saying, is this something that we want to do? Do we have the patience to do it or do we need to grow and get new patients? But the program needs to be tight and well thought out, not, hey, let's just get some product and start doing it.
Alison Werner (06:36)
okay.
Mm.
Terri (06:59)
Because when you start to look at the data and the success rate, it's usually not very successful.
Alison Werner (07:04)
Okay. What metrics would you advise practices that are implementing a new program like this? Because as you said, it's not just offering a service one thing and you might look at, okay, what's the bottom line of me offering? What was my profit? What was my expense? This is a program as you're describing it. What should they be looking at or tracking to know that this is effective? This is a good use of our time and resources.
Terri (07:30)
Yeah, mean, again, I'll always kind of go down to profitability of offering it. What are the margins? What is the, how much time is it taking you to do this, to see one patient? And then more importantly, that revenue per hour, if they're coming in for this, but the philosophy of your practice is such that they have to get a consultation, right? A true consultation, not just for the product, right? They have to get this holistic.
Alison Werner (07:58)
Mmm.
Terri (07:59)
consultation. And if that's the philosophy, then that in of itself, you're going to know if it's successful, because I might start off on Ozempic or whatever I'm getting, I might start off on that. But in two or three months when I'm losing weight, now I'm scheduled for fillers and Botox and lasers. It's a plan. That's how you know it's working. Or are the people just coming in just to get their monthly refill? That's to me not successful.
Alison Werner (08:01)
Okay.
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Okay. Can I ask with the practices that you've seen doing this, are they, they're not marketing it saying we offer Ozempic They're saying something along the lines of we offer a weight loss program or weight loss service. How are they marketing it?
Terri (08:47)
That is an entirely different, my God, beast. mean, look, if you think about, no, and that's what, you know, I did a webinar recently again with Dr. Franco, but, you know, we have to look at, we really have to look at this whole TikTokification and social media. I mean, we do, we have to just be smart. You know, how many people are seeing your message? If we think about marketing, it has to be consistency, conviction, and then what's the level of content?
Alison Werner (08:50)
Ha ha ha!
Yeah
Terri (09:16)
that we're putting out on a regular basis that is affecting some. And we have to look at keywords, crazy stuff's happening, ozempic face. mean, we have to really start to investigate what is resonating. And then all of these AI tools, and it's just becoming madness, but it's not something that we can ignore.
Alison Werner (09:24)
Yeah.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, yeah, but it also doesn't have to be overwhelming that shouldn't put you off of it.
Terri (09:43)
No, no. mean, look, I think every post is an opportunity to educate the clients on, again, what you do, what your practice is about, your value proposition versus, again, I just need some weight loss meds and I'm going to go down the street to this like, Joe Schmo place versus write some legitimate place to get this big plan.
Alison Werner (09:54)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Well, and this is really an opportunity to really differentiate yourself from those. Hey, I offer Ozempic. You know, you can talk about how I'm offering, you know, I'm going help you on this whole journey because like I know just in my area, I'm also in LA and I see signs for Ozempic everywhere. Yeah, exactly. And it's always like come in for Ozempic, but it's never I don't think I have personally seen where it's part of some larger
Terri (10:14)
100%. Yeah.
Yes, yes, exactly.
Yeah, right. Right. We are right. are in the Mecca
Alison Werner (10:37)
program or some larger practice and focusing on like, what does this mean for me? Because then you always hear about like, ozempic face. Well, then you got to go see the plastic surgeon instead of, okay, if I work with a plastic surgeon in advance before I get there, maybe I can avoid some of these things. If I'm
Terri (10:37)
program.
Yes, yeah.
Yeah.
But think about what you just said and along the dialect of this conversation. And thank you so much for having me to talk about this and be on this series with you Business is down. Everyone's wondering what we're going to do in 2025. look, recognizing that you and I are in such a hot commodity state. And yet we're both saying there's many people just marketing Ozempic or
Alison Werner (11:03)
-hmm. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Mm -hmm.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Terri (11:21)
know, mounjaro whatever the hell it is. And that's just not good enough. So I think it's an opportunity for every practice to say, a minute, what is my message? What's my value prop? What is my narrative? What kind of people do I want coming in my door? Because now that comes right down to cost per acquisition. I might come in your door, but I'm only going to get one thing. That's a very symptomatic approach.
Alison Werner (11:34)
Mm
Terri (11:47)
again, versus looking at somebody or wanting them to be a long -term patient.
Alison Werner (11:51)
Mm hmm. Yeah. Well, I think it's also recognizing that, you know, if patients are going out there to go to Ozempic like I said, there potentially is a relationship with a plastic surgeon or an aesthetic practice built in because your body is going to change and you're going to want to deal with aesthetics as you go on that journey. So just get in there to begin with basically. Right. Exactly. Just get it from the it from the get go. Maybe you save a little money on surgery.
Terri (12:05)
Yeah. Yeah?
embrace it now, right? Right? Get on the bus now. Yeah, everybody will be happier. Business will succeed. Patience will be happier. Everybody wins and makes more money. It's just, it's a beautiful thing when we look at it from that perspective versus I'm scared to do it or that's not what they came in for or I don't want to be pushy. We have to embrace that. Again, this is an opportunity to educate.
Alison Werner (12:28)
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, and it's keeping in mind that this is one of many verticals you can offer, but it's about making sure it's not just a one and done service. It is part of a program that incorporates your other service and offerings. Well, Terry, thank you so much for having this conversation with me and we will be I know and we will probably hit it again because I have a feeling this one is going to be here to stay for a while and is only going to.
Terri (12:47)
Yeah.
Yes, 100%.
Thank you, love this topic.
Yep.
I agree.
Alison Werner (13:04)
grow in so many ways. but we will be back in our next episode to talk about another growth pathway for your practice. So stay tuned. Thank you. Okay, bye.
Terri (13:11)
phenomenal. Thanks, Allison. Stay tuned. Appreciate it.
Alison Werner (13:17)
Thank you for checking out this episode of the Plastic Surgery Practice podcast. Be sure to check out PlasticSurgeryPractice.com to keep up with the latest industry news. Until next time, take care.