Don’t leave money on the table by ignoring your patients’ resolutions for New Year’s weight loss.
We are 35 days away from January 1st. I will wait while you pick your jaw up and catch your breath. Yep, it is coming fast. The wintertime has seemingly gone by quickly with testing, vaccines, Medicare plan optimization, filling prescriptions, and keeping employees happy. I bet you haven’t considered your January pharmacy growth strategy plan. You can quickly create a reasonably easy plan to capitalize on the upcoming New Year’s weight loss resolutions.
Which Products For New Year’s Weight Loss Support
The first step in capturing additional New Year’s weight loss revenue is knowing which products and services you will focus on. I highly recommend finding options that are not readily available at Walmart, the corner convenience store, or Amazon. This way, patients come to you for unique products, and you can talk about the exclusiveness in your marketing to your community. Here are some of my favorites. This list is certainly not exhaustive.
1. Styku
3. Keto Support Options
5. ZRT Testing
Styku
A Styku machine is a revolutionary option for 3D body scanning. Buying one of these machines will certainly draw new traffic into your pharmacy. The machine does a body scan that measures and tracks your patients’ body changes over time. It is a fantastic tool to keep them motivated when they don’t always see the scale moving lower.
One of the features I like the best (besides being very future looking) is the machine can be self-serviced. This means you don’t have to have a staff member dedicated to running it. You could offer this as a stand-alone service. Set up a calendar just for Styku appointments and offer a la carte pricing, packages, or even a membership that allows patients to scan themselves as little or as often as they want. The reports are powerful, and the visualization extremely motivates patients trying to improve their health and weight. Check them out HERE, and they are having an awesome Black Friday Sale that is active now.
Designs For Health
Designs For Health is one of my favorite supplement companies. You can open a professional account and even sell to your customers through their portal. They have such a variety of high-quality products I often feel like a kid in a candy store shopping on their site. Their products can help with weight loss from a variety of angles. From detox to metabolism support to eliminating cravings. You can get a little lost on their site, so this link will take you to a menagerie of their products perfect for New Year’s weight loss. While I am highlighting Designs For Health, there are many professional-grade companies that have great products. Opening an Emerson Ecologics account is highly recommended to you can shop several brands in one place.
New Year’s Weight Loss Keto-Style
A keto diet is one of the most popular choices that your patients will use to lose weight. I love Keto. You are in a great position to help patients with this transition with education and support with products and supplements. Most patients will be concerned with the “keto flu.” This flu is a period of a few days as the body is depleting its last glycogen stores and transitioning into burning fat and producing ketones. Patients can feel lethargy, mental fogginess, headaches, or even body aches. Some options you can choose to carry to help them are:
- Exogenous ketones
- Electrolytes
- OTC acetaminophen or NSAIDs
- Designs For Health KTO products
- Epsom salts for soaking baths
Education can be another component you can help with. I would recommend creating a cheat sheet or best practices branded with your pharmacy’s info. You can create one in Canva, which is incredibly easy to use. Many patients like Keto since they still get to indulge in good-tasting fatty food, and there isn’t an expensive program or branded foods you must use. Others may fail on Keto because they are left to make their own decisions and easily fall off the wagon. Most patients will benefit from a hiatus of carbohydrates and sugar.
Weight Loss Coaching
I have been a proponent of leveraging weight loss coaching in your pharmacy for a few years now. Coaching is a great way to add additional revenue without restricting when and who you can do business with. Many pharmacy owners and their pharmacists focus on their weight loss patients during downtimes at the pharmacy. Nights and weekends are also options. It can easily fit into your pharmacy’s schedule and workflow.
The program I recommend is a turn-key solution with a very low barrier to entry. For less than $300, you can get started with a program that has helped thousands of people to lose weight. For any followers of DiversifyRx, Dr. Mark Nelson is your personal concierge for this program. Dr. Mark Nelson is a cardiologist and can explain precisely how this program works. It is definitely worth an initial half-hour call with him. You can use this link to learn more and schedule a call with him at your convenience.
ZRT Testing
I have been a customer, user, and seller of ZRT tests since 2007. Many pharmacies know them as the saliva hormone company. This is still true, and they have branched into many other areas of health and wellness. Their menu of tests has grown to include some powerful weight loss options. As healthcare providers, we know weight loss is a multi-factorial issue. Hormones, neurotransmitters, and your body’s biochemistry are pieces to the puzzle. While it is important to focus on diet and exercise, and supplementation, it is critical not to leave out hormones. You can easily create an account, HERE is their website, and begin to order. They have several options from patient pay to provider pay.
Marketing Your New Year’s Weight Loss Options
The key to success is letting patients and your community know you have the options they are looking for. Most people won’t be thinking about their New Year’s weight loss goals until the last two weeks of December. Yay! You still have time. Here is an easy-to-execute plan for your pharmacy.
1. Create or print flyers for your specialty weight loss products
2. Make bag stuffers promoting your weight loss solutions
3. Create a weight loss specialty section in your OTC area and add lots of signage
4. Starting on December 15th, do one Facebook Live post each day talking about one product or giving one piece of weight loss advice
5. Share your posts to Facebook and Instagram at a minimum
Weight Loss Contests
The Biggest Loser made weight-loss contests very popular. These are still a great way to create a buzz and gamify the arduous task of losing weight. If you want to do a contest, you should create a catchy name, and then you need to define the rules.
- How long will the contest last?
- Are there interim winners?
- Will you segregate by age, sex, starting weight?
- What prizes will you have?
- Could you go in with other local health and wellness businesses to make it bigger and better?
- How many people can enroll? Limited or unlimited?
- Is there a fee, product required, or any other qualifiers?
With these types of community-based games, you can often partner with someone else who will take a lot of the heavy load away from you. Perhaps look for a personal trainer, a local gym owner, a physical therapist, or an independent nutritionist. Chances are you find someone to help make this happen even on short notice.
Pharmacy Growth Through New Year’s Weight Loss Goals
No matter which products or services you choose to focus on, you have a pool of patients buying weight loss solutions. Are they going to be buying them from you? If you get the products into your pharmacy and your staff starts talking about them, then yes, many will choose to do business with their trusted healthcare professional. Focusing on New Year’s weight loss is a cash-based revenue source that will boost your profits and make your patients happy and healthier.
For our Pharmacy Badass University members, we are creating a new course specifically to help you offer weight loss solutions for your patients. Be on the lookout for communication when it is launched.
If you need any help, never hesitate to reach out to DiversifyRx at [email protected] or through our social channels.
