How to Increase Profits by Thousands of Dollars a Year
How can you quickly boost your pharmacy’s profit margins with little to no effort or costs? Well, consider McDonald’s success with their “supersize” options. By simply adding six words to each order (Would you like to supersize that?), McDonald’s convinced millions of customers to spend an extra $0.60 for an extra large drink and French fry. Adding this question to each order did not take any extra amount of time or money and in turn, increased the fast food restaurant’s profit.
So, how can you “supersize” your customer’s orders? In an independent pharmacy business, cross-selling is a quick and easy way to increase profits, while positioning your pharmacy as knowledgeable and caring. Remember, you are not in the prescription-filling or DME business, you are in the problem solving business. You offer solutions to people’s health issues. And guess what? There are hundreds of cross-selling – or back-end opportunities as we like to call it – readily available within the four walls of your pharmacy.
But I Didn’t go to Pharmacy School to be a Salesman!
This is correct, you didn’t spend six plus years learning how to make a “sale” or how to directly grow your independent pharmacy profit. However, you did learn about the different interactions and side effects of hundreds of medications and how to educate your patients on the solutions available to them. By simply re-framing your team’s thought process (and incorporating a little bit of training), the opportunity to increase your bottom line by thousands of dollars a year sky-rockets.
And remember, as the pharmacy owner, you should not be the only person on your team who is asking patients if they are interested in a relevant supplement. Train your staff and create critical drivers that encourage your team to put a little skin in the game.
How to Craft a Profitable Supplement Business
As a pharmacist, you were taught to be on the alert for major side effects from the drugs prescribed. However, from our experience, pharmacies rarely focus on educating their patients on the nutrients that are depleted bythese medications or those supplements that will enhance the performance of their prescription. As the “drug expert” in your community, this educating opportunity is your golden ticket.
By simply offering (high-margin) solutions to these potentially dangerous situations and prescription alternatives, you can add thousands of dollars to your bottom line and add volume and credibility to the pharmacists’ role as counselor. And not to mention, brand your pharmacy as the local option that truly cares about the well-being of its customers.
Watch this video to learn how one pharmacy owner added $10,000 to his bottom line by simply offering a high-integrity calcium supplement.
High Margin Back-End Opportunities
While there are 100’s of back end opportunities available at the fingertips of pharmacy professionals, here’s a quick list of conditions and products that have proven to decrease the chances of nutrient depletion and improve the disease state…and your bottom line:
Supplements
- High Cholesterol Patients – Red Yeast Rice
- Chronic Pain Patients – Arnica Profen
- Geriatric Women and Poor Bone Density Patients – Calcium Supplement, such as Osteohealth
- Depression, Poor Bone Density Patients, and Muscle Relaxant Patients: Vitamin D3
Nutrient Depletion
- Beta Blockers – deplete co-enzyme q-10
- Blood Pressure Medications – deplete co-enzyme q-10 and B-6
- Diabetes Drugs – deplete co-enzyme q-10, B-12, and folic acid
- Diuretics – deplete magnesium, potassium, zinc, calcium, B-6, and vitamin-c
- Statins – seriously deplete co-enzyme q-10
SHARE: What other items in your pharmacy do you see potential back-end opportunities? Think diabetic shoes + diabetic socks, Band-Aids + triple antibiotic ointment, etc. and share below:
