 Hi there and thanks for reading my article in this month's Envision Magazine. Now when you're looking to improve your capture rate it really has equal responsibility resting upon the frame selection as it does a team that's on fire to sell those frames. So the question is how to create a team that's eager to sell what they have in your office? Creating a passion for a product is easiest through really learning the story about or behind that product and it's human nature that when you hear a great story you look for the next chance to repeat it to go and tell somebody about it right? You can tap into this natural instinct of story sharing by hosting brands in your optical that tell a story or to encourage storytelling start by asking your reps to come in and share the story of what makes their brand really unique and this is not just opticians that should be a part of this meeting. Oh no bring everyone into it and because you want everyone to hear what makes the brand unique and you will be amazed at how many conversations the front desk or the techs will have about this brand's story with patients. They talk to patients a lot and talking plants a seed for when they're out in the optical. So when you're with your whole team you've already asked your rep okay rep show us the details that go into certain styles or or how certain designs were meant to fit certain facial features or demographics or share the process of how the frames are made or dive into the inspiration behind a certain design or divulge a refined ingenuity that went into the process of creating those frames. These are the story features that you're looking for. Remember this is a time for learning this is not really a time to pick out new frame styles you can do all that afterwards but this is the time to really dive into the uniqueness really focus on the story and allow your team to ask questions and learn from the rep. Now I recommend starting with your independent frame reps because they will often be able to share a very unique story that's a little bit more moving then you can move on to the rest of your frame brands. Now here's a little secret if you want a fun fact there are quite a few obstacles that run into this problem where many have basically brands that have a super lackluster story. Some are dependent some have a fancy logo with no story but here's a simple fact is if they aren't selling well and they don't have a great story there's not much hope for them so you may want to rethink even having those brands around so let's get back into it. Okay so after you bathe in the story of awesomeness about the brand have the opticians meet with the rep to choose new frames that you're going to sell. Now here's where the accountability part comes in go a little deeper and ask each optician because of course they're the ones who are going to be selling the product ask each optician to pick out x number of frames that they personally know that they'll be able to sell not just the styles that they personally love that they want to wear but the brands that they know they'll be able to sell maybe they can pick out that one patient. This allows each optician to pick styles they know will move right it creates an internal accountability and each optician towards the frames that they choose. Now this level of accountability will often surprise the frame buyers and after each optician has picked their allotment ask each of them okay you know you'll be able to sell these frames and they'll say yes absolutely you say make sure you share it with me when you do that amount of pride that this generates among among each member is really immeasurable now let me talk directly with my optical managers or frame buyers out there some of you are freaking out over the idea of giving up the duty of really being the one to do the frame selects but this is what is so great about the style of ordering is that you still hold the control over how many frames are being brought in for example if you have a board space allotment for this particular brand that you're learning about of 20 frames and you have four opticians plus yourself right all five of you would each pick out four frame styles that you know you can sell so you still have control over what's happening and then the quantities and everything else again that pride that the team member sells one of those frame styles is so contagious and it does miracles for your capture rate so going forward after that initial visit take a look at your data take the styles that have sold the most the a styles and go multiple colors and those a styles then remove some of the b styles that ended up not moving as well now that's all i've got for you this month on tips for frame buying and involving your team and holding them accountable and a fun and exciting process i will see you in next month's Envision magazine have an awesome month