Independent Insights, a Health Mart Podcast

Episode 6: Pharmacy Success Secrets: Marketing for Busy Pharmacists

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We know you’re juggling countless responsibilities and barely have a moment to breathe, let alone think about marketing. But here’s the truth: marketing isn’t just another task on your to-do list—it’s a lifeline of your business. In this episode, part 1 of a 2 part series on marketing, we dive straight into actionable marketing strategies tailored specifically for independent pharmacy owners like you. Discover how effective marketing can transform your business, driving more foot traffic, increasing customer loyalty, and boosting your bottom line. From leveraging social media to building a community presence, we break down the essentials without the fluff. Why should you care about marketing? Because it’s the key to standing out in a crowded market. It’s the tool that turns first-time visitors into loyal customers. It’s the difference between just getting by and truly thriving. By investing just a few minutes of your time with us, you’ll gain valuable insights that can translate into real-world results.

Hear about jaw-dropping success stories, such as a pharmacy that booked 400 flu shot appointments in a single day and discover how to engage patients without overwhelming your staff. Make marketing a priority and watch your pharmacy grow. Tune in and take the first step towards a more prosperous business today. 


Host
Suzanne Feeney, PharmD
VP, Pharmacy Retail Operations
McKesson, Health Mart

Guests
AJ Asgari
CEO & Founder
Drugstore2Door

Resources
Learn more about the Community Health Worker training program, the requirements for participation and the application process here. [https://www.ceimpact.com/chw/]

Learn more about Drugstore2Door on the Health Mart Perks page on myHealthMart.com [https://my.healthmart.com/purchasingAdvantage.htm] or at https://drugstore2door.biz/


The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of Health Mart, McKesson or its affiliates or subsidiaries ("McKesson”). The information provided herein is for informational purposes only and does not constitute the rendering of clinical, legal or other professional advice by McKesson.

Suzanne: [00:00:00] On Independent Insights, we'd like to recognize that October is American Pharmacist Month, a time to raise public awareness about pharmacists essential role in healthcare and celebrate your dedication. At Health Mart, we are thankful for the unwavering commitment and resilience of current and aspiring pharmacists and the difference they make in the lives of their patients.

Thank you.

Are you looking for ideas to grow independent pharmacy and make a greater impact in your community? Look no further. Welcome to Independent Insights, the podcast brought to you by Health Mart. Episodes delve into a wide range of topics to provide you with the practical strategies, expert insights, and inspiring stories to help you and your pharmacy excel.

 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and do not necessarily represent the views or positions of Health Mart, McKesson or its affiliates or subsidiaries, McKesson. The information provided herein is for informational purposes only and does not constitute the rendering of clinical, legal, or other professional advice by McKesson. You are responsible for reviewing and complying with all applicable state and federal laws, rules and regulations that govern the operation of your business, including laws that apply to businesses generally, laws that apply to employers, and laws that specifically regulate the practice of pharmacy. 

Suzanne: Welcome to Independent Insights, a Health Mart podcast focused on independent pharmacy. My name is Suzanne Feeney, and I'm a pharmacist on the McKesson Health Mart team. In this episode, we have A. J. Asgari with us. A. J. is a pharmacist, an independent pharmacy owner, and leads marketing with Drugstore2Door.

He's here with me today to get you excited about marketing and to understand that it doesn't have to be hard. If I can do anything to grab your attention, this is an area where we can all use fresh ideas and tips on how to automate marketing. Marketing is critical to your business. So let's get started.

So AJ, I'm super excited to have you here today. And I just, I want to jump right in. I've been sharing this story on repeat since I heard it from you. So I really want our listeners to hear, tell me the story about the pharmacy that woke up to 400 flu shots scheduled.

AJ: Yeah, that was freaking awesome. As we build stuff in the back end for these pharmacies, our goal is like, how can we just have the easy button where you click the easy button and just magic happens? And so this was a particular one. We focused on immunizations for a pharmacy out in the West Coast, and they were focused on five immunizations.

We went in and we built automations for text message and email campaign that went out to their internal customer list. And, literally within 24 hours, there were over 350 booked appointments. And by that Friday, I believe they were at 600. And last I looked, we've got two months fully booked. And the thing that gets me up and excited is.

Zero staff intervention to create that, which is just like, woo, you know, 

Suzanne: it's huge because I hear all the time. Now I can't find enough techs. I don't have help. how can you be asking me to think about marketing when I have nobody on my team to do this? So I love that part of it. You said zero hours.

AJ: Zero hours.

Now they've got some stuff to figure out, which is how do we immunize, 75 people a day, every single day. But those are good problems. That's a good problem. 

Suzanne: Exactly. And I'd like to point out that those are flu shots scheduled. But when you're walking into the pharmacy, then the pharmacists have the opportunity to say, hey, what other vaccines do you need?

And it's becomes more than just flu. So really great for the community, for the patients, and obviously for the pharmacy as well.

AJ: Yeah. You better cross promote your butt off. Those are all opportunities that you don't want to waste. And so the beautiful thing is when they come through a system, You've got contact, you've got information.

You've got all of those things that are the necessary ingredients for retargeting. And so they are not just a flu shot customer. They are a customer with a multitude of avenues to provide you revenue and to provide them incredible service. So like, don't count that out. 

Suzanne: And you were saying that was their patient list or their customer list. So that's one group, but I'm sure there's a lot of things that you do to help independent pharmacies specifically target new foot traffic or new patients and customers. Maybe you could talk a little bit about that.

AJ: Absolutely. So when COVID was going nuts, a lot of us did a great job on capturing those immunizations. What we did a poor job on was retaining those people as customers. So if you had good intake forms or you have a good way to go in and identify all of those customers who are no longer your current customers. That's a retarget list. So when you take a pharmacy who gave 3000 Covid vaccinations, but they don't serve those 3000 people. Now you've got a really.

Let's call it a warm outreach list because these are customers have experienced some level of service from you already, then you can go out and market and hit those. Going out and chasing new business, I think is a double edged sword for independent pharmacy because and the reason I say this and I say it as a pharmacist and a pharmacy owner and my own quirks we don't capitalize enough on our current customer base even to start to go out and try to figure out how to capitalize on people who are strangers who's never walked into our stores.

If all you are taking is PBM revenue from your customers, you've got a long way to go with your own customer base before you even have to worry about accessing and gaining the new customers. Because quite frankly, we're not in an environment anymore. Like somebody with a pulse and who's, who's breathing, walking in your door it's not necessarily a good customer.

Our old marketing strategy was like, hey, our word of mouth is so great. If I can get someone to walk in the door, our customer service is so good, we'll keep them for life.

Well, problem now is I have people walk in our door and I go, if we can't find another way to profit outside of us just filling prescriptions, this is not a good customer. This actually does the opposite for us. When they bring their profile in. 

Suzanne: And that's so hard. You're a pharmacist.

I am a pharmacist. So you sit here and you're thinking one side of your brain. You're taking care of patients, right? We took an oath. We're making sure they're safe. We're giving them their medications. And then the other side where how do we keep our doors open, which is why I love having these marketing conversations because for years I've heard, that's how pharmacy become this wellness destination. what does that really mean? And, all this time we're like heads down, filling scripts, but there is such an opportunity to really take care of patients within the pharmacy beyond just the script and that's hard.

Like I empathize with people who have a whole workflow set up to fill prescriptions. But we talk about MedSync a lot on this podcast because I think it helps people get proactive and get in front of it. but thinking marketing allows you to really be an entrepreneur and to have some fun with your business and.

Give things to the public that they need, that they should be getting in a pharmacy. Anyone who's met me knows that I just preach on the older I get about vitamins and the importance of that. And I live right outside of Chicago in a really urban area and there's nowhere in town where I can buy this.

I have to go online, through an independent pharmacy, but I have to use e commerce and I'm just sitting here like, man, the opportunity is there, but you have to have that different mindset.

AJ: You got to have all the tools too. Having a web presence, that's a, 1990s vibe with, here's our staff and here's how cute they are and, those things are fine, but man, if you or I decided, Hey, I want to jump online and find that vitamin, or I want to jump online and I want to purchase a particular thing, and we pull up a website to shop somebody and there's nothing to shop, I'm moving on. 

Suzanne: Okay I serve a lot of amazing independent pharmacies in rural areas.

And what I hear as, oh, Suzanne, I don't need a web presence. And on one hand I get it, but on the other hand, I'm like, gosh, I really do feel like I don't shop anywhere without seeing some sort of reviews. I got to see something. So, talk to me about how important that is, even in rural communities.

 

AJ: Here's what I would say, and this is not to toot what we do. If I set up a site that you couldn't actually check out, but I could display all of my inventory, plus the inventory I have access to, plus all of the services we're able to do with the ability for you to go and do those things, I don't care where you, you don't service aliens.

You're serving human beings. All human beings are looking for convenience. They're looking for information. They're used to getting information immediately, and they're used to getting instant gratification. And so, quite frankly, no matter how much old Susie loves you and wants to come by the pharmacy, there is a convenience factor that has to be deployed, right?

Let's take Blockbuster for instance, for anyone old enough to go through that era, Blockbuster is independent pharmacy, sadly, it's independent pharmacy. When you talk to pharmacists, it's our experience, it's what people come in. This was Blockbuster. Like people are always, it's a Friday night thing. They want to come in, they want to pick their candy.

They want to pick their popcorn. They want an experience of selecting what videos they're going to watch and I watch old blockbuster videos and I think, Oh my God, this is independent pharmacy. And then Netflix comes in, knocks on blockbusters door. I'd love to pretend we're Netflix, but we're some hybrid of right.

We're knocking on the pharmacy's door saying, we know the future. How do we transition? We're not saying become Netflix. I'm saying become a hybrid model. If Blockbuster became a hybrid, Netflix would not be Netflix. You would be logging into Blockbuster. 

Suzanne: I like that because you're saying, there are times where you want that experience and you want to walk in, but you have to layer on the convenience, you have to have all the things that you offer I think about that when you walk into a pharmacy.

Most people are thinking, okay, I'm going to pick up a script. So, you really have to say, here's all the other things that we can actually do beyond immunizations, beyond test to treat, beyond hormonal contraceptive or just even all the vitamins. There's so many options out there.

And I'm from a family of pharmacists. And I think, even the others in our family don't realize what can happen in a pharmacy. So, I think we're our own best kept secret in a way of what we can do. I know you're really passionate about this and I would love for you to maybe just to share a little bit about your background because you are in this for independent pharmacy.

You are an independent pharmacist so, tell us a little bit about your background. 

AJ: Absolutely. I went to pharmacy school to own pharmacies. That was my objective. Unlike you, I knew nothing about pharmacy. I was actually heading to dental school and independent pharmacist convinced me to make the switch.

And I went over and transitioned in. I had no clue. Like I'm sitting in classes that should have been super easy, like brand generic classes. And I'm over there learning Greek, like what did I sign up for?

So, I got out and then I bought into my first pharmacy. And since then have gone up and down and I currently own seven stores and I'll go up if it makes sense, I'll go down if it makes sense, I live, breathe, eat independent pharmacy.

The thing of being a multi store owner is, as you start to really do things proactive. So, in the beginning, the revenue was good enough that if I just came in and I operated my pharmacies well as a business owner, I didn't have to really worry about the rest. If somebody had a pulse, they were breathing, they walked in the door, I was going to win them over. And keep them healthy. And that was my strategy. And, I was like, hey, this is easy. I can do this all day long. Let me just bring stores on. I'll run them more efficiently. And now the dynamic has changed.

And so now you have to be, far more than a strategic business owner. You got to be a strategic business owner, and then you got to learn how to go out and get the right kind of business on top of that. And then you have to do that in economics that don't support it, which is you don't get paid enough to go put the appropriate people in place.

So, when you start looking at what do you really need to spend in sales, what do you really need to spend in marketing? Where do you really need to leverage that? And you go, holy crap, I got no budget for this zero, you know? And so that's where we sat down as a company and said, and this was right pre COVID.

The first thing we said is, it’s ridiculous that you can't shop an independent pharmacy online. I spent all Sunday trying to pay an independent pharmacy and I don't know how many websites I went through, and I couldn't give one independent pharmacy my money, I was just going to give it to them and call them on Monday and go, Hey, It's yours.

I'm so proud of you for doing something and, so we had to build in a step progression. So if anyone's listening, who've utilized this, you've seen us in a different phase constantly because we have an incredibly big goal for what we're doing for independent pharmacy.

The thing I don't want to do is make pharmacy wait on that goal. So, as we build technology, we release it. And we let pharmacies beat it up. We let them get it in their stores. We take the good, the bad, we take it all because all of that real world feedback continues to refine what our product has become and what it's becoming.

And so, we started with ecomm only. Then we moved into, how do you do the prescription side? Then we moved into how do we digitize the whole pharmacy experience? So, you can do everything you would do in the pharmacy online. Once we nailed that, then we moved on to. How do we start to throw tools in place for these independent pharmacies, like the immunization thing I talked about, where we can automate major processes, like, immunizations, like Medicare enrollments, like all these things that take a ton of staff hours, a ton of staff time, and they end up not getting done that well anyways, how can we throw those into different, algorithms and automations and utilize things between AI and all these things because now these pharmacies are digitally capable so we can go out and run all these different campaigns and the effects are incredible. I have an insurance agent on staff right now who we are on our second campaign, all automated. You know how many appointments he's got booked for Medicare reviews? 172. 

Suzanne: How do you even do that? The math doesn't work. 

AJ: We're just warming up. So, we set his cap at 300 and then he's literally booked from 8 to 7. Monday through Friday through the whole open enrollment. 

Suzanne: Wow, so there's a need out there. Which is sometimes I think what people forget, there's a need for all of these people are looking to do these services to buy these sorts of products, why not have an online presence, and let them work with you.

And you talk a lot about leveraging a I about having algorithms using campaigns, a digital presence. Sometimes I think this can feel really intimidating to pharmacies who aren't doing anything with marketing because, we went to school to learn about chemistry, right?

And we're learning about adverse drug effects. So, what I really like is Kind of this, you can step in, get your feet wet. There's entry level, products. It's going to help you right away. You're going to write away, see benefits of this, and then you can build from that.

So, if this all feels really overwhelming and like, I don't even know where to start. I feel like don't just start with that first step, get, like you said, a change from a 1950s website, get a website up there, have a scheduler. And then just, it seems like. From what you're saying, you throw out technology, test it, and then work with your customers to build their skills within marketing, but not necessarily leveraging staff.

You're leveraging technology. 

AJ: We're actually amplifying what you can do with less staff. And yeah, beautiful point you brought up. All the things I'm saying are incredibly complicated. We did all the complicated stuff for you. So, you come in and you get to press the go button. And all of those complicated things happen in the background.

And so, I'm no stranger to independent pharmacy. I know the workload. I know what's happening in the pharmacy. I know the savviness of most of the owners. We are working towards all of that. If you can run a pharmacy operating system, your PMS, that is far more complicated. You're going to go from building complex Lego sets to, I'm going to give you blocks.

Okay. So just put the square in the square hole and the circle in the circle and all the stuff will work for you. So that's the beauty of apple. I always talk about like you take somebody who's got market share, like an apple and put it in a three-year old's hand within a day.

That three-year-old is doing some of the most complicated tasks because of the simplicity and workflow that's created, you put them on a pharmacy management system that was created by engineers and no knock, but it's just the reality of it. If I don't get in my systems often enough, I'm like, where do I got to go to do this, to do that, to click on this?

Like somebody come over here and help me. And I'm the tech guy, We know that and our objective has been this has to be incredibly simple, incredibly turnkey, and we're out pounding the pavement so that we can, I always say like we're going to give you the cheat sheet. The answer sheet to the test.

All you gotta do is show up. I'm gonna give you all the answers. Just please show up for the test. That's all I need from you. 

Suzanne: That's a really great way of saying it. Because as a pharmacist, sometimes we overcomplicate it. We're like, hey, we really want to start with test and treat.

We really want to start with all these programs. And we get all in. We plan it. We take all the trainings, all the CEs. And then we're like, okay. Where's the patients? And no one comes because we forgot to tell them. So, I'd like to, talk a little bit about Drugstore2Door.

You are now available to Health Mart, franchisees as part of our Health Mart Perks program for those that are listening and then obviously also have a website for independents who are not part of the Health Mart franchise, but, tell us a little bit about what you're thinking, is in store for you and your customers and going into 2025.

AJ: Oh, man. We're super excited. So yes, you guys can access this anyway. Go drugstore2door.com. Go through the Perks. I mean, any way you want to contact us, all of us are incredibly available for independent pharmacists. We are independent pharmacy focused only. We could be in every type of small business. We are not.

I am focused on what it is we do 100 percent. And so, as we continue down this road for independent pharmacies on the Drugstore2Door side, we can take literally everything you're doing digitally.

We've got you covered. So that's from websites that you're paying for today are not paying for to any automated tools you're using. If you're using any. There are so many platforms. I can tell you from personal experience, we have closed over seven different staff products we were using, which are subscription services that we're paying for in the background.

We were able to shut down seven different services. We were leveraging, utilizing the tool set we have together. That's thousands of dollars a month in savings 

Suzanne: Consolidating everything into one platform and then leveraging the technology. 

AJ: We want our pharmacists like, ear to ear smiling when they walk into, their dashboard here. As far as things coming, I got to be careful about what I share from a proprietary perspective as we continue to work.

I will tell you what we've seen is we're talking, from the Medicare stuff I was talking about to the immunization, so on, so forth we're talking change to the bottom line for pharmacies with really simple amplified things.

And we're bringing other partners into this ecosystem that continue to boost what an independent pharmacy can do. And we're building the blueprint. So, as you mentioned, a pharmacy doesn't have to figure out how do I do all this stuff? You come in and we show you exactly what's working. And we have savvy pharmacy students.

So I'm always open if a pharmacy wants to work with us to pilot and test some things, we're always game, because we may build a protocol that's good for all pharmacies.

Suzanne: The constant learning, the constant adaptation. Which I think is what's hard, right?

Because there's so much that goes into taking care of patients, and then in the marketing space, you have to be changing all the time. Like we were talking about before we started recording, you gotta have video, you gotta have audio, you gotta have a website, you have to just appeal to different people.

Generations, which I also think is a key point in pharmacy because you have people who are 18 years old that are going to be using you all the way up to my 94-year-old grandma. So how do you really appeal to all those different generations? And my point is, that's a lot of work if you're trying to do that with hours with, staff versus leveraging the tech.

AJ: It's incredibly hard to do with staff. And if there's someone out there who's nailed it, I would like to retain you to come in and train mine because. If I'm not in there beating the drum, even I run out of the juice. And so, coming in and doing the same thing consistently day in and day out and day in and day out and day in and day out with enthusiasm and pushing it and selling it and there are some things that are just better left to technology to do and they will do it. They will never take a day off. They won't be sick all of those things will just happen in perpetuity for you and we're focused on those things because they make a big difference for the independent pharmacy owner.

You're listening to Independent Insights, a McKesson Health Mart podcast with host Suzanne Feeney, VP Pharmacy Retail Operations for McKesson/Health Mart. And guest. A Jay Asgari. Pharmacist, Independent Pharmacy owner and marketing leader with Drugstore2Door. 

Let's continue.

Suzanne: We're excited to celebrate pharmacy technicians with a new Community Health Worker Scholarship opportunity. Do you know a pharmacy technician working in independent practice who's passionate about their community's health and ready to make a difference? Well, McKesson has arranged financial support for scholarships for pharmacy technicians to participate in CE Impact's Community Health Worker Certification course.

Check out the link in the show notes for more details.

So, AJ I've heard you say a lot of nice tidbits and prior conversations to that just helped tweak the way pharmacists think like one that I had from a previous conversation was, don't say you do delivery doesn't mean you can't do delivery.

It doesn't mean you can't take care of your elderly population, of your moms who just had kids. You can certainly do that, but tell them, hey, I think you'll say it better, but it's a member benefit for people who use our pharmacy or just kind of adjusting the words, which is so in line with everything else.

All the other subscription services that I have, or all the other, programs that I'm part of but in pharmacy, we just, we tend to want to be helpers and we give everything away. 

AJ: To our demise. And that's a great point you brought up because I'll talk to a lot of pharmacists and go, I can't do that.

We do delivery. Okay, fine. Keep doing delivery. It's fine, but for us, as I mentioned to you guys, we're talking to put $10 on your delivery and then give your patient a delivery coupon code and name it our most loyal patient coupon code. Make it feel all kinds of warm and fuzzy.

And now that patient knows that, hey, delivery is a benefit I get of utilizing this independent pharmacy and it costs this pharmacy 10 bucks. Every time I ask them to deliver my medication. And out of the goodness of their being, they are giving me a discount code for delivery.

Suzanne: Which is all true. Right? I mean, that's all true. 

AJ: All true. But when you don't show any of that, it's assumption is your worst enemy. And so do not leave those things where you think that all of a sudden that patient's going to go, my pharmacy is so valuable because they do this, this, this. No, you need to let them know we do this, this, this, and this.

And these are the things we don't charge you for. Because you're part of our ecosystem and these are the benefits we've given you tech lets you do a lot of that Right when you go to a checkout on Drugstore2Door you can say Ten dollar delivery, but here's a code put this in when you put it in at checkout you watch that ten dollars get taken off the ticket.

How good does it feel you're like, oh my god, I love this place. 

It's like you mentioned, pharmacists are not tech people. They are not salespeople. They are not marketing people. The only way I'm going to build a product that works for non-sales, non-tech, non-marketing people is to build a non-sales, non-marketing, non-tech product that can be utilized inside the pharmacy in a simple way.

Suzanne: And we haven't even really talked too much about ecommerce, which is a whole nother ballgame that I think a lot of independents aren't really thinking of. But that really goes into the website. It really goes into the marketing, and I know that your platform provides an opportunity to be able to do that within the pharmacy.

So, your store can really be open 24/7 even if you're not. 

AJ: Absolutely. And you can run added ads against your store. You can run automation against your ads, which drives people to purchase products middle of the night. There's a lot of things you can do and sky is really the limit. What I always tell pharmacies is I'm going to load, your closet up with a bunch of technology.

I've always joked like it's my closet that has all the cords and the screens and all the stuff. But anytime I need something, I'm sure it's in that closet. I can go in there and pull it out and it'll work, and I can do the thing. We want to be that for pharmacy. So, we don't expect you to use every single cord, every single device, every single button that we're going to put in front of you.

But it's all in the closet. So, when you have that idea and you go, Oh, I want to do this thing, or I want to do that thing. It's there, if you want to start ecomm tomorrow, full ecommerce store. Do you want a store with 5,000 products on it tomorrow? Done. Do you want a store with five products on it tomorrow?

Done. Hey, I want to start this whole weight loss campaign, right? GLPs went nuts. Okay, well we can turn on memberships for you. We can set up classes. You can set up, yes automations to drive people into classes. You can put together supplement packets to go, packages to go with the GLPs. You can tie those to your classes.

So now all of a sudden, overnight, because you have everything in your tool belt or in your closet. You can make that happen in less than 48 hours. 

Suzanne: And that's what I love about, you can start with a website, but then you're really building your one year, your three year, your five year plan.

And as you realize how easy this is, you can just start to go. You can just start to take care of your patients. You can do more immunizations. You can, grow the point of care testing, whatever it is that works in that community, this technology and platform allows you to do that. It's really cool.

And. One thing that we haven't even touched on really is social media, which feels basic with everything else we've talked about. But, I think there's definitely, just overall marketing. Would you say, no brainer, you got to have a social media presence and it's got to be across all platforms?

AJ: Yeah, so I think social media is key just to say we're alive, we're here, and then leveraging it to the next level. So, you see a lot of people who go out and pay third party services to do that for them. Like, hey, we're alive, we're here. You put a bunch of info up. That's, just understand that that's not going to drive consumers into your pharmacy.

That is not high value content. That is stuff to just say we exist., we're alive, we're paying attention. What really starts to drive consumers in is when you add value, we are constantly looking for value. And when we stop scrolling, we stop scrolling because we want to take something in either one.

It's hilarious to, it makes us cry three. We're super scared or you're injecting some value into something that's important and on my mind. So, it's in my reticular activating system. And I'm noticing it. So, if I'm like, struggling with sleep. And I've been struggling with sleep all month.

And you're doing a thing on magnesium and how well it works for sleep. And you're talking about the benefits. Guess what? I'm stopping my scrolling. I'm listening to your pharmacist. And then I'm going, hey, I'm commenting the word sleep. And then if you're using our stuff, the automation's kicking in and you're selling me the magnesium at two o'clock in the morning, because you've got my attention.

Yeah. But guess what? And then if you're not having trouble sleeping, guess who's not going to stop on that ad? You're not. So, it's okay. And so, as we start to play with those things, it's like, if you just go online and ask people to pay you for stuff all day long, guess what? They're not going to, if you just go and put generic content up all day long, guess what? It's not going to turn into conversions for you. It is not until you provide significant value that people will pay you for the words that are coming out of your mouth. And then you've got to back it up. 

Suzanne: We've been talking a lot about like automation and behind the scenes and, set it and forget it.

But it does feel with social media that's where it is worth the time to use a person to personalize it, to have be the face of your pharmacy, to talk about the products that are in there. I'm a pharmacist and when I see other pharmacists talking about here's what can help you with sleep or anxiety or low vitamin D, or, all the things we all wonder about, I stop.

So to me, that seems where I would invest getting my staff in front of the camera and personalizing that piece of it a little bit more rather than having it be all algorithms and AI. 

AJ: Here's what I think. I think AI is going to get good enough that you're going to record a hundred words of your voice and you're going to take a 20 second video of yourself and you're going to be able to do exactly what we're talking about.

You're going to go. Let chat GPT or some other something write you up a script and it's, you're going to spit that out with your voice, your lips, your it's already there now, but you can tell, you can still tell, that will get better, and it will improve and it will improve rapidly.

So just know that. That tech is coming, but it's also available to everybody. So, you still got to find the edge in it. So, this is the part for most pharmacies that feels overwhelming. So, they're like, I'm just going to pay someone a few hundred bucks and let them do that. Please take that 300 bucks back and go pluck a kid out of college.

Who's the sales and marketing kid. Yeah, and bring them in one day a week and give them that three hundred dollars And let them just focus on like hey your job this week is to create my content for the week And then if you want to leverage tools like we have in our back end with AI, you can, and you can tell that AI that, we're doing breast cancer awareness week.

I want, 15 posts for social media. I want, 5 of them for Facebook, 5 of them for Instagram and 5 for Tik Tok. And I want every comment you make to be backed by literature, scientific literature, and I need you to reference the sources. So, you can have AI do all that stuff and then you can go put it in your own words and then you have all the back references.

So then that intern can actually put together or that kid from college or whatever, can actually put together a really nice week worth or two weeks or three weeks’ worth of content. In our back end, we have all the tools to lay that content out. So, you can go in there, build all your posts, you can connect all of your social media platforms, and then you can sprinkle it across the calendar for a whole quarter if you want to do, and then just let those go.

But at least they will be your content, your people, your familiarity, your brand, all of those things that reinforce who you are versus 50 different pharmacies and see this same RxWiki post. That's being utilized across every single not saying that's bad. I'm just saying that's like entry. What do you want to do to go?

Suzanne: Yeah, you got to stop the scroll. You got to get them engaged and then have a reason to interact with you. Okay. There's so many rich nuggets in here, but, I do have to ask one question because mostly I'm curious and I'm also the kind of person who loves to learn from mistakes or how can I constantly be changing. So, I would love to see, what do you think the biggest pitfall is that independent pharmacies are making specific to marketing?

Like, what's the one thing we need to change? 

AJ: Well, one is just not doing it. No sales and marketing is happening. Period. 

Suzanne: Ignoring it. 

AJ: Yeah. And two is, thinking someone's going to show up a, on a horse with a knight outfit on and it's going to save you. That's not happening either. No one's coming to save us.

It's on us to do those things. Does it have to be incredibly hard to do it? No. But, you got to pick the right partners who are focused on your success, and then you have to actually work with those partners. So, I could put the most amazing tools on the planet in front of you. The analogy I give, I'm like, I can put the 10,000 commercial treadmill in your house and show you how to lose weight.

But if you don't turn that sucker on and run on it, it's not going to do a thing for you. Yeah. Okay. So, I'm not the wizard of Oz. I am a human who is trying to put as many tools in front of you to give you the opportunity to succeed. But if you don't even hit the on button or plug it in or at least walk on it, nothing will happen.

I can guarantee you that. 

Suzanne: You have to make time for it, because it is important and it's easy to ignore. Because if you don't fill a prescription, somebody's coming in and reminding you have to do it. If you don't do marketing, it's like, oh, I'll do it tomorrow.

Oh, I'll do it tomorrow. Oh, I do it tomorrow. Two years have gone by and you're seeing people who are flourishing in other areas of the business and you're not, because you didn't make that time. So, it's almost like committing to just an hour a week to get started. And it doesn't have to be hard.

So do something and it doesn't have to be hard. 

AJ: That's it. And to the diet analogy, it's not, I'm not saying, hey, go from eating bread every day to your carnivore tomorrow. Like that's not what I'm saying here. It's like, if you eat 10 slices of bread a day, let's go to nine. So, if you're doing nothing today to your point, let's incorporate an hour into your schedule a week.

And then with a partner like us, that hour is amplified. Tremendously, because of all the things we can turn on in that hour. So, you don't have to, it's not a linear curve of return. The other thing I want to point out, the big pitfall is quit chasing all the shiny objects out there. Start internal and work your way out because there is so much money on the table with your current customer base.

If I brought GNC in, if I brought vitamin world in, if I brought any other third party in and said, hey, I have 1500 customers that actively walk in and out of my door every single month. And I told them that and said, oh, I don't actually capture anything supplement-wise, vitamin-wise, nutritional-wise.

None of that from a healthcare facility standpoint, they would look at you and go, we'll take it.

Suzanne: I had that same conversation when hearing aids went OTC a year or two ago. I'm like, there are whole stores that only sell hearing aids. That's it. That's all they sell. And I'm thinking, oh my gosh, all the people that walk in to get their scripts, we can now share this with them.

It fits into healthcare. But I didn't see that really capitalize in the pharmacy space. It sure did in other retailers. So, I think that's a really great example of let's look at what these folks need. 

AJ: And to your point there. So, we have a partnership. I think it's with the same Rx group that does the hearing aids.

They're built in now. So, if a pharmacy utilizes Drugstore2Door, I've taken their hearing tests, I can actually build it into the pharmacy's website so your customers can do hearing tests from home, purchase the hearing aids, and it gets brought to your customer from your pharmacy. 

Suzanne: And there's no inventory in the store.

AJ: Zero. 

Suzanne: But you still, what I think is so great, this is really exciting is we want to go open a pharmacy and do this because, you still have that patient relationship and I think pharmacists are so trusted. So, they're still getting to know you and having that relationship, but you're really.

Able to leverage all of these other opportunities and I'm just really passionate about getting health care in pharmacies You know the opportunity with vitamins opportunity things like hearing aids like bring that into the pharmacy where somebody can look at you holistically you out to other health care professionals as needed.

I think we're really that community hub So in some ways, this is really exciting. 

AJ: And the thing I just reiterate is the pharmacist love to calculate ROI. I can tell you now off of multiple pilots that we've run and other things that we've done with pharmacies is the ROI on what we do for a pharmacy.

We can make happen in less than twenty-four hours, and we could probably erase our cost for. The life of owning the product, if you do it right, or you go down one of the avenues that's where I'm just super excited because I want to be a non-consequential line. I actually measure the ROI and output of my employees. So, I know for every dollar spent the return on the dollar spent on the employee.

We have that down to every pharmacy, every employee. So, I know the pharmacies that perform that generate more revenue per dollar spent per employee based on how they perform per store and per PIC and. We have all of that stuff. So, as I go in and build a product for pharmacy, it's, hey, you inject, whatever, few hundred bucks a month into the equation.

Yeah. And then you immediately delete it out, and then you start to amplify it. so those are the areas where we want pharmacies, as they're looking at their p and ls, they're horrible about cutting the most important thing first, which is the sales and marketing side of the house.

Hey, we gotta shrink. I need to shut all these things down. If there's anything you do, start clipping other things and ramp up your sales. I personally made this mistake is I pulled a marketer off our team. I'm like, we got way too much central payroll. The marketer's not really doing.

Unfortunately, we just didn't have all the tools, the infrastructure. We hadn't spent enough time seasoning what we really needed to do for that marketer to truly be successful. And we expected that marketer note to know how to be successful. And so, we made our own mistake and we shrunk all that stuff way down.

And we saw the effects of it. There was stagnant growth across the board. So, we created our own problem. I was just watching the spiral happen and we're building all this tech on the side.

And I'm like, oh my gosh, we have to solve all of this, and so now we've been able to turn the tide completely. And now I've actually got a person who's back boots on the ground, who's knocking on doctor's doors, facilities, and all those things, but he is augmented by a ton of technology.

It's not just him going out and giving hugs. Like it is far beyond. He is super, super supported now in his role and what he's doing. 

Suzanne: I love you sharing what worked for you, what you learned. And I always say, how do we learn from our mistakes and come back bigger and stronger and make it work?

And, the key takeaway is leveraging some sort of technology, having digital presence, do something with marketing, prioritizing marketing. If I had to say the number one thing I got out of this is more convinced than ever that independent pharmacies need to prioritize marketing and leverage technology to help in that area.

AJ: I would almost say for pharmacy, you need to blend sales and marketing.

So, it's not just marketing. It's not just sales. You really need to create a hybrid model. We're not big enough organizations typically to have a marketing department and a sales department and those two to coordinate with one another. So, you're better off creating a hybrid. And that's what we would do with the technology is this is your hybrid sales and marketing tool so that you can execute.

Suzanne: And I would even say so many pharmacies and pharmacists don't even think about the sales side, right? Because again, we're here, we're helping patients, we're giving them their medications, but, you really are running a business and having that mindset will help you to grow in your community, to help serve your patients, to continue to do that.

And it becomes this win-win. There's a CE I took years ago on personal selling in the pharmacy, and it always connects with me still 20 years later because, sometimes we are our own worst enemy, and we know the side effects patients are going to have for medications, but we know they need the medications.

So let's help them by selling all those OTCs that can help minimize those side effects, or, have on hand, and we just, we don't necessarily do that as well as we could as a profession, I'm going to paint myself guilty with that, but you mentioned dentistry. And I always call the dentist out because when you go in for your teeth cleaning, if you have a cavity, they're not like, oh, do you think you want this cavity filled?

Sometimes they'll say, yes, we can wait, we don't have to do it right away. But they're like, you have a cavity, you need it filled. And it's like, Well, you're on an antibiotic. You probably need a probiotic too, but we won't say that. And I always look at those other professions and I'm like, they're not selling me things I don't need.

They're recommending things that I do need that also fit within their business practice. 

AJ: So, I'm a 42 year old man and I get the recommendation to take my wisdom teeth out every time I go in. I'm like, I am. Beyond that leave it here. So no, that’s, a super valid point. I think the last nugget I would like to leave, cause I hear this one a lot too, and I'm sure you do. My patient base is too old. Like they're just not savvy. So, if someone walks in with a phone that doesn't flip, and we may go back to flip phones with big screens and now that doesn't work anymore, but as of today, if the phone doesn't flip, they are capable. And so, that is not a good excuse. The other thing to remember is us in our forties and our fifties, we are the caretakers of our parents and you and I want to go to www.makemylifeeasy to take care of my parent because it is the last thing I signed up for, but I'm obligated to do. So, I need to go into that pharmacy and order stuff for my parents. The excuses are gone. Like we are past that. 

Suzanne: That's the number one takeaway, an hour a week. Start there. 

AJ: Start there. 

Suzanne: Well, this has been great. Um, thank you so much for coming on. If you are a health Mart franchise member, check out Health Mart Perks for Drug store2Door. If not, you can go directly to the website, but I think lots of learning no matter what.

And just making sure that our independent pharmacies are really out there and putting something towards marketing. So, thanks so much for joining us, AJ. 

AJ: Oh, so glad to be here. 

Suzanne: Independent Insights, a McKesson Health Mart podcast, brings together independent pharmacy owners and other community pharmacy experts to inspire all pharmacy team members. 

Plug in each month to hear ways to innovate patient care services and strengthen the overall health of your pharmacy business.

And Health Mart pharmacists, please be sure to check out Monday's Game Changer episodes and then claim your CE on Health Mart University.

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