How to make USD $2 million/year as a medical tourism facilitator

So many of my readers write to ask me how to make money with medical tourism as a facilitator. Many try to negotiate contracts with hospitals for percentages and kickbacks that are illegal in many countries. This is the wrong model for a number of reasons. In today's article I explain why and share the magic formula for how to make money and grow your medical tourism business. Let's refocus your lens. Shall we?

Here’s the magic formula.

Start by building up your destination packages and your network of “A”- list providers and facilities. This is your marketable "product" strategy.

You'll use your medical-side knowledge and connections to create the packages, whereby the facility, surgeon, dentist or spa is merely a pre-qualified, pre-inspected supplier of a package; not the dictator of your value, your package price, and your revenue for your professional services.

Your value proposition is not "lead sourcing" -- is it?

If you don't have any medical-side knowledge, you need to consider a "make or buy" option because, either you learn it, or you hire it. You can't be in the "medical" or "dental" tourism business as a professional "facilitator" without this any more than a shoemaker can be in the shoe maker business without knowing how to make shoes! (But an astonishing number of you try anyway. Do you realize how silly and illogical that is?) This job is not about making appointments and lead sourcing for someone else to do the work and pay you a cut. Yes, you can do that, but that is "outside sales", and your client is then the providers, not the patient. You must choose which role your business will fill.

Making USD $2 million per year in outside sales is really tough because your product differentiation won't be your custom-tailored package and your professional service, it is simply selling someone else's product at the same price as everyone else they compete with. That's boring and a commodity offer. Why should anyone care? Harsh yes, but reality nonetheless.

This business model I am sharing today assumes that you have skills as a professional who verifies and coordinates "Care" "Quality", "Safety", "Confidential and Secure Medical Records Transfer", "Coordinates Quotes" in the form of "reliable and transparent package pricing" and manages all "travel logistics". Sales agents don't verify and coordinate. They just sell pre-constructed, non-exclusive, largely undifferentiated packages from sellers.

Your end product offers a unique destination experience tailored to each each customer. It positions you in a class by yourself instead of competing with facilitators who sell "other sellers' packages" that may not be unique to YOUR customer. This is your value proposition.

The money and the business model

This model requires little more than a letter of agreement that the providers and suppliers will be in your network and will act in a certain way towards your customers. It does not require them to pay you anything. In fact, you should be the "coordinator" of payments. Don't handle anyone's money but your own. Handling other people's money requires escrow accounts and that adds a cost layer that doesn't need to exist if you do things the right way.

This can also enable you to scale your network faster. Their price is their price. Let the customer decide where they want to go. This also lowers your liability by having a wider network. It causes the suppliers to compete and be on their best behavior to win your business.

Wholesale pricing from suppliers

Ask the suppliers for the price without a commission payment loaded in. That's a wholesale price, exclusive for your customers. I promise you it will be lower than the one that adds a commission payment or kickback embedded in the price. That will start your offer with a competitive edge. If you need to mark it up, that's your business. If they won't give you a wholesale, non-commission embedded price, walk away. There are thousands of other suppliers from which to choose.

Your professional services fees

Advertise a $159 (for the sake of argument- set the price you want/need for your time and efforts) price to help people fill their needs. Let people pay this amount up front via PayPal or similar after a brief interview. Don't waste your time and effort on people who won't agree to this. In this model, you need to hit a certain volume of paying calls per hour. That's your profit metric, your staffing metric, and your goal over time.

They pay this flat fee amount directly to you up front to open the file for YOUR professional service and advice. This is your "serious commitment" filter. If they won't pay you, they haven't decided to engage you, so don't do work for them for free. Your professional efforts have value but not if you don't price and charge for them. This flat fee makes you whole on all the pre-work you've done creating a network of pre-inspected, pre-qualified providers, creating destination experiences as packages, only needing to "plug in" the quoted prices of the exact procedure and length of stay and travel itinerary and class of airline seat. If you spend more time beyond the initial quote and treatment plan workup, reflect this in a charge that you invoice at some point along the episode of care. In the contract to engage your services, they pay the initial sum (above) and you transparently explain how additional charges will be calculated and invoiced and when payment is due.

If you don’t do this, they will take your ideas, package designs and ideas from 13+ other sources. Industry research indicates that people tend to make about 14 inquiries for their medical travel services. That means they have too many choices and you may get nothing for your pre-work or for listening to their stories and working for free to quote packages. Additionally, as industry tales of woe proliferate, there seems to be a growing risk of waiting for payment from the providers who may never pay you what you are owed.

Marketing strategy

Your marketing strategy and brand creation and positioning is and always has been your responsibility. This is your business. How did you expect to connect with the market? If you have no brand, no brand awareness and no way to connect with the market, it doesn't matter what business model you choose, you will fail.

Many leaders think a brand starts and ends with a logo. It doesn't. Experienced marketers know the logo is just the top of the iceberg. Your brand is your platform to differentiate and communicate what others should expect from you. It's a promise delivered, value received. It's trust and authority. No certification from some seminar delivers this. You convey your trustworthiness and expertise in your messaging not some medical tourism association's logo. You'll need a brand architecture and a communication strategy and for that, you need to KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER so that your messages are targeted, relevant and compelling. If you know your customers and they don't use or buy from social media posts, then don't count on social media posts to get you sales. The average social media purchase on Facebook is under $100. If you are trying to sell someone else's packages for $35,00 or $35,000 on Facebook your strategy won't be viable. Wrong tool for the job!

Consider these statistics:

• There are over 60 million active business Pages.
• Over 2bn people can be reached through Facebook ads.
• But only 6 million of those businesses pay to be ‘active advertisers’.
• Although 75% of brands will pay to promote posts.
• 49% of users "like" a Facebook page to support a brand they support or follow or have interest.
• 40% of users don’t like any brand pages – meaning paid adverts are the only way to reach them.

Here's the goal formula

Grow your business to 8-10 paying calls per hour, 8 hours per day. Assume a 50 week year so you can unplug for two weeks vacation each year where your staff can take calls in your absence. At the $159 price point, you’ll gross USD $2,782,500.00 for the year. Deduct taxes and expenses and you have about $2 million in your bank account at the end of the year.

You don’t need illegal kickbacks and bribes from providers. You don’t need fam tour and hosted buyer trips that get in the way of your goal: FOCUS LIKE A LASER BEAM ON 8-10 calls per working hour. Focus on your customers and connecting with the market. Consistently help 10 callers per hour and you’ll be there. It won’t happen overnight, but if you don’t start, you’ll never get there.

How to grow the business

I've used $159 as the number because it is in the realm of reasonableness. Plug in your number and do your math. What's your time and professional service and product development investment worth?

When you get to 3 paying calls per hour (~20 minutes each), 40 hours per week, you’ll be able to afford full-time help because you’ll be grossing nearly USD $20,000 per week. Until then, you focus on your business and marketing and work hard. 3 paying calls per hour. With the right marketing and branding, 3 paying calls is a real business.

If that's too high a goal, aim for 1 paying call per hour (8-10 calls per day, consistently) for USD $6300 per week. But keep growing! Can you handle one call per hour? Of course you can. Your creative brand positioning and marketing strategy execution and a compelling product design are the three things that will make or break your business. Be the patient's hired advocate for $159 or whatever price point you set. Don't go for 2-3 cases a month trying to make $2500 or thereabouts per case. That's not a business. That's a hobby. There are so many hobbyists out there trying to emulate the wrong model and not succeeding. Be different. Be successful. Make your dreams come true on a lower price point, higher volumes model. Your suppliers will (or should) give you better pricing and deeper discounts when you bring them volume instead of good intentions and promises. They will pay attention when your customers come through and they will bend over backwards to accommodate you, your customers, and help you grow. If they don't.... chop them out of the network. They don't deserve to be your supplier in this lucrative model.

Want to know more?

Come and attend my course on how to make money with medical tourism. New class forming for September. It will be held in Las Vegas on September 11-13. Certificate of Completion will be issued to you if you attend the entire course and pass the final exam.

3 day course - Medical Tourism Facilitator Training (September 11-13)

USD $1400 - Skills Training

? Set your medical tourism facilitator business into motion with the skills needed to successfully operate as a medical tourism facilitator.

? Build confidence, trust and establish credibility for your company with clients, suppliers, and hospital executives throughout the world.

? Learn the workflows, business model options, and return back to your office with templates for contracts with patients, insurers, doctors, facilities, and checklists for site inspections of clinics, hospitals and hotels.

? Establish processes and procedures to reduce the risk of errors and oversights with patient logistics, case management, and increase your chances of positive feedback and patient outcomes.

? Find resources, software and marketplace platform tools you can utilize cost to get set up, host your website, and get up and running with logistics and medical records and quote system support so you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

? Accelerate your startup and operations at a lower out of pocket capitalization and faster throughput so you can handle more quotes and inquiries per hour with ease.

? Meet with and share marketing ideas and techniques and tactics with classmates and instructors.

ALL WHO ATTEND THE ENTIRE COURSE AND PASS THE FINAL EXAM WILL BE AWARDED A CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION AND BADGE FOR THEIR BUSINESS AND WEBSITE FROM THE HEALTHCARE BUSINESS INSTITUTE.

Registration will open soon, so start by saving the dates and if you live outside the USA, start researching the visa process to be able to enter the USA for the class. Last year several people were not able to enter the USA due to our President's new policies on entering the USA. Find more details at https://www.facebook.com/events/2076100539166133/ or join the Medical Tourism Facilitators Lounge on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/globalmtf/