“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” Albert Einstein

Losing Touch

It was on Sunday this week, the only day of the week that I don’t read the paper on-line when I read a story about the Presidential campaign in Iowa. I was particularly struck by the new attacks against Mitt Romney. No, I am not a supporter of Gov. Romney; it was just that I had to laugh to myself at the nature of the attacks.

It seems that Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson have begun casting Republican rival Mitt Romney as a scion of the upper class, contrasting him with their more humble roots in hopes of undermining the richest candidate in of the group. What struck me was that both Huckabee and Thompson, who while starting their lives in families of modest means, both now, live lavishly.  This wealth isn’t limited to these three guys; although John McCann may not have brought wealth with him he married an heiress. Then there is John Edwards who owns a 28,000 sq. foot house in South Carolina, while the Clintons have amassed a fortune since Bill left the White House. Of all of the candidates Barack Obama is the “poorest,” with assets of $500,000 to $1.03 million, not counting equity in his $1.9 million house.

I don’t” know if any of you remember the famous clip of President George H.W. Bush enthralled by a grocery scanner in the 1992 campaign stop to a supermarket? He had never seen one before even though the scanners had been in use for almost 20 years. This was a good clue as to how often Mr. Bush visited a supermarket. 

So what came to my mind was how out of touch with Mr. and Mrs. Middle America all of these presidential guys/gals are. How can they relate to the mortgage, the electric bill, the doctor bill when they make hundreds of millions of dollars. This is the samething with all of the chiropractic consultants out there, they are out of touch with the day to day practice of chiropractic, while the lesson for you here is how you should not lose touch with your patients.

So as always with any of my stories I can relate it to chiropractic. I have been a coach for a long time, I limit the size of classes because I like to give individual attention to each of my clients, and at $100 a month per client I lose money, but the point here is not money, it’s about the whole concept of BEING IN TOUCH. You see the difference between me and “the other guys” is that I still get up at 5am every morning, I love mornings, and go to my office  and prepare for a day of seeing 40-60 patients , dealing with insurance companies, attorney’s requests, employee disputes and the ever present cost of doing business as a chiropractor. I think that’s why people who coach with me do so well, because like them I’m in the trenches everyday.

When a doc e-mails me that his CA keeps sneaking in the bathroom to use her cell phone or that their new patient lectures are poorly attended or that their bank account is overdrawn or they can’t make payroll I can relate, because after 30 years in practice, “real practice” I’ve been through it all.  Some of the people selling coaching programs today were in practice for 5 years or less and then became marketing gurus to the profession. Do you think they have any idea what it is to sit and have to schmooze one lawyer after another, to sit at lunch with an MD and eat crow with the hopes that he will start referring patient? I doubt it.

This is not a pitch about me, it is an illustration to show you the importance of relating to your patients. It is a matter of never forgetting your roots and always, no matter how successful you become to remain humble. Patients are a very strange bunch, but they like being treated like people, not like they are your meal ticket , they want respect. When a patient tells you about their “New” 2004 automobile, don’t say “well, that’s not really new” instead be sure to be happy for them, be excited about their “new” purchase. Patients who feel like they are treated with respect and are not being talked down to will stay longer and refer more. It almost doesn’t matter if you are a good clinician or not. People want to feel like they are being treated with respect.

Bill Gates Talks About Chiropractic Marketing:  Well Not Exactly

Bill Gates although one of the largest philanthropist in the world ahs been known to be a little cocky at times. (I would be too with all that money) Anyway he was once quoted as saying something along the lines of, “Microsoft has had lots of competitors over the years. “It’s a good thing we have museums to record those moments in history.”
Not a good thing to think about if you were one of those competitors, that’s for sure.

But, you certainly don’t need to be a competitor of Microsoft to feel the sting of business competition. With the quantity of chiropractors in practice today, and the quantity of new doctors coming into the profession every year, I’m sure you’d agree it’s a pretty crowded and competitive chiropractic marketplace out there.

The number of shrinking incomes and struggling doctors who contact me everyday for help certainly confirms that.

So, how do you go about being on the winning side… the success side… of chiropractic business competition, instead of on the losing, struggling side?

Well there are 2 ways…

1. DIFFERENTIATION.

2. USING YOUR PRACTICE METRICS PROPERLY.

Let’s talk about differentiation first.

In order to excel in a crowded profession, you must be able to show prospective patients and active patients what makes you and chiropractic care in your office different from what every other doctor or chiropractic office is offering.

Mainly, you must offer patients benefits and unique value that they can’t get from one of the other local doctors competing with you.

And, if you really want to protect your practice and income from current competition and any future competition, you must learn how to position your chiropractic practice uniquely in the mind of consumers. In other words, you’ve got to learn how, through your marketing, to have prospective chiropractic patient’s view your chiropractic practice compared to others, as if comparing apples to oranges.

This only happens when you take proactive action to create that differentiated, unique positioning through your patient acquisition and retention methods, like offering services that no one else in the area is offering like laser therapy or if they are offering the same services create a way to make yours more appealing. i.e. Better equipment, better hours, better parking, etc.

And, here’s where your practice metrics come in…

Plain and simple, the only way to rapidly grow a chiropractic practice (and sustain it) is to understand and manage your key practice metrics (measurements/numbers).

Just like acquiring wealth and becoming financially free is all about properly managing and measuring certain numbers (i.e. your bank balance, your income, your expenses, etc.). The same applies to your chiropractic success. Sadly, most chiropractic schools never teach this concept to graduating docs.

New chiropractors then go into an insanely competitive marketplace, with tons of practicing chiropractors, struggle to build their practices, and end up tremendously frustrated. Can you blame them? This is why it is essential to keep statistics. You must learn how to operate a spread sheet like Excel at the very minimum. You would be amazed at what a fiasco it is when I start a new coaching class and start to ask for practice statistics, the scrambling is unbelievable. If you go to any successful practice they will all have one thing in common, ACCURATE, READILY AVAILABLE STATISTICS.

A Marketing Lesson From The Sopranos,

Or An Offer You Can’t Refuse

I don’t know if everyone knows who David Chase is, so I’ll tell you he is mastermind behind the Soprano’s and is a true marketing wizard. Now let’s look at what he did with the last episode of the Sopranos and how we can apply that to your chiropractic office.

It seems that everyone, including chiropractors, was wondering whether

Tony Soprano was going to get whacked or not in the final episode. Well there’s a fantastic chiropractic marketing lesson we can glean from the Soprano’s final episode.

Let’s look at what Mr. Chase did leading up to the finale to create such a loyal fan-base, and how you can apply the same principles in your practice to create a new patient frenzy (excited, new fans) and near-perfect patient retention (your own loyal fan- base).

First, the writers behind the Soprano’s always kept us wondering what was coming next: who was going to get “pinched”, who was going to turn rat, which was going to defect to another family, what new filthy act Tony was going to commit, etc.

And, it’s that “what’s next” perspective that we all had that kept us coming back and tuning in week after week. So, how can you create that same type of loyal perspective in your practice, with your patients? 

Simple.

ALWAYS keep things fresh, exciting, and new. In other words, don’t ever bore your patients. They should always be thinking to themselves I can’t wait to see what my doctor does next in the office. What’s the next fun office event? What’s the next exciting chiropractic marketing promotion? What’s the next new and unique service? What’s the next cool retail item? Remember, by nature, people want to know what’s new, so be sure you can answer them in a way that keeps them coming back for more.

This is why I highly recommend you regularly ask yourself the question, “What’s Next?” It will keep you thinking ahead with your chiropractic marketing.

Second, the writers routinely gave us a glimpse into the different characters lives, especially Tony Soprano’s. The value of this: relationship-building. As I discuss in previous newsletters, patients will come to your office for the benefits they believe they can reap from your care, BUT they’ll stay patients with you because of the relationship you create with them in your chiropractic marketing. And, one of the absolute best ways to do that is to slowly reveal bits and pieces of your personal life in your internal chiropractic marketing. Yes, I said “reveal your personal life”.

Remember, people want to know they are being treated by someone who is just like them - a regular person. By showing a picture here and there, in your chiropractic marketing, of your recent vacation or a family barbeque; or by talking about your daughter’s recent kindergarten graduation or son’s 50th soccer goal, you’ll create a bond with your patients. And, that bond, along with new and exciting programs, packages, etc. in your office, will keep your patients coming back and “tuning in” to see what’s next.

Lastly, the Soprano’s attracted so much attention because the writers created a show that was unique, different, and… even…remarkable.

And, as Seth Godin talks about in his best-selling book, Purple Cow, the remarkable is what gets talked about and creates word of mouth marketing. The ordinary gets none of that.

So, if you want to create a buzz about your office be remarkable; be worthy of being talked about, especially with your chiropractic marketing.

Be different.

Be unique.

Stand out.

Don’t allow your office to be viewed as a commodity - simply providing the same old chiropractic care every other doctor in your area is providing.

Think about it…The television show graveyard is packed with me- too shows that weren’t bold enough to stand out from the crowd of ordinary television programming, and because of that, nobody noticed them.

This is unfortunately going to be the same fate for a lot of chiropractors.

Anyway, even though (as a fan) I personally wasn’t thrilled with the last episode of the Soprano’s, as a chiropractic marketing educator I loved it.

So, the big question on everyone’s mind…What do I think happened to Tony at the end??? Did the guy who walked into the bathroom come out and whack em?  Did the truck driver guy in the booth whack em? Did they all live happily ever after?

What?

Well, I’ll tell you exactly what I think happened to Tony.

I think he….

PATIENT EDUCATION IS A KEY MARKETING TOOL

(PART 2)

One of the most powerful patient education experiences is the report of findings. I have a 2-day procedure with new patients. The first day is the consultation, examination, diagnostics, and initial instructions. The next visit is where the truth is told. This is where you can impact patients’ paradigm of health. They can see their health in a different light when you inform as to what is happening in their body. Keep this in mind: the first day you look and listen, and the second day you talk, touch, and tell.

Telling patients the truth is difficult for most doctors. Chiropractors think if we tell patients what we believe they initially want to hear, they will like us and accept care. This is one of the greatest misconceptions in chiropractic. The most successful chiropractic office is committed to the truth-living and telling it. The most successful offices are instructing patients on every visit and looking for opportunities for patient education.

Your patients will tell you what they want to know.

“Mary, I see you missed your appointment yesterday. Is everything alright?”

“I’m sorry doctor, my little Suzie has had an earache for 3 days and I had to take her to the pediatrician for antibiotics.”

“Was there an infection?”

“No, but the physician wanted to make sure one did not develop.”

Here is a prime example of an educational opportunity-chiropractic and otitis media, antibiotics and its damaging effects. Do you have information for this mother on how chiropractic can help? The bigger question is: do you have the confrontational tolerance to challenge her paradigm? Having an arsenal of information available to present to patients when situations arise can increase your patient base. Patients will ask questions regarding certain topics and if you can supply them with readily available materials, your time is maximized. After they digest the information, you can continue the educational process. This is one of the major reasons that something as simple as the Little Rascals poster works so well, it gets the mom to ask questions. But you must be prepared to answer them.

Quality Information
There is a plethora of sources from which to accumulate this information -peer reviewed journals, chiropractic newspapers, publications of synopses of recently published research, text books, newspapers, state or national organizations, and the Internet, unfortunately the brochures that the profession has available are in my opinion fair at best. That is why my next project is the designing of what I call celebrity or credentialed brochures.

You should always be keeping an eye and an ear out for what is a hot topic of conversation and becoming familiar with it can help gain credibility with current and prospective patients. An example would be the latest recall of Hib Vaccine by Merck.

Now, what do you do with the information? First, organize it by subject. Then, have it available when needed; look for opportunities to share it; and update regularly to keep current. Some educational tools to start your internal marketing/patient education program are: AHCPR report on back pain, Manga Report, cervical manipulation safety articles, this is an especially important issue in light of the recent push in Canada and in Connecticut to has new laws passed limiting the use of cervical manipulation and the scare tactics being used to misinform the public. Other important materials are patient testimonials, and handouts.

The handouts that are the most utilized in my office are: whiplash/auto accident information, otitis media, pregnancy, failed back surgery, neck pain/headache connection, low back pain, sports injuries, and spinal subluxation/organic disorders.

The accumulated materials can be used for: spinal care classes, newsletters, recall letters, MD marketing, handouts in the treatment room, report of finding packets, health fairs, and spinal screenings.

The information you access is best distributed by summarizing a research article and making it palatable for patients. Information in layman’s terms means more to patients and is less intimidating than what is presented in scientific journals.

Try to contribute a health column article to a local newspaper. A health care column, especially on alternative care, is a hot topic. The benefits of chiropractic, the dangers of pharmaceuticals, the benefits of nutrition and exercise, and the health risk of obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, all put chiropractic in a new light not only as a treatment vehicle, but you also become a resource for health information.

The words internal marketing and education go hand in hand. With reliable information, you can increase credibility and trust. This commitment to education will also keep you focused on patient care. This is internal marketing at its best. Satisfied patients do not refer, but excited, motivated patients do. It also builds the chiropractic profession one patient at a time and helps to move this profession forward to where it rightly deserves to be–at the forefront in health care.

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS

TED KOREN CONFIRMED

I have spoken to my friend Ted Koren, DC, he has agreed to do a conference call on MONDAY JANUARY 17^TH AT 9 PM (EST). Ted will be discussing how to successfully market your practice using printed materials. For those of you who think this will be a sales pitch for Ted’s products, you’re dead wrong. There will be no sales pitch; Ted will discuss the issues of vaccination, government regulation, cash practices, and much more. People pay a great deal of money to hear Ted; he is a featured speaker at the Masters Circle and other state and national meetings. I guarantee that you will leave the call with at least 2 new ideas that you can start using the next day.