Issue 9 - July2004

Success secret in a nutshell: MARKET!
By Michelle Geller-Vino

Every doctor, regardless of age, alma mater, philosophy or type of practice, sounds the same plaintive cry at some time in his or her career, “Show me the new patients!”

The problem is universal: If you are unable to get patients into your office, you will never have a thriving practice or perhaps even keep your doors open. Even more importantly, you may never have an opportunity to provide care to those who can benefit from chiropractic.

What do you need to do to establish a financially solvent practice and introduce people to excellent healthcare through chiropractic? In a nutshell: market.

That said, here are four fundamental steps to follow:

1. Accept that you need help. Running a successful chiropractic practice is not a matter of becoming a “Jack of all trades, master of none.” The only “trade” that you have to master is chiropractic. But, you have to accept that you need help with other functions in your practice.

You hire support staff for their proficiency in running the administrative portion of your practice. You hire an accountant to do your taxes. And you hire an attorney to draw up contracts and defend you in legal actions.

You should also hire a marketing expert to do your marketing.

How do you know if you need a marketing expert? Calculate your return on investing in advertising. Have you spent thousands of dollars on ads that have attracted only a few pay-and-go patients? Are your marketing efforts sporadic and unsophisticated? These are good clues that you need the expertise of someone who knows what needs to be done.

Accept your limitations and hire an expert do to the work in his (or her) area of expertise, while letting you do the work in yours.

2. Hire an expert. And hire someone who cares. Marketing credentials are essential; so is a love of chiropractic.

Additionally, your expert should have strong ego strength and have no problem dealing with rejection. The marketing expert must be goal oriented, self-motivated, a team player and unwilling to rest until the practice has met its particular marketing goals, placing the needs of the practice above his/her own.

3.  Develop a marketing plan. After you hire your expert, meet with him/her and develop a marketing plan that is realistic and consistent, with achievable goals based on what is needed for the practice.

Some questions to ask as you are developing the plan are:

• “Is the focus to be on wellness care or personal injury work?”

• “Who is the ideal patient, and therefore, the target audience?”

• “What types of marketing approaches should be used to attract the patient who stays, pays and refers?”

• “How many marketing events should there be per month, both internally and externally?”

• “Which is best for my practice: high volume, low volume, cash or managed care?”

Set goals and develop action items around achieving those goals, keeping in mind the answers to your questions. Schedule marketing events consistently; you will rarely see results from a one-time event.

Commit to a plan for at least a three-month period.

4. Do your part — close the deal. The marketing expert is in charge of creating avenues for increasing the practice’s exposure, as well as attracting potential patients. Once the doors of opportunity are open, it is up to you and your staff to “close the deal.”

For example: If your marketing specialist sets up a health talk for 50 people, you and your staff must be able to motivate those people to further explore the benefits of chiropractic.

And once patients come in to your clinic, you must become skilled in “closing the deal” — getting them to commit to chiropractic care. Closing the deal requires skills in selling techniques, communication and the art of negotiation.

One excellent way to gain the needed knowledge and skills is to attend classes at the local community college and participate in seminars held by other health care professionals. Developing these skills are vital to the success of the practice, not only for marketing purposes, but for handling issues once the patient has come into the office as well.

Hiring a marketing expert will take the pressure off you and allow you to become a new patient magnet. It is ultimately your responsibility to execute the four actions steps described earlier in order to make your practice a marketing machine!

Michelle Geller-Vino has been involved in every facet of chiropractic practice management for more than 25 years. She now helps build practices from the “inside out” and offers staff training and marketing assistance. She can be contacted at 561-392-5206 or through her Web site, www.mgvmarketing.com.