9 tips to help launch your lecture program
By Kimberly Ownbey

Consulting offers a remarkable opportunity to help companies tackle their most difficult and intriguing challenges. Your expertise in chiropractic is an abundant source of solutions to many of the problems companies face.

While a full-fledged industrial consulting career may be your goal, a good way to start is with corporate lectures. Here are nine tips to lead you into the lecture scene:

Begin by targeting smaller companies. These businesses often have neither the staff nor the budget to provide ergonomic training or staff development. You can usually get a lecture scheduled with them by interacting with just one person.

Besides, it’s often more effective to conduct smaller, more intimate talks to a few people than to address larger crowds. Typically, employees ask more questions in smaller settings, which gives you the opportunity to build a relationship with the employees.

Because smaller companies may have more flexibility in their scheduling you might offer a health screening at the end of the lecture. This activity would allow you to talk with interested participants one on one. By providing these services for the company, you can actually become its “resource” hero. And once you have a few companies on your client list, your credibility increases immeasurably.

2) Start with people you know. Where do your existing patients work? What about your family and friends? Don’t forget that your staff’s family and friends work somewhere too. By using your existing contacts, you automatically have an “in” rather than being resigned to cold-calling to find lecture opportunities. Put a poster in your waiting room to inform your patients about the topics you offer in a complimentary lecture program.

3) Draw on your own assets. Do some soul-searching and digging into your "past lives" to identify your own strengths. Assess your:

• Past jobs. What did you do before you became a chiropractor? Were you an engineer? Then target engineering firms. Bartender? Contact local restaurants. Professional student? Get in touch with local colleges and universities.

Any work you performed in the past gives you an area of expertise on which to focus. You understand the physical stresses of the workplace and can provide practical solutions to employees.

• Religious affiliations. If you belong to a church, parish, synagogue, or other similar organization, look there for support groups, small groups, and even large staffs who could benefit from a health lecture.

• Community, professional, and service organizations. Get involved and get connected. You can gain access to the corporate community or nonprofit consulting through local organizations and community activities. Many organizations seek guest speakers and appreciate help filling their calendar. Your local chamber of commerce is a good source for these.

4) Do not charge for your lectures. Although you are providing a valuable service to companies, charging for your lectures decreases the number of potential opportunities because many small companies do not have a budget for training.

Since you are hoping to gain new patients from this venture, the opportunity to be there and procure patients is a fair trade-off for the information you are providing. (This suggestion is for basic ergonomic overviews. If you want to conduct in-depth evaluations and individual recommendations, then you should consider charging a consulting fee.)

5) Get testimonials. Ask for feedback from the companies where you lecture. With their permission, include their recommendations in your proposals to other companies. This gives you credibility and written verification of the benefits of your particular lectures.

6) Realize it’s not about you. Because doctors often want to get new patients from lectures, they tend to want to lecture only on chiropractic. However, this is typically not what the company is seeking.

Identify problems from the employer’s perspective. Does the company need help with ergonomics or stress? Are its employees interested in nutrition or does it have employees off work with symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome?

Is the company looking for help in reducing its workers compensation claims or does it want to provide mere “lunch-and-learn” events as an extra benefit for their employees? Chiropractic is always a solution you offer but it shouldn’t be your main topic. Meet the company’s needs first and your needs second in order to begin to establish a solid relationship.

7) Keep it simple. When human resource directors hear “ergonomics lecture,” they are often afraid that you will tell them they need new equipment and furniture. By offering simple solutions, such as putting a couple of phone books underneath a computer monitor to get it to eye level or by focusing on employee postural habits, you can help employees avoid injury and ultimately save the company money on workers compensation claims.

Another way of helping is to focus on what employees do at home. For example: The cause of a strained neck or shoulder may be due to working on the computer in an ergonomically unfriendly home environment. Pointing out this type of problem helps employees make better choices both at work and at home.

8) Let a picture speak louder than words. Invest in a digital camera. Take pictures of employees in their work environments. Often it is not the equipment employees use but the way they use it that causes problems. Using pictures of the company’s actual employees makes your lecture more personable and more applicable to what they are actually doing on the job.

9) Work smarter, not harder. By building a relationship with a company, you are providing a valuable service. As the relationship builds, the opportunities increase for both parties.

For example: The human resources director of a major corporation may not initially seek a presentation on chiropractic. Focus your lecture specifically on ergonomics and allow the director to preview and approve the lecture beforehand.

As the relationship progresses, add more information about posture and how chiropractic helps in this area.

Or, present a lecture on pinched nerves and conduct spinal screenings afterwards.

Once the relationship is solidly established, consider offering to handle the company’s new-employee physicals and workers’ compensation exams, in addition to presenting lectures. Position yourself as an additional resource for their team.

Developing a corporate lecture program takes time. Referrals happen only after you have actively met your existing customers’ needs. And remember, it’s all about building lasting relationships.

Kimberly Ownbey has been director of marketing for Logan College of Chiropractic (www.logan.edu) since 1997. During this time, she has organized 3,300 community events, including health fairs; postural, blood pressure, and scoliosis screenings; and corporate and community lectures. She can be contacted by e-mail at Kimberly.Ownbey@logan.edu.