NEW-PATIENT MARKETING
Meet, greet, and treat
By David Singer, DC

How many new patients do you treat each week? Three? Five? According to Chiropractic Economics 10th Annual Salary & Expense Survey (Vol. 53, Issue 8), the average chiropractor treats only six new patients each week. And, the average (mean) gross billings of that chiropractor amount to $424,000.

If you want to grow your practice, you have to attract more new patients to your clinic each week.

The lack of new patients is not caused by a shortage of people in pain or suffering with headaches or numerous other ailments chiropractic treats effectively.

The patient-shortage problem is caused by a lack of knowledge: Patients do not think about chiropractic as the first solution to solve their problems. When people get a toothache, they have one choice to get rid of the pain — a dentist.

But when people have backaches, headaches, muscle aches, or other maladies you treat, they have other options — drugs, medical care, and physical therapy. Chiropractic may be their last choice, often because they do not know what chiropractic can do for them.

One way to get people thinking about chiropractic is to conduct new-patient marketing. And one of the easiest, most effective ways to do this is to get involved in activities that take you out of your office and into the community.

If you stay in your office, your practice will stay small. If you go out into the community and meet people, your practice will grow.

Here are some ways to get out and meet people:

• Join a networking group. Two national networking groups are BNI (Business Network International) and Grapevine (www.mygrapevine.com). (Your community may have other local business-networking groups.)

These two groups limit membership to one individual from each profession. If the chapter you contact already has a chiropractor, seek out other chapters or consider starting your own. (Information on starting a chapter is available through the national membership.)

• Partner with organizations that promote natural healthcare. Search for holistic healthcare organizations in your community. Let these groups know you are a supporter of natural healthcare and would like to help.

You can offer these groups complimentary workshops to address common health problems, such as fatigue, headaches, digestive troubles, arthritis, and women’s health problems, or discuss nutrition. You will be better received if you speak on these subjects rather than if you speak on chiropractic alone.

You can also do screenings for these groups, but focus on more than posture. Do body-fat analyses, stress testings, and blood pressure checks — areas that interest natural-health supporters — along with spine checks.

• Speak to community groups. Get a list of groups, organizations, and businesses from your local chamber of commerce. Select organizations that have the demographics of patients you prefer. Pick a topic the group would be interested in, such as dealing with back problems or arthritis, and prepare a 30-minute to 45-minute talk. Contact decision makers and schedule your talks.

• Volunteer for health fairs. Call your local hospital or chamber of commerce to find out about upcoming health fairs. Volunteer to provide a back- or arthritis-pain relief booth.

The patients are out there. Many do not yet know they are your patients. But they will, once you meet them.

David Singer, DC, is the founder and CEO of David Singer Enterprises — a company that offers an ethical approach to building a practice, delivered through seminars, one-on-one consulting, and products. He can be reached at 800-326-1797 or through the Web site, www.davidsingerenterprises.com.