#8 – #11- Part Series Consultation #11

What is a REAL marketing plan for your practice?  


Why do so many fall SHORT of their GOALS?



An 8 Part Series 



#8 Marketing, Branding and Entrepreneurship 


Consultation #11 


I have been around the chiropractic profession for close to 20 years, I had been extremely active in politics even up to a delegate at the State level for my organization.  I have build networks of individual chiropractors to reach out to medical doctors and lawyers.  What I am saying is I know a lot of DCs in my local community as well as many at the national level.  Contrary to what some groups will tell you, the secret to success is a constant, organized and academic based marketing campaign not your ability to deliver a chiropractic adjustment.  Now, don’t get me wrong you have to be proficient at your craft and the better adjuster you are the better patients will feel and the more success you will have, but NOT without a system to acquire new patients. What I see over and over again, particularly when comparing large practices that eventually have associate doctors working in them to single DC practices whose patient base erodes over time, is the PLAN to educate the community, both medical and legal.  Without that you will fall farther and farther behind.  Now, it is important to understand that if you CHOOSE to work by yourself and see a decent week’s worth of patients that is up to you and I support that, but just be prepared to be busy, then worry about where the next round of new patients is coming from, worry about not being able to take a real vacation from the office, worry about how you will retire and transition out of practice.  “Selling” a practice is a difficult thing when 100% of the patient base is dependent on YOU.  It is far easier to sell a practice to an associate that has been working for you for 10 years and the patients love him/her.  That is a discussion for another Consultation through.  So back to the “PLAN” that will get you to where you want to be…

Getting into the MD office and building a relationship by teaching them what chiropractic can do for their spine pain patients is only the FIRST step in creating a marketing plan.  The long term reality is that they really have to get to know who you are personally and professionally, essentially for those that you can do this with – you need to build a personal relationship.  Here are the basic categories of what I do on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis for my practices.

1:  Global Outreach

2:  Practice Outreach

3:  Continuing Education

4:  Personal ONE on ONE Relationship Building

5:  In-Office Communications

6:  Professional Communication via Text-Email-Phone

7:  Group Events and Family Oriented Fun

8:  Professional to Professional Marketing – the “Who do You Know” method

This week there will be a series of Consultations on each of these, the first will come this evening.  Please make sure that you read and understand them, it will make your practice more stable than it has ever been.