Make the Commitment, Reap the Benefits

By Noel G. Lloyd, DC

"Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” I smiled the first time I heard that quote. It had a homely wisdom I knew would fit in quite a few places. It certainly applies when it comes to chiropractors and new patient recruitment. In this scenario, “heaven” would be an endless supply of new patients, enough new patients to build several thriving practices. Dying, for most, would mean having to get out of our chairs to get those new patients. It’s what we call marketing.

The key to success is a marketing program that produces more new patients than you know what to do with year after year. When you know the secrets to that type of success, you’ll truly be in new patient heaven.

Accepting the Challenge
Not enough new patients is the No. 1 practice concern for chiropractors. However, it’s a challenge that indeed can be solved through effective chiropractic marketing, a skill that almost anyone can learn. If you accept the challenge, you will experience personal growth and may even end up having some fun.

Take, for instance, a doctor I know who typically saw fewer than four new patients a week. This was his biggest practice frustration. After six months of implementing a focused marketing plan, he said he actually had too many new patients, and barely recognized his formerly sleepy little practice. (He was joking, of course.) In six months, he went from an average of four new patients per week to 37 new patients during one of his busy weeks.

In hearing that story, many people might ask: “What was his ‘secret’ to getting all those new patients?” However, that’s not the “right” question.

You may be surprised when I tell you the actual action steps the doctor took to produce 37 patients in one week are almost immaterial. The most important step was taken before any outward action took place, and that step would guarantee many more weeks of 30-plus new patients.

The Secret Isn’t a Secret
If you want a constant stream of new patients, you had better have a constant stream of marketing projects. This may also surprise you, but what a doctor actually does to get new patients, although important, is secondary. What is primary is a commitment to spend three to seven hours a week, every week, in a consistent marketing program. On the other hand, the doctor who is desperately looking for the latest last-minute, quick-fix, “Hail Mary” type of solution to the new patient problem never gets to new patient heaven, and always feels like he or she is dying.

Bringing in a continuous stream of new patients, and running a thriving practice, takes a planned and coordinated effort of people power and events that require real skill and persistence over time. It starts with a commitment to do whatever you need to do, as long as it is legal and ethical, to bring the chiropractic message to as many people as possible.

Let’s take an illustration. You know all these “ab work-out” gizmos you see in the infomercials that promise instant results? They typically show a rock-hard young guy and woman sporting perfect “six-pack” stomachs, and imply that your five easy payments of $29.95 and “just three minutes a day” will make you look like they do. Of course, the caveat, “Your results may vary” invariably flashes quickly across the bottom of the screen.

You and I know that buying and using that machine for three minutes a day won’t give you the results you want. If that physique wasn’t a gift from God, as some are, you get a six-pack by making a commitment to a healthy diet, plus several hours of abdominal work every week for years! Of course, the same is true of building a successful chiropractic practice. There are no quick fixes or easy solutions. It takes a plan and good, old-fashioned, hard work.

If you want to see more examples of the same kind of crazy thinking, buy any golf magazine you can find and check the equipment ads. For only five payments of $29.95, you can hit your golf balls straighter, farther, and higher than ever before! What they don’t explain is that the people using their new driver in the ads could do almost as well with a spatula. And why are they that good? You guessed it, a commitment to several hours of practice every week. The techniques the golfers in these ads practice is secondary, and changes depending on the needs. The key is the fact that the golfers are committed and put forth consistent work on whatever their games need.

So Now What Do You Do?
The single best tip to follow is to buy a marketing calendar and do whatever you need to do to get two promotional events a week scheduled for an entire year. Remember that the marketing activities you plan are extremely important, but they are secondary. The fact that you are committed to working on whatever your practice needs week after week is the key.

I like fairy tales. I like the way they make me feel, but reality is different. Not worse, just different. I like the fairy tale that goes something like this: “Be a great DC and the world will find you, and you’ll be successful.” Don’t we all wish that were true? I even like the “amazing magical cure for the new patient problem” fairy tale. It’s more fun than committing the time and energy. The only problem is, it won’t get you to heaven. New patient heaven is not a fairy tale, but you will have to become a marketing expert who is consistent and committed in order to get there.

Every week, commit three to seven hours to your marketing efforts. See you in heaven.

Dr. Lloyd has been a chiropractor for more than 30 years and is the founder of Sound Chiropractic Centers in Washington state. He is president of Five Star Management, a chiropractic consulting firm that has specialized in new patient recruitment, through a variety of programs, for more than 15 years. Dr. Lloyd can be reached at 800-224-4876; noellloyd@myfivestar.com; or sign on to his website at www.myfivestar.com