By David Singer, DC

One of the most effective ways to build your practice is by knowing how to market chiropractic to the businesses and industries in your community. This approach will help you build relationships that will allow you to hold workshops within local companies, and it can help you get your foot in the door to potentially open a small chiropractic facility within one of those locations.

By identifying and addressing the major concerns local businesses face, and offering solutions to their problems, you can market your day-to-day practice while also generating additional revenue.

Before you begin marketing, you need to recognize that different businesses and industries have different types of concerns. For example, employees who primarily work on computers are concerned with problems such as carpal tunnel syndrome. Employees who do a lot of lifting and bending face completely different problems, and would need a different program. Thus, it’s important to offer several options in the realm of educational workshops, so each of the companies you work with can choose a program that will most benefit their employees.

Nearly every business is concerned with reducing workers’ compensation cases, improving on-the-job performance, and decreasing absenteeism. You should be certain to address each of these concerns when you are presenting your program to a business or industry.

Keep in mind that businesses that have more than 10 employees are governed by OSHA, the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration. OSHA rules govern the conduct of businesses and mandate all businesses to have programs to prevent job-related injuries. More explicitly, a company that has had an on-the-job injury, where an employee was hurt and unable to perform normal activities, is required to establish a workplace program, to prevent such injuries from recurring.
When you are marketing to a company or business, you can explain to your prospect that your program could serve as an aspect of their plan to be OSHA-compliant. You could provide participating companies a certificate of recognition to be hung on a company wall, that states a seminar was given to employees regarding the prevention of on-the-job injuries and the date that it took place.

You should inform the company that you have workshops that can enhance the health of their employees, and explain why these workshops could ultimately lead to fewer job-related injuries, reduced absenteeism, and higher performance.

For example, a workshop on stretching could likely lead to fewer injuries. Countless research studies have proven warming up and stretching help prevent musculoskeletal disorders.

Other topics for in-house workshops could include prevention of carpal tunnel syndrome, health promotion and stress reduction, weight loss, the prevention of musculoskeletal conditions, proper stretching and exercise programs, etc.

You have the option of charging for your programs or offering them as a free service. Understand that companies are accustomed to paying a fee to have these types of programs delivered, with a charge of up to $125 per hour being fairly customary. If you choose to provide these programs as a free service, you should explain that you are doing them as a way to become better-known within your community. This will eliminate any suspicions that may arise, and will help maintain the credibility of your programs.

Another key aspect of this marketing approach is new patient recruitment. You need to address the issue of soliciting new patients in an industrial setting. The best way to do this is to get permission in advance from the business or industry.

You will find that most companies are primarily concerned with workers’ compensation. It’s a good idea to tell the company that under no circumstances will you promote or accept workers’ compensation patients from that particular business as a result of your talk.

However, it’s inevitable that people attending your workshop will want to come see you as a result of the information you will be presenting. Explain that you would like to have the company’s permission to accept those people as new patients, and by correcting any musculoskeletal problems they might have, teaching them stretching techniques, and encouraging them to exercise, you could ultimately help that company reduce absenteeism and prevent job-related injuries.

Emphasize that your primary function at the company workshops is to help educate employees about on-the-job injury prevention and ways to decrease absenteeism. Tell them your goal is to promote prevention, and ask if that would be acceptable to the company. Chances are good that you will get lots of positive responses. After all, who could turn down an offer like that?

Dr. Singer is the CEO of David Singer Enterprises, Inc., a company offering practice-building services through one-on-one consulting programs, products, and practice expansion seminars. He founded his first consulting company in 1981; his company has received INC. Magazine’s Top 100 Fastest Growing Companies award two times. Dr. Singer can be reached at 800-326-1797; or visit the company’s website at www.davidsinger.org