December 2004
Vol. 1, Issue 6
The Spinal Column

Win $1,000 Worth of Free Marketing Services
Contest Winner: Paul J. Zuchowski, D.C.
Announcing: ChiroCommunity.com Exclusive Network
To Grow: The Four Keys to Success
Marketing Idea of the Month: Asking for Referrals
Letter of the Month
Special December Programs for You

Win $1,000 Worth of Free Marketing Services

On December 31st we will be awarding a free marketing program valued at $1,000 to one of our subscribers. To be eligible all you need to do is be an active subscriber to The Spinal Column.

The winning doctor will be announced in the January issue of this newsletter.

Congratulations to Paul J. Zuchowski, D.C.!

Paul J. Zuchowski, D.C. is our $1,000 marketing package winner for November. Paul J. Zuchowski, D.C., please contact Sonia at Metro Marketing by Monday, December 20th. To be eligible to win for January, just sign up for our newsletter and look at it when it arrives in your inbox. It's that easy to win a $1,000 marketing package.

Subscribe today

Announcing: ChiroCommunity.com Exclusive Network

Now you can become an exclusive chiropractic member of our new ChiroCommunity.com new patient finder network

Exclusive in two ways:

  1. Not every chiropractor will be accepted. You have to qualify and be accepted for membership.
  2. If you do qualify and are accepted for membership, you will have exclusive ownership to your zip code, and your neighboring zip codes if you choose, for as long as you want.

No other chiropractor in the zip code will be able to share the zip code with you.

Just imagine being the only chiropractor in your local Yellow Pages … the only chiropractor allowed to advertise in your local newspaper … the only chiropractor who could do free screenings or make public presentations in your town.

Well, with the ChiroCommunity.com exclusive patient finding network, if you qualify, decide to join and are accepted no one else from your zip codes can even be considered as long as you remain a member in good standing.

Launch date is fast approaching.

For more information and to make sure you’re not ‘locked out’, call Julie at 800-696-7788 ext. 241 or visit our Web site at www.chirocommunity.com.

To Grow: The Four Keys to Success

There are four keys to realizing your true potential. Call them the four corners of the foundation. You need all four. Any less will not do.

First Corner – Goals – Do you have specific measurable goals? “I want to do better” is neither specific nor measurable. Where would you like to be 6 weeks … 6 months … 6 years from now? Number of weekly appointments … number of dollars deposited in the bank … number of hours on the golf course weekly. What it is doesn't matter. That’s up to you. What does matter is that it is specific and measurable in a defined time frame. You need annual goals that then need to be broken down into quarterly, then monthly, then weekly, then daily, then hourly goals.

What you do in the next hour will have a major impact on where you are a year from today.

Write it down along with a specific plan of what needs to be done to reach that goal and review your plan every single day – every single day.

This takes a lot more than quickly writing a list of hopeful goals and tossing the pad into your desk drawer only to be reviewed at year’s end.

Write it … plan it … measure it … do it.

Second Corner – Fear of Success – Not fear of failure (there is no failing, just feedback for the next attempt). Everyone has heard about the fear of failing. But what about the fear of success?

Your income level is now at X. If you are successful and get it to 2X, what additional pressures and responsibilities will you have.

Your family and others will expect no less in subsequent years.

Failing is easy. You can always say you tried and it just didn’t work out. But once you reach that next rung up on the ladder, how do you turn around and head back down?

You may not realize it but it may be the fear of success that is really holding you back.

You need to face this very real reality of life and decide which way on the ladder of life you want to go: up, down or exactly where you are?

Third Corner - Paying the Price – Who doesn’t want to win the lottery? Who of us would not accept a free gift if truly no strings or effort were attached?

The single biggest difference between those who ‘do’ and those who ‘don’t’ in all walks of life is simply the fact that the ‘doers’ never give up. Never.

Just think back to the time when you were learning to ride a 2-wheel bike. The first time you fell … the second time you fell. You kept falling (and failing) over and over again until the pieces fell into place and you were actually on your own. Just think of how many times you fell. The determination you had to try again and how you felt when you reached success.

Where has that determination gone and how can you get it back?

Because with it you can not fail (only have along-the-way feedback) and without it you can not reach your goals.

If the fate of your loves ones was truly dependent upon your doing something you haven’t been able to ‘get to’ lately, I’m willing to bet, for the sake of your loved ones, that ‘must do determination’ would quickly rise to the surface and conquer the day. It’s in you. You just need to wake it up.

Fourth Corner – Take Personal Responsibility – Let’s get this straight. It’s to your credit or it’s your fault where you are in life.

It’s not the HMO’s … the insurance companies … the media … the economy … the war … the changing neighborhood or the competition that is responsible for where or who you are.

It’s you, you and only you.

Very few of us go through life taking personal responsibility for very much. It is so much easier to blame others or other things for what is happening to us.

Luck … fate … chance … sure they exist (or many people believe so) but you can’t depend on them.

The harder and smarter you work, the luckier you seem to get.

Before you can move forward, you need to look in the mirror and say and truly believe that who you are, where you are, what you are, is for the most part your responsibility and no one else’s.

With the four corners of the foundation in place we can then start to build the life we dream about … talk about … but have never achieved.

Want to talk? Call me at 1-800-696-7788, ext. 112 – 6:15 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. EST.

Marketing Idea of the Month: Asking for Referrals

Each month we will give you a proven marketing tip or program that will work for you. Collect, read and use all 36 of them over the next 3 years and you will have put together an effective, powerful marketing program.

Last issue: Cross Promoting Your Practice

This month: Asking for Referrals

There are basically only two reasons you are not getting any referrals:

  • You don’t deserve them
  • You aren’t asking for them

You don’t deserve them if your community has not embraced you as a warm, caring, competent, qualified, medical provider. That I can’t help you with. You know what you need to do. If you have the wrong personality (not a people person) it just may not be doable.

As for not asking for them (referrals that is), that’s a whole different story. Easy to do. Easy to get. But you need a plan that’s executed daily not just when the need for patients arises.

You don’t ask because you are embarrassed or maybe lazy.

As for being embarrassed, you need to remember that asking for referrals is a win-win-win situation.

Your patient wins because you are giving them the opportunity to truly help a friend.

The friend (or relative) being helped wins because they are being helped and, of course, you win because you now have a new patient to add to your client base.

But to make the program really successful we need to add a fourth ‘win’ and that’s your staff.

What’s in it for them? Why should they care? Why should they help?

More patients equals more work for them. More income for you. More work for them.

Make your staff a ‘partner’ in getting referrals from your patient base. Extra financial incentives will go a long way to motivate the right CA and office staff.

If the life income of a new patient is worth $700 to $1500 to you then you should be able to put together a very appealing plan for your staff.

Remember, the key to marketing success … WIIFM … or What’s In It For Me … for your patient, for the prospective new patient… for you and for your staff.

You need to put together a program of written materials and a structured referral plan.

Handing out free exam business cards to your patients to give to their friends is one way to start. The incentive for your patients? Each friend who sees you for a free exam will be worth one free adjustment to the existing patient who got the referral to visit you.

Quarterly letters to your patient base, contests, structured conversations in the office between you and the patient and between your staff and the patient asking for referrals is something that needs to be planned, practiced, promoted and done – day in and day out.

Expand what works and discard what doesn’t but a chiropractic practice that deserves referrals (see above) and doesn’t get any because they simply don’t ask the right way, has no one to blame but themselves.

Getting referrals is the least expensive, fastest, most rewarding way to build your practice.

Nothing comes close.

Want to discuss? Feel free to call me at 1-800-696-7788, ext. 112.

Letter of the Month: Asking for Referrals (2nd version)

Each month we will give you a ready-to-use letter that can be used to help promote your practice.

A professional copywriter would charge you anywhere from $150 to $350 to write you a marketing letter, but as a subscriber to The Spinal Column you get it for free.

This month’s letter: Asking for Referrals (2nd version)

Free downloadable copy

Click here to download Adobe Acrobat Reader

To grow your practice your professional marketing skills are as important as your chiropractic knowledge, maybe even more so.

Are You Getting Noticed?

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Pro4Pros.com also offers you special features that help you manage and grow your practice:

Patient Relationship Manager
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New Patient Offer Form
An Appointment Request Option
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Publisher: The Spinal Column
Director: 800 696 7788, ext. 112
E-Mail: larry@chirometromarketing.com
 

P.S. If you would like information on our test drive new patient programs with a 100% money-back guarantee (if we don’t deliver) call us at 800 696 7788, ext. 248.

P.P.S. We now have a new program that pre-qualifies the patients we send you. They must have a treatable condition and insurance or a job.

Call for details at 800 696 7788, ext. 248.


Click here for more info on our NEW exclusive chiropractic referral network



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
   

For more marketing information and tips visit www.chirometromarketing.com .

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©2004 Metro Marketing, Inc.

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