Episode 47: Stop Expecting New Patients
What a lot of chiropractors want in their practices is “I want new patients” and they’re frustrated because they’re looking for new patients because they’re losing all the new patients that actually coming in.
Let’s talk about how to get new patients. To get new patients, there are 3 separate ways of actually getting or the 3 types of new patients you get. The first type that we all want and ultimately try to get is “Referrals”. Referrals are the clients you actually want because they’re pre-conditioned, they’re already pre-selected in a sense that they selected themselves and or been selected by one of your clients, and they are obviously pre-motivated and also pre-interested because they actually love what you do or heard about you from someone else and you already have that advantage. And referrals are obviously what you want. When I’m was in my practice, about 94-95% are all referrals and it was great because those clients already knew what they were expected to do or they already have the expectation of what I was going to do when they first come to see me. It’s so much easier because there was no worrying about having to really get them to understand too much before they move on because their friends have already told them about.
The second type of clients that most of you are familiar with is what they call the walk-in. The people who just kind of walk-in or show up, or just happen to see your sign and decided to call you up because you happened to be the closest chiropractor around. Obviously,that happens to every single practice.
The third are the people that actively go out and get. It might be through final screen or it might be doing a talk or just getting out the community. It might be doing some Facebook ads or some Google ads, or even just positioning a website and creating blogs to attract traffic to your website. Either way you have to actively put that together.
Now, these are the 3 types of new clients that you want and obviously we talk about this is being the referrals are being the top clients. But I want to talk about one thing specific. I was talking to a chiropractor and he happen to be an associate. And here’s a big thing with associates, when I was an associate, when I first started my practice as a chiropractor one of the key things I saw right away is that the walk-ins that I would get from the practice I saw them as nothing more than a bonus. And I mean by bonus is that they’re actually gifts to me. And I think that’s the mentality that you need to have in any practice. I don’t care whether you’re a principal or an associate but more so if you’re an associate because the principal has spent time regarding the spending money. Putting up the practice, putting up the sign, putting up the positioning of buying that premise and also creating the staff and a business to attract clients to actually walk-in. But those who are not are the best clients.
So I see them always as a gift because I can’t do anything about it, I can’t really control it. There are certain things you can control, obviously regards to how you advertise it in a way but they are a gift. And if I saw that as a gift, that means this is something that I’m not in control of. However, these two… I am in control of and I saw this as really more as going and getting them because being active is actually going out and actually grab the clients from you. Not physically grab, but you have to actually go out and do the work because if you don’t do the work, then how are you going to be able to get the client?
And when you have the mentality that this is just a gift and these are the people that you have to actually get, then all of a sudden your whole mentality suddenly shifts from being passively waiting for new clients, you actually shift to actively going out and recruiting clients and that is really important. And these are the referrals, they are the people that I call again. And when you start to think in that mindset that you actually have to actively go out and get these and get clients rather than waiting because this is a very passive mode where this side of the equation is in active mode. And what you can do about it is that you spend your time focusing on here.
What can you do with referrals? Well, that’s another video but more importantly it kind of summarize very quickly, you can talk to clients, you can talk about their successes and then direct them. And I usually it a technique called “Inception”. Implanting an idea an let them think about a client to client to actually prefer to you and actively you can go on and do some talk, you can kind of go on to community and start talking about either by health and wellness and position you as a trusted expert and you got to go out there or create some Facebook ads or maybe go out there and position yourself as an expert online so that when they search your area for a health and wellness expert or chiropractor they come to see you. This walk-ins if it is a gift then you don’t have to certain things. There are obviously certain things you can do like increase signage and positioning but honestly I rather spend my time right here in this active area because that’s what’s going to change my life in the clients that come in. The key thing here that I want you to get is “You actually have to do some work”. I’m sorry to tell you that but you’re going to have to do work. You can’t just have the sense of entitlement to expect that this is going to occur. This has to be done on going out and actually doing the work to get client. Just because you work in a practice and you have a practice doesn’t necessarily mean that people are just going to walk-in because you have doors open. You actually have to go on and get it.
If you do not see enough new clients then you’re probably not actively going out and achieving it. If you are actively doing something maybe you are doing it wrong and you need to figure out what ways to actually do it right and maybe will be another video or maybe you want to consider to come talking to me give me a shout or send me an email and can help you with that those two actively getting new clients.
