Shared by: Lawton_Howell@mail.vresp.com Welcome to the eLetter dedicated to building a business and not just growing a practice. 2004 is nearing a close.... ....and many of you broke records in New Patient Production, Average Visit Income and Patient Visit Average in 2004, what are your BHAG's for 2005? Big Hairy Audacious Goals is how you build a business and not just grow a practice. Incremental growth is not inspirational to anyone. Why not think in terms of doubling, tripling or even quadrupling your business in 2005? There is no charge for thinking large! Big thinking is free! Building a business requires a strong Leadership and Marketing strategy. Marketing will drive the business, but leadership gets the tasks done! In this issue of the CEObrief eLetter, we have the next installment of Masterful Marketing for Chiropractic Entrepreneurs with a focus on The Offer. And, we also feature the following: * Review of your Three Lists for building a business and not just growing a practice. * Hare Krishnas marketing secret. * Sears or K-Mart, what's in a name? * Naming and Psychology: How important is your brand name for building a business and not just growing a practice? So, get ready to expand your mind and discover how really simple it is to build a business and not just grow a practice. ********************************************************************** ***** Matching Your List to Your Offer ********************************************************************** ***** Last week we covered the last of your three lists: Your List of Patients. In this issue of the CEObrief, we will cover how to match each of these Lists to Your Offer. But, before doing that, let's review the three lists that you need to build a business and not just grow a practice: List of Strangers * Everyone in your target marketplace, about 5 mile radius from your office, composes your List of Strangers. * Your Prospex are hidden within your List of Strangers. * You use advertisements, flyers, radio, TV, direct mail, telemarketing, etc. to reach your Prospex within your List of Strangers. * If you try to get New Patients directly from your List of Strangers, you will generate little if any response to your marketing. * Trying to generate New Patients from your List of Strangers is the most expensive and unprofitable marketing strategy. * To generate maximum New Patient Production, you should use your List of Strangers to generate the names, addresses and email addresses of Unlimited Prospex. * You should expect to generate 1-5% response from a well-targeted List of Strangers. In other words, 10,000 List of Strangers of area residents, should generate about 100-500 Prospex. List of Prospex * Prospex are people who have identified themselves to you as having an interest in your brand of chiropractic. * You must obtain the names, addresses and email addresses of ALL of your Prospex so you can follow-up with them repeatedly in the future. Your future Patients are hidden within this list. * Your goal is to get your Prospex to KNOW, LIKE and TRUST you and your brand of chiropractic so they will become New Patients. You should generate 10-30% of your New Patient Production from this list. * 80% of all New Patient Production are generated when you follow-up with your List of Prospex up to eight times. * Follow-up with your Prospex a minimum of six times. List of Patients * Little or no profit is made from the first office visit of a New Patient. Profit comes from future visits with an objective of a minimum 40 PVA from each New Patient. * It cost up to 12 times as much to generate income from a New patient as it does to generate additional revenue from a current (active or inactive) Patient. You should generate 30-80% of additional income from your List of Patients. * The Lifetime Value of a Patient is the cumulative income a Patient provides over their lifetime as your Patient including referrals, additional services and products. * To maximize your business, make your Patients feel important. Now, let's look at Your Offer. As covered in previous "chapters" of Masterful Marketing for Chiropractic Entrepreneurs, successful marketing is basically about matching the right list with the right offer. In the last chapter we showed you that you actually have three distinct marketing lists at your disposal to help you build your business and not just grow a practice. Your List of Strangers to generate Prospex, your List of Prospex to generate New Patients, and your List of Patients to generate continuous revenue. You have learned that each list feeds the next in a predictable and sequential way. Now you're ready to learn how to maximize your response from each of these three lists with the right offers. You cannot go after all three lists with the same offer. This is the first mistake many chiropractors make when using marketing to grow a practice. Each list responds to a different offer. What do we mean by OFFER? Since many chiropractic entrepreneurs marketing is very weak when it comes to effective offers, it might be a good idea to define what we mean by an offer. An offer is what you promise someone in exchange for the action you are asking them to take. There must be two parts to every offer: Part: 1 Your Offer "We'll do this for you..." IF.... Part: 2 Prospex Action Desired "...you'll do this for us." You're about to discover a vitally important lesson about human behavior and successful marketing. It will set you head and shoulders above your competitive colleagues. People do not take action unless there is something in it for them. Everyone listens to the same mental and emotional radio station: WIFM... What's In It For Me? People take action for two primary reasons: 1. To avoid PAIN (Physical or Emotional) 2. To obtain GAIN (Physical or Emotional) These two, simple, human motivators are central to every successful marketing effort. They are usually missing in unsuccessful marketing efforts. If you want to maximize the results of your marketing investments, every marketing vehicle you produce...ads, flyers, direct mail, etc., must all clearly deliver a compelling promise to your your Prospex avoid PAIN, or GAIN something they want. If they don't, you will get little or no response. Why? Because people, like you and me, only take action when there is something in it for them. Most people will avoid taking action because action could result in "change" and change can bring "risk." People hate both CHANGE and RISK! The only way to overcome your Prospex' resistance to taking action is to give them a compelling reason to do so. You have to give them a compelling offer, a magnetic offer. Do this and you'll have a good chance that they'll take the action you want. Don't... ...and they won't! Why don't most chiropractic entrepreneurs marketing communications produce results? The answer is in the preceding paragraph. Because 95% of all chiropractors don't offer their Prospex ANYTHING in exchange for the "action and risk" they are expecting them to take! "Midwest Chiropractic" is not an offer. It's a business name. "Buy my brand of chiropractic!" is not an offer. It's a demand. "We've been in business for 18 years!" is not an offer. It's a statement. "I am a chiropractor." is not an offer. It's a statement. "We're the best!" is not an offer. It's a biased opinion. "I want to be your chiropractor." is not an offer. It's a desire. "Won't you consider us?" is not an offer. It's a request. "Come to Midwest Chiropractic with your next back attack!" is not an offer. It's a pun. Prospex don't ever take action -- change and risk -- when seeing these types of marketing statements, but most chiropractic entrepreneurs marketing efforts are based on these types of "response killing" phrases. Don't believe it? Just look in the yellow pages under chiropractor. When it comes to getting people to take the action you want, remember the famous line from the Godfather movie, "Give them an offer they can't refuse." Give them what they want. When you put your brand of chiropractic at the top of your ad, list a few details about you and your brand of chiropractic, and then tell your prospex to call for more information or to make an appointment...you are not giving your Prospex an offer they can't refuse. You're not giving them any offer at all, so they can easily refuse to take the action you want them to take. Here are a few examples to get you on the right track: No Offer: Please fill out our survey and mail it back to us. Prospex Response: Why should I? What's in it for me? Offer: We'll send you a $20 Gift Certificate if you'll simply fill out our short survey. Prospex Response: Sounds good. I could use a $20 Gift Certificate. ----- No Offer: Get a spinal screening for $97. Prospex Response: Why should I? What's in it for me? Offer: You'll get a comprehensive physical, neurological, and spinal examination to determine the cause of your back pain or headaches. Plus, we'll take a picture of your spine so you can see what is going on with your back and you'll receive a FREE stress massage just for coming in for your spinal screening. If you're not delighted with the results of your screening, your $97 fee will be promptly refunded and you'll owe nothing. And you'll get the stress massage with no strings! Prospex Response: I would love to be rid of my back pain. This is an offer I can't refuse. ----- No Offer: We're the Midwest Chiropractic Center. We've been in business for 18 years. I have lots of degrees. We're open on Saturdays. Call 888 WELNES1 to set up an appointment. Prospex Response: Why should I? What's in it for me? Offer: If you suffer from HEADACHES we would like to send you a free special report: 12 Ways to End Headache Pain Now. There's absolutely no obligation or cost. Simply send us your name and address and we'll rush you the free report. Prospex Response: I suffer from headaches almost every day. I sure could use some free information about how to relieve my pain. Yes, I will send you my name and address. And, after I receive your information and follow-ups, if I begin to know, like and trust you, there's a good chance I may become a patient. This last example is for generating Prospex. It's the most powerful way to attract Prospex to your brand of chiropractic like a magnet. This is the way you will build your List of Prospex with people who actually have the problem your brand of chiropractic solves. What do we hear? There's a cartoon of a man talking to his dog. He is saying... "Fido, you're my best fried. I truly love you, Fido. I especially love how loyal you are, Fido, and how you bring me my slippers when I come home from work. Oh, by the way, I bought you some new dog food, Fido." And, now here's what the dog heard: "FIDO, blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah blah blah blah, FIDO. Blah blah blah blah blah, FIDO, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah, DOG FOOD, FIDO." After all our blah, blah, blahs, both dogs and Prospex want to know only one thing: "What do you have for me?" In the next edition of the CEObrief eLetter, we will cover Your Three Basic Offers. Lawton W. Howell, Sr. Call me toll free at 877 WELNES1 ceo@wellnessone.net