Dear Dr. Margolies, 

One of my class mates was having a rough week after a disappointing patient appreciation 
day.  I wrote this to him to hopefully pep him up.  He has been practicing for a year now 
and is not happy with the volume he is seeing.  Maybe you would like to share this e-mail 
with others.  

One of the biggest things I have realized since graduating is that practice promotion must be 
integrated into normal office procedure in order to be successful.  Practice promotion, 
meaning things that get new patients.  It must be a steady continual process in and out of 
the office.  I thank you in helping me come to this realization.  Here is the e-mail:

Richard:

I know you are down about the practice.  Remember the Michael Jordan commercial where 
he states all of his failures ... but trying so many times has given him so much success?

This made me think of an analogy, I know you like basketball so here it is:

A Practice is like playing a game of basketball there are many components to the game;

Of coarse there are the fundamentals:

LAY-UPS            :  THE ADJUSTMENTS
FREE THROWS  :  GOOD OFFICE PROCEDURE
PASSING            :  PATIENT EDUCATION & RETENTION

I believe you have already practiced the fundamentals.  Your patients come for their 
adjustments and are getting well. 

They are educated and know (to put it simply) getting the hard bone off the soft nerve lets 
the body function properly toward optimal health.  Most are following through with their 
care. 

Office procedure?  I'm not to sure of your office procedure but it seems you are doing well.

Excellent...  We have our LAY-UPS, our FREE THROWS, and our PASSING practiced 
well...  Let's go play.  Are we ready to go play?  How could we loose? 
We know all the fundamentals.

As you and I know there is much more to the game.  It's not only fundamentals.
				       
THE JUMP SHOT          :   TELLING THE CHIROPRACTIC STORY TO THE PUBLIC
THE SLAM DUNK          :   GETTING A NEW PATIENT
THE ALI OOP                :   GETTING OTHERS TO GET YOU NEW PATIENTS
THE THREE POINTER   :   GETTING MANY NEW PATIENTS AT ONE TIME.

Last, but not least, TEAM PLAY: HAVING THE OFFICE WORK TOGETHER-                                               
DOCTOR, STAFF AND PATIENTS, TOWARD OVERALL GROWTH OF THE 
PRACTICE AND SPREADING THE CHIROPRACTIC STORY.

All of this takes practice to improve.  And yes, a little god given talent can improve your 
stats.  We are in the game to help as many families as we can toward optimal health through 
chiropractic care.  So let's have some fun and play the game smarter not harder. 

Let us practice our jump shot ... walk over to the store next to your office and ask them 
when they last had there spine checked.  I'm sure this will open up a chiropractic 
discussion.

How about the SLAM DUNK?  I like to use the primary script from David Singer.
Put simply,  If they have a problem, make them realize the severity of the problem.
Let them know you may be able to help them, and get them in the office for an evaluation 
so you can tell them if you can help.  And let your in office procedure and patient education 
take over from there.

How about the ALI OOP?  Asking others for referrals is easier if you have a good mission 
statement for your office.  What is your mission statement?  Do you have one?  Do you 
follow it?  How about something along the lines of "helping as many families as possible 
towards optimal health through chiropractic care!"  Tell your patients, friends and 
neighbors about your mission.  Do they know of any one you can help?

The THREE POINTER: This is the PR that counts.  Are you doing talks?  Are you doing 
screenings?  Are you doing health fairs?  I just worked a fair in Bayonne, NJ, where we 
signed up over 80 new patients.  That will surely put a jolt in some stats.  How many fairs 
are in your area?  Imagine doing one every other month?  Not to count the ALI OOPS you 
would get off the new patients!  

For all PR information I recommend you check out Chirosmart at 
http://www.mindspring.com/~chirosmart.  And be sure to sign up for Dr. Margolies 
motivational e-mails.  They are priceless.

Last but not least TEAM PLAY.  Does your office flow toward its optimal goal?  Ask 
patients where they work.  Can you do a talk there?  Do you or they have friends in the 
community?  Did you grow up there?  Who do you know already?  That's just a start.

Does your staff help promote the office?  Are they helping with practice promotion? Do you 
pay them a bonus for good work and referrals?  


If you can learn the Fundamentals and practice the Main Point Scoring Techniques, Then 
inter twine them with good Team Play your practice will surely take off.  

Remember, especially, when starting a new practice, without a steady execution of the 
Main Point Scoring Techniques it will be extremely difficult to win the game.  

So where are you in the game?  Yes, the guy down the street with the large practice may 
not go out and do all of this.  Why?  How long has he been there?  Ask him how he got 
started.  You'll be surprised at his answer. 

I wish you the best.  Get focused and get busy.  Think Michael Jordan good....

Love and appreciation,