Stop Following Business “Gurus” from the Seat of Their Car
Who or what guides your clinical decisions? Is it a particular person, technique, school of thought, or practice management expert? Influential teachers and charismatic “experts” have dominated the chiropractic landscape for a hundred years. They stand on stages to amaze the masses with their knowledge and success. They teach mindsets, techniques, philosophies, business practices, and “fail-safe” marketing schemes. Many of us envy their intelligence and perceived business success. We leave their seminars (i.e., revivals) energized, and ready to emulate them during our next patient encounter.
Each one of us needs to stop imitating other people, systems, and funnels - and start creating OUR practice. While learning evidence-based skills and techniques from others is essential; ultimately, there should only be one guru directing your care in the treatment room: research.
Check out the following video on how evidence-based chiropractors utilize proven evaluations, treatments, and patient educational pieces to guide their decision-making process.
"Evidence is evidence and what works best, works best regardless of who applies the principles." -Unknown
Two Tips to Become Your Own Personal “Guru”
1. Use Evidence to Define Your Niche
How many conditions do you manage? There is no secret to why there are so many specialties in allopathic care. Experts must consistently find the best solution for a given problem, and it is impossible to retain the knowledge necessary to manage every condition in the body with the highest level of care. Do you really think someone can be an expert in treating every disease from infantile colic to lumbar stenosis? Smart patients can see through our chiropractic marketing bull$#!t. Limiting your diagnoses with actually increase your market share.
EXAMPLE
Here’s my niche: "to educate you about what caused your musculoskeletal problem, get you out of pain as fast as possible, then teach you how to prevent this from happening again."
Guess what is not on my shortlist of conditions to treat: adhesive capsulitis, obesity, and diabetic neuropathy. Not because I can't handle those diagnoses, but they don't fit into my niche style of practice. Patients recognize YOUR form of practice, and if it’s authentic, it will become YOUR greatest marketing asset. The next time a patient is talking to friend or neighbor about their MSK pain, guess whose name will come up; the one-size-fits-all generalist, or the specialist?
When new patients recite your mission as the reason they came in to see you—get ready for an explosion in practice growth.
If you consistently follow and apply best-practice research, you will be the new guru in your community. There is a vast difference between treating someone and applying best practices, and the future of healthcare will reward only the latter. Never fall into the mindset of "good enough." Every treatment, exercise protocol, patient education piece, and office policy needs to be the best. Your patients deserve the best, and they expect nothing less from you.
2. Market the Hell Out of Your Niche
Once you have a service that patients want to buy, rather than one that you need to sell, the second essential step is to make sure that everyone knows about it.
Some businesses waste lots of energy looking for better ways to sell a service that nobody wants to buy.
There never was, and will never be a patient who has a burning desire to be a patient for life. Patients want to know what's wrong with them, how quickly can you make it go away, and how much will it cost.
It’s tough to run an efficient business, keep up with changing billing and coding policies, stay on top of the best clinical management, market your business, and somehow still treat patients.
Spending significant time developing your business hand detracts energy from your more crucial clinical hand. Successful evidence-based chiropractors use best practice tools to strike a balance between their business and clinical focus. Here are three essential resources to help grow an evidence-based practice:
Set goals
Increase your Google reviews
Market to medical professionals
YOU are the new guru because you have access to EVIDENCE. Applied consistently, best practice evidence will lead to… well… the best practice (i.e., superior clinical results with improved patient compliance, satisfaction, and referrals). As a bonus, your success no longer requires memorizing everything your guru tells you or pretending to be someone you’re not.
The guru of the future doesn't need to remember all the nuances of MSK care— but they must have immediate access to the resources that deliver those details.
And guess what…ChiroUp is that resource.
Our online platform is unlike anything on the market. Not only do we give you the research, but also provide you with resources to then transfer that knowledge to your patients. We automate the Google reviews process, we simplify the marketing, and it’s all in one easy-to-use system.
Join our community of subscribers who are committed to delivering the best possible care to every patient, every time.
