September 2005

Reaching 300 by the end of fall

by Dr. CJ Mertz

This month's column is specifically directed to those of you seeing around 250 patient adjustments per week who feel ready and willing to "go over the top." This September, October and November may be your invitation to achieve a level of practice success few other chiropractors will ever experience.

Increasing your practice by 50 adjustments per week in less than 90 days is no small feat. This fall, you can step into the winner's circle by following these recommendations. Growth is always generated by dynamic changes, both in your internal and external environment. Growth actually demands change. Therefore, those who embrace change already have an advantage.

Internal environment refers to your character and behavior. Getting up earlier in the morning, diligently listening to motivating tapes, regularly working out, and getting back to your spiritual base are just some changes to strengthen your internal environment.

Increasing your discipline, organizational skills, communication skills and leadership skills will allow you to gain the confidence needed to build your practice to the next level. Internal changes, coupled with external environmental changes can lead to explosive growth in your practice this fall.

External environment refers to changes inside your practice. Hiring and training a new CA, creating a new marketing campaign, improving the layout design of your office, installing new software and changing your report of finding process make up a short list of possible changes that can ignite growth in your practice.

The fall represents one of the best growth seasons of the year. Children are back to school and people's lives have returned to a more normal pace. This represents a fantastic opportunity for re‑activation. I suggest you couple the promotion of previously active patients with a patient appreciation day (PAD). The 110th birthday of chiropractic is a perfect fall theme.

You must look at each of the three areas (doors) of your practice and work toward positive changes in all three simultaneously. This is where the growth begins to multiply. The front door is about new patients, so getting a revitalized marketing plan together is essential (I recommend "Ad Pro," a newspaper ad program that's outdoing everything else in chiropractic right now). Match that with a PAD, and your front door will be kicked wide open.

In addition, I'd present a new challenge to your entire active patient base. For the next 60 days, let your patients know you're challenging them to keep 100% of their originally scheduled appointments. Every patient who successfully completes this challenge will receive a special prize (T‑shirt, water bottle, certificate of achievement, etc.). Everyone needs coaching, including your patients. If some people have allowed their adjusting schedules to get loose during the summer, this is a perfect way to get them back on purpose and focused properly on their care. For many of you, the combination of actions already recommended will increase your practice more than 50 patient adjustments inside the next 90 days.

How many reasons do you have to ask for referral? That may sound like a silly question, but it's often the difference between DCs who are growing and those who aren't. A chiropractor with fewer than three reasons rarely asks patients to refer. As you develop more and more reasons to ask for referrals, the actual asking becomes easier and more frequent. You ask because children are still getting tubes put into their ears. You ask because the pharmacy down the street from you dispenses 3,500 prescriptions every week. You ask because people with multiple sclerosis don't know you can improve their lives. Practices that are growing are asking. It's that simple.

This fall, feel a reconnection to your work. Be determined to see even greater value coming from what you're capable of doing for others. Set small performance targets with your team and train to hit each one of them. Workshop attendance, percentage of kept visits, number of re‑exams per week and percentage of pre‑paying new patients are examples of targets you and your team can isolate this fall to help your practice grow.

I can't imagine trying to build a practice without setting performance targets. In fact, all of this comes under the category of building an awesome plan. Otherwise, you're just flying from the seat of your pants and hoping for growth. You'll be rewarded handsomely if you take charge of your practice and the momentum of its growth this fall. Remember, we grow because we matter. We make a difference because we improve lives, extend lives and save lives. That's why we grow! And, don't be afraid to ask for help. The biggest practices in the world do.

(Dr. CJ Mertz is executive director of ChiroUSA, and founder and head coach of the prestigious Waiting List Practice [WLP] chiropractic training organization. See the WLP 300 patient per week opportunity on the back page of this issue. For information on WLP coaching services, call Tony Shinn at 877‑TEAM‑WLP.)