April 2008

How to sell more products and services to your patients

by Dr. Eric M. Osansky 

Most DCs can do a much better job of selling additional products and services to their active and inactive patients. In my experience consulting with other chiropractors, it seems that most of them do a horrible job of promoting the backend part of their business. Some don't even offer other products and services.

One common explanation given to me by chiropractors is that they don't want to be perceived as a salesperson or being "pushy." I agree with this, as I'm not suggesting that you "hard sell" any products or services you may offer.

But the fact remains that most doctors of chiropractic can do a much better job of promoting backend products or services to their patients. And, naturally, this can lead to hundreds -- perhaps even thousands -- of extra dollars per month.

A big reason why many people don't buy is simply because they are never told what products or services are available, other than chiropractic care of course. Many chiropractors will briefly mention them to their patients, perhaps telling them "we have a massage therapist on our staff," or "we sell cervical pillows," etc.

The question I have for you is this: if you truly believe in the products and services you are offering, then why not incorporate some of them into the patient's care plan? Or, at the very least you should really stress the importance of them to your patients, rather than wait until they find out about them on their own.

For example, if you sell orthotics, and if you honestly feel that all patients can benefit from orthotics, then rather than weakly telling patients they should consider getting orthotics, why not be direct and tell them they need it? You can even go so far as to tell them you won't adjust them unless they invest in orthotics, assuming you believe they wouldn't fully benefit without the extra stabilization.

If you don't believe that every person needs orthotics, obviously you wouldn't take this approach. And, if you are offering products and services as "luxury items," then clearly you wouldn't have such harsh requirements.

But if you are offering some products and services you feel are essential to the patient's recovery and stabilization, then in my opinion it's almost a form of malpractice to agree to adjust that patient without first getting him or her to agree to follow your complete recommendations.

So, how you can sell more products and services that you consider "optional" to your patients? There are a few different ways to increase the backend sales of these.

One easy way is to create a list of all of the different products and services you have, along with the prices, and simply give it to every new and existing patient. If you choose to do this, I highly recommend providing a brief explanation of each product and service. That way, whenever you start up a new patient he or she will get this complete list of every product and service you offer, the fees associated with each one of them, and an explanation of the benefits each product or service offers.

Something else you can do is to create a CD where you take five to ten minutes explaining all of the different products and services, and the benefits they provide. You can easily do this by using a digital recorder to create the content, and then download it as a wav file on your computer. If you don't know how to do this, there's an excellent chance one of your staff members or someone else you know does.

Another thing you can do is to have a "featured product of the month," to include as an insert in your monthly patient newsletter. Or simply mail a letter or flyer to your patients that focuses on a specific product or service, and perhaps even give them a small discount so they are more likely to try it out.

This is a great strategy. One month you can feature "massage therapy" while another month you can promote a certain nutritional supplement, and the next a cervical pillow, and so on. You can even have a featured product of the week if you'd like, although I'd only recommend doing this if you have many different products to sell.

You can use free samples to improve sales of some products. For example, many chiropractors give away free samples of Biofreeze and other similar products, which allows people to see how well they work, thus leading to more sales. If you have a massage therapist, you might want to have the person perform free chair massages every so often so your patients can experience the benefits at no cost.

These are just a few examples of things you can be doing to sell more products and services, without being perceived as a pushy salesperson by your patients. Taking this approach will benefit both your patients and your bottom line.

(Dr. Eric M. Osansky, a Life University graduate, is the author of "Instrument Adjusting Riches. For more information, visit www.InstrumentAdjustingSuccess.com  and subscribe to his FREE six-part e-mail mini-course on how to promote your adjusting instrument. You can e-mail Dr. Osansky at instrumentdc@aol.com )