September 2008

Moving at the speed of success

by Dr. CJ Mertz

Success requires growth, and growth requires a certain intensity or momentum. Most chiropractors have never equated speed with their success. Twenty years ago, DCs could do right things and build a successful practice. They didn't even have to do right things well! Today, doctors are being challenged both to do right things well, and to do them with the speed required to achieve success.

While the bar has indeed been raised, so have the rewards that await you. Getting sick people well is more important than ever before. They have fewer places to turn, fewer resources to invest, less coverage to support them and more stress than they know how to handle. For all of these reasons, you are their shining hope, their partner to victory, the person who can help them achieve a compelling future.

So, moving at the speed of success isn't just for you, but for the well-being of the hundreds and thousands of people who are sick today, the ones you are determined to heal!

There are seven fundamental components of your practice that demand speed for your future growth: Change, delivery, recovery, outreach, follow-through, training and goals met.

Let's review each of these components as it relates to your practice success.

1. Speed of CHANGE. It's not just what you know, but what you apply that matters. The average chiropractor will need to hear or learn something three times before deciding to make the change and take action. The timeline between hearing what needs to be done and actually applying that knowledge is between six months and a year and a half! The good news is that change is being made, but not at the speed of success. The result? A loss of momentum, missed opportunities, and a pattern of future delayed responses to follow. Today you must hear the first time, decide the first time and implement within 60-to-90 days if you're playing to win.

2. Speed of DELIVERY. If your patients ultimately determine how long things take, you're stuck. If things take unpredictable amounts of time to get done, it's because there isn't a clear non-negotiable way to do it and the result is things are done just a little differently every time. Success always rewards consistency and predictability. Remember, to work your plan you must first plan your work -- and trust the plan. Trust equals speed.

3. Speed of RECOVERY. It's not how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up that matters. Recovery more than anything, is about forgiveness. People are going to let you down. Some won't schedule, some won't show, some won't sign up, some won't follow well, some won't stay, some won't refer… so what?! Recovery is about how well you kick off the dust, take a few good, cleansing breaths and keep moving forward. It's always better to have a short-term memory and long-term vision. Holding onto things that bothered you is much more damaging than the things themselves. Get up. Get over it. Get on with it.

4. Speed of OUTREACH. While doing a screening is great, doing it only every three or four months is tragic. There's no overlap, no linkage from one event to the next. Speed of outreach means that your external and internal events are scheduled to overlap. Gaps in your marketing events are reflective of an unsuccessful speed of outreach. Getting a referral is fantastic. Talking about referrals with patients just a couple of times each month is disastrous. Your core belief should be that people genuinely desire to help other people. If you also believe you can help others with their health problems unlike anyone else, then your uniqueness matched with your patients' genuineness can and will generate a successful speed of outreach.

5. Speed of FOLLOW-THROUGH. Imagine that every lead you get has been referred by your best patient, and that lead will then become your best patient if you just follow through. You tend to do what's on your schedule-book, so make sure some amount of time has been "booked" for following up with people who don't know what to do and actually are in desperate need of your help. Follow-up is responsible for one-third to one-half of your future growth. Outreach plus follow-through equals exceeding your goals.

7. Speed of TRAINING. Your practice is great. It's your process that needs help. Things rarely get better by themselves. In fact, the path of improvement requires the commitment to consistently break your system down, and then build it back up. Your trainings should make your strengths even stronger, sufficiently hide your weaknesses, and remove any fat or complexities that have crept into your process over time. If you aren't training or studying at least three times weekly for a minimum of a half hour at a time, then your training speed will be missing the momentum needed to acquire success. Find what needs to be changed. Train on it. Change it. Recover from it. Deliver it. Enjoy your new success!

7. Speed of GOALS MET. You're in the top 20% of achievers by setting goals. You get into the top three percent by reaching them. It's vital to have a big purpose and a big vision for your future. Yet, as big as your vision is, your nest goal must be within arm's reach. If you or your team feels as though the goal can't be reached within the next four-to-six weeks, you probably have too big a goal. Practice growth comes down to how well you string one goal to the next. The speed of goals met creates a confidence unmatched by virtually anything else. Have smaller goals you hit more often and soon you'll become someone who wakes up every morning with the expectation of success.

I can help you develop the speed you need to succeed. Don't be afraid to ask for help. The most successful chiropractors in the field all have a coach. Whether you're currently seeing 50 or 500 patient visits per week, I've got a plan that can help you achieve your goals.

(Dr. CJ Mertz is the founder and head coach of the prestigious Waiting List Practice chiropractic training organization. See the WLP 300 patient per week opportunity on the back page of this issue. For seminar tickets and information on WLP coaching services, please call The Waiting List Practice at 877-TEAM-WLP).