January 2009

Should you 'press' or 'pace' your way to the next level?

by Dr. CJ Mertz

One of the built-in advantages inside the Team WLP Camp is 35 beta practices worldwide that provide constant feedback. We put our practice system through the most rigorous testing in all of chiropractic so that our clients can experience predictable growth. Learning the key differences between "pressing" and "pacing" has led to groundbreaking results.

Service and promotion are two core aspects of your practice. While they can occur at the same time, they are not the same. Service and promotion both flow from the state of love but travel two different paths. Service needs rules and rhythm, while promotion only happens through energy and engagement. Success in practice requires them in equal measure. Yet, our tendency is one of imbalance. Why? Because chiropractic teams most often confuse pressing and pacing and incorrectly match them with service and promotion.

The ultimate state of practice is pacing service and pressing growth. However, this isn't as easy as it sounds. As your practice grows, your team has the responsibility of increasing your efficiency and effectiveness to meet the challenge of taking care of more people. As a result, teams often unconsciously shift to pressing their service. Whether you are seeing 100 people per week or 100 people per day, new growth can lead to pressing service. The feeling of "busyness" also leads to pacing your promotions. The level of distractions and speed of the day increases just enough to cause you to take your eye off of the promotional ball.

When performed properly in a chiropractic practice, pacing service and pressing growth produce four incredible results: high energy, strong leads, golden rules and rhythmic flow. This defines the ultimate state of practice where healing and prosperity are occurring simultaneously. But what happens when you mismatch pressing and pacing?

There are three sub-optimal states that your team can slip into and if allowed to continue can turn into habits. The first is known as "press, press," which leads to high energy, strong leads, broken rules and forced flow. You can see the first two results are excellent and come from pressing growth. The following two results are painful and are caused by pressing service. This practice has strong new patient flow and high energy in the team but patients are inconsistent with their care and procedures are inconsistent in the practice. With the right instruction this practice can build very quickly.

The second sub-optimal state is called "pace, pace" which produces average energy, low-to-average leads, golden rules and rhythmic flow. This practice is the exact opposite of press, press. The patients are very consistent with their care and the procedures are often in sync, flowing one to another. But pacing growth means you have holes in your marketing calendar and are more passive when it comes to referral generation. This practice tends to have higher retention of its patients but does not show signs of significant growth. The right coaching can lead to predictable growth.

Finally, there's "press, pace," which is disastrous leading to average energy, low-to-average leads, broken rules and forced flow. Nothing seems to feel right and nothing seems to work no matter how hard you try. This requires immediate attention and step-by-step resurrection of service and promotion before it falls apart. Fortunately, I don't speak to many teams in this condition but I do speak to chiropractic teams across the country that have gotten stuck in press, press or pace, pace in their practices.

Hopefully, you can see this is much bigger than just scripts and procedures. In 2009, the teams that will realize the greatest success have learned how to consciously lead their practice by pacing service and pressing growth. Most chiropractors have another challenge in that service and promotion often only happen one-at-a-time. Let this be your year of renewal. Rules, rhythm, energy and engagement aren't options or good ideas. They've been time tested and proven to cause predictable success for your patients and your practice.

Don't let thoughts of a slumping economy get in your way. The most successful chiropractic practices in history are growing right now, right in front of our eyes! You, too, can develop the ultimate state for growth in practice, so don't be afraid to call and ask for help. Can you imagine what this could be like for you if you did?

(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).