Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor • December 2018 • Cover: Be Bold

As a semester ends, new chiropractic grads may open up shop in your neighbourhood, effectively trying to grab at the same pool of patients that you are. Getting new patients through your door could become more difficult.

But you never have to worry about your competition, the fees you charge, or having consults opt-out of your care to go to the cheaper chiropractor down the road. You can have a thriving clinic regardless of the number of chiros, physios, acupuncturists, etc., in your community.

In general, people see chiropractors as clones of one another – we do the same thing. As such, your clinic is seen as a “commodity” and your consults’ decision to undergo your care is based on your fees and not on the value of your care.

This being the case (if all chiropractors are seen as the same), your consults will go to the chiro who is more affordable. When this happens, your natural reaction is to lower your fees, but the problem is, there’s only one winner in the race to the bottom – everyone else loses.

To shield yourself from this problem, here are three essential components to get your clinic to stand apart from the competition and thrive.

If you’re a follower of mine, then you’ve often heard me say: “If you have the choice of being better or being different, always choose to be different – because being different is better than being better.”

The fact is, “different” stands out and gets noticed. To be different, you create exclusivity with your clinic. Offer something that other clinics can’t (or won’t) offer. This way your consults can’t just go to a less expensive chiropractor to get what you offer, because you’re the only one that offers it.

Some chiropractors are adding advanced treatment modalities into their offices, not to just create exclusivity, but to enhance treatment outcomes.

However, most chiropractors are apprehensive about investing money into their office or they strictly just want to stick to the traditional chiropractic ways. Use this to your advantage. While others are apprehensive to make change, invest in your clinic and you’ll skyrocket above your competition.

We live in a technology-based world where more and more people rely on it, appreciate it and expect it in nearly every facet of our lives. Healthcare is no different. Embrace technology if it can provide better and faster results for your patients.

I’ve always said that chiropractors are often seen as a jack of all trades. However, we bring this on ourselves with our branding and marketing efforts.

How many times have you seen chiropractic ads that jam-pack every inch of ad space with all the conditions that we treat? If you’ve used those ads, ask yourself how well it worked.

It probably didn’t, right? Those types of ads actually repel those you’re trying to attract.

Think of it this way: If someone has excruciating headaches impacting their lives, they will probably go to the chiropractor that focuses on the treatment of chronic severe headaches because they’ll instinctively feel that the chiro that focuses on chronic severe headache sufferers will provide them with the highest probability of treatment success.

The fact is, when you market yourself as a jack of all trades chiropractor, you’re primarily only marketing to that seven per cent of the population that’s already willing to see a chiropractor.

However, when you brand yourself as the clinic that treats “X” condition, you will begin to resonate with the 93 per cent of the population that would generally choose a health care option other than a chiropractor.

If your clinic is known as the “headache clinic” – the go-to place for headache sufferers, you’ll be quite busy and in demand from that population. If your clinic is seen as the “non-surgical authority in chronic, severe headaches” (or whatever condition you focus on), your patients will be super compliant because they know you have a treatment protocol that works.

Furthermore, because you’re now viewed as the “headache authority,” people will pay you a premium for your care.

If you want to stand out, you must provide exceptional results. Enhance results by:

2.Utilize supplements. (To create greater exclusivity, find a private label/white label vitamin company that will put your clinic’s branding on the label.)

4.Is there treatment protocol (e.g. trigenics) that you can learn that can enhance your treatment outcomes?

Additionally, chiropractors make long treatment programs and then tag a fee to it based on the length of treatments and don’t focus so much on the results.

Doctors think that if the treatment plan goes on for several months, they can justify higher fees.

Remember this… if you can achieve the same results for your patients within one month that your competitors are trying to sell for four months, eight months, 10 months or however much longer, your consults will pay you a much higher fee. They’ll gladly pay you a premium so that they can get right back to doing the things that they enjoy doing, because no one wants to spend excessive amounts of time to get better. Plus, if you can get your patients back to enjoying their lives quickly, they’ll be happy to refer you to their friends and family.

Get recognized as the “go-to” chiropractor in your community, and have a thriving clinic that everyone envies.