COLUMNIST BUSINESS TAlk Commitment to excellence “ T It’s not as complicated as you might think by anthony loMbardi he quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commit-ment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor,” legendary football coach Vince Lombardi once said. A chiropractic business practice is made up of a variety of elements: clinical practice, pro-moting, scheduling, collecting, billing, payroll, accounting and many other functions. How-ever, people typically visit chiropractors to obtain relief from pain and dysfunction or to move closer to good health and wellness. So, when we dissect the business practice model and search for the core element that de-fines any product, we discover our ability to give our customers what they want is the most important outcome we can learn to produce. For some chiropractors, their product is pain relief, while others focus on sports per-formance, wellness care or pediatrics. Re-gardless, research tells us that while some people fear failure and others fear success, the greatest fear of all is the fear of commit-ment to product excellence. Psychologist Christine Loren explains the fear of sustaining success is more daunting than the thought of never having success at all. By studying success-ful business models throughout the course of history, we learn the products that stand out have defining characteristics that can be applied in our own chiropractic practices. problem for farmers because it could consistently produce the results farmers needed to be successful. John Deere has been a trusted name for farm and lawn care ever since. Does your product or service solve a problem? In the 1800s, farmers from the midwestern United States were having problems plowing their heavy fertile fields be-cause the equipment they purchased was better suited to the New England states, which had light, sandy terrain. The problem was that after only a few feet of plowing, the farmer had to stop and clean his plow before starting again – this made work very time consuming. That’s when a man named John Deere studied the problem. In 1837, he built a plow that was “self-cleaning” so farmers could work continuously with-out stopping. John Deere’s product solved a significant AnThony LomBArdi, dC , is consultant to athletes in the NFL, CFL and NHL, and founder of the Hamilton Back Clinic in Hamilton, Ont. He teaches his fundamental EXSTORE Assessment System and conducts practice-building workshops to health professionals. Visit www.exstore.ca for information. 20 Canadian Chiropractor September 2013 Does your product or service deliver additional benefits? Cosmetics mogul Estée Lauder was launched to fame in 1953 when she introduced Youth Dew, a bath oil and per-fume. Youth Dew’s purpose was to hydrate the skin and make it healthier – and it delivered. Estée Lauder sold over 50,000 units of Youth Dew in just one year because the product gave women more than just healthy skin. It made women look younger and smell more pleasant, which made them more attractive to potential partners. Lauder then went on to develop MAC Cosmetics and Tommy Hilfiger. Photo: fotolia.com Does your product give patients what they expect? Michael Port is the New York Times bestselling author of the book, Book Yourself Solid. In an interview with Port, he explained to me the importance of giving your target market www.canadianchiropractor.ca
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