COLUMN BUSINESS TALK Good advice A Preparing your practice for the moment of truth more of my own to help me explain the answers to people right away. The an-swers I provided gave them confidence in my ability, and resulted in them becoming my patients and referring many others. Good used to say, “It’s a moment of truth when someone is going to form an opinion about you, your practice or the profession.” At that moment you can either take a step forward and ad-dress the issue in a forthright, honest and positive way, or take two steps back and stumble and mumble or try to deflect the question. I was recently granted an exclusive interview with my former teacher, and he provided in-depth answers and explained how being prepared provides the basis for long-term success in practice. BY ANTHONY LOMBARDI Honest and understandable state-ments about chiropractic make a great impression and that opens the door to new patients. Also, by practicing the answers you get a lot more comfortable and confident in your responses, and in the public’s mind, that translates into a doctor who is probably excellent at working with patients too. AL: I recall one story you told the class when you had your practice out of your home in New York State. You said you made it a point to see how well your prac-tice could do without promoting and ad-vertising. A bulk of your clientele was the Amish community. You said, from a busi-ness perspective, you did very little (by design) but you made sure you delivered an outstanding product. As I recall your lbert Einstein once said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t know it well enough.” If I had to pinpoint the genesis for my success, it would be when I learned how to answer common questions about what I do as a chiro-practor, in easy-to-understand terms – in ways everyday people would com-prehend. Today I run a multidisciplinary prac-tice with chiropractors, physiotherapists and massage therapists. I attract 600 new chiropractic patients every year. The secret to my success? I started preparing for private practice while I was in school. I spent two hours per week on networking and building my future practice by making it a point to meet two new people every week – whether it was the lady at the post office or the butcher at the grocery store. When it comes to preparing for your practice, the earlier you begin, the more prepared you will be in the future. A chiropractor and my former pa-tient communication teacher at chiro-practic college, Dr. Christopher Good, brought the importance of this to my attention back in sixth trimester. Good is now a faculty member and teacher at the University of Bridgeport College of Chiropractic in Connecticut. I started my practice right out of school and I used a lot of what he said and taught as my guide to build my practice. In particular, I used his “mo-ment of truth” questions, which was a list of more than 100 questions that, as chiropractors, we should be able to answer in a sentence or two the mo-ment someone asks us. I used these questions and added “At every visit we had two conversations, one about their condition and one about their personal life. Building rapport in this way made patients feel special.” Anthony Lombardi (AL): Why do you feel that your 100-question “hot list” works so well for chiropractic students and new grads entering practice? Christopher Good (CG): One of the biggest obstacles that prevent people from seeing a chiropractor is their lack of understanding. Not only do they not know about what we do and treat, but there is also a lot of misinformation and disinformation spread about. adjusting skills were en pointe and I im-agine your patients reaped the benefits of your clinical skills. What other intangibles do you attribute to your success that made your patients keep coming back? CG: The other intangibles that made patients want to receive care included other high quality interactions, in ad-dition to getting a great adjustment. I focused on becoming excellent at doing the things we are known for and the evidence shows we have great re-sults with. It starts with a comprehen-sive history and examination especially focused on the incoming complaint. www.canadianchiropractor.ca DR. 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 exstore.ca for information. 18 Canadian Chiropractor December 2015
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