As patients start to feel better from their treatments, they become more receptive about chiropractic and how it truly helps patients. wins over that new client because he tells her that he’ll help her look better. So he puts her on a work out routine of three days a week, gives her a specific diet, gives her a sleep schedule etc. Over time, she sees her body trans-form. She’s looking leaner, her waist-line is getting tighter, she can fit into that old pair of jeans. At the same time, she experiences more energy, greater strength, less pains and all the other benefits of having a health body. This second trainer knows that the end goal (his primary goal) of getting his client healthy will be reached, re-gardless if she’s sold on looking better with his training or with getting her body healthier with his training. Again, one approach resonated, the other didn’t. One turned that potential client into a new client, whereas the other one didn’t, and yet both personal trainers would have reached the same outcome. Furthermore, while that client is experiencing these amazing changes, the trainer begins to drip feed her with information about the true importance of working out. At this stage, the client is ecstatic with the physical changes that she has made thus far. As a result, her walls have dropped and she becomes more accepting of his message about the true benefits of working out. So continuing www.canadianchiropractor.ca with the psychology of persuasion, the trainer drip feeds her with tidbits of “workout” information so that she’ll truly understand that the gym provides a more important role in one’s health other than just aesthetics. He doesn’t continuously bombard her with the true meaning of working out where it becomes “salesy” and irri-tating. Instead, periodically gives her information in bite sized digestible pieces so that she’ll understand and retain this important information. Now over the course of her program and educational process, the client becomes loyal to the gym and when she tells others about it, you can bet that the message will be accurate and when they come to that gym, not only will they sign up for his training, but they’ll also be very compliant to his program. Whereas the initial trainer is sticking to his guns and losing potential clients, the other trainer understands the psy-chology and has a thriving gym with well-educated ideal clients. Chiropractors could follow the same approach. We talk about how we want to serve our community, but how can we possibly serve our community when we don’t even listen to what they want? We simply need to give the people what they want and sell them on what they need. If a potential patient comes into your Photo: Getty Images office with back pain and wants it to be removed, try not to say, “I don’t treat symptoms. I remove subluxations.” The last thing they want to hear when they want their pain removed is, “We don’t remove your pain.” Instead, tell them that you can help with their back pain. It’s not about “selling out,” it’s about making your message resonate so they’ll undergo your care. Again, it doesn’t matter whether they understand your treatment as directly remedying their pain or indirectly by optimizing their health by removing subluxations, because the result is all the same. The adjustments ultimately remove their back pain. Much like the gym member, as your patient starts experiencing pain relief from your adjustments, they’ll be more receptive to your message regarding the true meaning of chiropractic. If you start to teach them about chi-ropractic prior to addressing their needs, it’ll simply fall on deaf ears be-cause it simply doesn’t fall within their understanding of health care. Again, they’ve been indoctrinated with the medical approach and when you try to change what’s familiar to them, just like any change, it will be met with resist-ance. However, when you then show proof of concept, they will be open to your message and spread it enthusiastically and accurately to the rest of the com-munity. The end result is that your commu-nity will have a greater understanding and acceptance of chiropractic. Thereby allowing chiropractic to es-cape the bear trap and enjoy seeing a greater percentage of the population. Furthermore, you’ll become what I term a “93 per center” chiropractor. That’s to say, you’ll now start to see that 93 per cent of the population that would have otherwise not have gone to a chiropractor. Docs, we have the treatments, we have the research and we have the suc-cess. It’s now time to grow and serve more people by giving them what they want and selling them on what they need. Check out more resources on patient communication at www.canadianchiropractor.ca. February 2018 Canadian Chiropractor 27
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor February 2018: Page 27
