Great chiropractors suck at teaching retention controversial post alert 🚨
# A lesson on retention (stick with me , its great)
If we massively oversimplified this whole “practice growth” thing it, it basically comes down to being able to;
- Attract New patient (marketing)
- Convert those NP into customers (sales)
- Keep them / convert them into lifetime patients (retention)
Again it must be emphasised that I am oversimplifying the process for effect and in so, leaving out many other “growth factors” . One worth mentioning briefly is that even if you somewhat get a grip of the above three, always remember that personal growth comes first. Personal growth always precedes professional growth ! ALWAYS!
Why most “gurus” don’t teach retention effectively!
Let me caveat this by firstly fully explaining what an effective retention strategy “IS NOT” . It is not some fleeting comment like “get the big idea”, “read the green book”, “be present” or “get certain”. It’s ridiculously oversimplified and completely cheapens the deep psychological triggers , hooks and simple (not easy) strategies that one can implement to skyrocket retention in any business.
There is nothing sinister nor “ill meaning” behind the oversimplified rhetoric of “get certain” and all your woes dispapr. In fact, the message is more often than not said by a well meaning and by many peoples definitions successful.
Be the wizard dont fall for the wizards tricks!
My beef with the “get certain” and all your woes disappear is simply that it is a narrative chosen that brags about “this is all tha BJ would do” and its totally false. False false false
It is absolutely disrespectful to BJ to intimate that that was the only string to his bow.
Here is just 5 of the 55 retetnion strategues striahht from BJ’s “cook
Its it funny
- Laziness:
The appeal of everything “just working” and droves of people marching through your door when you “get the big idea” is simply to tantalise a prospect to not desperately hope for .
But I’m here to tell you that it will not solve all your problems. I know some of the most fantastic chiropractors who would sooner walk the plank than take medication, go to a doctor or put a morsel of non organic produce in their mouth. That same doc , only speaks of detection, analysis and removal of vertebral subluxations. Trust me they are as philosophically sound a chiropractor as you will ever find with many people paying for their courses. I know first hand that that chiropractor, and many like them, struggle to pay their bills. There is no judgement here. I write this with almost a sense of “anger” that that is the case. They are beautiful people who couldn’t be any more “certain” and I love them for that . but financially they are broke
Even the bible says “faith without works is dead”.
In the brilliant book “purpose driven church written by Rick warren on how to grow your church they address very similar terms in the form of sentences like “don’t water down your message” but equally actually address not being a lazy ass and delivering that message to the masses, in homeless shelters, addiction units, and those in need. The point is that the “big idea” still needs to be ACTED apon. Aka marketing.
Case in point …. Did bj just “get the big idea” , or did he literally go to where people needed it. In many test its repsorted that Bj “cleared out the prisosnn.
DOnt you dare say that BJ just “got the big idea” and sat on his ass
- Infected with the “You should not need to” disease
Often the infection starts with, and i hate to point it out , “gurus’ on the stage . Typically it’s a well respected and well meaning “great” that tells you how all you need is to “get the big idea”. There argument is typically backed by some or other BJ palmer quote about all you need is “the bug idea” .
Agian
I believe this is such one sided rhetoric.
.You need only spend a few minutes researching his media exploits to gain some insights into the fact that he was a ferocious marketer and “showman” .
A 1924 text “chiropraci marketing” by ………… bjs from his fellow board of professors will showa just how many of these retention amd marketing strategies they (including bj) advocated. Some roll their eyes at the mere mention of marketing and retention strategies with a rhetoric that “bj never needed that” or bragging on stage about never having to send newsletter, emails or social media strategies or have a negative outlook on content creation or online lead generation. But BJ literally did EVERY SINGLE THING they claim you “shoudnt need”
Did BJ create content ???? so much content its unbelivlbae
Did BJ create and send newsletters ???
Did BJ communcate and forge ways in communictauon with the tiems “social media” ie radio
Did BJ own communication chamnnels ie radio and printing presses
Did BJ advocate sending prsoanl letters to patients
Did BJ advoe sendign newsletters to patits
Did BJ advocate reactivatign old patriots through in house talk etc
YES YES YES to ALL!
Yet
Yet i absolutely guarantee you that bj palmer would have not only promoted online but knowing hi he probably would have owned a social network.
Of course I am merely speculating for comedic effect, but just remember that he was one the very first to be granted a radio and printing press. Just think how ahead of his time he was. Yet we think that all he did was “tell the story” hogwash . That’s absolutely not how he grew the immense following he did. Just look at how many books he wrote
3. Prevention is near impossible to sell, so most don’t try!
Just think about how hard it is to sell prevention to your patient… Well, you’re no different . If prevention was easy to sell, then all gyms would be packed to the rafters and the organic isles would be sold out, before anything else. People would go to marriage counselling BEFORE the ensuing challenges.
4. Hard to measure return of investment!
One of my coaching clients hosts an in house educational workshop every single month for their patients. Every month wothout fail 60 to 100 patients attend. She aslo caters dinner for ALL OF THEM. Of course guests often attendant are then offered opportunities to book appoitnements etc. Another client of mine spent over $1000 dollars on thanks giving buying organic pumpkin pies for every patients that day. We sed to buy every single female a single stem rose on valetiese day . Question , how would she/he or me quantify the return of investment. Truth is you cant , except for the fwolowin , every cas ive just emtnioned is not ust seven figure but mutli seven figure practices.
a lot of preventative measures or retention measures are hard to quantify/measure and therefore hard for business owners to justify. Crucially, the fact that they are hard to quantify does NOT mean that there aren’t EXTREME rewards present.
This often leads to a sloppy, sleepy sort of half assed malaise that creeps into our businesses causing practice owners who don’t understand “IT”, to be RELUCTANT TO INVEST IN “IT”.
Even when people understand IT – it is extremely rare for business owners to build the self-belief and discipline to consistently, repeatedly and frequently invest finances, manpower and mind power to improve both retention and in proactive loss preventative measures.
To illustrate how downright ridiculous it is and furthermore just how hard it is to sell prevention consider the following interesting statistics on how and where “retail businesses” experience theft.
Fact: 300% to 400% more losses occur as goods come in from deliverymen through the back door than from theft by shoplifters running out the front doors.
Even with those cold hard facts…Given the option to invest to prevent “losses” at either the “front door” or the “back door” where up to 400% more losses occur, can you guess where most retailers spend the majority of the time and money to prevent “loss/theft”?
Typically, they invest at least 4x more in trying to catch and prosecute shoplifters through CCTV etc etc than in preventing deliveryman theft.
5. We are addicted to “immediate gratification:
Well it’s simply much easier for the business owner or the employee to justify to the owner of the business, how and where her/his, hard earned cash is earning them a return on investment.
In other words this presents a paradoxical situation where even though 400% more theft could be being “prevented” it is simply SO MUCH EASIER TO MEASURE shoplifters etc on the shop front, and therefore have instant “proof” its working …
The fact is that weekly reports read much sexier as follows ….
Last week we caught 4 shoplifter’s who had in their possession $22000 worth of goods
Versus
Last week all our relevant checklists and theft prevention “reports” and training with the team was completed!
Shoplifting catching stats are simple to ascertain and to “feel good about”. Much of what keeps a human being doing a “certain thing” is their ability to justify the thing to THEMSELVES and or their “direct reports”.
This certainly mimics what I see in so many practice owners!
It’s MUCH easier to not only feel good about but additionally quantify and justify the following…
Last week,
22 new patients 7 plans sold $13 000 made (cue endorphin rush and a “it working” feeling)
Compared to.. Last week, all
Handwritten Birthday cards were sent.
First adjustment calls made.
High value patients that Did Not Show (DNA) were personally called by doc.
Email written and sent to the entire list.
Print Newsletter completed and sent to all high value inactive patients and high value active patients with different offers in each.
Secret shopper telephone call made to front desk and recording sent to team to review.
The concept of investing time and money in not losing existing customers is much harder to sell to practice owners than investment in pursuit of new customers – which is a reason I chose to sell as my first ever course in the chiropractic space ‘New Patient Avalanche” instead of “Existing Patient Nurture” or “How to do a good newsletter to keep customers”.
I can feel the clutches of boredom grabbing you at the mere mention of those headlines. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do them.
6. We are uneducted on the suject matter
Bj plamer
What is the tangible ROI in sending a monthly “something or other” in the post, to your high value/long stand- ing patients or subscription members.
I WILL TELL YA…..
Statistics from the online membership space show that sending something in the post (just about anything) is said to increase retention of a member by a multiple of 4 to 6 times.
So, for example taking that statistic into account, say we sent a monthly newsletter interspersed with “surprise postal goodies” inside, it could transform a patient who was on track to leave at the 9 month mark (the average membership cancel rate) to someone that MAY stay for 3 years.
In monetary terms in this example it’s worth an extra 27 months membership payments of lets say $100 dollars per month for simplicity.
This equates to an extra $2700, which is equivalent to 300% more income from that one customer.
And the “cost” in this case is perhaps between $30 and $50 dollars a year, or $2.50 to $5 dollars a month.
Most business owners are just not very big on difficult or complex thinking – or tracking because we simply choose not to.
As a side note, this is exactly why a program like my PLATINUM class yields such amazing returns for those students. It’s an environment where this complex thinking is giving the time, respect and space to be THOUGHTFULLY DEBATED amongst some of the most successful practice owners in the world.
Act Before Pain!
I am absolutely convinced that it not only takes a certain level of SELF-AWARENESS/ENLIGHTENMENT but most certainly DISCIPLINE, to do anything in “prevention” mode as opposed to waiting for the “pain” to hit before taking action.
FRANKLY, both SELF-AWARENESS and DISCIPLINE are in short supply in the general population.
It’s much easier and gives you immediate feedback to measure “new patient stats”. Let me stress again the extreme difficulty I face in “Selling” this concept to most practice owners. I say most because I truly believe you are not “most”.
The following chapter will dive into multiple strategies and mindset changes to help you keep you existing customers longer and therefore setup a raliothinhip and busoes that is best described and easy and low stress.
The reason this chapter is perhaps more important than the ones that follow is helping to garner the understanding how inherent, built in baisis will naturally tempt us AWAY from this … because it’s easier to measure, easier to present, easier to quantify and easier to therefore justify that you are “doing ok”, when in fact we are all but ignoring the GOLD right under our nose!
There are so many ways to get more out of what you already have, but our industry is built to only focus on the “new patients’’ and or “the sale now”.
THIS MUST CHANGE FOR YOU TO ACHIEVE TRULY SPECTACULAR RESULTS!
Love and Light
Ry
