New Patient Marketing Resource Site For Health Care Professionals

 

Have you ever wondered how some doctors with no apparent superior knowledge make it big on Radio, TV, newspapers, even on Oprah and other rather fine shows?

Have you wondered how to differentiate yourself and stick out in a sea of doctors who ALL say they are the very best with the best equipment, etc.

Have you wondered, how to break away from the rut in which the medical field is in and how to get your voice heard, practice the way you see fit because you have appreciating patients in your practice, while being respectfully rewarded with enough leisure time for yourself and not have to get stressed?

How to become a widely recognized ELITE doctor – not only in your corner, but in your state and beyond!

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Reason Number One:

• In order to win a court case, be it a traffic ticket or a million dollar law suit you must show up –or lose
• In order to win a soccer, or baseball game – you must show up or lose
• In order to stay healthy you must show up for good food, or doctors’ checkups etc – or lose your health
• In order to have a great healthcare or dental practice or business you must market or lose the prospects to your competitor who does market and thus IS seen.

 

It is really that simple. When it comes to marketing it is all about shining the light on you in a positive and elegant way.

• NOW, in a slow economy most business people/dentists want to hang on to whatever money they have.
• They want to wait and see.
• They are careful even though they do not know what they are careful of.

They lose – they automatically forfeit the game. A mediocre life at best will follow as it will be impossible to catch up, we only so many years to get successful — you know!

About 95 % of all people, business owners, dentists and other health care practitioners are NOT SHOWING UP right now – just look at the DOWNTREND advertising companies are experiencing.

But that is not new, throughout history in the USA and the other twelve countries I have worked in, only 5 percent of people become successfully financial independent, and it is always the same ones, - the ones who show up for the fight are the ones who always seem to be part of the 5 percent of rich and successful people!!

Reason Number Two:

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Note: Though this article does not cover the mechanics of medical or dental practice marketing, or talks about the do’s and don’ts in dental practice management, or how tells you how to choose a good dental consultant, the data cover in this article have EVERYTHING to do with your practice’s financial succcess and most importantly - your success with your family, your associates and with yourself.

We all have heard about the risk-takers, the entrepreneurs, who despite huge hardships, made it big in their career through their courage and tenacity. They are success stories which we love to hear and from which we draw inspiration from.

These people are not all politicians or celebrities or sports athletes. In fact, they were the ones we went to school with or grew up with. They could be found right in our neighborhood and you, the business owner, most likely is one of them too!

On a daily basis, we see examples of such people. They work very hard and are willing to take risks to achieve their goals. While others are contented with an average income and career, they strive for the stars — they are usually the above-average performers in their fields.

But then, this is also what happens on their way up: they have accumulated some materialistic stuff, like a house, some money, reputation, etc., they start to change their operating basis - big time!
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Note: Dentists, orthodontists, doctors, business owners etc have hired medical and dental consultants or even orthodontist consultants to help increase new patients and customers, to be more well-organized and to have improved customer service. However, there is one area of medical and dental management which most often never get adequate attention:

When I worked as a waiter in Austria, my native country, I worked hard (90 hours a week, for about nine months in a row).

An American tourist told me that I was working too hard to ever make money. I replied that I love my job and that I made good money.

He smiled, patted me on the shoulder, and said, “I’m happy for you. But I mean real money, lots of money – you can’t make it while working so hard.”

25 years later, I understood what he meant.

Here is a little break-down on an organizational structure:
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Note: Effective medical or dental practice management for dentists and even for specialists like orthodontists, oral surgeons, endodontists and  periodontists entails not having to be handcuffed to your practice.

Though most of us love what we do in our profession, and many people do put in 60 to 70 hours a week working hard at our profession, most of us would also not mind enjoying the freedom to take off whenever we like to pursue other interests in life.

Small businesses stay small because the small business owner thinks that his or her presence is constantly needed to produce business income.

He or she is right to a high degree. After all, the business owner is usually also the more competent sales person, the producer, the smoother customer service person, the stricter quality control person, etc.

Well, ‘someone’ needs to do the dirty work of making money and so many business owners decide that they shall slave, — I mean, work —  hard for the business until they retire.

Below are two videos which I have made on why some people feel that they are overworked and underpaid.

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As a medical and dental practice consultant, I find that some doctors only talks about their past failures in their medical or dental marketing ideas, or how they have spent tens of thousands in engaging in dental practice consulting with no improvements.

Whether you are running a dental practice or running a restaurant, it is easy to concentrate on problems and forget to see the thing you wanted in the first place.

After all, problems are impinging on you - no money, bad employees, creditors chasing you, governments not giving you the licenses you need, customers not having the money to pay for your services etc.

But, you see, the more you obsess on the problem the more it will consume you to the point, like a horse with blinders on, you will see nothing but the problem.
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I have never dabbled in the stock markets. I ‘invested’ instead in developing business and practice improvement strategies for my companies and for my clients.

However I do know many doctors who are interested in the answer to ‘what is the best investment that will yield the best returns?’ Let me see if I could present a different viewpoint to you on the subject of making great monies.

 

During 2008 and 2009 many investors and even people who do not consider themselves investors might have had a grim awakening. But as the word ‘awakening’ indicates – it is a good thing.

 

Maybe these next few lines will shade some light on how — if you are interested to have a good ROI or return on investments — to double your investment over and over again.

 

The very activity which does such a thing (double the investment) is done by all companies in which you have ever invested.

 

Every company that makes any type of money at all is a phenomenal marketing company.

 

 

No matter how good the product is, it is only good because the public perceives it to be good. And that my friend is the job of marketing.

 

No matter how good a product is, the marketing has to be at least as good, if not better for the product to sell in large enough quantity.

 

 

Even for a product to be created it usually takes money. Money which investors are dishing out. It takes incredible marketing skill to get that investment.

 

 

I smile when I hear, and I hear it often, of someone discounting the success of some young chap who became successful because he got hundreds of millions in funding for the start of his company. “I could do that too with my product if I had this type of money,” you will hear someone saying.

 

No, you could not. Because you do not know the most important thing right out of the gate — marketing and sales.

 

If you could not sell your idea, market your idea, and thus even if you would get a hundred million from winning the lottery, you would probably blow it and go bankrupt, just as people who win the lottery do.

 

The basics of succeeding in business, in arts, in the entertainment industries etc are all dependent on incredible marketing skills.

 

I bet you have seen many movie stars which you like, as much if not better than some of the mega box office guys, who are small earners compared to the mega stars.

 

“It’s the marketing — stupid,” as former president Bill Clinton might say.

 

So, let’s summarize one more time, as this is of significant importance for you to ever make any money.

 

No matter which stock you invest in, if the company does not know how to market, you (and they) will not get it.

 

This does not mean that product, service and the right time at the market play no role at all – they do. But without ingenuous marketing the best product will fail.

 

One famous example was Coca Cola, which had failed several times before the right person marketed it so that it became what it is today. Another example is Red Bull. Red Bull was a failure before someone who knew marketing did the correct actions to bring it to international success. Each slight product change  — such as adding carbonation to Red Bull – is a marketing move.

 

Marketers know – or find out what is needed and wanted.

 

Did you know that life insurance was called “death insurance” and under that name it was going nowhere in sales with people? Some chap came along and called it “life insurance” (when it really does not insure your life but your death, thus the phrase “I am worth more dead than alive”).

 

Marketing is king.

 

Now, I did not write this for you to look at which company has the best marketing team but for you to market yourself, your service, your practice as well as other services or products you have not even conceived of.

 

Remember Dr. Scholl with his shoe inserts and arch supports for the foot? Most doctors – podiatrists — tell me that his brand of products are no good, cheap and practically useless. I am not getting in the middle of that because I would not know, but it does support my point above. Dr Scholl’s company is filthy rich with what his competitors think is an inferior product.

 

It’s the marketing, stupid.

 

I wrote this issue to show you how you have the power to double your money every single month - if not sooner - and at the same time create a reputation, trust and professional satisfaction no stock investment can ever do for you. And you will make so much money that you can afford to play (and lose) big in the stock market if that strikes your fancy.

 

Look, if you invest $50,000 in the stock market you will earn at the very best about 10% after one year. That is a whopping, or should I say, a lousy $5000. And if you look at what the market was the last two years and probably will be the next two years, then the 10% are anything but guaranteed.

 

Anything but guaranteed, but even if guaranteed, it will bring so little that the money made would not be worth writing home to mom about. The money made will NOT – and I repeat – will NOT put your kids through colleges, get you into retirement early, help your kids with your grandkids’ education. And it will probably not be enough to have a vacation. And if finances are an issue already, it will not enough to pay the bills.

 

How many $50,000s do you have to invest so that you can make – let’s say $100,000 a year? You would need a million ($1,000,000)!

 

Do you realize that just about all doctors I have ever talked to, who are very well-off because of investments in the real-estate and/or the financial markets, have had  good growing practices to begin with in order to be able to invest?

 

So what can you do with $50,000 in marketing money?

 

First of all, unlike in the stock market, you will not need all that money right away, but can spread it out over almost a year.

 

And in the meantime, the money you did put in would already come back in returns and you can (must) reinvest it, and soon you will have much more that $50,000 in playing money.

 

What about if $4000 a month or $1000 a week would bring you back about $8000 in twelve weeks?

 

That would be a 100% return in twelve weeks. What about if I am very, very wrong (but I am not) and the 100% return only happens after twenty four weeks?

That is $4000 earned in only three to six months with only $4000 invested.

 

100 % return in 20 weeks is not all that bad either and this ROI will never be accomplished by the stock market.

 

Now, in order for this to happen you need to invest that $4000 regularly for three months – or let’s say six months to play being the pessimist - and giving yourself a safety net.

 

One of the unavoidable laws of marketing is that you do need to fill the pipeline as we have calculated to be about three months and count six months just to be safe.

 

Is it not easier to come up with $24,000 over six months (probably on credit with no more than $900 a month in payments), and get about $4000 back every month at that point, than to come up with $50,000 and wait for a year to MAYBE get a one-time lousy $5000?

 

Of course you say, “How do I know that that will happen?”

• “There is no guarantee.”

 

No, there is no real guarantee, but if you really look around you will find that there is no such thing as a guaranteed thing in life. Most business owners have this as the only guarantee: they are making less money during economic downturns.

 

• “The economy is bad and people will cut back no matter how much I advertise.”

 

True too. The pie is getting smaller by as much as 50% in the medical field. Some doctors will have a real hard time but will make it through. The persevering power of doctors is large, as I have observed.

 

Some however might go broke despite being good hardworking docs. Whatever minimum amount of service is be needed and purchased by patients will be purchased from doctors whose names are being talked about by the people in town, endorsed by the media and non-profit organizations, as well as businesses.

 

Advertising alone is NOT the way to go, but for all purposes any activities which make noise so that you are seen and heard of is better than nothing. Bad advertising (which is not what you should do) is still a better guarantee for making money than the stock market.

 

• “I have marketed before - I have in fact tried it all and it does not work the way you say.”

 

In my seventeen years of consulting doctors across the country, I have not met a single doctor who actually did ALL the marketing he could have done. Many have told me that they have done it all. Yeah right! Even the advanced doctors who claim to have done community activities and general public relations have not even scratched the surface. Literally none of them – ever!!

 

• “I have a high overhead of 90% and thus I need to sell eighty thousand ($80,000) worth of service to make the $4000 marketing money and the $4000 profit as you have described.”

 

That is a tough one. I have heard this so many times that I believe it might be as big of a reason why doctors and small businesses do not market as they should, and rather waste their money with weird investments. They simply do not know the basics about marketing anymore than I know medicine, or a man knows what a women goes through during pregnancy.

 

So, let’s shed some light on how much new business you need to generate to cover your optimized marketing budget.

 

Let’s take the extreme of 90 % overhead as mentioned above. This high overhead is usually not because the costs are too high but because the income is too low. So any dollar you take in more than you do now will have a very, very high percentage of profit on that extra money. You see your overhead will not go up just because a few new patients walk in. Maybe 10–20% of material cost, for a dentist for instance, might be added on but the other 90% of that newly made money will also be new profit. Thus you will make at least $8000 profit on about $10,000 of new income.

 

Discount the $4000 you spend on marketing and you are left over with a net profit of $4000 in about three to six months.

 

I hope that the above explanation makes you want to make more money rather than worrying about cutting costs and saving.

 

• “Even it would work, I simply do not have money, neither for stocks or marketing.”

It is simple. You do not have money for investments or for marketing because you did not market enough and correctly for a long time.

 

As Albert Einstein said, “If you want things to change while keeping on doing the same things, you are insane.”

 

Financial duress is no different than bodily illness. All you have to do to get well – or at least get better- is to stop doing what makes you sick and start doing what makes you better. You do those changes even if they have only a chance of making you better and keep making changes until you have found the best possible cure for your body. What other choice is there? Staying sick and thus getting sicker? Not a choice!

 

Business success and finances are no different at all! It is not as serious if you are wrong with some expansion plans (marketing, in this case), all you lose is some money. Compare this to the area of health: what happens if the treatment you undertake goes awry?

If you are a dentist, you can hire dental management companies to help you organize your office, but the domain of dental office marketing (beside servicing your patients) is still the main channel that will create lots of income.   Engaging in sufficient dentistry marketing will also solve stubborn personnel problems.

 

Go ahead and start focusing on marketing your business – you cannot help but win big in this investment.

 

Helmut G Flasch

P.S: Our live teleseminar series is starting for the new year. Our latest event on internet dental marketing will help you start 2010 with a big bang:  “How to Attract a Truckload of Internet New Patients in 7 Days or Less”

The Secret of Doing the Impossible During the Recession

I hear from different doctors on how they need to cut back on their expenses because of the slower economy and how they could not attract quality new patients because people are losing their jobs.

In fact, there are many things – it seems – one always needs to sacrifice or not do them due to many reasonable excuses.

Let me share with you my own story in this and perhaps it may help you to discover some of those roadblocks and thus you can literally accomplish all that you want during this recession.

I remember a few years back when I was looking into launching a new addition to my Un-Advertising marketing program.

I did pretty well with my existing business and of course was busy as well.

At the same time, I was also thinking of expanding my business management consulting activities in India and believe it or not, I was also very intrigued by the phenomenal expansion in Dubai over the last decade and wanted to start some business projects there too.

For a few hours every day, my mind was going 100 miles an hour and I was excited. I mean — really excited! New projects and new countries always have gotten me going. After all, I have worked in 12 countries and four continents in my lifetime. I like change.

But for every hour that I was excited about all my new plans, I had at least three hours where I was overwhelmed.

Well, it took my wife to put an end to all this wanting to do but having no time and not really knowing where to start as with the Dubai project — I had not even visited Dubai yet.

Here was what my wife said:

“Fushing,” — she calls me ‘Fushing’ which means ‘lucky star’ in Chinese—“Remember every winter when you don’t want to go skiing because you have so much work?” Yes I said.

“Remember that I always tell you to go because there will never be a time where you will have no work?” Yes, I said.

“It is the same in this case. I know that you have traveled the world without ever having any pre-planning, so why start now with having to have it all nicely figured out? It will never happen.”

“Just do it. I am booking you a trip to India and afterwards directly to Dubai. You are leaving in 3 weeks so enjoy it, do what you can do, come back with some business, or not. It is not important, just get into it and the rest will come.”

I arrived in India after not having been there for 10 years, announced to only one person that I would come, and ended up speaking to almost 100 business owners in four seminars, and had many more bookings for the future.

On my trip from Bombay to Dubai I did not know what to expect except some sightseeing. I knew nobody whatsoever.

Believe it or not, I ended up speaking in a hotel lobby to a travel agent who also enrolled in my service. Wow! I found out what was needed and wanted in that city, even bought a piece of real estate, and purchased a mailing list of all potential clientele.

I have been back twice since.

For at least one year, I was running around with just about every excuse under the sun why it was not a good time to start all that and all that was swept away with a whisk from my wife booking the flight. My addition to our Un-Advertising program also rolled out within that same year.
Many new clients are enjoying it.

So here are some excuses that have prevented people from doing all that they want and achieving the “impossible”:

Excuse #1 “I am not quite ready yet”

I remembered when I was working at a five star hotel in the French speaking part of Switzerland. There were at least ten other German or Italian speaking colleagues working who all, just like I, were trying to learn the French language.

When going out after work, a friend of mine was constantly turning over most conversations with French speaking people to me. I told him that he spoke French as well or as bad as I did and asked why he had chosen not to speak to those people himself. “I am not ready,” he said. “I want to be perfect before I speak to these people.”

I guarantee you, because I know, he still does not speak fluent French and has never gone very far in the hotel business in Europe which requires several languages to be spoken.

I can think of many of my own projects, such as the latest DVD series on growing a business, which had been delayed for years and for no reason other than “I am not quite ready – not perfect yet”.

You also do not know how many doctors I have had telling me that they need to get their shop (practice) in order with good personnel, better equipment or sorting out even such things as departments before starting to really market to get lots of new patients in.

Some of them – many actually, who never got on our marketing program – a few years later, are singing the same song just a bit more sadly – their business has gone down and yet they still are trying to ‘organize’ and be perfect before they market.

Excuse #2 “I am not qualified”

Sure, you do want to be qualified in your profession. But there is a difference between having to prove many times a great result before being able to trust yourself and others and just going for it with some reasonable knowledge about it

Ok, maybe a brain surgeon should have more than reasonable knowledge but even he ALWAYS does his first operation (and probably always without telling his patient) without ANY proof that he has done it successfully before.

There is nothing wrong with being a professional and having experience in any area. But NO expertise or experience will ever make up for pure purpose, enthusiasm, willingness to take risks and belief that it all could work out.

Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch.

Look at Mr. Obama, and every president before him. No presidents ever have had that experience before taking office for the first time. And yet we live in a great country – and having worked in 12 countries, I am an expert on this.

Most doctors I know are technicians and believe that perfection (whatever that means in their head) is needed for everything. They want to have everything ‘certified’ and ‘proven’ before indulging in it.

Most requests for being ‘proven’ block any and all progress – disorderly progress it may sometimes be, but progress nevertheless.

By the way my very first client, a dentist from Brooklyn, tripled his income with much less hours of work and no more take-home paperwork, after working with me for only a year.

I had no – absolutely no — experience in consulting anyone and definitely am not a dentist. I even did not know what a crown is. This dentist, my client, did notice my ‘inexperience’ (he told me a couple of years later) but was too scared to say anything, and according to his words, it all did not matter to him as he was at the end of the rope anyhow.

Don’t let some quest for perfection or even outright not knowing how to go about accomplishing something stop you from going wherever it is you want to go.

Learn on the way, hire coaches and trainers, make mistakes and don’t worry too much. It will all work out if you have your eye on your goal, and if you keep going.

Excuse #3 “I don’t have time”

If I would have a dime for every time I heard that - heck, if I would have a dime for every time I said that- the money I would have would be phenomenal!

How do very successful people get so much done? They have the same 24 hours.

Do you realize that most people spend more time “evaluating or checking out” new ideas or projects than just doing them?

Sure, there are major organizational basics which will help any business owner to delegate work to the degree that you will have all the time in the world to get involved in any project you like (see this video on practice management).

But putting that team together starts with you.

Decide that you have time.

Do you know that it has been proven that people who spend at least an hour a day on any subject will be a total expert in about 2- 3 years?

So, imagine what you can accomplish, since you hardly need to be a total expert in anything — except maybe being a doctor. But in that area you are probably already doing what I am talking about.

If you still can’t find time after reading this you might want to force yourself to spend 30 min a day on finding out (reading) how to have time. Oh, yes – one can learn how to have time (start with this practice management training video).

Read books on this subject on having time, hire coaches, observe others, including your kids, or simply force yourself to do nothing for 30 min.

You will soon realize that YOU DO HAVE TIME. You will be surprised how fast you will have all day for whatever you want.

You think I am kidding with the all day stuff – right? Wrong! Try it, it works!

Excuse # 4 “I am overwhelmed”

This is just a different wording for the above “I have no time”.

Winners in all areas, such as sports, businesses, wars and even parenthood do not get overwhelmed.

Most doctors tell me that they are too overwhelmed with the running of the practice so that they have no time to read my or other people’s literature on marketing or on how to become a business owner who runs the practice instead of being run by the practice.

How can they expect to sell their service well and be able to retired at the age they want, with the money that they want?

If you do not make enough money and yet have no time – how do you expect to expand? Realize that something fundamental in your thinking and acting needs to change or nothing in your life will change.

Doctors do not realize that their excuse of being overwhelmed is literally stopping their lifeline.

Many doctors do not want to learn outside their medical profession – they don’t even want to talk to sales people ( who can teach them quite a bit about important business marketing principles).

How is it possible, in a time where competition is stiff and where all services look alike to the buyer, to successfully sell one’s service, medical or otherwise, without spending some time to find out all there is to know about marketing and how to differentiate yourself?

It is simply not possible.

Keep in mind, due to high tech, many strategies like using medical and dental internet marketing take little time on your part to execute. It is well-worth your time to check them out!

Excuse #5 “I can’t afford it”

Bestselling author Robert Kiyosaki, in his book “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” said that poor people stay poor by saying “I cannot afford it” and other people get rich by saying “how can I afford it?” He had met no rich man who had not lost a lot of money, but he had seen many poor people who had never lost anything.

It is like with the student who is too afraid of asking a question for fear of looking stupid for a moment, and thus stays without knowledge his whole life.

The fear of losing money will keep you poor all your life. The money or knowledge for any innovation, revolution, marriage, probably your studies or practice was not there either when the thought was first born.

Learn while you go, and surely do not try to save yourself to prosperity. It does not work. The money somehow will also come, just as the knowledge.

Literally all major achievements and advances on this planet came about without “having” the knowledge and money first!

So, which one of the excuses is holding you back?

Drop them like a hot potato and life will become very full – very enjoyable as well as prosperous.

Mission impossible accomplished – and it is not even all that difficult, even if it scares the hell out of you right now — as beautifully expressed here:

“Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile…initially scared me to death.”
(quote by Betty Bender, speaker and communication consultant.)

May you reach for the stars and achieve the ‘seemingly impossible’ in 2010!

Could you think of some other excuses which I have not covered here ? Leave me a comment!

Helmut G Flasch