How Fruit and Vegetable Shakes Can Increase Practice Revenue

Offering a fruit and vegetable shake in a chiropractic practice using a proven operating system, will allow you, without changing your technique or changing the time you spend with patients, to deliver higher quality care, get better results and add significant revenue to your bottom line.

Most patients that visit chiropractors today have a desire to stay healthy, active, energetic and disease free. For the most part, they already know that drugs can never make them well or provide "real" solutions and therefore they are motivated to find a trusted source, a healthcare provider, to guide them on their journey to improved overall health and wellness. When you learn the simple steps necessary to add a fruit and vegetable shake to your practice you will add a substantial amount of month-to-month repeat revenue. In addition, you will be able to deliver what drugs can never deliver, whole food nutrition, to improve cellular function and promote health and homeostasis.

Fitting Into the Chiropractic Model

It all began in 1926 when a Harvard physician and physiology professor named Walter Cannon, MD, coined the term "Homeostasis" in his book; The Wisdom of the Body. Cannon taught physiology at Harvard for twenty-years and defined homeostasis as having two pathways for balance, an Electrical Pathway that is similar to (Structure) and a Biochemical Pathway that is similar to (Nutrition). Cannon stated that in order to have 100 percent homeostasis one must have 100 percent balance in both channels. One of Cannon's students went on to become the greatest physiologist the world has ever known, more than likely, the author of the textbook you studied in chiropractic college; his name, Arthur Guyton, MD.

In 1971 Guyton further defined homeostasis in chapter 37 of his Textbook on Medical Physiology entitled "Maintaining Homeostasis; Regulation of Acid Base Balance." Guyton said that regulation of pH is one of the most important aspects of homeostasis, and to maintain it you should look first to alkalize the body. So three questions need to be asked; how does a change in pH affect homeostasis, at what age does it usually occur and what causes the body to get so acidic?

According to research published by Anthony Sebastian, MD in the NEJM, the age is 40 and the cause is the Standard American Diet, (SAD). Food research shows that virtually everything a person eats burns to an acidic ash with the exception of fruits and vegetables. Sebastian's research entitled "Standard American Diet and Blood Acid Levels" showed that as we age our blood acid increases and our alkaline bicarbonate reserves decrease. Sebastian's research concluded that by age 40 the average American has lost all alkaline reserves and these findings warrant consideration that acidosis may be a cause of degenerative disease. All chiropractors have a solution for inflammatory "acidic" physical stressors, the chiropractic adjustment. But what about the other channel? What about the Biochemical/Nutritional Channel? What about the inflammatory "acidic" chemical stressors? As Cannon stated you can't have 100 percent homeostasis without balance in BOTH channels. The message is loud and clear from Cannon, to Guyton to Sebastian: don't forget the Chemical/Nutritional Pathway! The answer is obvious, have all patients consume an "alkaline" fruit and vegetable shake every morning.

Offering a Fruit and Vegetable Shake

Patients need to eat better, especially more fruits and vegetables. Medical science reminds doctors and patients everyday that good nutrition and good health go hand in hand, particularly when it comes to the healthful benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. Scientists continue to find nutritional elements in fruits and vegetables like vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients that support our immune system, improve cardiovascular health and contribute to many other forms of wellness. Most leading health authorities like the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Heart Association and the National Cancer Institute all recommend that adults eat at least 7 to 9 servings of fruits and vegetables every day for better health. Sadly, despite the growing scientific evidence, the average American eats less than 1 serving and children eat even less than that. It's been reported that by age 15 to 18 months, French fries and other fried potatoes are the most commonly consumed vegetables. It's very apparent that our patients need to eat better, especially more fruits and vegetables.

[pb]Bridge the Gaps

If you haven't guessed it yet, I'm suggesting that chiropractor's have 100% of their patients and all family members drink a morning alkalizing fruit and vegetable shake. The goal of the fruit and vegetable shake is two-fold, first to provide nourishment to the tissues during repair and second as Guyton suggested to "alkalize the body" to promote homeostasis. A daily fruit and vegetable shake provides convenient, easy-to-consume whole food based nutrition rich in vitamins, antioxidants and other phytonutrients. The daily fruit and vegetable shake is not a substitute for eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables every day, it simply helps bridge the gap between what patients should eat and what they actually do eat. There may be well over 1,000 different plant chemicals, known as phytochemicals, available in fruits and vegetables that may have a positive metabolic effect! Further study has shown that the fruits and vegetables that come in rich vibrant colors, like tomatoes, carrots, spinach, broccoli, blueberries and raspberries, are much more potent and beneficial than the pastel colored produce like iceberg lettuce, bananas, celery, corn and potatoes. Furthermore, certain fruits and vegetables contain greater quantities of antioxidants, fibers, probiotics, and even specific medicinal substances, the latter being especially true of many edible herbs and spices.

Super Foods

As we have become more aware of the amazing and broad spectrum of health, anti-aging, and disease preventing benefits of fruits and vegetables especially high in this "new" array of such micronutrients, a new name for them has arisen, the "super foods". The 'super foods' concept has been expanded to include foods known as fruit and vegetable shake mixes. Fruit and vegetable shakes offer many health benefits when compared to other types of food. Fruit and vegetable shakes are typically a superlative health food because they usually contain a wide variety of phytonutrients including vitamins, minerals, proteins, essential fatty acids, flavonoids, carotenoids and other substances that together exhibit antioxidant, detoxifying, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial benefits.

Positioning In Your Practice

Fruit and vegetable shakes are different from mainstream vitamin and mineral supplements because they are not synthetic nor are they isolated compounds, they are whole food sources of nutrition. They are the base of the food chain and, therefore, the source of optimal nutrition. They are nature's multivitamin/mineral supplement providing these essential nutrients in a form that is both safe and effective for the body. It's very important to position your fruit and vegetable shake as "not" being a vitamin, but a unique whole food based nutritional drink. When you successfully differentiate your fruit and vegetable shake from traditional vitamin supplements you will be able to build a large and growing repeat month-to-month customer base as a result. The "S.A.D." fact remains in spite of all the support from mainstream medical organizations few patients eat the recommended servings of brightly colored fruits and phytochemical-dense deep green vegetables daily. Even counting the "pale" plant foods like French fries, green-gassed bananas and iceberg lettuce, we still don't achieve the minimum!

The reasons for this lack are many and varied, and deeply ingrained in our American culture and lifestyle, though it can no longer be accounted to ignorance. What is needed is an educational initiative on the subject, as well as a joint effort by all healthcare providers to make their patients aware of the benefits of fruits and vegetables. The intent of this article is to help chiropractors know they can quickly and easily help their patients bridge their fruit and vegetable nutritional gap by consuming a super food fruit and vegetable shake. Our S.A.D. choices in food must change. Education, our support and the new advances in fruit and vegetable shakes are the keys.

Use A Proven System

Just as important as the quality of the fruit and vegetable shake you offer is the business model you follow to support it. You need to focus on building a small but steady, profitable business behind a high quality, brand name fruit and vegetable shake you can trust, that provides you a proven business operating system that can easily be implemented into your practice. Here are a few key implementation concepts to plan on to maximize success.

Displays

It's important to promote the use of your fruit and vegetable shake to all patients. The best way to accomplish this is to place a display of the products along with brochures and free foil sample packs at the front desk and possibly in all adjusting rooms. Work with a fruit and vegetable manufacturer that will supply you free of charge the items you need to promote the products.

Communicate the Health Benefit

By far the best way to communicate the importance of using a daily fruit and vegetable shake is by connecting the use of the shake to a simple lifestyle program. Use a simple one-page lifestyle questionnaire that takes patients 1-2 minutes to fill out and takes you even less time to review. An effective questionnaire will help position the patient on the use of the fruit and vegetable shake long before you even need to say a word. Use a fruit and vegetable product manufacturer that has such a questionnaire that has been used by hundreds of doctors before you, along with a simple script that you can read once or twice and make it your own. In addition, you will save a lot of time and help more patients if you also use a company that has a lifestyle program for you to use that includes a lifestyle program book that you can either give to the patient free when they purchase the product from you or that they can download free from your practice website.

[pb]Staff Education

Staff need to be informed of the tremendous benefit of health that comes from providing a fruit and vegetable shake to all patients. Use a fruit and vegetable product manufacturer that has a website that has training videos that staff can view to learn the basics of super food nutrition and scripts to follow to offer the product. Another very important part of offering an alkalizing fruit and vegetable shake is to model the use in your office for you and your entire team. Have product available for your staff to use while in the office, encouraging them to take an afternoon energy break to drink the product. In addition, consider offering the staff some type of bonus incentive based on sales volume of the product. The more staff understand and use the product themselves, the more successful your will be at achieving your goals.

Strategies

Without a doubt the most successful strategy is to have "taste-test days." On your busiest day of the week, have the product mixed up and on ice at the front desk. Have your staff offer a small paper sample cup of the product to every patient. A simple statement like, "Hi Sharon, Dr. Smith wants you to drink this great tasting fruit and vegetable shake before she adjusts you today to help begin to alkalize the tissues in your body." When patients taste the product and connect the dots on the important alkalizing benefits of the shake, they will be more inclined to purchase and use the product every morning at home.

Free foil samples of a fruit and vegetable product are a very easy way to attract new patients to your practice. Only use a fruit and vegetable product manufacturer that will provide you, free of charge, free samples of the product that you can give to patients to give to family members, neighbors and co-workers. In addition, use a product manufacturer that has the ability to provide you a free online store that you can attach to your current office website that not only allows you to sell the product and retain an earning on everything sold across the world, but enables you and your staff to direct patients to send their friends and family to the site to get free samples mailed to them at no charge. Be sure that your online store has the capability for you to go into the back office and see on a daily basis who requested the free samples and an understanding if any of those people ever purchase product in the future you will retain an earning on all sales. When your patients use the product and tell others you will not only attract new customers for the product but will also attract new patients for your practice.

Revenue Models

Compounding is a phenomenon that most of us don't fully understand or appreciate. MSN had a very interesting video that asked a number of people if they would rather have a million dollars now or take a penny now and double the amount for 30 days. As expected, 90% of people chose the million dollars now option. But this would have been the poorer choice, because you would have short changed yourself by over $4 Million at month-end. The simple act of doubling your previous day's investment can rapidly reap huge rewards thanks to the powerful concept known as compounding.

In the field of nutrition, selling 1 to 2 bottles of vitamins to patients can end up costing chiropractors more than it's worth. If patients don't repurchase their nutritional products from their doctor, then all the doctor managed to do was help grow the vitamin chain down the street. When you offer a great-tasting, high- quality fruit and vegetable shake, with a proven operating system, you'll find more often than not patients will re-buy the product from you month-after-month.

Here's what I tell chiropractors, you need to offer a high quality fruit and vegetable shake that is linked to what you are doing in practice, say a lifestyle concept such as alkalizing the body, consistently for at least two years. You make a few hundred dollars the first month, you add an additional few hundred dollars a month or so thereafter, and at the end of two years you've built not just an additional revenue stream of $100,000 to $200,000 a year or more, but a real all cash repeat business that will last. How? Say your fruit and vegetable shake costs patients $85.00 per month, which would provide one person one shake once a day for 30 days. The daily cost of this shake, that provides 15 servings of organic fruits and vegetables is only be $2.83, which is less than a medium Starbucks. Through the magic of compounding, if you put only 15 patients a month on the product, you'll generate $198,750.00 per year in additional revenue in a short 24 months. By the way, 15 new people on the product every month may come from starting as few as 5 to 10 patients on it, because most patients that enjoy the product will purchase additional product for their spouse and kids.

Conclusion

Remember the average patient knows that to be "well" they must address a number of lifestyle issues including eating more fruits and vegetables. Don't let your patients fall victim to discount vitamin chains and internet vitamin scams. If you have not already done so consider adding a high quality, alkalizing, fruit and vegetable shake to your practice. It can add a significant amount of revenue to your bottom line and substantially improve patient outcomes, which as you know will translate into even more new patient referrals.