Bringing on a marketer is like stomping on the gas pedal in your car – getting your practice to the next level with a surge in new-patient activity to truly expand the office.
Chiropractors, in general, are often either skeptical or afraid to drop their guard or their dollars to bring on a marketer. You may be in that group. Regardless, I would like for you to open your mind to the possibilities as I take you through a journey on the most successful method for bringing a marketer into the ranks within your office.
What to Look for in a Marketer
The marketer's role in a chiropractic office is more like that of a "party planner." The marketer simply invites people to your office (and works to ensure they arrive) to hear your amazing chiropractic message.
This unique message – to trust in the body's ability to heal and grow without reliance upon drugs or surgery – will rarely, if ever, be heard by most people in their lifetimes. We have the unique opportunity, often a one-time chance, to invite the raw public into the office to hear this message.
So, what are you looking for in a marketer? If you're stretched to bring on another mouth to feed, you can simply bring on what I call a hybrid marketer. This person is a reception position one-third of the time, during your peak hours; and working on marketing activities two-thirds of the time.
Regardless of whether you can bring on a full-time marketer or a hybrid marketer, you want to find someone who is a social butterfly; a real people person. Some examples might be someone who has worked at a mobile phone store, a Starbucks or maybe as a promotional representative for brands at sporting events. All of these people tend to have one highly desirable skill set: raw public confront. They have the gift of being able to easily meet and greet nearly anyone!
You absolutely do not need to just hire someone who has a business or marketing degree. These people are often trained on business-to-business corporate communications. That is only 3-5 percent of the job. Looking for your social butterfly will enable you not only to reach the raw public, but also to tap into the corporate opportunities, given a little dash of finesse.
Getting Your Marketer to Perform
Without going into detail on the interviewing process, I would like to educate you on the absolutely most important points on enabling this person to perform and produce results. There are two of them. The first is missed by nearly all chiropractors: the probation. The second: the minimal apprenticeship.
As the budding entrepreneur, the business owner, you are responsible for bringing on capable staff who help the business thrive. You can't afford to bring on people if they cannot make things go right on the job. I recommend you always hire personnel, especially the marketer, with a probation period so they can prove they have the skills you need.
Along with the probation period is a minimal apprenticeship. In this apprenticeship, you are teaching the marketer only a handful of basic marketing activities – usually your lower-rung marketing activities, such as street marketing, phone calls to prior leads, missed initial office visits and referrals.
The marketer's probation should not exceed three weeks. The marketer must prove their skills by their ability to have at least three people arrive within one of those first three weeks (not cumulative). These arrivals must be from their own efforts, not walk-ins, not Internet scheduled appointments – only prospective new patients they personally schedule.
Once they accomplish this milestone, you can pour on your complete training – they have proven they can pay for themselves. By no means should you target them to only achieve three new-patient arrivals per week; shoot for 6-12-plus, depending on your area!
If your marketers cannot prove their skills at this point, – just let them know your practice isn't the right fit for them. This is a million times easier than having to fire a "hired" employee.
Day-to-Day Responsibilities
Now that you have your marketer, what do they do on a day-to-day basis? Each day, there should be a protocol or checklist your marketer goes through.
First, they arrive ready to produce and are excited to achieve the quotas you have established. They check for any phone messages from prospective new patients who need to be rescheduled. They check for Internet leads that need to be called right away to be scheduled. Then they make day-of and day-before reminder calls to prospective new patients.
Once your marketer has handled their morning homework, it's time to start producing new scheduled people; the gravy ... the gold ... the lifeblood of your practice growth. The pivotal question your marketer should be asking themselves at this time of the day is: Do I have enough prospective new patients on the reservation books to hit my goal for this week?
If the answer is "yes," then the marketer's focus moves from this week to:
If the answer to the "pivotal" question is "no," then the marketer should be hitting the trenches with activities that produce immediate current-week appointments. These are often calls to missed day ones / initial office visits, leads, referrals, or possibly some raw public / boots-on-the-ground, street marketing such as a screening at a gym or community rec center. The marketer's focus for the entire day in this case is getting their target of scheduled appointments booked for the week.
The Magic of Marketing
The ideal scenario for your marketer (and your practice) comes to fruition when they have the current week covered (target of scheduled appointments) and are directing all of their energy, attention and creativity on future weeks. This is when the magic of marketing happens; when they are being crafty and innovative to find those venues, events and activities your ideal clients are frequenting, attending or working (in the case of a corporate event).
When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
It is estimated that 61% of patients with CTS avoid taking surgical options due to postoperative complications and costly surgical procedures. Chiropractic care offers a comprehensive and effective treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome, addressing the condition from multiple angles. Recent studies also have unveiled a game-changing adjunct to chiropractic treatments for CTS: nerve flossing.
Some doctors thrive in a personality-based clinic and have a loyal following no matter what services or equipment they offer, but for most chiropractic offices who are trying to grow and expand, new equipment purchases help us stay relevant and continue to service our client base in the best, most up-to-date manner possible. So, regarding equipment purchasing: should you lease, get a bank loan, or pay cash?
