Just Like You, Patients Buy What’s Familiar.
So how do we become familiar?
How many times has a patient asked you for the name of another D.C., either because they were moving, traveling or wanted to refer a friend? How do you find that D.C.? If you’re like me you first check to see if you have any friends or acquaintances in that city or one close by. Referrals are personal. Chiropractic is not familiar to most people, so you, the Chiropractor, must become the familiar gateway. There are three components to becoming familiar: contactability, interpersonal skills, and image.
Contactability
Contactability is how approachable you are in your community. Do you go to the gym and put a force field up around you? When you go to church do you bolt out the side door as soon as services are over? When you attend your child’s athletic or school events are you one of the untouchables? If we attached a monitoring device to you and followed your activities throughout the week what would we see? Home to office and back again? You know it’s really tough to meet people when you don’t even give yourself the chance.
Interpersonal Skills
How do you behave at a restaurant? Do you tip appropriately? Do you treat the wait staff with respect? You see; wherever you go there you are. You are your message! Are you willing to discuss subjects outside of your interests? In other words, are you boring? Are you always talking about health and healing? The number one complaint that spouses have is that the doctor (technician) never leaves the office and has cloistered his self/herself in a protective cocoon from the world of allopathy. Now I don’t want to get off on a rant or anything but get a life outside of adjusting. Learn to be interested in others and they will be interested in you and your message.
Image
Like it or not you have 7 seconds to make an impression with a stranger. Do you look like a professional? Do you dress with pride for yourself and respect for others, or have you decided that comfort means “I don’t care what others think?” Do you realize that people respond to what you feel and think more than what you say? When you say to yourself, “I don’t care what people think about my image,” they only hear I don’t care. Remember, every one of us has an unconscious attraction or repulsion that impacts our choices. What are you sending out?
Successful Chiropractic Entrepreneurs like you have one thing in common: a single- minded dedication to their patients. They have a passionate commitment to understanding everything they can about the people they serve. They have an innate sense that patients are to be served not converted, served not needed, and served not controlled.
Your SIDECAR Team
