Video Transcription
Stephen Franson: Hey Remarkable Practice, this is Dr. Stephen Franson coming to you from Chicago. Probably recognize this guy, this is Joe Polish. Say hi Joe.
Joe Polish: Howdy, how’s it going?
Stephen Franson: So you talk to the chiropractor world out there and most of the chiropractors that I know have two things in common. Super passionate about chiropractics, but they suck at marketing. And word is you’re pretty good.
Joe Polish: Yeah and I also know some pretty smart folks that are successful chiropractors, good at marketing, that sort of thing. And yeah most industries they focus on what it is they do but it’s not the what it is you do even if you’re the best in the world or mediocre or bad, it’s the marketing of what it is you do. And I mean I learned all of this starting out my career as [inaudible] carpet cleaner, and I ended up turning that company around and became a big advisor to that industry and many more.
But the discovery that I and most business owners that ever make it have first got to make is that you are not in the thing business, the product or the service, you’re in the marketing of the thing service. So even if you’re the best chiropractor in the world, that’s irrelevant.
Stephen Franson: And nobody knows who they are, right.
Joe Polish: Yeah. Yeah.
Stephen Franson: Or they’re not looking for chiropractic yet.
Joe Polish: Exactly, exactly. And most people aren’t. And part of it, either a lot of people are based on past associations with chiropractors, they may be turned off by it. So you use a different produce [inaudible]. What is the pain that you … I’m not just talking physical pain, what’s the psychological barrier, what’s the pain that stands in their way of getting to a better state of health on an ongoing basis?
So it’s really about packaging your message in a way that is compelling, where you can go out and make an offer and identify the right list of who you wanna communicate with, select a single target market initially. And just look at the three units of your business. There’s a before unit, what you do to get a patient, a during unit, once they’re there, how do you interact with them, and then the after unit, which is how do you deliver world class service even after you’ve been paid so that you can orchestrate referrals, ongoing, continue business and have them keep coming back, and turn it into a relationship instead of a transaction.
Stephen Franson: Right on. Alright so great conceptual things and you’re always so rich with tactics as well. You’re dealing with a community of people that most likely have some inertia, they don’t even know where to start. And spending time with you brother, you know every element, from A to B. If I could ask you for a top 100 steps we should take to just start marketing chiropracting more effectively, you could knock them out. I’m not gonna ask you to do that.
But what are the first three things that you gotta … Everybody’s [inaudible], these guys are islands for the most part, they’re sitting there going, "Alright I know I should be on Facebook, I know I should get my web presence together, I know I should be public speaking. How do I line all those things …" Where do we start? What’s the step one, two, three? At least get these fundamentals in place.
Joe Polish: Well here’s what I would say. I always believe that every business, no matter where they’re at, you should sit down and write a physical letter, a sales letter, getting the words down on why someone should do business with you, and if they’ve already done business with you, why they should continue to do business with you and tell other people about you. Meaning if you want word of mouth bargaining you have to give people something worth talking about, so I’m gonna make the assumption that everyone listening to this-
Stephen Franson: Has something worth talking about.
Joe Polish: Right, and they have-
Stephen Franson: They’re remarkable.
Joe Polish: Right, and if you’re not you better figure that out because you’re gonna have a tough road.
Stephen Franson: You’re irrelevant.
Joe Polish: Unless you’re the only chiropractor in town and even if you’re terrible no one’s got any other options. But that’s rarely the case, and nor would you ever wanna build a business on that foundation. So assuming you are good, and you care about your patients and you deliver treatments that help, what I would suggest you do is that you write down a very powerful sales letter, like every great thing about you, what you do.
And one of the things that I use as education based marketing, you teach people how to make a buying decision. Number one question in all consumers minds is who can I trust? So in order for someone to trust you, you may have great education, great experience, hundreds, thousands of happy clients. But someone that doesn’t know you, what do they need to hear in order to know why to trust you? I mean that’s a term that a lot of marketers throw around, but it’s fundamental. Know, like and trust. And if they don’t already know you and they’re not being endorsed to you by someone that can endorse you that they know, like and trust, that says, "Hey go to this chiropractor." Then you need to have that in print.
That’s where it starts, get the words down. Then you can put that in audio, you can put that on video, you can turn it into ads online or offline. But you need to have your story down. And that’s what I first start with, write a killer sales letter.
Stephen Franson: Get that killer sales letter. And also helps you get your … sort of codify your message as well. This is who we are, this is what we do, this is how we do it, this is why you should make an offer.