I’m going to be answering several questions that have come in over the years from practitioners who are trying to grow their practice.
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Hi folks Jeffrey Grossman here. And thank you so much for joining me. The American Acupuncture Council, meet up here. Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to join me, to learn more about business and marketing. So today is going to be a little bit off the cuff. And I’m going to be answering several questions that have come in over the years from practitioners who are trying to grow their practice.
And I’ve got a series of questions here that I’m going to go through and provide as detailed of answers that I can for those. And if there are any other questions that come up later on, feel free to reach out to me or post something below here. So my name is Jeffrey Grossman. I am the owner and founder.
Acupuncture MediaWorks, Accu Perfect Websites and Accu Downloads. And I’ve been helping acupuncturists since 2002 build their practice and educate their patients and market and do all the things that are necessary for us in order to bring in new patients and remain viable. Now, acupuncture school gave you all the amazing tools to be an excellent diagnostician pulse finder, tongue reader.
Point prescriber and guash Shaw Dewar, but it neglected to give you all the tools that you need to run a business and be the entrepreneur that you need to be as far as in order to, grow your practice because I’m sure some of you are out there looking to be successful and make money that is gives you, earns you a reasonable salary.
I’m here to provide some insight into some questions that maybe you have, or have had in the past. And also if you ever need any help at the end of this training, you can feel free to reach out to me. Send me an email at Jeffrey, J E F F R E Y. @ acupuncture. Media works.com. I’d love to chat with you and help figure out some of these concerns issues.
Questions that you yourself might have. So let me just jump right into this here. One of the questions that I get often from practitioners is why should I use social media in my practice? And how would I even get started if I choose to do that? Social media. These days is something that you really can’t avoid.
We’ve got Instagram, we’ve got Facebook, we’ve got Twitter. And I’m not saying that you need to be part of all of those. Social media portals, but you need to have an online presence. And these days when people are looking for you, they are going to the internet in order to check you out and read about you and learn about you.
So it’s important to have a social media presence. And my suggestion is that you have. A Facebook business page for your practice. It’s really important to do because most of your clients are probably on Facebook and it would be important for you to have different posts on there different just, different ways to interact different questions that you’re going to be answering for them.
Couple of things that you can be doing is creating a marketing calendar and a marketing calendar could be something really simple. Like every Monday you could do Meridian Monday, where you talk about a specific Meridian every Tuesday. Testimonial Tuesday, we use share an insight and some information for, on success of one of your patients.
Wednesdays could be wisdom, Wednesdays where you share some. Wisdom and some knowledge bombs that you’ve learned over the years that could be helpful for self care or home remedies or just some really great quotes that you’ve come across that add insight and inspiration to your patients.
Thursdays could be about technique Thursdays, where you offer a specific different technique wash up. Yeah, electric stem and then Fridays could be free for all where you would do whatever it is that you want. So that’s a really simple strategy to use and post on your Facebook pages. Now, one of the things that I’ve heard that.
Rough for a patient for practitioners is developing the content. There are several ways you can go about this one. There you can go to, you can hire that out and outsource that. You can hire writers. You could hire designers for you. And you can have people create, marketing social media graphics.
As for you. You could go to a online website called Canva and create your own portals. Or you can go to an online website called Acue downloads.com where they provide done for you content for practitioners specifically for the acupuncture industry social media graphics, research updates, clinic forums.
Everything that you need to establish an online presence. So that can really simplify what it is that you need to do and how to get it done for you when you use social media. But I really do think it is important to have that presence because. The more that you are in top of mind awareness with your patients.
The more familiar they will become a view. And therefore when something comes up with them an injury or a friend needs a referral, they will remember that you posted something on Facebook about migraines or infertility or sprained ankles or whatever it is. So curating that awareness will be helpful for you.
Develop that online following. Okay. Hopefully that helps. So another question that comes up from practitioners often is what’s the difference between a core message and an elevator pitch. Okay. So this is something that I’ve talked about on the AAC in the past is developing your core message. And it’s an incredible piece to.
Creating your practice and creating your message. So a core message is really important. The core message is it’s a positioning statement telling people why you do what you do and why they should choose you over the competition. Whereas an elevator pitch just tells people what you do. So let me talk with you a little bit about some of the core principles that create a corpsman.
Part of a core message is coming up with three aspects. What the person’s problem is in this case, your patients have a particular problem that they want solved what your particular solutions are to solve that problem and what their life will look like after you solve their problems. So for instance, acupuncture, media work.
Our court, what are the core messages that we use is that acupuncturists, the problem is an acupuncturist. I’m just speaking to you. Now, the problem is that acupuncturist don’t like marketing their practice, right? They don’t know what to do. They don’t know how to grow their business and so on. So the core, our core message reflects that and our core message would go something like this acupuncture.
Struggle with growing their practice and developing marketing tools to attract new patients here at acupuncture, MediaWorks, and Accu downloads. We provide high quality cost-effective and powerful marketing and patient education tools for the acupuncture profession so that acupuncturists can spend less.
Developing those tools and more time to helping their patients so they can ultimately reprieve the rewards and increase their profit. So that is a simple core message that we use for Acura doubt for acupuncture. Media works. Okay. Simple core message for you. As a practitioner could go something like this.
Let’s say for instance, you are working with patients who have sports injuries and they want to really do well on their next marathon. So the problem would be that many patients, many of my patients suffer from injuries and strains and sprains are due to overexertion here at Jeffrey’s acupuncture.
We provide state-of-the-art high and Telecare and telehealth and and acupuncture techniques to help alleviate pain, improve for four minutes so that our patients can go out and win their next race. And and and and be injury free, something as simple as that would be great for that particular type of conversation.
A core message is an important piece. And I feel like it’s one of those things that is often overlooked and squashed in with creating an elevator pitch, an elevator pitches. Hi, my name’s Jeffrey Grossman. I’m an acupuncturist. I help people get well and stay healthy. And my practice is over, down the street over here.
Whereas your core message really defines the problem, the solution and what their life will look like afterwards. Okay. Hopefully that’s helpful. Another question that I often get from PE from practitioners is I have people fall out of care all the time. What can I do to keep them scheduled? So my first comment on that, and my first question would be to you is what are you doing on a regular basis to stay in top of mind awareness?
So your patients won’t fall out of care. Do you have regular emails that go out? Do you have regular communications that you’re sending? Do you have. Texting policies. Do you have a social media presence is your website are updated and current and you’re are you often sending leads and patients to your website to find new information?
And when patients fall out of. What kind of particular protocols do you have in place to get them back on the books? All right. So oftentimes we spent a lot of energy getting patient, doing a marketing and doing a health fair or whatever it is that we’re doing to pull patients in. We get them in, we treat them, they stick around for three or four visits and then boom, they’re gone, they fall out of care. So the important thing first off is to do is to review. Series of a treatment plan with them. And I call that a report of findings. When a patient comes in, it’s important for you to review what you found, what’s wrong, what they can expect and how long it’s going to take with them.
And you do that when you deliver the report of findings and what this. It sets down this particular protocol and it sets down this timeline of treatments that you’ll be requesting or suggesting that they receive with you. Lot of practitioners go from treatment to treatment.
They don’t necessarily say. I want to see you once a week for the next 12 weeks, and then we’ll reevaluate, which is what you should be doing. Maybe you’re not saying 12 weeks, maybe eight weeks or six weeks or whatever it is, but it’s important for you as a practice to lay down the grounding and that foundation for them when they first, when the first visit or within the second visit of what they’re, what your expectations and what their expectations of care are, and then recommend that to them.
Okay. Patients have a clear understanding that’s going on. X amount of visits and then you’re going to come back and reevaluate then it’s, it like sets these precedent in their mind that this is what’s expected and this is what they will or won’t do. And therefore they will, most likely continue their treatment plan with you.
And then once that initial treatment, Continue to follow it up. They’ll have a regular tuneup visits, but that’s what you need to communicate to your patients in the best time to do that is between the first and the second visit using report of findings. So patients will fall out of care. It’s inevitable, but the way.
Communicate to them throughout the process from when they first become a new patient. You’ve got to always be in top of mind with them. You ought to always be sending them communications and always be sharing things with them. One of the things that I find that’s interesting with the Accu download software is that when a patient comes in off the treatment table, what do you send them home with?
Right there. So a patient comes in, they’ve got migraines. Do you send them home with something that you can literally print handout and send them for self care? When a patient comes in and they’ve got back pain, what do you send them home with to help them alleviate their back pain further? What kind of self-care tips do you provide them?
If they got suici deficiency, what are you sending them home with? Awesome that you’re doing moxa or cupping or even the, or the acupuncture, but what kind of self care, what kind of protocols are you sharing with them that they go home with and furthers their care? So when you send them home with something, it does a couple things.
One. Makes you look awesome because you’re sending them home with some really cool tools to further support their care. And they’re like, wow, this guy must really care about me. Every time I go in, I get a new piece of information that helps me get better. Helps me get well, he’s really committed to my care.
That’s one thing that it does. The other thing that it provides is it provides you with constant tools of communication that you’re already. Sending and sharing with your patients. Okay. So when you do that, it makes patients less likely to fall out of care. All right. All right. So let’s see another question that comes in that I asked for that I get frequently.
No, of course, right? How do I get new patients? Okay. Everyone wants to know that one. That’s the million dollar question. So when I work with my coaching clients, Then needing to get new patients. The first thing I asked him is what’s your core message. Okay. Then I’ll ask them what happens when I hit your website.
Is your core message on your website. When I go to your website, do I know exactly? What it is that you do within a few seconds. Do I know that you are a sports injury doctor? Do I know that you helped with infertility patients? Do I know that you help that you’re the migraine expert in the community? I need to know these things, the moment I hit your website.
Okay. And so when people hear about you, when they get a referral, For from you, the first place they go is your website. So that needs to be dialed in a way that expresses what your core message is. And that offers them strong calls to action, like schedule an appointment, download this form to come in for a a an free or low cost evaluation or whatever it is that.
Wanting to use to motivate those people to come in. It needs to be front and centered and present on your website. It shouldn’t be just schedule your appointment with me. There should be something. Prior to that gets them introduced to you. That gets them to test the waters, so to speak, to see if so they can be assured that you’re the right person for them.
And so you could rest assured that you want to actually work with them with care. All right. And so the first things to think about when you get new patients are what’s your messaging. What’s your website and then what is your followup, your nurturing that happens after patients get on board.
Okay. How do you stay in communications with them? All right. So let me just give you a couple of cool things about attracting new patients. First thing I tell all of my students, when I teach at the practice management class. Join Toastmasters. Okay. Toastmasters international, go to it, putting your zip code, Google it.
And you’ll see tons of Toastmaster organizations with where you are now. Toastmasters changed my life. It gave me the confidence to speak more efficiently. It gave me the stage at which I would present my topics about acupuncture. And it also gave me referrals. And from those referrals, I got other referrals.
All right. So Toastmasters is not only. Powerful to help me get new patients, but it’s also an incredible way for me to build my confidence as a practitioner. Step one way in getting new patients. Another way is reaching out to local MDs, NDS, chiropractors, LMPs, and, introducing yourself, getting connected with them, reaching out to them, asking them how you can refer to them.
And in turn. I was telling them how they can refer to you. And what I mean by that is when you develop this relationship, this rapport, and you reach out to them with the idea that, Hey, I’m looking to refer people to chiropractor. I want to know the best route at which how I can send people to you. I want to know what kind of chiropractic you do.
I want to know what kind of, what your success rate is with particular conditions. Do you focus on anything? Do you specialize in anything and so on? And you can do that in different different medical arenas. And then with that, you would ask them if they want to establish a referral relationship, you’d give them, tell them, what you specialize in, what your current message is and how.
Best for them to refer people to you. Do you have certificates that you can hand out? Do you have business cards with calls to action on them? Do you want them to go to a specific pages unique to that doctor in, on your website, in that respect? Okay. Also health fairs are an amazing way to get new patients on board.
I love health fairs. One of the books that I found most intriguing. And most effective for me to get a PA patients from the event into the clinic was Giovanni’s book on tongue diagnosis. I literally opened that book up to the ugliest tongue pictures, put it on this front and center on my table and people would walk over and they’d be like, Hey.
Gross look, what are those tongues doing over there? And then that would be my segue and opening into talking with them about, that tongues are a barometer of inner health. And as an acupuncturist, we take the tongues and all these other diagnostic procedures into consideration to come up with a an in-depth unique treatment plan for every individual that comes into the clinic.
No two people are treated the same and so on. That would bring the people from the health fair into my room. And then from there you need to have a strong call to action to get them from that event into the practice, what I’ve used in the past for two things, inviting them in for a stress reduction treatment where I just use 0.0 and Shen men of the ear.
And then also and then also inviting them in for a low cost evaluation. Okay. Great ways to get new patients on board. That’s about all I have for you today. So if you have any questions, any comments feel free to reach out to me again. jeffrey@acupuncturemediaworks.com or info@accudownloads.com.
Either those you can reach me at and. The world needs more healers. Like you guys are conscious, you’re aware you’ve got powerful healing abilities with this medicine changes lives. Be scared about getting out there and grow your practice. These lectures that the AAC brings you are powerful and deep.
And even if you walk away with just one little nugget from today’s lesson that potentially could change your practice. So I apologize for wearing my headphones and looking like a pilot here today, but that’s how we had to go with with the recording. So you guys stay beautiful. Stay. Awesome. And until next time remember change the world one needle, one person at a time.
You guys are awesome. Take care. Bye.