How Do You Promote or Sell the Invisible?

By Dr. Kevin Pallis

When working with some of the greatest DCs on the planet, sometimes you can take for granted things other DCs can’t accomplish in their wildest dreams. For example, seeing hundreds of practice members–kids included–per week (or even per day), difficult cases that the average DC shies away from, acute and wellness care, as well as earning hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars, just to name a few of these “wild dreams” that become a reality for sensational DCs.

First Concept to Understand: You Are Selling an Invisible Concept

If you want to be more than a condition-based DC, you’re going to have to learn how to convey and educate your practice members about foreign concepts. To the average patient, sublaxation is an unknown concept. If you base your practice member’s experience solely on symptoms, you are missing the chance of higher retention, higher quality of new patient referrals, a larger variety of patients, and even a higher income. If you can’t educate your people about this invisible concept, when the symptoms leave or the insurance runs out, your practice member is out the door.

Just Because it’s Invisible, Doesn’t Mean it’s Not Without Value

Some of the most viable and critical components of our lives aren’t visible on the outside. Think of religion. How do you make tangible, something that’s intangible? How about this one…the difference between public school, which is free for community members and private school, where tuition is involved. To most, public school is good enough. To private school parents, they are advocates of these schools because of the benefits; smaller class sizes, individualized attention, especially if your child has special gifts or special needs that those types of resources are just the ticket to bring out their unique gifts.

Some wonder, “Who would pay $20,000, $30,000 or more per year for something that’s essentially free for the masses?” But PLENTY would, and do! And they’re not all rich; in fact they’re far from it. Many are blue collar and are willing and provide the best for their children.

In our society, education is held to a very high standard. And guess what? so is our health. It just goes into a different category called “health insurance,” whether it gets used or not. A family will pay $15,000+ annually in disease insurance premiums for protection against the “what if?”

Let’s Learn a Lesson From Our Brother & Sister Canadian DCs

What do you say when all of your practice members can receive what you offer for free? “Pain relief? I’ve got that covered, Doc.” It’s called socialized medicine. It’s also making its way south of the border (ObamaCare it’s called here) just like Neil Young, Nickelback, Bare Naked Ladies and Rush did. Whether you like it or not, you are headed in that direction currently, with such high deductibles, out of pocket expenses, out of network, and more. How are you going to sell the invisible or create long-term practice members when pain relief services are free of charge?

You Better Be on Your A-Game

Sooner or later, you will be forced to begin to better educate your practice members. Let’s be honest with one another: w have gotten sloppy in this area and have put way too much concentration on the technical aspects (technique, tables, software, insurance) and less on the clinical patient education. What is the difference between your office and the DC down the street? How will you create more value for current and potential practice members? How will you identify yourself to your community?

• Is your office a community or a commodity/vendor?
• Is there an invisible theme to your office procedures or do you rely on symptoms only?
• Are you a generalist or a specialist?
• Can you thrive (not survive) inside or outside of insurance?
• Do you speak the language of the patient?
• Can you introduce an invisible concept to new patients so they grasp it and participate in Chiropractic as a lifestyle?
• Do you have the ability and talent to have full-fee kids in your office front and center, rather than a la carte?

There Has Never Been a Wider Gap Between DCs…
Some are Having a Blast and Hitting it Out of the Park While the Others are Barely Getting By…

Everyone has the same degree, yet there are vast differences in fulfillment and achievement levels. In any group, in any time in history, when there are challenges or adversity, some prosper while others predictably depreciate. Here in TNR, it is such a pleasure to work with DCs who are willing and able to look at the practice of Chiropractic differently in order to be ultra-successful without losing their humanitarian core. Lest we not forget why we became DCs in the first place: to help others.