Who’s the most important person in your practice?
Trick question.
Ok, who’s the second most important person in your business?
Your clients.
If you as the chiropractor are the brain of your business, your clients are the circulatory system.
Your clients are not just clients, they are assets.
Think about it. What is an asset? It’s something of value that you buy or pay for which generates income for you and pays you over time. Your clients pay you over time, and you have to pay, either in advertising money or labor, to acquire them.
And just like you choose what kind of stocks you want to buy based on various criteria you are looking for, you can do the same by choosing what clients you have in your office.
You gotta get clients anyway, so you might as well choose who you do business with, right?
It’s vital to consciously choose what kind of clients you want, so you get the kind of clients you want in your practice.
Who do you want to do business with?
Who is your ideal client? What is their life like? What are their values? What do they do after work? On weekends? What do they watch on TV?
Do they go home after work and spend the night drinking beer and watching Ice Road Truckers reruns?
Or do they go to the gym after work, cook a healthy meal while listening to music and then relax by watching an educational documentary before bed?
Do they play golf in their free time? What kind of work do they do?
It’s important to get as specific as you can.
The first time I heard about creating a customer avatar, I thought it was silly. I wanted everybody to be my client. What I ended up with was a low value practice with people I didn’t like.
There would be certain people I’d absolutely dread seeing.
They were taking advantage of my cheap fees and generosity.
I’d curse myself every time I saw them drive up.
I was getting paid like 10 bucks a visit, and I hated it.
I didn’t want to get paid 10 bucks a visit, but that was the culture I created in my office. I followed the mantra of taking care of everybody regardless of their ability to pay. This might be nice for a church, however if you want to run a ministry you should go to seminary and not chiropractic college.
To run a real chiropractic business, you need to create a customer avatar. As a business owner you have control of who you do business with. It’s YOUR business after all. Your business, your rules.
Not only will a defined customer avatar get those people through the door, if you design your marketing to talk to this particular person, you will resonate with them much more.
One of the keys to good advertising is to write your ads as if you’re talking to ONE person about ONE thing.
Creating a customer avatar will give you a clear picture of who you want, how to talk to them, and will allow you to attract them into your office.
Once you have your avatar defined, it’s time to create a message to attract them into your office.
Your USP – What Sets You Apart From Other Chiropractors
You’ve probably heard a lot about a USP. That’s ok, because I’m going to go over it anyway. I know a lot of chiropractors have poorly defined USPs, and if you are one of them, I’m going to help you create one right now.
Your USP is your unique selling proposition.
How do you set yourself apart? Where I live chiropractors are like Starbucks. There’s one on every corner.
However, unlike Starbucks, most of the chiropractors just sell “chiropractic.” Starbucks doesn’t just sell coffee. Remember: People can go to a donut shop and buy coffee for 99 cents. Starbucks offers you something more than just coffee. There is prestige to the brand, the stores are nice inside, cozy, and they position themselves as a neighborhood oasis, a little getaway from a hectic world.
Most people don’t just buy chiropractic. The people who just buy chiropractic go to the Joint, or the low price leader in town.
You can do better. You will do better when you create a USP for yourself.
Unique Selling Proposition: What do you do better than anybody that sets you apart? Why should someone buy from you?
There are a lot of chiropractors out there. What can you do for people that others can’t?
How are you unique?
You might say something like:
“I create comprehensive, results-oriented solutions that eliminate your chronic or recurring pain fast and without drugs and surgery, so you can live a longer, healthier, higher quality life.”
You don’t need just one either. You can have an overall theme for your office, however you can have a different USP for each type of client you want:
I help crossfitters avoid injury and maximize their performance so they can work out hard every day without limits.
I help triathletes avoid injury and maximize their performance so they perform at their best every day.
I help golfers avoid pain and injury so they can play their best every day.
They aren’t buying chiropractic from you. They aren’t just buying pain relief either. If they were after pain relief, Advil is way cheaper than you are.
They are looking for something more, their ultimate goal or need.
This is what your USP should fulfill.
It’s not a meaningless slogan or catchy phrase. It has to answer some specific questions that your customer might have: What’s it gonna do for me?
It’s not just a hyperbolic adjective either.
Saying something is the best or greatest doesn’t mean a whole lot. If someone says their pizza is the best, what does that even mean?
Not much.
It would make a lot more sense to say something like “We Guarantee You’ll Love Our Thin Crust, Foldable, Authentic New York Style Pizza, or Your Money Back.”
That incorporates risk reversal with a unique selling point – thin crust foldable NY style pizza (the best kind). It sounds so good I could go for a slice right now!
Take a look at Domino’s Pizza’s former USP: “hot fresh pizza in 30 minutes or less guaranteed.” This was Domino’s Pizza’s USP until they had to drop the “30 minutes or less” part due to rumors of reckless driving.
A speedy delivery solves problems a consumer might have. Especially when we’re talking about cheap pizza in a college town. “Best” doesn’t solve any problems.
If you don’t define yourself with a USP, you won’t have a way to set yourself apart, and you’ll just be another chiropractor. If you are just another chiropractor, people are going to base their decision on price instead of value and you know that’s a terrible place to be.
