Once again, the summer comes to an end.

The vacations are over and kids are going back to school.

Life returned to normal.

BUT please, do anything but, make your practice “normal”!

Normal is mediocre.  Mediocre is death.

Be extrodinary.  Make a dent in the universe.

How will you change the world?

Matt

I got an email from Ben Altadonna who had a great point that I feel compelled to share with you.

The email:

How much are you willing to spend to procure a new patient?

How much is an average patient worth in your office? -The more a patient is worth, the more you can afford to spend to “get one”.

Do you get a lot of referrals? – If, lets say, on average 1 out of 3 new patients refer a patient to you and an average new patient is worth $1,000. Knowing this, you can add $333 to the average value of each new patient who was not referred to you.

If your overhead, not counting your salary or “take home”, is around 50%, then add MORE new patients to your practice, you should be willing to spend UP TO HALF of what each patient is worth. If you did this, your practice would grow faster and still have a 50% profit margin.

Do you know how much you are spending NOW to attract a new patient?

You can and should do this 2 ways;

One, to find out how much on average ALL the new monthly patients  cost you to attract and Two, how much JUST the “non-referred in” patients cost you.

Example:

You collect an average of $20,000 a month and get an average of 15 new patients of which 10 are referred in and the other 5 come from other means.

And let’s say you spend a TOTAL of $1,200 in “in office” and “external” marketing, promoting, and patient communication.

$1,200 divided by 15 new patients = $80 (This is cheap and proves the value of referrals!)

Now take your total monthly collections and divide it by the # of new patients you averageper month who were NOT referred in. (Don’t count the patients who were referred in.)

$1,200 divided by 5 = $240.

What does this tell you? If you want more new patients, you must be willing to spend up $240 to get a new “non-referred in” patient.

I hope this exercise added some reality to your practice and the marketing math of practice building.

Watching Your Back,

Ben Altadonna, D.C.

/END of email

This is such a great explanation of the fact that you need to look at your acquisition cost and lifetime value of each patient.

SO many chiropractors still believe in being cheap on websites and internet marketing because companies before ours would just sell cheap crap for $50 to $100 per month.

I do a survey of chiropractors that get my ebook and ask how important is internet marketing for chiropractors.

It is never a surprise that the answers are almost always the same!

Doctors that see less than 100 visits per week spend less then $1000 per month and get less than 10 new patients per month and think the internet is only somewhat important.

WAKE UP!  You have to spend money to make money.

HUSTLE, MARKET, SELL.

Find People to TELL THE STORY TOO.

Get them to PAY, STAY and REFER.

Stop whining about being broke.

Do you wonder why chiropractic only serves 1-4% of the entire SOCIETY?

Because too many chiropractors refuse to sell, refuse to be a great entrepreneurs and refuse to get out of their comfort zone.

Today you can change!

AGAIN – Stop whining about being broke.

Get them to PAY, STAY and REFER.

Matt Prados