4 secrets to becoming a successful naturopath

4 secrets to becoming a successful naturopath

"I couldn't get patients to see me. Every time I failed, I felt the debt grow heavier over my shoulders."

Back to the beginning...

...,so does my way of thinking. I completely reversed my marketing and business strategies. What I came up with are the most important character traits to become a successful naturopathic doctor:

• Sie müssen glauben, dass Sie in der Lage sind, erfolgreich zu werden
• Warten Sie nicht auf Chancen – schaffen Sie sie
• Streben Sie nicht nach Perfektion – streben Sie nach Vertrauen
• Fürchte dich nicht vor dem Scheitern – überwinde es

We often fail to reach potential patients and make network connections because we are afraid of failure. “But what if I can’t treat this patient?” “But what if that doctor doesn’t want to connect with me?” What we're really saying is,

“What if I’m not good enough?”

We have become vulnerable to this fear of failure because failure does not reward us with a doctorate degree or a license to practice. It just extends our debt. We are particularly susceptible to this fear of failure because patients often view us as a “last resort” for healthcare. In our eyes it is essential that we always be right - always are successful-, for the sake of our patients, our careers and our egos. However, the secret to becoming a successful naturopathic doctor is one very different process than medical school . You will face failure. Your ego will be crushed. You will sometimes feel like you are not good enough.

And here's why:

1. Harte Arbeit wird nicht belohnt. Die harte Arbeit, die Sie durch die medizinische Fakultät, durch Patientenforschung und durch Marketing leisten, führt nicht automatisch dazu, dass Sie mehr Patienten (oder Geld) verdienen.
2. Erfolg hat nichts mit Glück zu tun. Wenn Sie sich einer vielbeschäftigten Klinik oder bekannten Fachleuten anschließen, bedeutet dies nicht automatisch, dass Sie selbst beschäftigt sind.
3. Erfolg ist das Ergebnis vieler kleiner Dinge, die im Laufe der Zeit gut gemacht wurden . Seien Sie geduldig, beharrlich und proaktiv.

My first 4 months were a disaster. I struggled to see even one patient per week, but that shouldn't have been the case. I joined a physiotherapy clinic where a large number of patients flowed in and out daily.

I tried the typical marketing tactic:

• öffentliche Gespräche
• Zeitungsmarketing
• Direktversand von Broschüren und Flyern
• Aufbau von Ständen bei Veranstaltungen
• kostenlose Einführungsberatung
• Fragen bei Physiotherapeuten nach Überweisungen

No matter how much time I spent on these marketing strategies, I couldn't get patients to see me. Every time I failed, felt I, as the debt grew heavier over my shoulders.And then the new year rolled around. The new year is a reset for many people and for me I have changed my mindset.

Over the next few months, I completely overhauled my marketing and business strategies and was surprised to see how quickly my clinical practice expanded. These are the most important marketing strategies for naturopaths:

Key strategies for successfully marketing your services

I will explain these in more detail below:

1. Konzentrieren Sie sich auf Lokalität und Verfügbarkeit
2. Priorisieren Sie die Lead-Generierung vor dem Bewusstsein
3. Priorisieren Sie andere vor sich selbst
4. Priorisieren Sie das Vertrauen vor der Intelligenz

1) Locality & Availability

Understand that everyone you market to Convenience and quick responsewishes. I have found that the Locality is the most important factor, which determines how long a patient stays with me. I had great clinical results with patients who lived miles from my clinic, but they would never remain patients for long.

Tactics of local awareness are more effective than tactics of general awareness.

Tactics of regional acquisition

• „Tag der offenen Tür“-Möglichkeiten
• Lokale Zeitungen
• Lokale Flyer oder Broschüren
• Kleine lokale Seminare und Versammlungen (Abendessen, Partys usw.)
• Google Places

Tactics of general acquisition

• Online-Präsenz (Websites, SEO-Rang, Newsletter, Facebook, Twitter)
• Top-Zeitungen
• Große Unternehmensseminare
• Große gesellschaftliche Zusammenkünfte (Ausstellungen, Konventionen usw.)

External outreach marketing refers to the tactic described above where you reach out to people outside Marketing your business. But there are people who are even more local to you – the people in your company. This is what I call Internal Outreach Marketing. Here are some internal outreach goals:

• Aktive Patienten
• Inaktive Patienten
• Rezeptionisten
• Mitarbeiter
• Mitarbeiter

Focusing your marketing on internal reach is more effective than focusing on nearby residents. And how do you reach these people? Quite simply, you talk to them. Face-to-face is best or by phone for inactive patients – all you have to do is initiate communication. In fact, most of my marketing these days is through internal contacts as this provides the greatest return on investment of your time and resources. I want to emphasize how much less effective general awareness is compared to local awareness. Here are some of my stats:

Email Marketing Statistics:

• 1357 Lieferungen – an alle aktiven und inaktiven Patienten von Physiobliss
• 271 eröffnet – das sind 20,5% aller Lieferungen

Practice internal options statistics:

Patients were asked, "Have you heard about our naturopathic services? And if so, how did you find out about them?"

• 50% aus Mundpropaganda
• 30% von lokalen Zeitungen
• 12% von Klinikplakaten
• 8% von lokalen Flyern
• 0% von eNewslettern

As you can see, the general awareness tactic has not included any new patients. Patients had only heard about my services through local awareness tactics. However, general awareness tactics are still a necessary part of your marketing strategies. They allow you to spread your existence to a wider base of people faster than local awareness, despite a less successful conversion rate. Even if you have good locality and availability, it won't be enough to generate successful marketing, which brings us to our next point.

2) Lead generation vs acquisition

      Acquisition

The problem with external (regional, general) and internal outreach is that they only create awareness. Awareness will not automatically bring patients to your clinic unless there is a need or desire to see you specifically. Lead generation does that.

      Lead generation

Leads are potential patients or network partners who She specifically want to see. To generate leads, you need to generate requirements. “Why should I come to see you?” “What benefits can I get from your services?” You can't generate leads if people don't know you exist. But you can't generate business if people don't want your services. You have to find the balance between acquisition and lead Find generation tactics. However, chances are you will do most of your marketing with the acquisitionTactics have spent. If this applies to you, it's time to switch. Let's move on to successfully generating requirements.

3) Them versus you

A major problem that often arises when HPs speak to potential patients is that they focus too much on themselves. Here's a common mistake made right at the start of a conversation:

"My name is Dr. Max Mustermann and I am the clinical director and naturopathic doctor at Physiovital and Body Vital clinics. I have a particular interest in weight management, chronic pain (etc.). I work with patients to determine and treat the root cause of their health concerns, using nutritional advice, herbs, etc. etc. etc. etc."

Have you switched off? People don't care about the information. People just need to hear one thing from you:

“I can help.”

That's it. This simple change can be enough to generate a lead. How can you lead the conversation about them? I will share some examples from personal experience.

      Focus on the potential patient, not yourself

Nowadays, when someone asks me what I do for a living, I just say:

“ I address health concerns.”

Of course this person will ask me: “What health concerns?” This is when I make the person a topic of conversation .

“Well, let’s take you for example,” I reply. “What health concerns do you have?”

Note that I didn't ask: “Do you have any health concerns?” With the former question, I have the person create, vocalize, and confirm a desired need that needs to be addressed. Everyone has health concerns. Everyone wants to improve. But not everyone is willing to voice their health concerns. You need to get those concerns out of them. Sometimes people say to me: “I have no health concerns.” So I'll rephrase the question:

"Oh, that's great to hear! What are your health goals?"

Health goals are less intimidating than health concerns– people are more likely to open up with this question. After the potential patient has described and heard their own needs, if I would say:

“I can help” I will have created a lead.

I may introduce some facts about anatomy or physiology related to the person's health concerns upfront, just to show some credibility, but nothing lengthy and especially non-diagnostic. Don't give away the diagnosis. Not only are we not allowed to provide free diagnoses as required by our professional conduct, but it is in your best interest not to do so.

Telling the person that they have adrenal fatigue or leaky gut syndrome does not make them your patient. Instead, they become Dr. Visit Google. They will try to treat themselves once they know what to treat. I digress when I say: “I can help” , I am of course asked: "How?". This is where you seal the deal.

I like to use something short, but not with false promises. Something like that “Come and look at me and you will understand”. Don't talk too much about the process - about your therapies or diagnostic tests. A simple timeline of events is enough.

      Potential network partner against me

I used to have difficulty finding network partners. I still do it, but it's gotten easier over time. The problem is that doctors - whether Doctors , chiropractors, physiotherapists, acupuncturists, etc. – see each other as competition. I've learned over time Your competition in teammates to transform, by making yourself a part of their process.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Wenn Sie mit Ihren Patienten arbeiten, wie oft senden Sie sie zu ihren anderen Ärzten zurück?
• Wie oft faxen Sie Fortschrittsberichte an diese anderen Ärzte?
• Wie oft engagieren Sie andere Personen?

Establishing network partners, especially with physicians (in my experience), starts with doing them a favor. And through repetition, they begin to reciprocate these favors.

Example 1. I have a network connection with a family doctor and surgeon made, by sending his patients back to him for follow-up care, whether for lab work, medication dosage adjustments, or check-ups. Finally, out of curiosity, he contacted me and we arranged a meeting to discuss a patient care and flow process.

Example 2. The two places I work at are multidisciplinary clinics with physiotherapists, registered massage therapists, acupuncturists and orthopedists. I became clinical director by developing a process in which Patients would all see us . I then trained the staff and receptionists on how to structure and communicate the process with patients and each other. The training was long and frustrating, but in the end we were able to increase the efficiency of patient flow and retention in the clinic and learn many things about each other's jobs.

If you don't have any ideas about how you can become part of other practitioners' processes, just ask them. “How can I be a part of your process?”

So far you've been on locality and availability, internal outreach Marketing and on these concentrated and not on yourself. You should be on your way to successful marketing and business, right? Not quite yet. There is one factor that can make or break your ability to attract a patient or network partner.

4) Trust vs. Intelligence

For successful marketing, an emphasis on trust is always an emphasis on intelligence. You need to be confident in yourself, your job and your ability to help. There is no reason not to be confident! Even the most basic of our modalities will impact people's health.

You can be very knowledgeable about a particular effective treatment, but if you can't convey that, no one will believe you.

For this reason, it is more effective “I can help” too say, than going into a long-winded, poorly prepared speech. Using fancy medical jargon or displaying intellectual prowess may be impressive, but it's not what will convince them.

If trust is your weakness, you need to prioritize strengthening it immediately. Forget which eNewsletters you should write, which public seminars you should discuss, or which conventions you should attend. If you don't address your trust now, your marketing power will fall short.

      Why do people lack trust?

• Ein Mangel an Vertrauen resultiert aus der Angst vor dem Scheitern
• Die Angst vor dem Scheitern rührt von dem Wunsch her, perfekt zu sein
• Aber in Wirklichkeit ist niemand perfekt
• Sie müssen nicht perfekt sein, um erfolgreich zu sein
• Und vor allem muss man nicht erfolgreich sein, um zuversichtlich zu sein

Remember, our profession is a medical "Practice". You will make mistakes. You will have patients where treatment progress is slow. And when that happens, acknowledge it.

Recognize it as part of your “practice” – that you still have a lot to learn. But don't blame a lack of intelligence. Knowledge is forever evolving - you can't know everything. And that is why you will encounter failure every now and then. If you encounter an error, don't give up - overcome him. However, if you feel like things are really beyond your means, we have the referral system.

Remember

• Sie haben die medizinische Fakultät abgeschlossen.
• Sie haben Ihre Lizenzprüfungen bestanden.
• Sie haben Lehrpläne und Bewertungen überstanden und überlebt, die die Schwachen im Herzen und die Schwachen im Kopf zerstören würden.
• Sie sind also fähig.
• Und das gibt Ihnen das Recht, zuversichtlich zu sein, denn Sie müssen zuversichtlich sein – wenn Sie erfolgreich sein wollen.

The most important thing is that success starts with you. When you are not confident, become confident. Then you can focus on others. Draw out needs in people so you can help them. Start with people in close proximity and then expand to the larger community.

We wish you much success.

An article written by Mark Andal and translated into German by the Dein-Heilpraktiker.com team.