You survived 100% overhead and you can survive 70% overhead, 50% overhead or whatever your overhead ratio is currently. How do I know? You did it! In other words, you can optimize your current marketing results by just changing the headline, modifying the copy or your internal scripts! Marketing is everything that you do that can be seen, heard and smelled by your patients and the people in your marketplace. How? It's a four letter word. Patients are the results of your SELLing skills. Pure and simple. ....remember what the overhead was then? 100%! In fact, it was more than 100% because you had to invest funds before you opened for business. Factor in improvement on your marketing... spending the same amount of money... but improve the message, you will get more calls who are converted on the phone using effective and impactful "scripting." If you don't have enough new patients.... you need better selling sills. How you answer your phones. Your patient forms. And, your "scripting" are all part of the sales process. Without patients,Cheap Derrick Thomas Jersey, it is very difficult to sustain an ongoing practice. I know and respect dozens of practitioners who are exceptional treating chiropractors, but, often have trouble covering their overhead. It's not about your skills as a chiroractor,Cheap Lynn Swann Jersey, its about your skills as a communicator.... a salesperson. And, right now as you are ready this, you have several salespeople on your team right now.... they just don't know it and neither do you. Until you SELL a person on the benefits of your brand of chiropractic, you cannot expect to increase your bottom line profits. You could reduce overhead by firing employees. You could recruit people for minimum wage to lower your payroll. You could buy toilet paper at Sam's Club instead of Charmin to reduce your expenses, etc. Of the major functions of a practice... adjusting skills, patient service, accounting and collections, office flow, and marketing... the one that should always be given top priority is marketing. The first responsibility of you and each member of your team. is "selling." (In fact, in your office system manual, for each job description, the last responsibility on the list is they must refer at minimum number of new patients to the office each month in order to keep their job!) If your PVA is under 40.... you need better selling skills. Without new patients, without lifetime patients, you cannot sustain growth or increase your bottom line or to put it another way... reduce your overhead ratio. It is much easier to increase revenue than it is to cut overhead. Let me give you an example of how this impacts your Profit and Loss Statement: Consider this.... the fastest way to get new patients is to host screening events in your marketplace. If you screen 10 people and sign up 2 new patients,Cheap Mewelde Moore Jersey, you have a 20% close ratio. Improve your "scripting" your sales skills and close 4 new patients out of 10 screenings and you have double your new patient production in just one area of marketing. So instead of having to screen 35 people to get your extra 7 new patients, you only have to screen 20 people! Less work and another $15,000 to your bottom line,Cheap Lions Jerseys! Right! Increase collections. How do you do this? New Patients and Patient Retention. You would need to increase collections to $35,000. Now, you have already figured out how to collect $20,000,Cheap Chris Ivory Jersey, so you need to increase your collections by $15,000 to REDUCE your overhead to 30% from 50%. If your Case Average is $2,000, then you would need 7 more New Patients over your current average. Or, skip new patients and you only need to add 300 office visits if your average visit income is $50... Can you remember your first patient.... the one who accepted your recommendations and became a patient under your care? Sure you can. You sold that patient on the benefits of your brand of chiropractic and you had your first case. If your word of mouth efforts are not effective... you need better selling skills. Why is the word SELL so distasteful to so many Chiropreneurs? it is the backbone, pun intended, of building a chiropractic business empire. So, let's flip the equation. In order to have a 30% overhead ratio with a fixed overhead of $10,000, you would need to do what? Let's assume you are collecting $20,000 per month... a nice little quarter of a million dollar practice. And, your overhead is $10,000 per month including payroll, rent, etc., your overhead ratio is 50%. Now, to reduce your overhead ratio to 30%, you would need to CUT $4,000 from your overhead. Where will you cut? ....the number one component of marketing is: SELLing Within the broad definition of marketing.... There's a four letter word that will solve all your financial issues. And, I will share it with you in a moment. But, first, I would like you to close your eyes and recall the day that you opened your practice for business.... Since many of you felt that your overhead ratio was too high, your natural inclination was to learn how to REDUCE overhead. Selling is a process. It begins with your marketing, both internal and external. It never ends. it's isn't your adjusting technique, your certifications, your team talent, your physical office,Cheap Jim McMahon Jersey, your equipment, your collections or even your marketing. What is it? Continue reading. Now, the other functions are vital for having a financially successful practice, but without marketing you will not have new patients and without new patients you will not have cash flow and without cash flow you will not be able to pay for all the other functions. Put differently.... Best way... a combination of both! But, what is the outcome.... Do you believe if you try to shrink your practice to greatness by cutting out every little nickel and dime of overhead that you sill continue to collect $20,000? If you build it they will come....with marketing and selling!