Mission Possible: The Private Practice Success Blueprint for 2014
By Andrew Vertson, PT, DPT, ATC
Executive Summary: Having a specific mission, sharing your specific vision, and monitoring your practice formula work together to build a strong, viable practice.
They say if you know where you are coming from, you know where you are going to go. As a private practice owner and as pillar of your community, there is nothing more important than a powerful, grand vision that excites and motivates others. Here are five guidelines that will help you create a vision that will not only set you apart, but also helps you to define your goals, and create parameters to exceed them and surprise yourself in the process.1) Make The Vision of Your Practice BIGGER and BETTER Than Everyone Else
Patients can go to any physical therapy practice they choose, and doctors can refer to any physical therapist, so what are you doing to INSTANTLY set yourself apart? Here’s one example. You can make this a part of your vision: To help 50,000 people in your community live pain free, healthy lives by 2015. You should get every single patient; every single doctor involved in your mission right away, and explain to them why they should be a part of it. The key words here are – RIGHT AWAY. One of the mistakes a lot of private practice owners make with a mission is to make it a ‘free for all’. Your mission (and its followers) needs to have an air of exclusivity to it, almost like an insiders club. When the human brain perceives a bit of a barrier to entry, it becomes more likely to say “I want this” as opposed to when you think “I can do this anytime, and if I won’t then someone else will. I don’t have to do it RIGHT AWAY” That’s exactly how most visions start with a bang, and the enthusiasm gradually goes go down the drain. So, not only do you set it up so that a ‘select few’ can become a part of your mission, you also set up mechanisms for accountability so that the ‘insiders’ have to do something CONSISTENTLY for you to make strides towards the shared vision. Notice that I said shared vision. Once a vision crosses over the ‘threshold’, it no longer becomes YOUR vision, it becomes OUR vision. It transcends you and gains a life of its own.2) Explain Your Vision Using Multiple Modes Of Delivery; Printed Booklets, Audio, Video
People have different learning styles. To teach people what your vision is all about, make use of multiple modes of education. Be creative in the way you explain your vision. Examples include videos in your website, audio CD’s, DVD’s, and printed booklets. For most individuals, video is a preferred medium for information consumption. A video on your website that explains your mission will be more powerful than anything you say or print.3) Share You Vision With As Many People As Possible And Always Write A Future “Paced” Vision
Here is an example: Dear friend, The year is 2015, and we just realized that we helped 50,000 people live pain-free and become healthier in the community. We conducted a patient appreciation event, which was attended by over 300 individuals in our community. We had a great time visiting old friends and meeting new ones. It was an amazing experience, considering that a large number of our patients were suffering from chronic pain and were overweight. Now they’ve gone on to become pillars of our community and have been able to help their friends and family live pain-free and healthier lives. For most of our patients, it was like a family reunion, seeing friends they made all the way back in 2011 when they first met in our clinic. Since that first year, our community has grown exponentially and now reaches over 50,000 individuals across 7 counties speaking 5 different languages.4) Make It Easy For People Explain You Vision To Other Individuals
Make it as easy as possible for people to explain your vision to others. They need to be able to explain “the who”, “the what”, and “the why” of the vision. Most importantly, they need to be able to tie in the vision with some aspect of their personal lives. When an individual has a deep, meaningful connection with your vision, they will become your most ardent supporters. The reason we go to school and become physical therapists is usually because we want to impact and change people’s lives and be compensated fairly well in the process. We are taught to be excellent clinicians (as we all are), but when it comes to running a business, our expertise can fall short. The truth is, there is a big difference between being a viable practitioner and a viable practice owner. Getting patients to walk in is one part of the equation. Treating them well (literally) and conditioning them to refer from day one will be a critical component of a successful practice in this new economy. Post discharge follow up using a combination of email, text messaging on their mobile phones, direct mail, phone call follow ups is the differentiator between a clinic struggling for referrals and one that is overflowing with patients. This isn’t just about ‘educating patients’ and doctors about the benefits of physical therapy, this is about becoming an important part of the patient’s day to day life.5) Introducing the “Private Practice Success Formula”
This is called the “Private Practice Success Formula” and it can be summarized asPS + VP + AF + PM = Private Practice Success
The new economy practice will have the following components in place even before the practice opens its doors for the first time: PS = Prospect Stimulators A prospect stimulator is an educational tool (book, audio CD, DVD, online course) that helps educate patients and leads them back to the clinic for more information. For example, an audio program on “7 things you can do to overcome low back pain” which leads to an offer for an appointment in the clinic can function as a ‘prospect stimulator’. Every clinic should have at least 5, preferably 10 or more prospect stimulators that are constantly distributed using various channels in the community VP = Valuable Prospects A high school student without insurance and the means to pay for physical therapy may not be a good candidate for your services (from a business point of view) as compared to an executive with the right type of insurance, someone who will not hesitate to pay his copay and even an appointment cancellation fee (which should be mandatory in all practices). Your practice must maintain visibility in front of your most ‘valued prospects’ using a web presence (search engine optimization), social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), print (strategically placed advertisements), direct mail (postcards to a targeted mailing list) and personal phone call follow ups (with selected patients) to drive them, their friends and family back to your clinic. This should not be a ‘once in a while’ thing. It has to be done for 2-3 hours every week, since this activity will sustain your practice during tough times. AF = Ascension Funnel The biggest mistake made by most private practice owners is the wrong offer. Patients are completely desensitized at the prospect of a ‘free consultation’. They don’t even care for a ‘complimentary evaluation’ in an ad filled with nice images and pictures of the physical therapist. Every advertisement should have one purpose and one purpose only – to get the contact information of the prospect and introduce them to your marketing funnel. Once the prospects information (name, email, phone number) is obtained, someone from your office, who is very experienced in ‘closing’ the patient so they NOW want to come in, is important. Too many practices waste tens of thousands of dollars trying to ‘close’ the patient right away with an ad. This is a cardinal sin – it’s like proposing on the first date. The chances of success are pretty slim. The ‘new economy’ practice will patiently get the prospect to know, like and trust the practice and/or practitioners with personal stories and testimonials that elicit emotion and ‘human connection’ as opposed to color pictures, beautiful equipment in an ad that patients will spend 15-30 seconds reading. PM = Patient Metrics Every strategic private practice owner must keep an eye on important business metrics that pertain to each patient. The success of a ‘new economy’ practice is measured by the following ‘patient metrics’a) The ‘LVP’ or lifetime value of the patient. This can be increased significantly by offering more products and services. It can also be increased by raising your prices for such products and services, which are not price regulated and independent of insurance reimbursements
b) The ‘PL’ or patient longevity – is the patient coming back to you or referring their family and friends? How many of your patients are becoming your ambassadors and coming back to you or driving more people to your door? Increasing patient longevity through patient conditioning is the fastest way to grow a practice. It yields greater results and take less time, money and effort than trying to ‘schmooze’ doctors and build new referral relationships
c) The ‘TS’ or therapist status, with regards to the importance of physical therapy – Are you constantly (yet delicately) reminding patients about your expertise, authority and the benefits of physical therapy? Patients lose enthusiasm for ANY service over a period of time and you need to build systems to keep them constantly engaged, enthused and motivated to come in for treatment and become your ambassadors. You must promote the ‘concept’ of wellness and how physical therapy can help, NOT the ‘brand’ or the ‘company’ that provides it. Patients are interested in the process of treatment, but this interest wanes dramatically after the first few visits, leading to an inevitable decline of therapist status
d) The number of patient visits each week. This is directly related to ‘volume’. Most practices assume that increased volume equals increased profits. While this may be true, it’s possible to increase net profits WITHOUT increasing patient volume by increasing LVP, PL and TS
Andrew Vertson, PT, DPT, ATC, is a PPS member, founder, and CEO of Intecore Physical Therapy in Orange County, CA. He can be reached at andrew@foothillranchpt.com. Intecore Physical Therapy 26700 Towne Centre Drive, Suite 120 Foothill Ranch, CA 92610 949-597-2103