Positioning Chiropractic...We Need a Change

Read another great piece* today from Al Ries and Jack Trout...in it he talks about positioning your business to create massive success for it.

He said for us to position our businesses (and profession I'll add) successfully, we need to answer six key questions. Play along with me and let's start some crucial conversations about these questions in the realm of chiropractic, health care, and our identity.

1. What position do you own? Not in your head, but in the mind of the consumer...how does the consumer position you as part of their health care? For the majority, we are their back pain specialists. Something that needs to be altered for sure...so how do we go about altering that position in their heads? It seems the way we're educating our patients is stuck. By that I mean we are educating them in an allopathic model, wherein we state they have this problem (subluxation) and they need to come to us so the we can correct it. In other words, they have something that we can help them get rid of, not unlike them having an infection and a medical doctor prescribing a drug to get rid of that. It may sting a bit to hear that, but it's exactly what is happening, which in a vitalistically based paradigm, simply does not work. You cannot hold two conflicting paradigms simultaneously. We must change the way we educate our patients about their life, what subluxation is and how chiropractic fits into their regular life schedule.
2. What position do you want to own? Certainly not the allopathic model for treatment of disease. It's archaic and not working for us or for the health of the world. In the US we are spending more, but sicker than ever...the numbers just don't add up. People spend large amounts of money to be healthy, just not sick. They are dropping huge sums on gym memberships, organic foods, clean water, even on a good night's sleep because all of these things have been positioned by the companies involved as getting them healthier. Why isn't maintaining a healthy spine that allows a proper brain-body connection part of that regular consumption?
   
3. Whom must you outgun? The answer is kind of sad....ourselves! We have no direct competition in the vitalistic arena. Substitutes sure; diet, exercise, other forms of "alternative care", but most of those forms of care I contend still have an allopathic slant to them. This is ours for the taking, but settling for bellying-up to the bar with other professions has cost us dearly. We have got such an opportunity for this market, and we're fighting with each other. A friend made a comment yesterday that the "straights" arguse with the "mixers" about how they approach chiropractic, and then the "straights" argue among themselves to fight over who's "straighter." Egads...this activity will never get us anywhere.
   
4. Do you have enough money? It takes money to hold a position, and especially to alter a position in the consumer's mind. It's gotta start grass-level for us, maybe even roots-level. One spine at a time has to become one enhanced life at a time. We don't adjust someone to correct, remove, prevent or minimize subluxation or anything else; we adjust them to restore the neurological connection within their body and the normal flow of Life energy to allow a return of their naturally healthy and vibrant state in order to enhance their life! It's not about minimizing anything; it's about MAXIMIZING health and life. Whether we have lots of money, or very little it all starts with the word. But it's got to be the right words, the right message...
5. Can you stick it out? If there's one thing we're great at, it's this: we love Chiropractic more than anything, we have a Lasting Purpose to give, serve, love and do out of abundance and our level of commitment to take this message to the masses has never been stronger. Our technology has never been so advanced to mass communicate our word in an instant, yet all I see on facebook is the bashing of medicine, vaccines, etc...the stuff we DON'T want. Granted, people need to be aware of these things, but not to the point where we offer them no solutions. We know what we don't want for our patients, are we confident in what we DO want for them?? Have you defined that for yourself and your patients? For your community? Making the switch in messaging is difficult...it's so easy to bash the other side and warn our patients about the devastating effects of medicines and vaccines. But the public grows weary of it...plus they already know! What they're looking for is an entirely new way to think, an entirely new way of looking at their health and life, but very few of us are out there offering it.
   
6. Do you match your position? This is where we are hurting the most I think. We know that Chiropractic care enhances lives, in fact saves lives. Yet our advertising (the 7 conditions we take care of), our educating (outside-in and fear-based) doesn't match our vitalistically based vision. We got off-kilter some time ago, and it's time to lay down some new track. Possibilities based education, helping our patients understand that they don't have something that they need to get rid of, but rather they've lost something that is theirs by rite of birth, and that is something that we can help them get back is the key.
   

Boy, it's a lot of work to do, and will take some time, effort, money and resources that we may not all yet have. But we've got people, and we've got relationships and we've got passion and commitment aplenty. Let's make this change and serve the world...

Who's with us??

*Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout

Screwing Up...

I was having a chat this morning with a colleague about the mistakes we make in life and how they can detract us from accomplishing the things we set out to do.

It's not so much that they detract us though, it's just the delay they cause in the process of meeting the outcomes we desire. The question isn't whether we're going to screw up or not (we ALWAYS will), but whether you keep screwing up the same thing over and over again.

If you do, you know you're not learning anything from the mistakes you made and aren't growing.

Mitigating the delay in the screwing up process is what you may want to focus on, and it starts with these simple things:

1. Self-awareness - being immediately aware of mistakes and creating change to correct them
   
2. Discovering your strengths and capitalizing on them
3. Surrounding yourself with great people who always call you to something bigger than what you would do on your own
4. Committing your life purpose to something BIG

These will lead to an optimal life of excellence, and who wouldn't want that?

Have a blast today!

Advertising vs. Publicity

Which form of marketing is best to create awareness for your brand? Advertising or publicity?

You may be asking...there's a difference?

Big difference...one that could make your business explode with committed followers excited to build it for you.

Simplified, advertising is a form of mass communication efforts designed to create awareness for your product or service in an effort to convince the consumer to purchase said product or service. It says "this is what we do and here's how it will benefit your life" all in 30 seconds on TV/radio or less as you're paging through a magazine. In a sense, it's throwing your service out there to as many people as possible and hoping there's some stickiness to it. In my opinion, a rather outside-in approach...fairly random, usually very expensive with returns that are hit or miss.

Publicity, on the other hand, is usually more focused, more inside out...targeted messages that are usually inexpensive, stickier and are farther reaching in establishing your brand identity. Publicity usually shows up as TV news interviews, op-ed pieces in the newspaper, articles done on your business for magazines and newspapers, testimonials given on your facebook, website, in public gatherings, in house and external presentations, etc.

Big businesses have been built by focusing almost exclusively on publicity over advertising. Starbucks, especially during its massive phase of growth, spent very little on advertising (only about $10M over 10 years) and The Body Shop, started by Anita Roddick, who spent years criss-crossing the country, promoting her natural products through TV interviews and newspaper articles. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club devote very little of their expenses to advertising, yet may be the first company to reach over a trillion dollars in revenues.

To me, publicity is more of a call to action, it's the story behind the service you're providing. It establishes you as the leader of a revolution in health. It's intriguing, and if done right, downright captivating.

And who has a better story for humanity than we do?

Go out and tell it.

Better Business Through Conflict...

You have to be able to disagree.

This concept is more important to your business than you can imagine. You cannot do everything you want for your practice alone. You need a team around you. Whether you pay the team members is a different story. In this case your team is not just you and your employees...it may consist of mentors, coaches, directors, employees, family members, patients, etc. These are your stakeholders; people who have a interest in you keeping your doors open.

One of the many things involved in building a great team is conflict. It HAS to happen. But there's a certain stigma attached to disagreement. We tend to think it has to involve uncomfortable confrontation, where negative emotion is invoked and expressed and things taken personally. This is something that should not be done. Little if nothing will happen to benefit your business when negative emotions are expressed.

The key to building a great team is to learn how to deal with the differences each team member brings to the table and harness those differences to grow.

Couple of things to watch for:

Expect to Disagree - you must get used to challenging people on the ideas they bring to the business. Not in a manner that inhibits their creativity, but in a way to explore the ideas they bring. Probe the idea so that it can be fleshed out. Make sure the idea you bring has facts and logic and you can back it up.

Put Emotion Away - everyone needs to see that different ideas aren't stifled by other people. Confronting differences isn't a personal attack, but rather an attempt to open up the thought process more...if things get heated, take a break and come back calm and collected.

When Conflicts Arise, Acknowledge Them - this is going to happen, the best thing to do is recognize the conflict out loud, make everyone aware that they need to be of the utmost professionalism, and work it out as a team.

The point: don't be afraid to disagree in the team environment, in fact encourage it! Your business will benefit, creativity and innovation will be enhanced and the team will be stronger, making your business better.

The Law of the Word...

"If you want to build a brand, you must focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect's mind. A word that nobody else owns." (Ries)

What word is conjured up when you think Ferrari? (Performance) What about Honda? (Reliable) Volvo? (Safe) BMW? (Driving) Whether these automobiles fit these words is irrelevant...it's what the consumer feels about them that matters. BMW is the "ultimate driving machine", there are probably many cars who have higher safety ratings than Volvo, more reliable cars then Honda...

The point is how the consumer identifies with the brand.

Take it a step further...how about owning the entire category. Who owns tissue? (Kleenex) Adhesive bandages? (Band-Aid) Cola? (Coke) Gelatin dessert? (Jell-O)

What is the word in the consumer's mind right now about Chiropractic? What should it be? And how do we start to own the category?

Awaiting your thoughts on this one!

(The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al and Laura Ries)

The Power of Fellowship...

Ever wonder why all the auto dealerships tend to be clustered all together? Why Wendy's, Burger King and McDonald's all seem to be on the same street? You would think that one of these places would want the block all to its own, right?

Cut down the competition, remove themselves from the fray...

Do you know that they all do this on purpose? They cluster themselves together, not because they want to take customers away from their competitors, but because of the Law of Fellowship(Ries).

The Law of Fellowship essentially states that customers respond to choice. The more choices they have in any given area, the broader the market will become. If the company is alone in an area, the customer has these thoughts running through their mind: "the company must have some flaws," "their price is probably too high," or "who wants to spend money for that brand when there's nothing to compare it to."

Ries states "you seldom see a big, growing, dynamic market without several major brands." Think Coke and Pepsi, Home Depot and Lowe's, Office Depot, Office Max and Staples.

Perhaps we should stop being so competitive with each other in this profession and cluster our offices together? Marketing research proves that this will increase the market of consumers choosing to buy our services.

If it gets more people under care, enhancing their ability to live...then why not? If the large brand is Chiropractic, and we have groups of Chiropractors centered in similar locations throughout an area, the sub-brand becomes the individual office. Based on that, it's a Coke and Pepsi situation...if Coke appeals to older people and Pepsi to the younger crowd, the two brands get to stay focused while at the same time broadening the market.

Really, it's time we start pulling together for Chiropractic, and its a win-win to boot. More competition equals more market share, equals a bigger slice of the pie for you.

I like the sound of that, how about you?

(The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding by Al and Laura Ries)

Stop IT!!

Sorry gang, but I've been out for awhile, but now I'm back!!

I just got off a coaching call with two extraordinary Chiropractors...one of whom, sent the video below to us to watch. I was caught up in the realm of trying to be perfect at everything...obsessing on that never-ending pursuit of perfection. And while it may be noble?? It's impossible.

To me, it's about fear. Fear of letting someone down, fear of doing or saying the right thing, fear of success, fear of failure...

Fear, fear, fear...

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in the minutiae, the little things we obsess over, the fears that rise up that tell us to withhold and prevent us from going out and doing what's right for the world.

What is fear? Essentially just a bunch of adrenaline running through our bodies, but we let that change in chemistry stop us from doing the things we are supposed to do. We let fear dictate our choices, we let fear run our business.

Afraid to do a weekly health care class? Most people are. Afraid to give your patients the best recommendations for care because you think they don't want to come in that much? Afraid to talk fees and collect money from your patients? Afraid to talk to strangers or even worse friends about becoming a chiropractic patient and enhancing their lives?

Well...STOP IT!!

Watch this great clip, laugh about it, and then confront your fears and stop it! Obviously it's much more difficult than that, but at least start to become aware of what's holding you back, and then take action to overcome.