Welcome! Today I’m talking with Jessica Jones, a business coach for medical professionals helping them scale their practices whether they’re solopreneurs or in group practices.

Jessica is a born entrepreneur and has built and sold 15 successful medical practices. She won awards for her work in advertising and specializes in helping businesses bring in new leads and set up structures so they know how to turn more leads into paying patients.

In this episode we talk about:

  • How it’s normal for business to be slower in the summer, across all industries
  • Taking time off to have mental space for strategic business planning and goal setting
  • Quickly launching a summer marketing campaign
  • The key to getting established patients to stay on their treatment plan
  • Why growing yourself is an important part of growing your business

Show Notes:

Listen to Episode #80: The Key to Getting Established Patients to Stay on Their Treatment Plan with Jessica Jones

🌟 This episode is sponsored by the brand new Women’s Health Email Templates for Acupuncturists.

>> Save $30 this week with code EMAIL30.

I’m excited to share these with you. There are 24 done-for-you emails on topics like acupuncture for menstrual health, PMS, fertility, postpartum, hot flashes, and more.

They’re easy to use: Simply copy the text, paste into your email provider (for example, MailChimp) edit to match your clinic, and hit send.

If you want more women’s health patients, these emails are a great choice because education is a huge part of marketing for us as acupuncturists.

That’s the goal of these emails – educating and then converting people into patients.

I put a sample email on the landing page so you can see my writing style, how I reference research, the way I talk about acupuncture, etc., so you can decide if these are a good fit for you and your patients.

The discount expires on Monday, August 5th.

Click here to check them out. The discount code is already applied on the checkout page.

Subscribe to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

 💖 Love the podcast? Help other acupuncturists find the podcast by leaving a review here.

Transcript:

[MICHELLE GRASEK] (00:05):

Welcome to the Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Grasek, and I’m here to help you get visible in your community, take marketing action with confidence and get more patients in your practice and more money in your pocket every week. We both know you’re a talented, passionate acupuncturist and that acupuncture has the power to change lives. So let’s dive right into this episode and talk about how you can reach more patients.

(00:33):

Hello there. Welcome back. Today I’m talking with Jessica Jones, a business coach for medical professionals helping them scale their practices, whether they are solopreneurs or in large group practices. Jessica is a born-entrepreneur and has built and sold 15 successful medical practices. She has won awards for her work in advertising, and she specializes in helping businesses bring in new leads and set up structures so they know how to turn more of those leads into paying patients. In this episode, we talk about how it’s normal for businesses to be slower in the summer across most industries, taking time off to have mental space for strategic business planning and goal-setting, quickly launching a summer marketing campaign, which you can do right now, the key to getting established patients to stay on their treatment plan, why growing yourself is an important part of growing your business, and much more.

[SPONSORED] (01:34):

Before we get into the interview with Jessica, today’s episode is sponsored by a brand-new product that I just launched for you, which is a package of 24 Women’s Health Email Templates for Acupuncturists, and they are $30 off this week only. So in the past year, I’ve received multiple requests for email newsletter templates on topics like menstrual health, fertility, hot flashes, et cetera, that you are looking to send to your patients. So I’m excited to share these with you. It’s 24 emails because that is enough emails to cover your newsletter for a year. And if you’ve taken my free email class that I recommend sending two emails a month to your subscribers. I know that can sound like a lot, but trust me, it is not. It’s a polite number of emails that also keeps you top of mind with your potential patients. If you’re only sending one email a month or one every few months, that is more than enough time for people to forget about you and their intention to make an appointment, unfortunately. But two emails a month is a sweet spot.

(02:39):

However, I know that is a lot of content to write and you are already busy, so I wrote them for you. And all you have to do with these emails is copy paste into your email provider like MailChimp, edit to match your clinic, and hit send. If you want more women’s health patients, this email package is a great choice because education is a huge part of marketing for us as acupuncturists. You have to let people know that you can help their specific symptoms. So that is a goal of these emails, educating and then converting people into patients. And I put a sample email on the landing page so you can see my writing style, how I reference research, the way I talk about acupuncture, et cetera. So you can decide if these are a good fit for you and your patients. The discount expires on Monday, August 5th at midnight, and the link is in my bio. The discount code is already applied on the checkout page. As always, if you have questions, feel free to send me an email at michelle@michellegrasek.com.

[MICHELLE] (03:43):

All right, let’s get into this episode with Jessica. Hello, Jessica, how are you today?

[JESSICA JONES] (03:48):

I’m well. How are you doing?

[MICHELLE] (03:50):

I’m doing so good today. Thank you for being here. I’m really excited for this conversation.

[JESSICA] (03:55):

Thank you so much for having me. I am as well.

[MICHELLE] (03:59):

Do you want to introduce yourself a little bit for the audience?

[JESSICA] (04:02):

Sure. My name’s Jessica Jones. I’m a practice consultant. I started long ago, early in my career as a marketing expert who was hired by pharmaceutical companies actually, to help practices fill clinical studies. I was always, my role was really just to generate lead flow, but I was always taking it a step further and working with each practice to understand, okay, leads are coming in, why aren’t you enrolling in the study? So I would help practices overcome the challenges that were preventing them from converting a lead to an enrolled patient and as a result, doctors started referring me to doctors so I became into this expertise in this field. Then flash forward to 2012, one of my clients was starting something new and asked me to partner with him saying, “I’ve got the medical side, you have the business side.” So we grew a chain of 12 clinics, or 15 clinics, excuse me, we had 15 clinics. I don’t know why I said 12. We grew to 15 clinics from 2012 to 2015 and sold, we sold our practices in 2015 and then I started my own practices and grew six clinics from 2015 to 2017. And in 2017, I was like, how, why am I doing this? I never got into this to own clinics. I always wanted to help people do well with their clinics. And so we sold our clinics, I sold my clinics in 2017 and have been consulting practices ever since.

[MICHELLE] (05:38):

That is amazing. I have so many questions for you, just from that information. So I always thought that in order to own a medical practice, you had to be a doctor or that you had to have like a doctor on the board. Did I make that up?

[JESSICA] (05:54):

No. So every area is different. I’m in the US, and in the US every state has very specific rules and regulations. So there are corporate practice of medicine states where you have to be a doctor-owner.

[MICHELLE] (06:08):

Okay, yes.

[JESSICA] (06:09):

But really the goal of that is to prevent cash from interfering with patient care. And so you certainly have to have the right heart leading into what you’re doing in the business, but it’s a contractual agreement on paper. It really is. So certainly, you need medical direction. So it’s funny because I help practitioners with their practice and in that situation it’s usually I’m helping with mindset, wrapping your head around making money and asking for money and not feeling bad about it, marketing, understanding your financial situation and planning your finances properly. And then I help entrepreneurs, and it’s the opposite situation, I’m helping them because they understand the marketing and the money and the cash flow, but they need to understand the medical side. So I help them find and connect with the right medical director and all of those good things. And then there’s overlap too, like what’s the, if you’re prescribing medication, what’s the right pharmacy to work with? Or if you’re doing hormone, whatever you’re doing, it’s, there’s some crossover, but it’s like two different sides of the same coin.

[MICHELLE] (07:21):

Oh, got you. So before we hopped on the call, we had been talking about how we are recording in July and how people are panicking, because July tends to be a little slow and I have always seen that in my acupuncture practice and it makes me a little nuts. It’s like I can never decide whether I should just accept that the summer’s slow, everyone’s on vacation, the weather’s beautiful, and like do the same thing. I should just go on vacation while they’re on vacation. Or, but I really would rather the numbers stay steady, that dip, really bothers me. Yeah, I would love to hear your thoughts on how people can prepare for that. If that’s normal, what we could do

[JESSICA] (08:09):

It is. Well, that’s, that is it. It’s so funny because I just got off a call with a new practice owner who just started her business in January and she’s really, really, I’m like, it is absolutely normal. It goes across all treatment areas. It’s just, it’s ubiquitous. July is slow. So one thing I will say is yes, absolutely plan on it. Be prepared for it. You know, when you go into opening your business, understand that there’s costs, and you should always have money set aside for the slow periods. Nothing is consistent month to month to month. There’s no businesses consistent month to month. I even was talking to you like, why do you think Amazon has prime days in July, to boost sales. Because people are like in la la land, they’re out to wherever, they’re on the beach. Or in the mountains or doing whatever they’re doing. But at the end of the day, you can absolutely take the time to do a wellness check on you. And don’t forget self-care as a business owner, even as a wellness practitioner, oftentimes you don’t practice what you preach, right?

[MICHELLE] (09:29):

So common.

[JESSICA] (09:30):

You want to do that. And also, the best time to focus on growing your business and helping your business is when you’re not in the business working or in your office and all of those things. Because when we’re there, it’s like we’re so caught up in the minutiae of being there and the day-to-day and who’s coming in and what are the appointments and answering the phones that we really can’t focus on where do I want to go and what do I want to do and what are my goals? So the best time to do that is when you’re away. So as much as I want to promote vacations, I do recommend literally setting time in your calendar to step away from your business and think about your business and your goals and what you’re doing to achieve them. And when I talk about setting goals, I’m not talking about just like saying, here’s my goal.

(10:21):

I want you to write down the goal, but not just write down the goal, but what are the five things I’m going to do to achieve that goal? And then even a step further under each of the five things, what are the things I need to do to do this thing? Like, if your goal is, I want to live to a hundred, that’s really great, but if you don’t write down what you’re going to change in your life to achieve it, it’s not going to happen. But if you write down, okay, number one, exercise, number two, change my diet, that’s also really nice. But what do you mean by exercise? How are you going to do that. Like, are you going to wake up earlier? Are you going to set aside? So that’s trying to illustrate what I mean by like the difference between writing down a goal and then writing the steps and the steps to achieve the steps. Does that make sense?

[MICHELLE] (11:07):

Oh, definitely, yes.

[MICHELLE] (11:09):

I know we had talked a little bit about like, you could do a special offer for people, but that is something again that I think people have to think about probably before July. And I find that, I love marketing, but it still takes me time to pull it together to decide what it’s going to be. Like, am I going to have a sale? Am I going to offer a bonus and then make graphics for it and write content? So I usually need like a month. I know other people can pull something together much faster, but like, if I’m not going to feel really rushed and like a crazy person, a month is nice.

[JESSICA] (11:50):

It is really nice if you can plan it out. And what I would say is when your business is no longer an infant, like a business is a life. It starts out, it’s a baby and then it grows and it changes, but you start to like learn its personality. Like for example, July is going to be down. But for new business owners, it’s different. They’re just in it and they don’t necessarily have the time to prep. So hopefully have a network of people you can work with, or you’re working with a business coach who can help you. Like I am working today with a new business owner. I got off of a phone call with her and I said, I will call you back this evening and we will brainstorm an idea and the goal is to have it up and running on Monday.

[MICHELLE] (12:31):

Amazing.

[JESSICA] (12:31):

And you can do that with social media.

[MICHELLE] (12:37):

That’s true. You can do that with a lot of, listen, before 2015, the bulk of what we were doing was print, radio and television with some pay per click and some SEO and a little bit of Facebook. And Facebook was super cheap at the time, like 18 cents a lead. I mean, it was a different world those days. But even then, it was similar. Like the Facebook leads were not engaged. They’re like, oh, did I click on something? I don’t know. Like, so every lead source has a different level of engagement and so it’s getting people engaged and always people hesitate to do SEO because it’s like this expense that they don’t initially see something happening with. But it’s so important because it’s, when everything else falls apart, you can always count on the organic work that you did to bring you up in searches. And so, in the digital world, of course, Google pay-per-click is going to be engaged because You’re reaching people who actually were searching for what you’re offering. But if you want to do something quickly, definitely you can jump into Canva. I’m guessing that you’re helping people with Canva and talking about Canva.

[MICHELLE] (13:54):

Oh my gosh, I love Canva

[JESSICA] (13:56):

Yes. And you can, you can use a, there’s templates, you can find a template and you can really put together an offer. And the offer should talk about not just, hey, I have this special offer for you. You do need to address, “Hey, are you feeling this way? I can help you with that and here’s how. And the good thing is, if you respond to this ad and come in before the end of July, here’s a special offer and by August you’ll be feeling this way and you won’t be experiencing this anymore.” That’s something that I see people miss when they do try to do something quickly is like, why have a gift card sale? Okay, great, well, who cares. Like, I don’t want to think about acupuncture right now. I don’t need your gift card. But if you point out, oh, we talked about this beforehand, I love acupuncture for many reasons.

(14:56):

Like I used it for my son had a concussion and it helped him with his brain fog and headaches. I used it for menstrual headaches. So if you have a specific area you’re passionate about or something you’re really known for, I know you guys do everything for everybody, but if there’s something you’re particularly passionate about or something that you’re really well known for, use that as your base and say, “Hey, are you feeling this way? I’m really good at helping people with this and here’s how that works and this is what it looks like. And right now, just for July, we have this special offer. Take advantage of this offer and by August 15th you’ll be feeling so much better.” And really like, just make it to them so that, oh, this is why I want to do this, because by August 15th I won’t have this menstrual headache anymore. Wouldn’t it be great to go through a cycle without this horrible migraine that keeps me down for two days? That’s the reality. I don’t know if you guys remember the reality of what you’re doing for people.

[MICHELLE] (16:02):

No, I think it’s a really good point because there are so many acupuncturists who don’t like marketing and it makes them feel yucky and they’re afraid that their community’s going to think they’re sleazy because they published an Instagram post about a specific topic saying like, you should come in, I can help. But I couldn’t agree more that the whole point of the businesses that we’re running is to help people, and we can’t help them if we don’t tell them. They just won’t know.

[JESSICA] (16:32):

Yes, if they don’t know you exist, how are they going to know to come to you? Every clinic I work with, I literally say, if you’re not marketing, you don’t have a business. But it’s not just that. Like I can actually go through in a pro forma, the difference between if you’re spending money on marketing, and I have an example where I’m showing the same exact spend every month and what the end of the year looks like. Like if you get the same exact spend and you get the same exact number of leads and the same exact conversion to appointments, and you spend the same amount of money, it’s like, well, here is the income. And with expenses that go into the, sometimes that number’s a negative. But then I show, okay, now let’s look at if you get the same cost per lead, which converts to the number of leads you’re getting for spend, and you increase your marketing spend every month by just $500 or $700, and literally, I can show that it converts to six figures in income at the end of the month just by making that change, just that by increasing the marketing.

(17:40):

And that is the reality of marketing. When you’re spending money, it’s a mathematical formula. Every dollar spent converts to a specific number of leads because you get in the first two months, what is my cost per lead if I do this. But then once you have the leads, like there’s also the reality of if you’re a solo practitioner, okay, well how am I handling those leads? How am I answering the phone? Or where are they going? Are they in my Facebook page? Are they coming into my phone? Are they coming into my email? Are they coming into my website? And then going to my, like, how is that working? So you do need to be prepared for handling the leads that come in for all the marketing you’re doing and get really good at it. Because so many people, if I get you a thousand leads, but you can’t convert them into a patient, then that’s no good either.

[MICHELLE] (18:38):

Yes, so, okay, first of all, I’ll say, because I love that, for anyone who’s listening, when I said it takes me a month to plan a marketing, anything, that’s just because I’m a planner and I don’t like to feel rushed. And I like to think at least a month in advance, like, okay, what am I doing for September? What am I doing for August, et cetera? But I think you are totally right that if people are slow and they wanted to launch something over the weekend, like, you can pull something together and then as you, like, if it’s a three-week sale, you could create your content and your graphics each week. It’s not like, you don’t have to have everything prepared and automated in advance. So if you’re slow right now, because we’ll probably release this around like mid July, you could launch something in a couple days and then have it run through like mid August. So I would say, if you’re listening to this, please go for it. Give it a try.

[JESSICA] (19:41):

Yes, yes. And it, conversely, I would say for you, the planner, I absolutely, one of the pillars of when I’m working with somebody, one of the pillars that I talk about is you should plan out your content calendar. May’s mental health awareness. Like you should have that planned out so that you’ve got everything aligned with, what is this month, what does it mean to my patient profile and what can I produce that will help those people with valuable information that I can provide because of my expertise? It takes time to get good at it, but yes, you should plan out. And then I also say, the first week of the month you should talk about this part of your practice, then the second week this, and always make it consistent so people know, oh, I can count on this. This is information I can count on.

[MICHELLE] (20:30):

I also love that idea because then you as the practitioner know what you’re creating. Okay, it’s the third week. Instead of saying, what the heck am I supposed to talk about this week on Facebook? You’re like, wait, it’s week three of the month, which means I am talking about pain management or what to expect from acupuncture. Whatever the third pillar is, is that what you would call it?

[JESSICA] (20:53):

Yes, basically. And it should all relate back to, it’s, you’re not alone in accu, no wellness professional likes to market. No wellness professional likes to ask for money. It’s ingrained into you not to for the most part. But at the end of the day, you are valuable and what you’re doing is helping people live better lives, reduced pain, longer life, healthier, energized, feeling better. That’s invaluable, in fact. So get excited about it and tell people about it. Oh my gosh, I’m so excited. Like, this is the results I just got for this patient. Isn’t it amazing? I’d love to do the same thing for you. It’s amazing. It’s exciting. It’s nothing, there’s nothing to be ashamed about telling people, “Hey, I can help you feel better and I want to come on in. Let’s do it.”

[MICHELLE] (21:50):

That’s such a great perspective. because It feels energizing even to hear you talk about it like that. I once spoke to another business coach who would always recommend that people think about marketing like an invitation.

[JESSICA] (22:06):

Yes.

[MICHELLE] (22:07):

And to tell people I love cosmetic acupuncture, I would love for you to come to my office, come see me. I think the enthusiasm for what you do and the results that you get, it just goes such a long way in convincing people that they should take the plunge with you.

[JESSICA] (22:25):

Yeah, exactly. You can’t hide passion and you can’t fake it. Also, I would say if you’re feeling like, ugh, a loss of enthusiasm, you’ve got to regenerate and take your weekend and take your self-care and say, okay, you need to remember where you started with a patient and how far they came because of the help that you provided. And remember all of the good that you’re doing and get re-exited about it and re-energized. Not that you are lucid, but I do hear that from people, like letting the business interfere with the passion.

[MICHELLE] (23:06):

Oh, for sure.

[JESSICA] (23:07):

If you can keep the passion, the business will, because enthusiasm is contagious and people can tell if you’re passionate about what you’re doing.

[MICHELLE] (23:16):

Yes.

[JESSICA] (23:18):

They say it’s, I can’t think of the word for some reason, but enthusiasm and passion is, it’s an energy that can passes through people. You know the word I’m thinking of, but I can’t think about it.

[MICHELLE] (23:31):

Yes, you’ll think of it in the middle of night.

[JESSICA] (23:32):

Contagious. Contagious, contagious. Why couldn’t I think of that word? Passion is contagious. Enthusiasm is contagious in a good, positive, awesome way.

[MICHELLE] (23:43):

Yes. And you were, I think you were about to talk about how when we get leads, we have to know what to do with them. I think that, and maybe this is true for lots of healthcare providers, I think a lot of acupuncturists don’t think about that process as part of their marketing or a space where they could lose people. It’s sort of like, oh, I got a thousand leads. End of story.

[JESSICA] (24:11):

Yes.

[MICHELLE] (24:11):

And that’s where the planning ends.

[JESSICA] (24:14):

It’s huge. So you do need to draw a line, especially like I said, if as a solopreneur who there’s many, many, many that work with, that do so, so well, but it does require you to, when you’re marketing, set up a system that allows you to respond to your lead flow. Of course, as we move into July, 2024, there is so much AI, but it doesn’t replace the human connection. And people can tell AI, but you can set up automations that are your voice, your tone of voice. So you can do that. You can even record automations that use your voice. It’s interesting. Creepy in a way, but —

[MICHELLE] (25:02):

Yes, I’ve heard of those

[JESSICA] (25:03):

Very effective. But all of that automation can be set to stop the minute somebody answers an automation. The minute the person engages beyond just clicking on an ad, that’s when you want to step in and make sure that you’re cultivating and nurturing that lead and answering their questions appropriately and getting them to come in, to your point, invite them to come in. It’s not pressure, but, “Oh, tell me what you’re, what interested you? Like what is the pain you’re feeling that interested you in responding to this? Oh, I understand. Let me tell you real results that I’ve had with other people.”

[MICHELLE] (25:46):

Hmm, I like that.

[JESSICA] (25:47):

“And I’d love for you to experience the same thing and based on whatever your past results are, let people know a realistic, if you start to come today you should be starting to feel better by, could be immediate. I mean, I’ve had immediate results with acupuncture and I know family members who have as well.” And then also, you don’t want to forget your current patients, I know it might not feel this way, but you are marketing all the time. Even once you have a patient in-house, you can’t, you don’t stop talking to them. Do you have people falling off of a treatment plan and not coming back in?

[MICHELLE] (26:27):

Oh, of course.

[JESSICA] (26:28):

That’s usually like a disconnect in your communication where people forget the pain that they were in when they start to feel better. And so you do want to make sure that every time you are talking with a patient, remind them, okay, this is where we were when you started. Tell me what, how you’re feeling today and then let’s get excited that after this treatment and make sure that they understand that their motivation doesn’t fall off. Keep them engaged and remind them of how much better they’re feeling because they’re coming in and working with you.

[MICHELLE] (27:04):

So one of my specialties is cosmetic acupuncture and I have always made the before and afters optional for people historically but I have definitely found that it’s subtle. So if we do before and afters, people can see small changes in their face that make them very happy. Because we don’t bill cosmetic acupuncture as like the next Botox. It doesn’t do the same thing. It doesn’t have the same effect. It’s sort of like their expectations are balanced so that communication is sort of there, but if there’s no, it’s not always something they’re going to notice when they look in the mirror. And people are very critical when they look in the mirror. So they’re like, I still have all my wrinkles. And then you show them their after photo and they realize like, okay, wow, this is soft and I didn’t notice it was happening, but in this five or six weeks there’s a change.

(27:56):

And so my associate who works with me recently said, “I think we should make before and afters mandatory. Because giving patients the choice, they don’t like looking at their face, they don’t want to evaluate their wrinkles, so they say no sometimes. And then when they finish their series of 10 treatments, it’s more difficult to get them to come back for maintenance, because what is their motivation?” They think, they’re like, well, I’m not sure if it helped. I’m like, I can see a change in your face and of course they’re thinking, well, you would say that.

[JESSICA] (28:29):

Yes, yes.

[MICHELLE] (28:30):

It’s the communication and then having a structure that makes it that they are going to be able to see their results so that they can come, they want to come back in.

[JESSICA] (28:43):

Why wouldn’t you want them to see that? And that, can you imagine, for the people who didn’t take the before photo, how excited they would’ve been at the end if they could have seen the before to the after and how they’d be like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe. It’s like the, like I said, people don’t remember the pain they were in. People don’t remember. That before and after is key. And it is more tricky to convert that for people who are dressing other symptoms and pain and things of that nature, but there might not be a picture but there certainly is communication that can continue to make people understand this is how much better you’re feeling as we move into maintenance.

[MICHELLE] (29:25):

Yes. And reminding them of the idea that maintenance is important because it’s easier to maintain a good result than to take a ton of time off and then start from scratch. It took me a long time to realize this in my practice, patients don’t have the perspective to realize that if they take a long break, it might be like they’re starting over in five or six months. Whereas if they just came in once a month with their good results, then it would just be consistent. But they have no context for that. So it is my job to explain it over and over again. I feel like communication is something that has taken me a long time to get even good at with patients. I wouldn’t say that I’m great, always working on it.

[JESSICA] (30:10):

Well, —

[MICHELLE] (30:11):

It makes a big difference.

[JESSICA] (30:13):

Huge. And that brings up a good point. You don’t need, in fact, not only do you not need to, you never want to tell a patient how they were feeling versus how they’re feeling. You want them to tell you in their words. And so you really want to get them to put their feelings into their language and take notes and then you want to get them to define what they’re hoping for in their language and take notes so that when they come back, you’re repeating back to them what they said to you, rather than you telling them what you think.

[MICHELLE] (30:49):

I love that.

[JESSICA] (30:49):

So you’re using their words always to monitor their progress and to get them to see their results. The other thing, I love what you said, and I love this quote, it just said, you will lose what you don’t maintain.

[MICHELLE] (31:08):

Hmm, yes.

[JESSICA] (31:09):

And it was like one of those sign quotes in some place that I was in. I think it was a gym actually. But I loved it because I was like, it’s so true. But we don’t think about that. I’d put that sign up in every office.

[MICHELLE] (31:24):

Yes, put it everywhere.

[JESSICA] (31:26):

Just put it everywhere. Because it’s true. Whether it’s physical fitness through exercise, less pain through treatments, less wrinkles through treatments. No matter what it is that you’re working toward, if you stop doing the work, the results will diminish and disappear. So any way that you can bring that to the forefront of people’s minds, every time they come in, every time they leave, it’s going to stick with them so that they’re like, oh yeah, I do remember that I was feeling this way and now I’m feeling this way. Yes, I should make the appointment to go back. And I don’t know if we talked about selling packages and things of that nature to ensure that people come back, but also, if you’re not doing packages, give incentives for booking and paying for the next appointment before they leave so that they’re doing it while those results are top of mind.

[MICHELLE] (32:25):

What would an example of an incentive be to get people to book before they leave?

[JESSICA] (32:29):

You know, certain, a dollar amount off or something extra. Like we’ll do X plus this, or it’s somewhat unique to what you’re doing and what you’re offering to that patient. So I can’t really, but it can be $10 off or people are being paneled and there’s copays. That’s a different situation. So you might want to give something extra cash versus insurance or two different things to deal with. So if it’s an insurance based model, I’ll throw in like red lights or whatever you have in your practice. Actually, I’ve got a great practice who has massage chairs from Amazon and they charge a dollar a minute for the massage chair before or after a treatment where you can book that separately. So if you can do something like that, that’s a really low-cost investment to add value to your patients. While you’re in the waiting room, you can sit in the massage chair or you can make it a paid service or you can make that your bonus offer.

[MICHELLE] (33:32):

With the new leads and the idea of actually converting them into patients is that mostly thinking about people who have come from ads and like how to transition them or it could really be regardless of where they’re coming from?

[JESSICA] (33:50):

Regardless of where they’re coming from

[MICHELLE] (33:52):

Having a system

[JESSICA] (33:54):

Yes.

[MICHELLE] (33:54):

For the way that you talk to them.

[JESSICA] (33:56):

Regardless of where they’re coming from. Also, every time you’re anywhere, it’s an opportunity for you to tell people who you are and what you do and the results you get. Everything is marketing. It’s even not missing a cue of somebody expressing interest. Anytime somebody expresses interest, that’s a lead. And you’ve got to feel comfortable saying, you’ve got to come in. Oh my gosh, we could do this great thing for you and help you with that. You can drop the ball or miss an opportunity anytime you’re missing a mark with somebody. And that includes like, if people pick up the phone and call you, that’s the most valuable lead, because a phone call is an extra level, that’s an extra level of, oh, I’m actually dialing the phone and waiting for this person to talk to me.

(34:44):

So phone calls are like the highest priority, but even any type of electronic messaging, also, you want to take it very seriously and make sure that you’re looking at it, you’re answering questions, you’re asking questions to get them to reengage. Like you don’t just want to answer a question, then leave it like, oh, do you help with this? Yes, we do. Okay. We do, we’ve helped a lot of people with that. How long has this been happening to you? Always ask a question to keep the person engaged until they set an appointment. And then you can also say, “Hey, I’d love to talk to you. Would you be open to a phone call?”

[MICHELLE] (35:29):

I like that idea a lot. I think it helps people really feel seen and heard and that makes them feel like, oh, this is the right provider for me.

[JESSICA] (35:40):

A lot of practitioners, I hate to say it, the person, the most valuable asset if you’re not a solo practice, is the person who’s setting your appointments, because they can make or break you. If you call a practice and you just get a bad vibe from the person on the phone, even if you love the practitioner, you’re going to be like, I don’t like calling to make an appointment. I’m going to see if there’s another person. I’m going to see if there’s another provider I can work with. It’s true.

[MICHELLE] (36:08):

I have actually seen that happen. My brother used to see a different dentist and he was like, “Man, the dentist is great, but I feel like the receptionist, she just, either she really doesn’t like me or she doesn’t like anyone. It’s just uncomfortable calling and speaking or checking out.” And he ended up switching. He needed a specialist anyway, but I mean, I don’t think he minded switching because it was unfortunately unpleasant to interact with that business. And that is part of their marketing.

[JESSICA] (36:39):

Yes, exactly. Everything that touches a potential patient is marketing. I strongly suggest going out and putting five by sevens, this is who we are and this is our specialty. You never know where you’re going to touch somebody that inspires them to give you a call. But then once they do call, yeah, there’s nothing more critically important to your business than being ready to answer questions and encourage somebody to believe that you can make the change that they’re looking for.

[MICHELLE] (37:14):

So you just said five by sevens, where would you put them?

[JESSICA] (37:18):

Oh, so for you guys, definitely depending on your expertise, you might want to look at chiropractic offices, you might want to look at Whole Foods, places like that. Any place that you can think of, like if there’s a stretch therapy or an IV therapy or things like that in your area, put it there. I always recommend joining the business association in your town. Get your name out there in that type of networking community. People forget boots on the ground marketing is like the first most critical level of marketing. Face to face is better than any anything else.

[MICHELLE] (37:57):

I’m such an introvert and I would agree with that.

[JESSICA] (38:01):

Yes, but you can be an introvert and still think about when you start talking about what you do, don’t you come out of your shell a little bit?

[MICHELLE] (38:10):

Oh, definitely.

[JESSICA] (38:12):

Right, because you’re passionate about what you do and you know you do great things for people. Look at how you lit up when you were talking about the before and afters. It’s like, oh, the wrinkle. I know it’s hard. That is one of the things, we have to do the hard things. It’s to make the business grow. It’s hard. Listen, owning any business requires you to be at a level of discomfort almost at all times.

[MICHELLE] (38:39):

It’s so true. And I think it’s nice to hear you say that because everybody’s trying to get to a place where they are comfortable. But is there growth when you’re totally comfortable and even in your business, what if you are completely comfortable, will it become stagnant? We could probably debate that for ages.

[JESSICA] (38:58):

I always say like one of the, this is a mantra, if you ever talk to me, I say it all the time, my family is like, oh my God, here she goes with this, but everyone has a hundred problems a day. This is a theory I learned in a leadership round table that was really influential in my life and the idea behind it, because there’s people saying, well, no, I have a thousand problems today. What are you talking about this? And the concept is no, what you focus on as a problem is what defines your a hundred problems. So that’s where it comes to, every single person has the same number of problems and the more complexity that you focus on, the better off you’ll be as a leader and business owner. And so hitting a red light on your way to a meeting or work is the thing that you let really fester with you. You’ve got to let it go and start focusing on bigger picture things. And so when you say, does it get easier, I like that concept because your a hundred problems become more complex as you grow and improve as a business owner and you’ve grown. And the best way to grow a great business is to grow yourself first and become a better person all the time.

[MICHELLE] (40:14):

So good.

[JESSICA] (40:16):

You can’t grow a good business if you’re not doing good things with the right intentions because people will always, you are who you are and you are the business, you’re the base of the business.

[MICHELLE] (40:29):

Yes, and it reflects you. I love that. Well, I have one more question for you that I ask all my guests. What is your definition of success?

[JESSICA] (40:41):

So it’s, I don’t know how to say it eloquently, but for me, my definition of success is feeling like I am making the world better in some way by helping people. But also my definition of success is being able to not just help others, like I really do feel like I help people by helping practices grow and do good things for people. But I can’t make my definition of success only about what I do in work because I also have two children. I like to think that I’m raising them to be good members of society and good members of communities and self-sustaining human beings. So if the good that I do in the world ultimately is just sending two good young men into the world, that’s enough for me.

[MICHELLE] (41:35):

That’s good work.

[JESSICA] (41:37):

It is the hardest work.

[MICHELLE] (41:38):

Good work. Well, thank you so much. How can people connect with you? How can they work with you?

[JESSICA] (41:48):

Yes. Oh, thank you so much. You can go to my website, it’s buildyourcashmedicalpractice.com and on there you can book a one-on-one with me, no charge. And we can talk about challenges and just see if, ultimately my goal in any one-on-one is giving you at least one thing that will help you with your current struggles and challenges.

[MICHELLE] (42:12):

Oh, it’s amazing that that is free. I hope people take you up on that.

[JESSICA] (42:16):

Coaching is a very personal thing and I don’t know how you can do coaching unless you can know that you’re going to get along. So the one-on-one, absolutely. I want to know if you’re struggling and I want to make sure that I, and you have the comfort level in knowing like, oh yeah, I can work with this person and I think she can help me.

[MICHELLE] (42:36):

Well, thank you so much for being here with me today. I really appreciate it.

[JESSICA] (42:40):

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it as well.

[MICHELLE] (42:47):

Before you go, just a quick reminder to check out the package of 24 Women’s Health Email Templates while they’re on sale this week for $30 off, which makes them $97. That’s about $4 per email, which makes them very affordable. And these emails cover topics like acupuncture for irregular period, painful period, TCM recommendations for a more comfortable period, endometriosis, PCOS, hot flashes, fertility, and much, much more. If you love treating women’s health symptoms and want more of those patients, these emails are a great way to show potential patients just how much acupuncture can help them.

(43:25):

Creating content is time consuming, and I know that’s the number one reason my marketing students and clients tell me they don’t send regular email newsletters. There’s just not enough time in the day to come up with that amount of content consistently. So I really hope these done-for-you templates make your life much easier and bring in new patients. The link is in the show notes to check them out and the discount code is already applied on the checkout page. Enjoy.