Are you someone who loooooves sales and marketing?

Yeah, I didn’t think so. 🤣 

It’s not too often that I come across a practitioner, regardless of their specialty, who loves marketing and selling their services. Oftentimes, the passion for genuinely wanting to help patients achieve success gets in the way of making sales – and for some, it can feel icky or even a bit ‘slimy’ to actually market your practice.

So, let’s break through that myth and get you feeling much more confident about sharing what you do. Here are five specific strategies to get you started.

1. Define Your Perfect Patient

If there was a soundtrack that represented the lives of highly successful practitioners, it would be a full-blown, Celine-Dion-Mariah-Carey-Christina-Aguilera powerhouse ballad titled, “The Power of Niching Down.” (Okay, the title needs a little work…)

When you make the decision to focus on a specific niche or type of patient, you make the decision to become a specialist. And patients do not want generalists – they want specialists. Having a well-defined niche puts you front and center as the go-to expert for their specific health concern.

But it doesn’t stop there. Defining your ideal patient requires you to take it a step further. It involves deciding which types of patients you love treating – the ones who give you all the feels when they come in. 

So, start listing out all those dreamy qualities you want in a patient. Identify the patients you currently have who listen to what you have to say, who are actively engaged in their health and follow instructions, and who don’t turn to Dr. Google every chance they get. Once you know exactly what and who you’re looking for when attracting new patients, they’ll be muuuuch easier to find.

2. Keep Building Relationships

Whether you’re out in your community or you’ve joined some new Facebook groups, look for ways you can continue building relationships. Get to know people – just for the sake of getting to know them. They may not be your next ideal patient, but they just might refer someone who is. 

Even if your waitlist is five miles long, keep meeting new faces and building relationships. The last thing you want is to become complacent. This can be a sign of dissatisfaction with your current practice but can be easily remedied by getting crystal clear on exactly who you want your ideal patients to be and how you can best serve them.

Plus, even if you’re booked out, meeting other people means you can give a referral to other clinicians in your area! This is one of the best ways to build a great reputation and gain the trust of your colleagues.

3. Perfect Your Elevator Pitch

Do people actually know what you do? Or do they think that you’re “that health person who helps anyone and everyone?” As you are building these important relationships, make sure to craft your elevator pitch so you can quickly and concisely communicate what you do.

The most important rule about your elevator pitch is this: Keep it simple. Think about who you love, love, love serving and about how you help them. Then, fill in these blanks:

I help ______ do _______ so they can ________ and ________.

Here are a couple of examples to get your wheels turning:

• I help women in menopause balance their hormones so they can live energetic and confident lives.
• I help people with diabetes stabilize their insulin levels through plant-based nutrition so they can feel balanced and healthy.
• I help athletes maintain optimal spinal health through chiropractic adjustments so they can perform at their best while minimizing injuries.

You get the picture! It doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to be clear.

4. Play Around With a Sense of Urgency

What is it that makes people go crazy on Black Friday? It’s FOMO – fear that they’ll miss that irresistible offer before the clock runs out. They know they’ll miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy that 82-inch television before the stock runs out. There’s something soooooo powerful about a sense of urgency.

Try playing around with that same concept in your practice. Here are a couple of ideas of how that might look:

• A free 15-minute shoulder massage for the first 5 people who book a facial
• A bonus 1:1 nutrition assessment if your audience signs up before a certain date for your webinar
• A free bottle of a popular supplement for those who enroll in your monthly membership (while supplies last)

Creating a sense of urgency helps give that extra nudge to your patients who are hemming and hawing over whether or not to pull the trigger. It helps show them why they need what you have to offer now instead of waiting for later. 

5. Build Trust Through Trust Signals

What the heck are trust signals?! Trust signals are a way to help your patients feel more confident and secure in their decision to choose you as their practitioner.

They can be especially helpful if you have a digital product for sale, like a whole food nutrition guide or an Ayurvedic 101 video series. Here are some common trust signals you may want to consider if you have products like these:

• Money back guarantee
• Security logos or badges
• Logos of companies you work with or where you’ve been featured

But what if you don’t have a digital product? Even if you’re offering a service, you still want to make sure your potential patients feel safe and secure with you. Here are a few other important trust signals or social proof to help you do just that:

• Beef up the testimonials on your website or social media
• Refresh your Google My Business with the latest and greatest information about your practice
• Include logos on your website showcasing your certifications or credentials

These trust signals will help reassure your patients that you are expertly qualified to help and can calm any apprehension they may feel in choosing you as their wellness guide, mentor or coach.

The Bottom Line

Whether you’ve just opened up shop or you’re looking for ways to take your practice to the next level, having a strategy is important. By utilizing the right strategies, you’ll be able to connect with more of your ideal patients, helping them see that better health is indeed possible. 

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed and not sure where to start, I’d love to help.

I would love to get to know more about you, your practice and where you might be stuck. We’ll make a game plan to get you moving in the right direction, building a thriving practice that you love. I can’t wait to hear from you!