Top Practices Blog

Don't Send the Wrong Message

Most marketing doesn't work because we are sending out the wrong message. People don't care about us, they care about them. They are too busy to focus on anything except what's important to them. So if you want to attract heel pain patients focus your marketing message on the problems and concerns that heel pain patients have. Good marketing always "Enters the conversation that is already going on in the mind of the person you want to attract."

The Most Important Thing You Can Do

The most successful people in every profession have one characteristic in common. They are goal driven. Truly successful, high performing people have written down their goals and they review them at least twice a month. You should write goals in the following categories: Lifetime, 3 Year, 1 Year, Quarterly. You should have goals for your Business, Personal Life, Financial, Health, and Fun. One of the greatest competitive secrets in life is that almost no one takes the time to do this. But those that do achieve more than everyone else combined. Remember: A Goal, not reduced to writing and reviewed often, is a mere wish.

How to Motivate Your Staff

Stephen Covey wrote in "The Seven Habits of Highly Motivated People" that Trust is the highest form of human motivation. People respond when they know that you believe that they are the absolute best person for the job and that you trust them to get the job done right and on time. This trust doesn't preclude the fact that you need to train and inspect work until they rise to the level of that trust, but nothing will motivate people more than to simply know that you believe in them.

How to Recession Proof Your Practice

How To Recession Proof Your Practice

In his book No B.S. Ruthless Management of People and Profits marketing guru Dan Kennedy states that there are two steps to take to thrive in business during economic downturns or what he calls "crisis opportunities".  The first step is to "provide an ever escalating, exceptional, even phenomenal level of customer service, delivered by exceptionally competent, highly trained, highly incentivized, and highly policed humans."  While all of the other masses of businesses in your field and in general are doing the opposite and cutting costs by cutting level of service you will be able to distinguish yourself by providing exceptional service.  The second step is to "design your business and aim your marketing at the affluent consumers who are least affected by overall economy ups and downs, who do not use price as a decision factor, who have demonstrated preference for exceptional service and a willingness to pay for it."  While at first glance this may not seem like very practical advice for a medical practice, members of the Top Practices Mastermind group know that there are all kinds of ways for podiatrists to up sell and cross-sell to their patients who are not limited by cost and health insurance restraints.