Note: Following proper marketing principles in your dental practice, for instance, will improve your dental practice management skills. Marketing is simply part of good practice management. Establishing management skills by learning new patient marketing skills is essential to stable growth for your dental or medical practice.
Certain basic laws or principles govern the universe, and that includes our bodies, our businesses, etc. The law of gravity is such a principle, which cannot be ignored. Great professionals in any subject matter are great because they thoroughly understand the underlying principles in their field.
A doctor might have to try several different medicines or approaches to get the blood pressure down or increase circulation. The doctor of course will also have to be aware of some slightly lesser principles, which are right below the basic principle of "blood must circulate". He will be aware of which body parts need more circulation, reasons why circulation might slow down, etc. In short, the doctor knows his basics and can now handle almost any situation regardless of individual differences of why, when and what!!!
If he is in the jungle with no equipment he might simply immerse a person in the cold river and then put him in the big cooking pot with hot water and repeat this whole procedure 50 times to achieve his desired result and in a super hi-tech hospital in NY he will obviously do something else. In the case of a doctor who is only educated in the use of a certain machine or medicine but not thoroughly know, even in his sleep, the basic principles and the slightly lesser principles, he would have lots of people dying on him.
Sure, the doctor needs to know the mechanical steps perfectly as well, but all those things are mere mechanics of which are many more in number than basic principles and which are all derived from underlying basics. A good diagnosis is half the work if not virtually all in some cases. A doctor who is only good in administering treatment and not familiar enough with the fundamentals could not diagnose very well. Business and/or Marketing are no different.
Many doctors believe that a certain marketing action will not work in their area or their profession or their practice. Usually they are right but only about that mechanical action. Those doctors have some knowledge of mechanical actions of marketing, which they may have observed to work or not work as the case may be but they do not know how to connect the dots and to make an intelligent business diagnosis - due to the missing basic fundamentals.
Knowing those basic principles of marketing would give any marketing individual the ability to adjust the marketing vehicle used to get the desired result. Usually this is more business, more money in the pocket and more free time to do whatever one champions. Please remember the doctor in the jungle who puts the sick person in hot and cold water to get circulation going. A marketing expert will know the marketing principles so well that he will be able to "cure his patient" (the company), with minimal resource availability.
In short, a true marketing guy who has been in the trenches and has learned his basic principles well will be able to make any business grow, even if there is little marketing budget available. And he will be able to do it for a doctor in Chicago or a dentist in Kansas or an oil company in India just as well as for a printer in NY or a publishing company in Taiwan or a hotel in Africa.
The business guy, just like the good old doctor whose prescribed treatment does not always work as predicted, will here and there embark on a marketing activity which does not bring the desired results - but he won't be without many more successful activities up his sleeve and he will use and adjust them as needed and he will in the end succeed.
Most small business owners think only with the mechanics of the marketing and completely ignore the basic principles so they are surprised when a marketing step, which worked for some one else, does not work for them. Then they don't know what to do when things don't go as hoped for.
Imagine a really good martial arts fighter! He, at any time, no matter what the position of the opponent in relation to his own position knows what to do; he knows how to bend or kick or clinch or draw. But a less experienced fighter will only be able to do his fighting successfully if the opponent stands and attacks him exactly as in class drills.
Now imagine a good chef, maybe a housewife who cooks well? Could she draw together any meal despite bad equipment, and with little food in the refrigerator even with only leftovers? Could she mix and match spices in ways, which you never even thought of and which make you come back for more? If she is good, yes, she definitely could!
The inexperienced martial artist knows some mechanics but not yet the principles. He simply can't think fast enough to do what needs to be done and will get beaten up where as the housewife knows the principles of cooking and cook with whatever mechanics she has available to her.
Remember when Hypocrites said something like this. "Don't be ashamed to admit I don't know and consult with other practitioners who might know." Every time you ask for help you will get better at it yourself. And even though there will never be a time you will know it all, you surely will become more and more knowledgeable yourself. And knowledge, if applied and used, is undoubtedly the most powerful weapon one can have in any situation.
So the moral of the story - get the big picture and learn it well. Only then will you be able to correctly use the numerous "mechanical steps" which are needed to achieve your objectives.
Remember: In creating new good paying patients for your medical practice the big picture simply is you must use the skills necessary that may come from third parties to establish a trust within your practice. It is only with good new patient marketing and practice management skills that your business will grow strong and thrive.
Helmut Flasch
Author and Founder
Un-Advertising Marketing Strategies |
