Are you the #2 or #3 practitioner in your market? Or are you #1 and are annoyed by the pesky competitors?

Have you ever thought that the competition's advertising helps YOUR practice grow?

It is true, if you advertise there is a certain advertising cost of entry (click on the link to the left for an explanation) that you have to cross before you will see results in your advertising efforts. This cost of entry can be crossed by multiple advertisers for everyone in the market. However, that does not mean that everyone gets the same amount of leads.

You don't advertise, but get your leads from patient referrals? Let me tell you, a competitor's advertising will help YOU as well. Your patient is much more prone to discuss her results with a friend and refer them to you if that friend asks because she has heard an ad.

If you are like most doctors I know, you don't spend any money on helping your satisfied patients to refer to you. You should think about actively promoting referrals.

For example: If it was easy to do: Would you spend $50 of the $5000 you just received from a surgery if it could get you a 2 in 5 chance to gain a patient referral from it? You should say YES.

Look in our DIY section for a Marketing Kit for Surgeons.

You can get the benefits from your competitors' advertising, if you advertise intelligently yourself, or, if you invest in a referral program. Either way, they'll never know what happened.  

I am convinced there is a reason that a small practice stays small - And it does not usually have anything to to with the economy or the market environment.

It usually has to to with the seriousness of the marketing program. The surgeon is either not willing or unable to grow his practice.

You may say that I am pushing this because it feeds into my business. Maybe it colors my view, but, I found a quote lately, that I have experienced to be true in almost every instance of growing a business. Even when I was not making a living out of growing others' businesses, but was working on my own:

"What we wonder and what we think about sets the course of growth. Any day we wish; we can discipline ourselves to change it all. Any day we wish, we can open the book that will open our mind to new knowledge. Any day we wish, we can start a new activity. Any day we wish, we can start the process of change. We can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year! Remember - An opportunity is never lost, just found by someone else. “

I have experienced this: The surgeon that is serious about growing his business will start today. There is a reason why you are reading this. What is holding you back in your practice?

Wow, on July 23rd 2006, seven month into 2006 one of our plastic surgery clients (single surgeon practice, no surgery center) already has surpassed the amount of surgeries he did in 2003.

Our goal to reach the $3 Million revenue target for doctor's fee in 2007 comes into sight. Would you have believed that this was possible in a Mid-West rural area?

The fruits of a consistent follow up systems are ripe for the picking!

September was a slow month for many midwest cosmetic surgeons, at least when it came to the lead flow. Some of you could go bowling down the office hallway, I am sure.

I am happy to see that even though hour clients were affected somewhat by the slow down in lead flow, their revenue and their number of booked surgeries was not.

Why is that?  

One of our goals is to alleviate the seasonality in our clients business. There are some surgeons that are so busy in spring, they have to turn away consultations, but their lead flow drys up during the late summer and fall months. These surgeons have not understood how important it is to not only cater to the "now-buyers" but also to the lady that is not ready to buy.

If your revenue is tied to the number of leads you are getting, there is a huge possibility for improvement. Get our marketing guide(click at the bottom of the page) - it will tell you more about this.

I am happy to report that we have a client who's revenue grew 43% over September 2005, and closed 53% more surgeries in the last 6 weeks than in the same period of 2005.

So, how do I get there You say?

Aside from hiring us as your marketing firm  you need to find out how to reach your prospective patients earlier in their decision making process, and guide them to making a good choice.

Once your prospects are ready to choose a surgeon - guess who they'll go to ?!