When I began Galen’s Watch I wanted professional guidance. After talking with Sandra I knew that Bekhor Management was a perfect fit. She understood my unique business and offered many good ideas to direct it to the right audience.
I invited Sandra to write a guest post on sustaining a successful healthcare practice, which seems to be on the mind of many of our readers these days.
Bekhor Management is a full service marketing firm in Toronto, Ontario.
Sandra’s blog Toronto Marketing
Facing the same practice development challenges year in and year out can be tiring, stressful and costly. So, what’s preventing naturopaths and other healthcare practitioners from building a stable and sustainable practice?
Identity.
That’s not to say a pretty logo, but rather a core strengthening, all encompassing, affecting identity with the capacity to inspire a following!
As with other professional practices, the identity of most healthcare practices, more often than not, is a light variation on the positioning statements provided by the associated professional body. While compelling in and of itself this formula will not produce a distinct identity for any healthcare practice.
What does committing to a unique and valued difference change?
If it’s to lead to a stable and sustainable healthcare practice, it needs to change absolutely everything from the vision, values and mission, right up to the services, target audience, training, pricing, systems, processes, organizational chart and marketing plan. You can’t talk about one thing and have your feet move in the opposite direction. It simply doesn’t work.
Let’s consider a hypothetical scenario - Jane, a naturopath keenly interested in the response of digestive disorders to a 360o mind, body and spirit treatment plan. Jane grapples with her instincts to immerse herself in her area of interest while she fears that, if she does, she would lose a significant portion of her surrounding neighbourhood. So, Jane continues to offer services that cater to the general population, including those with digestive disorders. Business is good but it never quite reaches the point where it takes off and sustains itself. She continually needs to revisit her marketing plan and her team are content but not exactly fired up. At some point Jane realizes that she simply won’t be able to find the time to delve deeper into this area of interest if she continues. She decides to take the plunge.
So what happens to Jane’s practice?
Jane follows her new vision with abandon, exchanging equipment, establishing new relationships, updating signage and retraining the team. Her marketing materials not only reflect her new position but they take a totally different tactic to reach a niche market that is driven by need rather than geography. She drops her direct mail campaign and launches a well optimized website designed to carry out a targeted message to the intended growth market and medical community. As her reputation develops, demand increases for seminars. Ultimately, Jane transforms her practice to a drive to destination, rather than the convenient, local naturopath.
Defining the true calling of your practice begins with honest and open introspection. Do you know your real weaknesses? Good, now put them aside. The real question is, do you, and do others, know your determination and passion as a healthcare practitioner? Improving weaknesses, while often a necessity, won’t help you to build an unforgettable practice. Enabling your professional passion to emerge, rather than holding it hostage to an artificial need to be flexible and cater to the masses, will.
How does identity lead to stability and sustainability?
1. Consistently declaring, without caveat, a clear and true identity, like a chorus, charms with its very predictability.
2. Totally committing to a vision with the most suitable systems sets the stage for success, through repeatable processes.
3. Reliably delivering on a promise instils trust and continually reinforces the power of a meaningful idea.
If you want stability, begin by delivering it. Like a boomerang, it will come back to you.
If you want sustainability, nurture your professional passion, make no apologies for not catering to every potential need in the market and wholeheartedly commit to your vision with the systems, processes and people that can back it up.
By Sandra Bekhor, MBA, B.Sc.
Sandra Bekhor is President of Bekhor Management, a Toronto-based consulting firm that provides marketing, branding and strategic planning services to Canadian professional practices.
