Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Joe Montana and Bill Walsh. John Elway and Mike Shannahan.
If you follow sports as I do, the debate always rages on, who gets the credit for success? Great players or great coaches?
In my view, it’s not an either/or, it’s both/and.
And I believe the same is true when it comes to business and marketing.
If you’re looking to grow your practice and personal brand as a physician, then marketing coaching is something that can help generate great results for your practice, even if you don’t have full marketing control.
There are at least five reasons why you should have consistent marketing coaching:
1). Because you recognize an opportunity for improvement
If you’re happy with the status quo and don’t have a desire to grow your practice business, then, by all means, don’t focus on marketing or coaching.
But, if you do recognize an opportunity for growth, and even to have greater control over your practice and personal brand, you should consider it.
- You have a desire for your Relative Value Units (RVUs) to improve
- You want to play offense and rank better on Google than your competitors
- You feel the need to have greater control over how your patients perceive you
- You’re not attracting the right patients or can do as much of what you want
- You recognize the need for marketing and want to grow your personal knowledge and abilities
- You want to be able to challenge and help guide the marketing direction of your practice
- You want to have a greater personal connection with your patients
- You recognize the need to have a personal brand
If this sounds like you, and if you’re ready for things to change for the better, you need a marketing coach.
2). Because you want an edge over the competition
Let me state this bluntly: healthcare systems are terrible at marketing their doctors.
Most of the time, it’s difficult for the patients even to find a doctor on the website. They have to sort by specialty, and then the “providers” are often listed alphabetically. So if the healthcare system has a lot of employed physicians in your specialty, your last name better begin with the letter A, or you’re at a disadvantage.
If you are a physician employed by a healthcare system, this is a challenge to overcome, but it can be done.
If you are in private practice, then this is an excellent opportunity to establish a big lead over those who are employed by a healthcare system.
The bottom line is, whatever side of that equation you find yourself, you have a fiduciary responsibility to you and your family to market yourself, and nobody can take a greater interest in you then you can.
Having outside marketing help puts you in the best position to succeed.
3). Because you want to fill in the gaps to help your practice or system
If you’ve ever found yourself in a marketing meeting but felt unequipped to fully understand or challenge the strategy presented by others, then having continuous marketing input is something you need.
I’ve known too many physicians who were unhappy with the marketing results they were seeing but didn’t feel they knew enough to challenge the marketing folks.
Sadly, at best, that results in lost revenue short term. At worst, that results in a long-term disadvantage with competing practices as the gap becomes wider.
4). Because you need to grow your practice the way you want to
If you’re around many business owners, it’s not hard to find people who have built a business that they ultimately did not like being in.
How did this happen?
The short term focus on business growth was not properly filtered. They took on clients they don’t enjoy working with. They grew a product/service segment they didn’t like working on. This list can go on and on.
This isn’t a great place to be personally or professionally.
The same is true with many of the doctors I know.
But, the right kind of marketing can help attract the type of patients you want to see. It is possible to build the practice you want!
Marketing coaching helps take you from a state of being reactive to one of being proactive.
5). Because you want results faster
Coaches can help you get where you want to go faster. This is true in sports, life, and business.
You can learn through trial and error, relying on yourself to get through, but it’s going to take a lot longer.
Every few years, I like to go fishing on the English River in Canada. I can fish, and I can drive a boat. So why do I always go with a guide when I’m there?
Because I want to catch as many fish as I possibly can!
I could use GPS well enough to get from point A to B, but I don’t know the water like the guides there. It’s going to take me a lot longer to get around, and ultimately I’m going to catch fewer fish.
If you want to have faster results with your marketing, then this same thinking applies. You’ll get more of what you want faster with coaching then you will piecing things together on your own.
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The right coaching gives professional athletes (and physicians) an edge over their competition.
Every physician who wants to grow their practice needs marketing coaching.
If you’re interested in marketing coaching right now, here’s an easy next step. Contact us to see if we might be a good fit for each other.
There’s no obligation, and it might just provide you with what you need to take your practice business to the next level.
