Passing on a great viewpoint...

[Guest guest]

From: http://www.integritystrategies.com/viewpoint.htm

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

TOUGH LOVE?

I hope everyone read and enjoyed the viewpoint written by Dr. Swerdlick this past Monday. Dr. Swerdlick’s viewpoints always make me sit back and contemplate what the heck is going on in this profession. I freely admit that prior to myself being “______” over by my ex-technique guru, I was blind (maybe not blind, but pretty darn apathetic) to what the leaders, technique gurus, equipment manufacturers, and practice management consulting gurus, were doing to the great profession of chiropractic.

Yesterday, one of the doctors that had attended both of our pre-sale strategy seminars had called me with a few questions regarding the June seminar. After I answered a few questions he said to me,

"Boy, Dr. Marc really came down hard on us yesterday."

I chuckled a bit and told him that I am positive that Dr. Swerdlick can “bring it” much harder than what he did in Monday’s viewpoint. I also asked him if he disagreed with anything that Dr. Swerdlick was saying.

His response was, “Nope.”

I then asked him what he was going to do personally about much of the crap that was happening in our profession and he really didn’t know how to answer me. You see, this is the problem and a big part of the frustration that both Dr. Swerdlick and I have with the profession and the doctors in the profession as a whole. Everyone I talk with isn’t happy with what is happening in the profession (most of these doctors I talk with have wasted thousands of dollars on practice management consulting gurus and over-priced toys from their technique gurus) but they really have no clue on what to do about it. Although I am starting to believe it is a lack of courage that holds chiropractors from speaking up when they are being taken advantage of. Inevitably, most chiropractors do not do anything constructive to change the actions of the professions' many gurus.

Guess what?

Doing absolutely nothing is the worst thing you can be doing.

I'll be very direct, why don’t you pick up the phone and make some calls! Tell these gurus you are tired of taking it in the backside. Yes, they’ll either completely ignore you or they will “bob and weave” around your complaints. Perhaps if they received more than one call (email is too easy to ignore) they will at least take a little notice.

The practice management consulting gurus and the technique gurus that abuse their loyal doctors really need to be held accountable for their actions. When the gurus continually take advantage of doctors and hear absolutely zero complaints (or perhaps one or two occasional complaints) from doctors in the profession, they will never change.

I’d like to know if any of you have any of you ever taken the time to pick up the phone to let these chiropractic consulting gurus and technique gurus know what you truly think of their actions. I’d love to hear from you if you did.

I receive emails weekly telling me how individuals really like what Dr. Swerdlick and I are talking about and they agree with everything we are saying. I would bet that most people that read our viewpoints nod their head in agreement, but then go about their daily activities with no thought of taking any action. I know it is a reach, but many of you can create more changes in the profession than you could imagine.

I have had other doctors (and I may have said this myself) tell me that if we have to, we’ll change the profession “one doctor at a time.” I no longer think that is fast enough because I do think that the chiropractic profession’s boat is taking on heavy water. We have credibility issues like no other health profession in today’s marketplace.

If our credibility continues to decline; the profession will continue to struggle. The more doctors that are marketing their practices ethically and honestly in your community will mean more legitimacy for chiropractic in your area. Chiropractic will then be looked at as less of a commodity, which is good for everyone involved.

Try as they might, the chiropractic profession can not control the actions of the insurance industry, big pharma or the AMA.

HOWEVER, WE CAN CONTROL WHAT HAPPENS WITHIN OUR OWN PROFESSION!

One thing that needs to be realized is this battle for our lost credibility, time is not on our side. Like it or not, the DPTs (Doctorate of Physical Therapy) are gaining strength and have much more credibility and unity than we do. I have also talked with many non-chiropractic patients that think that massage therapy provides the exact same benefits as chiropractic care. Do you realize that very few people are skeptical of massage therapists and are much more comfortable seeking care from them first? I'm sure you did.

My company can not compete (nor will I) with the money that the practice management consulting gurus throw around in this profession. Many practice management consulting gurus and a few of the equipment gurus have now “bought” their way into the chiropractic colleges. Is this tolerable to you? Doesn’t that bother you even a little bit that the chiropractic students are already be tainted with outdated marketing tactics? Don't think it matters? The young DC's are setting up shop with large student loans and will "do whatever it takes" to succeed. After all, that is what they are taught by the consulting gurus. Are the little ol’ viewpoints from Dr. Swerdlick and Dr. Sharpe going to change things in the profession by themself? Probably not.

In June (only our second seminar), we had 168 individuals in attendance. It was a great event and of course I was excited for everyone attending because the energy level created at the June seminar was awesome (thanks to Dr. Swerdlick). Dr. Swerdlick “wowed” the crowd just like he did with the 86 individuals in October of 2006.

It didn’t take me too long to sit back and realize that with 60,000 or so chiropractors in the profession, we have affected just a tiny sliver of the pie. I am soured on our nation’s politics these days, but Integrity Strategies could be compared to a small independent candidate battling the gigantic political machines of the Democrats and Republicans. I have chiropractors sending me emails to spread the news about candidate Ron , but then won't take the time to make any effort to change the profession that puts the food on their tables.

In reality, an independent candidate can not match the advertising budget generated by the Democrats and Republicans. The independent candidate has to rely on the grass roots efforts of their supporters to make their voice heard.

I AM ASKING ALL OF YOU THAT TRULY BELIEVE THAT THE IMAGE AND CREDIBILITY OF CHIROPRACTIC NEEDS TO CHANGE, TO ENLIGHTEN OTHER CHIROPRACTORS by sharing Dr. Swerdlick’s web site (www.gotdrmarc.com ) with as many colleagues as you can.

Many of you have access to organizations, colleges and individual doctors that I do not have. Get them interested to what is going on in our profession. Wake them up! Get them to a seminar if you can, but at least get them to sit back and contemplate the future of the chiropractic profession. It will help all of us in the long term.

I began this viewpoint with the title, “Tough Love?” Dr. Swerdlick does not need to make a dime from the chiropractic profession. His “rants” (his words, not mine) are truly meant to help doctors to avoid wasting their money or even worse, destroying their practices. The technique and practice management gurus (not all) will not change the ways in which they are taking advantage of the chiropractic profession until the doctors start to take more control of their career. If chiropractors themselves don’t stop “taking it in the behind,” things will never improve.

I have been very fortunate to talk with Dr. Swerdlick many times regarding the multiple consulting contracts he has signed with the health care and non-related health care businesses. I have learned an invaluable amount of information from just listening to how he approaches marketing for each individual business and can certainly understand why his time and services are indeed in such a demand.

I have also realized that these companies and organizations hiring Dr. Swerdlick are not tainted and ingrained with inferior marketing tactics such as the chiropractic profession suffers from. Chiropractic is so substantially screwed up in regards to what is considered “marketing” that it is truly beyond belief.

THE GURU TO THE CHIROPRACTIC GURUS

If you believe that chiropractic does not have an image problem, please email me ASAP as I’d love to hear your side of the story. As you know, many of the current practice management consulting gurus in our profession have “spawned” from a well-known internet marketing guru. Didn’t realize that? Just look at their web pages and their advertisements, THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME WEB SITE TEMPLATE!

I receive this well-known internet guru’s (his name contains the name of a dead president) email marketing newsletter and I normally delete most of them because they come at a rate of 3-4 emails per week. Coincidentally, the practice management consulting gurus that follow his systems also send me about 3-4 emails per week. (LOL)

For some reason, I opened the email from this internet guru yesterday and was surprised with what I read. His email talked about the four steps you need to succeed in marketing your business. Now, I have already told you that I believe that chiropractic has a significant image problem. I have also told you that a big part of the image and credibility problems in our profession are due directly in part to how the practice management consulting gurus are teaching doctors how to market.

Here is the #1 step to realize success in your business according to the internet guru…

Are you ready?

"Worry less about your image than everybody else does."

Holy cow!

The guru of the chiropractic gurus has just made me realize why (in part) the chiropractic gurus do what they do. Many of these chiropractic practice management consulting gurus are being trained to “not worry about their image.” They must be taught not to care what they look like with their cheesy, over-the-top practice management “pitches.” In turn, these same chiropractic practice management consulting gurus instruct their clients to “worry less about their image than everybody else does.”

The internet marketing guru goes on to tell us about a supermarket that was courageous enough to give away products with “no strings attached” offers for free, for products that they sold. That is awesome for these supermarkets, but…

THE CHIROPRACTIC PROFESSION IS NOT A SUPERMARKET!

How many times does Dr. Swerdlick need to point out that marketing tactics that are acceptable for a supermarket or a carwash are not acceptable for the chiropractic profession? Why is it that the chiropractic profession can not understand this concept?

Many (not all) of these practice management consulting gurus are extracting your hard earned cash and in return are teaching you out-dated and re-hashed marketing tactics that are not applicable to the chiropractic profession. In addition, many of these tactics (even if they provide some short term results) will cause significant long-term damage to your image in your community. You are left with a struggling practice, a poor image and insufficient funds to then properly market your practice ethically and honestly.

Marketing a practice with real world concepts and strategies (that actually work) does take time and will require a significant financial investment to implement properly. Believe me, you better start saving your pennies now, because every dollar you invest in the practice management gurus’ and the technique gurus’ “pitches” takes you further away from marketing your practice effectively.

Dr. Swerdlick’s viewpoints are not “tough love,” but instead are frank discussions trying to stimulate doctors to think wisely before they waste their hard earned money. If you have teenage children, you know that they don’t like to hear your rational advice. They think you are indeed “ranting” to them when in fact you are protecting them from possible harm. Indeed, Dr. Swerdlick is trying to teach you what is in your best interest.

I have always admired Dr. Swerdlick (no, not in the backwoods hunting sort of way..LOL) because his message has never changed and he is not afraid to tell the profession what it needs to do in order to regain its lost credibility. Dr. Swerdlick is also not afraid to call out individual doctors for their “lack of courage” to do what is right.

Re-read Dr. Swerdlick’s viewpoint (www.gotdrmarc.com) from Wednesday and sit back and think what you are doing personally to improve the profession’s image problem. If you agree with what is being said, but continue to sit back and do nothing, then why would you deserve any respect from a doctor like Dr. Swerdlick.

Dr. Swerdlick truly is an independent grass roots voice in chiropractic and we do need YOU to spread the word.

Have a great Wednesday!

Tim