(I’ve been doing password protected posts on Fridays, but today I’m going to do something different. I’ll password protect this next week to keep this exclusive for my readers.)
I’ve been reading Bob Burg’s “Endless Referrals.” Most of it is about getting people to do you a favor by referring. This isn’t my type of referrals - and I don’t think it’s yours. People want to help their friends, not build your practice or do your marketing for you.
But there’s one thing from “Endless Referrals” that I really like. It’s “How can they know if someone they’re speaking to is a good prospect for you?”
I encourage practitioners to explain acupuncture and Oriental medicine in lay terms, and also expand people’s thinking of what AOM can do. This one thing can greatly improve the effectiveness of your marketing. So I really like Bob’s concept of explaining exactly how people would know when someone is a prospect for you - it’s a more focused form of what I’ve already been recommending.
For example, a copier repairman might say “If you ever notice a full wastepaper basket of crumpled paper next to a copying machine, chances are the copier is malfunctioning and that would be a good prospect for me.”
Or a banker might say, “A family than mentions adding on to their home would be an excellent prospect for me.”
I’ve got some ideas, but maybe you have a cooler way of wording it than me. What would your “good prospect for me statement?” (Be sure to think about it before viewing the comments of what other people wrote - I wouldn’t want your creativity to be accidentally inhibited by others.)
Stop reading here (see the previous paragraph)!
9 responses so far ↓
1 A.J. // Jul 22, 2008 at 10:19 am
A golfer who gets recurrent back or shoulder problems would be a good prospect for me.
2 Joe // Jul 22, 2008 at 11:43 am
Someone who is frustrated about not getting better with a chronic illness.
3 jeremy // Jul 22, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Acupuncturists need to be portrayed as doctors, just doctors of Chinese Medicine. I am fed up with the whole spa/healer mentality. What we do is medicine. I hope patients refer to me in the same way they would refer a doctor. Maybe we are doctors without all the bad stuff that goes along with it; chemical drugs, no personality, no time, etc.
Anyone is a potential referrel once their condition gets improvement.
4 andy rosenfarb // Jul 22, 2008 at 12:48 pm
A good lead for me is anyone who suffers with (or knows anyone who is suffering ) degnerative vision loss.
5 andy rosenfarb // Jul 22, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Jermeny… AMEN BROTHER!!!
6 Monica // Jul 22, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Women suffering from any GYN disorder or menopause, including related side effects such as insomnia, hot flashes, pain or irritability.
7 Allan Fradsham // Jul 23, 2008 at 8:35 am
If you know someone who is in pain quite often, or someone who isn’t feeling “quite right” you are welcome to give them my name. I often see people that have not been feeling well and have gone to their western MD and they haven’t found any thing wrong, so they don’t have a real solution. You can tell them that they can come to me for a consultation and I will let them know if there is anything that I can do to help. (This is when I use Burton’s idea of getting a name of the person that they are thinking of, if they have brought it up, and give them my card and some info with there name on it. )
I think the key to this is getting across the idea that TCM is a primary healthcare system and that we can help with everything. If you do run a specialty practice then obviously you will want to focus on that.
8 Carlos C. // Jul 26, 2008 at 9:54 am
A good prospective statement would be from someone complaining of having tried almost “every doctor and specialist” (except TCM) and, still, his pain/fatigue/insomnia/anxiety/depression doesn’t seem to have end. Or, when someone says they really need a change in lifestyle, but dont even no where to start.
9 Juanita Ayson // Aug 10, 2008 at 4:37 pm
“I have a lot of stress, I feel depressed, I’ve been living with this pain for a long time, I just found out I have…” Prospects.
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