Your greatest asset as an acupuncturist is your patient base.  I don’t care how many or how few patients you have.  You would be surprised at how many people tell me they have 3 patients.  Not 2, not 4 or 5, exactly three.  It doesn’t matter.

You need to focus just as much on patients you already have as on getting new patients.  Probably more.

A common rule of thumb is that an existing customer (patient) is 7x as likely to do business with you as a new patient.  That’s probably an underestimate when it comes to acupuncture.

Too many acupuncturists just don’t remind people they’re available to help. This causes the revolving door syndrome - you’re forced run in place.  You’re constantly working replace all the patients that are exiting your practice, instead of being an ongoing part of their health care.

Recently I was contacted by an acupuncturist that has been practicing for 30 years.  She’s had her own clinic for 25 years - a true pioneer.  She was concerned because in the last few months she’s seen a definite drop-off in patients.  She wanted to join my coaching program, hire me to train her receptionist, and help her with her website. She had good questions about reactivating patients, doing SEO for her website, etc.

Good questions, she knew where the leverage is.  She had done her homework.

However, she didn’t want to expand her practice. She just wants to make a comfortable living working a few days a week.

Even though she wanted to give me hundreds of dollars to tune up her marketing, I told her to hold off on that.  Save her money.  Just buy my book and apply it.  Because with a patient base spanning 25 years, I have no doubt she can simply reactivate her old patients and get referrals from new patients.  No need for marketing, advertising or even promoting her website.  At least not yet.

I’d actually be more worried about having too many patients.  That’s what I call a quality problem.

I regularly hear from acupuncturists who:

• Were worried about their practice surving before they read my book.
• Doubled their patient base within 6-8 months of reading it.
• Have a lot more fun with their practice - they know what to say, their patients like and understand them more, etc. etc.
• Feel energized and hopeful about their practice.

(If you’d like to read or leave a testimonial, please go here.  Like you, I really enjoy hearing when people have nice things to say.)

If you’re not properly taking care of your existing base of patients, your clinic IS leaking money and patients.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

So let me ask you - how are you making sure your past patients are still “active”?  How are you making sure that you’re taking care of your existing base of patients?  What do you still have left to do?