We are all learning and it will be interesting to see how things pan out.

The fact is that patients may be choosing other practitioners over you because they believe they are more suitable in some way and they may not be.

…but it is your job to let patients know who you are and what you can do, you cannot expect them to just know.

Most fully trained reputable doctors do not feel comfortable with this, which leaves the non-fully trained, less reputable doctors to shout out loud and ‘appear’ more qualified.

...so it is important to ensure that you promote and distribute each piece of content widely so you don't have to keep on thinking of things to say or do.

Check out my 'Why Your Private Practice Isn't Doing Well Course' here: https://myob.thrivecart.com/why-your-pp-isnt-doing-well/

We all fear complaints and there is a tendency to hope they want happen and perhaps ignore or distance ourselves from unhappy patients.

…but you should do the opposite.

At the first hint of dissatisfaction with any aspect of your patient’s care, you should exaggerate your response an aggressively ask for feedback and show that you are listening and will work on an action to make it right and/or prevent it from happening.

Complaints often come about from several small issues going unresolved until they reach a tipping point where it can sometimes become irreversible.

Seek out feedback and keep your patients on side to prevent this.

We don’t necessarily have to come up with the answers every time and patients don’t necessarily need explanations for everything that is happening.

Showing humility and working with patients through problems can lead to a greater connection and be less stressful.

You need to embrace technology and software especially in this day and age with AI.

You need to pay for these tools but as with any investment, you should be measuring it and aiming to get a return which is much more than the outlay.

Without software, you are making life very hard for yourself and trying to run up the hill when you could buy a bike (or a car).

·         You need a statement/philosophy that you can communicate

·         You need to communicate it as often and as widely as you can

…today the message is that we need to producing content around what people want to know.

Not about what we want to tell them.

I thought it was about maximising your website so that it comes up in searches.

…but I have learned that that is not the case.

We are in a golden age where you can use AI to do the work for you.

We must use AI and this is how we can do it.

….and I believe it is going to become even more important in the future.

So get ahead of the game and start thinking about it now.

Want to know what ‘it’ is?

They think they offer a great service and they think they are better than the other options out there to treat the conditions they treat.

…but it doesn’t matter what you think.

It matters what patients think.

You can’t expect patients to just know that you are the best option, you have to tell them and tell them why.

1.      New Customer

2.      Existing Customer

3.      Staff

I suggest you flip this on its head.

What are you doing to ‘get and keep customers’?

…because that is the point of a business, any business.

Whether you like it or not, your private practice is a business and as much as it is important to provide great clinical care and keep up to date with the latest innovations, your business lives or dies on it’s ability to get and keep customers.

You may be disappointed in the amount of new patients that you see in your clinic, but what are you doing to attract them?

Most of us are doing nothing, so for goodness sake, take a step back and start thinking of ways that you can do something to actually make a difference to your business.

…but it isn’t!

You spend your time doing extra work to pay for the advertising and it can be a struggle to make a good profit from it when you really analyse it.

You end up being a busy fool (that is coming from someone who has been one).

There is a much better way to make more money and at the same time, you will end up having to treat fewer patients, so it is a no-brainer!

Except that it takes a bit of effort and moving out of your comfort zone.

If you are serious about building a business, rather than just being busy at your job, watch today’s episode!

Whether it is: 

·         To let them know you are there and they can get in touch if they have any questions or concerns

·         To ask them to leave a review or recommend you to their friends

·         To give them information about what to look out for or how to maintain their result

·         To let them know about other services or products that you offer than might help them (keep this relevant to their condition)

These are the most engaged group in your database and one that we tend to forget and ignore.

Keep your database constantly engaged!

I have found it particularly useful to make me more efficient at operating because no one likes a slow surgeon.

It is not about cutting corners, nor is about trying to be a super productive high output operator.

It is about making sure that you get the things you need to do, done

…and doing it in the least time, so that you have more time for yourself to go for a walk or spend time with your family.

If they come back to you having had a poor experience elsewhere, you should be able to confidently say to them ‘I told you so’!

There is a tendency to worry that you might be sending out inappropriate information and so there is a tendency to keep the message wide to cover all bases.

This is a mistake.

You should focus your information on your ideal customer/patient and speak directly to them.

If there are people who it does not resonate with, they are probably not going to have treatment with you and hopefully will unsubscribe.

POSTSCRIPT: just to be clear, you need to only send targeted information to patients who have expressed an interest, so I am not talking about sending breast implant information to tummy tuck patients – this could be annoying.

I am talking about sending a specific broadcast to patients who have enquired about breast augmentation, but some of them might not be appropriate or might want a type of implant you don’t offer or a technique like fat grafting – you should not try to widen your message to incorporate all of these people.

Keep your message focused on a small ideal set of people.

It is not going away and we need to embrace it and look for ways we can utilise it and bend it to our will.

It still requires a lot of input and effort from your part as you cannot let it just run autonomously (not yet).

…but I think the successful practices in 2026 will be leveraging the benefits of A.I.

Make sure that is you.

They have usually already been to see their GP and referred to the NHS but they are still contacting me.

The other doctors will almost certainly say that they should get it treated in the NHS.

I think they think it is wrong or unethical in some way to treat patients privately if the NHS will treat it.

I understand this viewpoint, but I now realise it is wrong.

• It can be difficult and inconvenient for patients to get an appointment in the NHS.
• The waiting list is long and appointments are not flexible
• They often see a different doctor and may well not be treated by a consultant
• They may have had a previous bad experience in the NHS 

To be honest, it doesn’t really matter what the reason is, the fact is that they are enquiring with you and so you should offer treatment if you can.  
There is nothing wrong or unethical, in fact it is the opposite. 

You have to differentiate to attract your ideal patients, but this means that while you should share why you are the best person to treat that person or type of condition, you also have to say what person or condition you are not so well suited to treat.

It is hard because we all want to treat everyone, but it will make your life easier and it will result in more work, not less.

Just put enough to encourage patients to want to find out more.

You should have a button clearly visible at various places on the page including at the top (above the fold) to allow patients to indicate interest in your service.

This could be something like: 

·         ‘Find out more about what happens at consultation’

·         Request prices

·         Learn about the different ways to …

·         Information about…

Once they have contacted you, then you can start to give more information, both about the thing they have asked about and also about you and your practice.

This should be drip feed in a series of emails and you can use an email autoresponder software to do this automatically.  I use one called Keap and you can get a referral link from me if you are thinking of using it.

Many emails with just one point in each is better than one email with a whole lot of information that few people are going to read through.

If you want people to do something or follow a process, you can’t expect to say it once or have it written in a manual and they will follow it.

You need to tell them and reinforce it time and time again.

I learned this lesson in our clinic meeting yesterday…

This is an NHS mentality because the NHS is not competitive.

Private Practice IS competitive.

Not only do you have to demonstrate superiority compared to your competitors in some way, but you also have to be ‘aggressively helpful’.

This means that you need to call patients back and follow up with them.

Having said that, you should use all the modalities to contact them.

Until you have got in touch with a patient, you should use every modality available to you to contact them:

·         Phone

·         SMS

·         WhatsApp

·         Email

Too many of us and our receptionists/enquiry handlers have a preferred method of contact whether that be phone or email or whatever, and they neglect to try to contact patients in other ways.

If you like contacting people by phone, it doesn’t mean everyone wants to be contacted by phone.

If you like text or WhatsApp, it may not be everyone’s preference.

Give patients as many options as you can, and then engage with them on their platform of choice.

I find that a WhatsApp number works well.

It doesn’t mean that you are liable for an emergency call at 3am.  You make it clear that it is just another way to get in touch with your practice.

I think a lot of us are worried that we will be hounded at all hours, so we put up blocks and make things difficult for patients to get in touch.

If you try it, you might be surprised that you are not as inundated as you might think and it is just a way of lowering the barrier to entry to your practice.

Many of us worry about the quality of the content we produce, so we spend time with the format and graphics and messaging, which limits how much stuff we get out there.

When you start ramping up your output, you will find that some things resonate more than others and so these are the things you can then try to polish up.

…but I do think that ‘pull marketing’ is much more effective, ethical and easier to implement than ‘push marketing’.

I explain why in today’s episode.

We make sure that we know what we are doing before we take action to treat a patient

…and this is undoubtedly a good trait when it comes to being a doctor.

However, this does not serve us well in the world of business.

It is much better to take consistent imperfect action to keep your business moving.

·         It is not your hands

·         Or your knowledge

·         Or your experience

·         Or your reputation

The first thing is to acknowledge what has value in your practice (the thing that you can sell to someone else) and then to spend time nurturing it and looking after it.

• will I have to pay for another consultation to discuss the results?
• are these tests absolutely necessary and can I have a chance to think about it?
• what if the test shows something, might I need another test?

These are reasonable concerns that many of us don't address because we are a doctor who is seeing a patient and will order whatever tests are necessary.

This is fine, but in the self pay sector, we must be transparent about what tests are needed and why they are needed and more importantly, HOW MUCH THEY ARE GOING TO COST.

If you are not discussing this with your patients before you are sending them for the tests, you are acting like a bit of a cowboy even though you might think you are an honourable doctor.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t treat insured patients, it just means that you can’t rely on them.

If you rely on insured patients, you are working for the insurance companies, so don’t be surprised if they cut your fees or impose restrictions on you.

You need to focus on the self pay market and develop your services around giving more value to your self pay patients because this is the group that you can control and really separate yourself out from your colleagues.

This could be batch producing content, say once a month

…or doing something regularly and have people and/or systems that will result in that getting sent out.

Make a point of developing a process for how patients are treated postoperatively and tell patients what you are offering so that they can compare it with others.

Not many people do this, so it should not be hard to come away favourably to justify why someone should have treatment with you.

…but if you want to run a business, then you have to acknowledge that they are dispensable.

You need to rely on processes and put in systems that allow your people to deliver those processes.

You still need good people, but having processes means that you can analysis the issue when things go wrong, rather than blaming a person.

It also means that if that person leaves or goes off sick, gets pregnant or has a holiday, you are not left clueless as to how to manage a booking or process a payment.

Rely On Processes, Not People!

If you want to avoid patients being angry about being kept waiting 

Either:

1.      Don’t keep them waiting and make sure your clinics always run on time (difficult)

or

2.      Let them know you are overrunning and give them an idea of how long (simple)

I think many of us are afraid to confront the issue and hide behind an air of business and importance, rather than thinking about it from the patient’s point of view.

The first step is to decide what it is you are selling

…and the next step is to ask people if they want to buy it.
 

Sound simple?  Why don’t any of us do this?

…fear not.

Ideally, you should be posting varied content regularly on them all, but that is not feasible for most of us.

If you don’t know where to start, I’ve got the answer for you.

There is one channel you should be focusing on above all others.

Don’t tell them things that they already know or can find out anywhere.

If your website, social media content and emails could have been written by a marketer or an AI bot, then you need to look at it again.

Lead with information that patients can’t find elsewhere, which will allow you to stand out and give patients a reason to come and see YOU.

Trump is mustard

If you want to give a message, it is better to be clear and polarising rather than trying to wash it down and please everyone.

People like Donald Trump are widely hated, but they are also widely loved, because the people who resonate with their message can really get behind them.

If you try to water down your message, or don’t have a clear message, you will not get staunch and avid supporters, which is what we need in this day and age.

#bemoretrump #getpolarised

…but it is not just for Nike and Coca-Cola.

You should think about branding.

We should aspire to have a ‘look’ that patients will recognise.

Thinking about 

• a colour palette
• fonts
• a logo
• a strap line
• a message that you keep coming back to

It is quite simple for all of us to do this.

Patients often like to come back for ‘check ups’ and it keeps you front of mind with them.

You may or may not charge for these appointments, but either way, you should give people the option to keep coming back to see you if they want.

Too many of us have the NHS mentality to discharge people as soon as possible, but this is because the NHS is trying to treat as many patients as efficiently as possible.

It doesn’t have to be this way in the private sector.  We don’t need efficiency, we can focus on service.

Don’t give patients in the private sector the same treatment that you give them in the NHS.

*Listen to the end for a bonus tip I almost forgot to add!😀*

Protect your time so that you are not constantly interrupted with queries.

Let your team know that you will get back to them at 4pm on a Thursday (or whenever).

Look at your practice as a business and the business should get back to patients straight away and aim for giving a great service in that regard.

…but that doesn’t mean that you have to be constantly available.

Separate yourself from the business and make your team immediately available, but not yourself.

This is an important distinction.

The point of having a social media profile is to let people know that you exist and what you can do for them.

We all struggle for content, but you do not need to post original content all the time, it is fine to repeat yourself.

Think of any famous brand and they are continuously repeating the same message – ‘I’m loving it’, ‘Just do it’

Look at your most successful post in terms of engagement or views and repost that – every week or month depending on how often you are interspersing other stuff.

Social media is like a river and it just keeps flowing so it is fine to keep reposting as not many people will see each post.

The best way to do this is to give names to the service(s) that you offer.

This makes them more memorable and more re-markable.

We often find it hard to delegate things, but it is important to realise that we don’t have to do everything ourselves.

If you have a good secretary or a clinic nurse, you can offer access to them.

You may say that patients can call and speak to them already, but you can make this a ‘thing’.

Offer ‘free video calls with a member of the team’ – that patients can book on to.

It may be something that patients can already do, but formalising it and making it bookable will lend it more importance and patients will value it more.

…but it doesn’t have to be this way in the private sector.

Don’t just mirror your NHS practice in your private practice, aim to make it better if you can.

There is no reason that you can’t be available to answer questions, so let your secretary know that you will get back to patients, even if that is via your secretary through an email.  Every now and then, email patients back yourself, it will be appreciated.

The difference was TIK TOK.

You may not feel like using Tik Tok but if you want to be one of the busy ones, you have to be using social media to get your message out.

The thing that is hyped up is the one that gets looked at, so if you want to treat more patients, you have to start shouting about it.

You will probably never do too much of this because so many of us do so little of this (or none at all).

People can find information about the things that you do all over the place, so don’t focus on putting that out there

…focus on putting stuff out there that tells patients why they should come and see you. 

…but then, it is just as important to make that content obvious and easily accessible.

Try and find it yourself or ask a friend or family member to see if they can find it.  

You may be surprised.

That is Call To Action – singular.

You have to decide on one action that you want your patients to do and repeatedly ask them to do that.

·         Is it to call you?

·         Or email you?

·         Or fill in a form?

·         Or send you a message?

·         Or book a consultation? (I don’t recommend this one)

I know that patients could potentially do any of those things and you would be happy, but you cannot offer all of these options.

Unless your patient is very committed, they will tend to move on and do nothing.

Decide on the one call to action above all others that you would ideally like your potential patients to do and direct them towards this.

…but when it comes down to specifics about what to make a video on 

Or what to post in social media

Or how to design your thumbnail

I can’t actually tell you the best thing to do

NO ONE CAN.

If there was a best – we would all be doing it.

You never know what is going to work and so you need to be trying things all the time and every now and then, something will land.

You’ve got to be in it to win it.

I know that it is awkward and no one particularly likes it, but you are really missing a trick if you are not getting on board.

There is absolutely no excuse in this day and age for not producing regular videos and it is a great way to talk to your patient and get your message across.

You will be surprised at how many people will say ‘I feel I know you because I have seen your videos’.

Don’t just listen to me saying this – get out there and do it!

However Simon Sinek shared a lesson from working with the Navy Seals which highlights the importance of looking for people based on Trust which is valued more highly than performance.

ps. you can see an image of the whiteboard in the podcast episode artwork.

This is the lowest hanging fruit and the place that I always tell people to start.

Regularly contacting your database is important, but can be daunting, so start on this small group of patients.

Start with the patients that you saw in the last month and based on this make a plan that you can roll out to do for everyone moving forward.

First of all this means things that your patients will see, so not audits or signing off clinic letters or updating policies and procedures (I’m not saying these things aren’t important, they just aren’t as important as doing things your patients will see).

Then thing about doing things that will have a disproportionate impact.

This means:

1.      Start with contacting your database.  This means people who have enquired or been to clinic or had a procedure.  Send them a text or an email to touch base and to check they are OK and to make sure that they still know about you and what you offer (keep it relevant).  You should be contacting your database ideally once a week, but failing that aim for once a month.  NOTE: don’t carpet bomb - segment

2.      Then update your social media – more people will see your social media than your website, so focus on updating this.  Not only will this help to keep you front of mind, but you can link back to your website on platforms such as Facebook which will also bring more people to your website and hopefully in to your database.

3.      Look at your website.  This is the last place to focus on but many of us do not pay it any attention, so it is important not to forget.  Look at things through the eyes of a patient and look at your website on a mobile phone as this is how most patients will be accessing it.  Is it easy to get the message that you are trying to portray and is it easy for patients to get in touch and ask for more details?  Once you have a good structure, then look at updating your blog, which you can then post on your social media and email to your database to complete the circle.

It doesn’t matter if you are in full time NHS practice just scratching at private practice or if you have your own clinic with staff and surgeons working with you – we are all running.

This mainly refers to taking payment for consultations, but once you have the means to take payment yourself, there is no reason why you can’t start taking deposits for procedures.

Don’t do things the way everyone else does, just because…

They hospitals do not allow anybody to have treatment until they have paid, so why should you.

Wake up, take control and never have to chase an unpaid consultation fee again.

Keeping in regular contact with your current and potential patients is essential if you want to cultivate a caring and authoritative brand.  

This means phoning, emailing and texting.

It must be done judiciously and only about things that are relevant to that patient

…but it must be done.

I know we worry about looking like spam, but the more you do it, the less spammy it will be.

Let me explain…

 1. Thing about ways you want to change your life today, tomorrow or next week, not long term.  This takes the focus away from tangible 'things' which probably want bring lasting happiness.

 
2. You need to compromise.  Any change will come with some negative consequence, otherwise you would have done it already.  Think about what it will take to achieve the change and decide whether you are willing to accept the compromise

...or not.

Take time to think about the life you want to leave and take steps to achieve it.

Just because something comes along that looks like a good thing, it might not be conducive to your long-term goals.

Spending money on Google Adwords, as I do, makes you think about your ad headline and description, yet we don’t pay attention to our website page titles and descriptions.

Make your website as appealing as ads.

…but I am always ‘busy’, it is just somethings are more productive than other things, so it Is not about being busy, it is about being productive.

Strive to separate yourself from your colleagues and competitors by telling people how and why you do a specific thing well.  It may be the same as everyone else is doing (in fact it probably is, because not many of us are doing anything wildly different), but you are just doing this thing in this way.

This is an easy question to ask and it is easy for them to compare providers based on it, but it may not be the question you want them to ask.

You know that there are other things more important than price, but it can be hard to vocalise these things, so spend some time thinking about what sets you apart (don’t make it price) and then produce information about this.

Start the conversation with patients about the things that you think are important.

Don’t be tempted to join a council or a committee just because you have been asked.

Or become clinical lead or training supervisor…

If it aligns with your goals, great, but if not, don’t do it.

Think about where you want to be going before taking the leap.

…but just because you can do it, doesn’t mean that you should, because it will require an investment of your time and/or money and these are precious resources.

Do not worry about how many followers or subscribers that you have, it is OK if these are small numbers.

Think about why you are using social media and you will realise the point is not to get a huge following.

Most of us are doing it to get more patients to know about us and how we can help them, in which case we should focus on depth, not width...

Longer is not necessarily better and you don’t need to talk too much about the nuances of what you do, instead focus on the outcomes they can expect and if anything, a quicker procedure with less involvement, is better.

‘I spend a lot of time in consultations’

‘I will look at other aspects eg footwear if foot and ankle specialist or lifestyle if cardiologist’

These are usually things that you are already doing.

…but the thing is, we then need to communicate in our social media, website, emails and letters to patients.

We often have these things hidden inside, but for some reason when we put things on social media, they are generic and we do not convey these attributes.

Don’t hide your light under a bushel!

We didn't really know what the outcome should be (even though I was a doctor) and that was not as important as to how well we felt we were being looked after.

I think that too many of us are concerned about how we would be judged by our peers in terms of the clinical outcomes we are getting

...when what is really important is how we are judged by our patients, which I think has more to do with how we are making them feel.

That is not to say that you don't need to advertise,

...you absolutely do need to advertise.

Just don't pay for it!

You should not be trying to educate the public that hip replacements exist or that you can treat skin rashes, they already know that.

If you are just making them aware of the treatment, then you are just a commodity and they will be able to get that from anywhere.

You need to be looking at it from your customer’s point of view and giving them a reason to come and see you.

Most of us are so worried about being seen as 'spamming' patients, that we don't follow up at all and end up looking uncaring.

You should be looking at every stage of your patient's journey to see how you can keep in touch with them and give them help and guidance through the process.

·         They can phone you

·         Email you

·         Whatsapp you

·         Request a brochure

·         Download a guide

·         Book a call

·         Book a consultation

…it could go on, but it is important not to offer all of these at once

Aim to have one specific CTA for each social media post, webpage or video.

If you want to have a chance of getting on the podium, then it takes a lot of hard work and we may not all be able to achieve this but at least we can try.

Half the battle is knowing what you are expected to achieve and the other half is actually getting down and doing it.

This is what you are expected to achieve...

If you want to separate yourself from everyone else who is just going through the motions and not trying to excel in their field, there are 3 things that you need to have in place in your private practice.

1.      Follow up

2.      SMS

3.      WhatsApp

If you aren’t using these three things, then you don’t have a chance of competing on a national level, although you could still have an OK private practice in your local area.

Today is the election and we have to decide who to vote for.  All the parties are trying to convince us that they are the best but we will all individually have things that are more important to us.

There has to be differentiating factors so that we can make a decision and the more clear the differentiators are, the stronger the opinion (good or bad) is.

It is essential that you advertise your private practice, but if you think that you can’t afford it, think again.

I’m not going to say that you can’t afford not to, I am going to say that you don’t need to pay for it at all!

Advertising your practice is not about paying for adverts, it is about telling people that you exist and what you can do to help them – simple!

You should be doing this all the time and IT COSTS NOTHING.

Well, that is not strictly true, because it costs your time, but it doesn’t cost any money.

It is too easy to be blind to what is happening with your private practice because, let’s face it, we have enough on our plate with the clinical work

…but understanding the back office process with responding to and handling enquiries is vital and can make a dramatic difference in your business and you may not even realise it.

You buy shares in business that are growing and planning to increase their revenues and profits, not in static business with no strategic vision and plan.

What does your practice look like?  Apple or Nokia?

It is important to produce regular content if you can, but it is equally important to utilise that content effectively.

That means, you need to make it compound.

Rather than having to continually feed the machine, you can maximise the content you have already produced to ramp out the output of the machine.

I think a lot of us are missing a trick in what a business person would call ‘upselling’.

I know that as a doctor, we don’t think of what we do as ‘selling’ and there is a lot more to providing a medical service compared with, for instance, a shop keeper.

However, I do think that we can treat patients better and be more helpful if we were to think about whether there is anything that could be helpful to them, that we could facilitate them purchasing, whether that be through stocking it and sending it out to them ourselves, or using affiliate links in places like Amazon. 

Much as we like to think that we offer a bespoke service and we need to talk to and examine patients before coming up with a diagnosis, if you think about it, there is often things you can do by asking questions.

If you can formulate some questions that will help bring patients down a certain path, this will free up your time and allow you to potentially scale your practice.

Not only that, it means that you may be able to offer help and advice to patients before they come to see you.

...it just takes a little thought.

You may have seen a lot of people telling you how effective Facebook marketing can be.
 
...I have seen these people too.

But I am here to say that we, as doctors, should not do Facebook Ads. 

At least, not unless we have exhausted several other avenues first to grow our practice.

In my experience, Facebook ads are ineffective and can result in you getting in a lot of trouble with Facebook.

Let me explain...

I think it may be a doctor thing that we are very proud to announce how busy we are, but I feel that we are sometimes better at being busy than being productive

...especially when it comes to building our practice.
 
We are very good at being productive when we are doing our clinical work in clinics and doing procedures, but much less so when it comes to the self-directed work involved in SPA's.
 
Be honest, if you looked at how productive you were doing your SPA time, do you think that you would be proud of your output??

Some sites require a monthly payment and some are free

...do you get what you pay for?

In my view, it is easy - there is only one review site you should be encouraging patients to leave a review for you.

You may be surprised if you analyse what your most profitable activities are.

With this knowledge it can help you to know what to focus on.

There seems to be two camps. Those traditional doctors who feel that advertising in medicine should not be allowed
 
...and those that are on tik tok and snapchat offering deals and offers.
 
Like with most things, the ideal situation is in the middle. I think that advertising is fine, but there has to be boundaries, which is why the ASA (advertising standards authority) is OK.
 
If you are helping people and simply letting them know what you can do, that is good. The NHS does that.
 
However, coercing or exaggerating claims is wrong whatever field you are in.

 ...but also, don't only worry about revenue because by the time you have realised there is a problem, it may be too late!

The process to take involves analysing that area and measuring how it is performing, then thinking of how you could improve things and trying that, then measuring again.
 
Don't spend too much time on the thinking of how you can improve things side of it, because you will never know until you try.

Whether that be:
·         your website
·         your follow up sequences
·         your social media
·         your YouTube channel

Look at what you have at present through the eyes of your patient and think of ways of improving that area, then measure the change and do more of what works and less of what doesn't!

I am a big fan of meetings, they can be enjoyable, but in terms of productivity, they leave a lot to be desired.

Things only happen when you do stuff and it is too easy to plan and ruminate without actually doing anything.
 
The power of focused activity is like a laser that cuts through the hours of procrastination.
 
Set aside time to do things - an hour is enough. 

You will be amazed.

This is easy to say, but hard to do.

We must move away from the mindset that we are here to offer services to patients and move towards the idea that patients need us to help them with a problem and we can choose who we treat and how we treat them.

Forget about SEO, if you want to get your website working for you, you need to optimise it.

Don't spending time and money trying to get more people to visit your website, you would be surprised to see how you can optimise what you have already got.

If you want to have food, you have to use some of your food as bait in order to catch more food. 

People who use good bait, don't do it because they have a lot of food. 

They have a lot of food because they use good bait. 

If you don't have much food, you can't afford NOT TO use some as bait.

What's On The Menu?

If you want people to choose your dish, you have to explain to them what you are offering.

It can be very appealing to use paid advertising and it certainly works - it will bring in more patients.

...but have you stopped to think about whether it is worth it?

We should measure it's worth differently to how the paid advertising salesmen measure it.

We all have two lives, the second life starts when we realise we only have one life.

A commodity has no differentiation and it doesn't matter where it comes from. The price is set according to supply and demand.

A product can be differentiated through branding and marketing and there can be a wide range of prices.

The gazelle needs to run faster than the lion, otherwise it will get eaten.

The lion needs to run faster than the gazelle otherwise it will starve.

Either way, if you are a gazelle or a lion, when you wake up, you’d better start running.

 If you want to grow and scale your private

practice, you cannot do this by treating more patients.

 There will come a time when quality will suffer.

 If you want a sustainable practice that can fly, you need to focus on quality, not quantity.

It is often said that time is our most valuable asset, but it is not.

Today I will talk about what is...

I am at our plastic surgery conference and there are a lot of interesting talks, but they will not have a significant effect on your patients.

You need to lever your time and do the things that will make the most difference.

I don't advise giving out your mobile phone number (although I know some consultants do), but I also don't advise that you have barriers between yourself and your patients. 

Your secretary should not be your gatekeeper, you should be available and supportive. 

That is where WhatsApp comes in....

Most of us rely on word of mouth, which is people recommending us after they have experienced the treatment we have provided.

This is a brilliant source of patients, but if you want to have a business rather than a job, you need to have more control over the flow of patients in to your practice and you cannot hide your excellent customer experience until people are treated by you, you need to find way to communicate what you offer and why someone should come and see you.

 The things that you have to do are pretty obvious once they are pointed out to you.
 
 - give information
 - engage with patients
 - be helpful 
 - show that you care
 
 It is not an amazing revelation, yet so few of us do these things.
 
 Why?

The best investment that you can make if you want to grow your practice, is not in advertising, PR or marketing

...it is in improving your service.

What are you doing to improve the service that you are giving to your patients?

You need to control as much of your practice as possible and if you pay for review sites such as Trustpilot, Doctify or RealSelf, you will be helping to build their brand, not yours.

When people search for you, they will be directed to these sites, and unless you opt for premium subscriptions, they may be diverted away to one of your competitors.

...and when you stop paying, you will not own any of the reviews.

My preference is to have a Google My Business page and encourage reviews on this.

If you want to grow beyond the traditional 'time for money' model that most doctors are in, you have two options. 

Either you build assets that can be digital or physical like courses or products, or you utilise other people to treat patients on your behalf.

You should be keeping in touch with your database with relevant and helpful information and it is OK if that information is on your website, or you have already told them in clinic. 

Not everyone will read everything you put out there and if they do, they may not remember and so it is fine, in fact, essential, to repeat yourself.

Ideally, it should not be specifically be about the outcomes that you can achieve or how good a doctor you are.

You really want patients to be coming to your practice, but not necessarily to be treated by you.

In this way you can scale and sell your business and you will be free to have other doctors working with you.

Follow up is an essential part of growing a successful business but it is important to try to disassociate yourself from the outcome.

Focus on the process to find and nurture people who would benefit from your help.

There will inevitably be 'no's' but accept those and move on, in fact embrace them because they help you to keep your database clean.

You have to point people in your direction and constantly remind them.

You do this by building a contact database and repurposing your content.

Look at the places that will have the most eyes on them to focus your efforts,

You should keep contacting your patients and potential patients forever and never give up unless they tell you that they are no longer interested in hearing from you.

Do not assume you are bothering them as long as you are providing relevant and useful content.

If anyone gets upset, then they were not good quality prospects to start with.

Patients may say they are interested in this, but they are not.

They are only interested in getting rid of a pain or moving towards a pleasure.

Listen to what they are asking and the language they are using to discover what you should be talking about when you communicate with them.

The easiest person to fool is yourself and it is really helpful to talk to other people to tell them what you are doing to grow your practice and why patients are coming to see you.

Even if that someone is not interested, it is amazing how powerful it is to help focus your mind.

How many offers have you made today, this week, this month, ever?

Try to realise, before it is too late, that you need to take as much action as quickly as possible rather than waiting until things are perfect or the time is right. 

Imperfect Action beats Perfect Inaction every time.

Many doctors that I speak to are busy and I feel for them.

I used to be busy

…but I am not so busy any more and I spend most of my time trying to make myself less busy.

That is my goal.

It doesn't matter how much planning or thought that goes in to the service that you want to offer, you must be regularly communicating.

• Communicating on your website
• Communicating on your social media
• Communicating to your database of patients who have been to clinic or had treatments

The ideal is once a week, but aim for once a month and move on from there.

True change only comes when you consistently commit to doing something on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Goals are useful but habits are more important.

Focus on the things that you can control, eg contacting patients, writing blog posts, doing videos.

Rather than things you can't control, 

• like how many patients you see, 
• how many procedures you do 
• and how much money you make.

If you were going to pray for something, it would be helpful to those involved if you were specific about it.

It is easier to reach a goal or get a thing if you specifically know what that thing your are reaching for, is.

You might be, but you might not be (and probably aren't).

...but every patient that you have treated has decided that you were the best doctor to treat them, so what have they based that decision on?

Think about why patients choose a doctor and you will realise that there is a lot more to it than how good a doctor they are.

If you can work on these other areas of your practice, then you will help you patients to make the decision to choose you.

Ask any of your colleagues what sort of service they give and they will all say that they are ‘good’. No one will admit to being average.

Good is the new average.
 

You have to be exceptional, or more specifically, remarkable.  This means you need to give patients a reason to remark upon you.

Everyone is good, so if you want patients to seek you out and pay a premium to see you, you have to stand out.

What are you already doing that you can shine a light on and what other things can you do to be better than everyone else?

If you don't have a live chat feature on your website, I suggest that you get one.

They can have automated responses but it is better if you can have whoever answers your phone, to 'man' it so that people can get a response from a human.

You can even be available yourself to answer people's queries who are coming to your website.

It is getting more difficult to get people's attention in this world and patients will only have a short amount of time on your website.

Rather than spending ages putting in loads of information on your website, you are better off having a prominent lead magnet and then communicating the information in a drip feed pattern once you have the contact details.

The time you save by not fiddling with your website should be spent on putting small bit sized messages on your social media.

When I talk to doctors, I always ask why patients should choose them.  

I know it is a difficult question and everyone find it hard to answer.

It doesn't have to be unique things, but it does have to be things that you do that someone else may not.

After a bit of encouragement, most people will be able to come up with something, but when you look at the information they are putting out, this special aspect of their service is never mentioned.

You have to tell people why they should choose you.

Don't lose sight of the reason you are doing what you are doing. 

- You are not trying to build a social media empire
- You are not trying to educate the public
- You are not trying to build a global brand

Focus on what your aim is at each step.  

When you are producing content for your website or social media, your aim should be to get a lead.

When you are contacting your leads, your aim should be to get them to come to the clinic.

When they have come to clinic, your aim should be for them to have a procedure or come back for a follow up.

When they have had a procedure, your aim should be for them to have another procedure or to refer a friend or leave a review.

It must be frustrating if you are a songwriter and you feel that you write great songs, but they don't get anywhere.

Even if you have a great singer to sing your songs - it is not enough.

Success requires you to look at the whole reason that someone chooses something (like what song to listen to) and there is more to it than just the actually thing.

The True Measure Of Time Is Change.

Don't let things cruise on, you have to make changes as that is what is important in life.

I believe we should all be spending our lives producing art, whether that is painting a picture or making music or running a business.

It is about putting forward your interpretation of things rather than just doing what others are doing.

The main focus of our efforts after someone enquiries is POSITIONING.

We need to let them know that we are an expert and we are best placed to treat them and we do this by producing information and communicating that information to them.

Most of us are not doing this enough.

We need to be giving our patients RELEVANT information to build authority and position ourselves as the expert.

We are brought up to feel guilty about private practice as if we are being unfaithful to our NHS practice by spending time on it.

We have to realise that the NHS is in real trouble and we will need to treat more patients in the private sector, so there is nothing to be guilty about by telling patients about what you offer.

Many patients fear that private healthcare, especially self-pay, is prohibitively expensive, but we are not giving them any real information on what the costs are likely to be.

Look at how many patients have Range Rovers and new iPhones.

If we give more clarity around the process and pricing we will be helping patients and ultimately helping the NHS.

If you want to change, accept there will be some bad with the good.

If you are not happy where you are and you want something different, there will inevitably be some downside to it, otherwise you would have done it already.

...in fact, everyone would have done it.

Growing your private practice takes time and effort and your income will probably go down instead of up to start with.

If it didn't work this way, everyone would be doing it.

Look to the future and put in the effort to reap rewards later.

We cannot get away from thinking about things and we tend to focus on negativity and worry.

Given that we have to think, each moment we are either thinking about memories or inspiration.

Try to think forward about what you want your life to be like and move towards that.

It is common for doctors to sit back and complain as to why they haven't got more patients in their private clinic.

I was certainly guilty of this when I started at my local private hospital.

I now realise that you actually have to do stuff to get in front of patients to make them want to come and see you.

Everyone is busy, so you have to work to get the attention of patients and prospective patients.

I think a lot of us have a hang up with earning money and do not feel that we should earn large sums. 

Try not to feel guilty for charging a lot for your service. 

If you are focused on helping your patients and giving them more value than others - you will be expected to charge more and are doing a disservice by not charging more.

Focus on creating content in different areas - website, linkedin, facebook, instagram, tik tok, etc, so that when people google you, they see content that you control.

This is good practice and will protect you from any potential negativity that might come your way.

You have to find time to look at the systems and processes in your private practice in the same way that you have to find time to do clinics and operating lists.

It is an integral part of running your own private practice and should not be seen as an unnecessary annoyance or distraction.

Learn to love working on the systems and processes or go and work for someone else (like the NHS).

If you could boil down the problem for all of us trying to grow our private practice, it can be distilled to one word - COMMUNITY.

In fact, this is the problem with the world at the moment.

We need to build communities and make people feel part of them.

If you want to get your message across, then you need to say it time and time again.

It is important to:
1.  Have something to say
2.  Stay consistent with the thing you are saying
3.  Say it over and over again

Don't be afraid to contact people regularly and don't be afraid to repeat your message, although you should always try to add new and fresh angles.

There are lots of products that are more expensive than the standard products and it might not be immediately obvious why you should pay more.

It is often only after using it for a while that you realise why you have paid the extra.

It can be like this with doctors.  We can all look like we are offering a similar thing and it is only when people experience our clinical care, do they see why we might be different.

That is why word of mouth recommendation is so powerful, but our job is build a practice that does not rely on this.

We need to be an aspirational product that costs more and patients will want to pay more for.

I hear about some companies that don't seem interested in patients once they have taken their money and the excuse is that it is because 'they are a business'. 

...but this is not good business and they will not last long with this business model. It is good business to look after you clients and provide a great service and sometimes for us, that means not treating them. 

We are doctors first and must treat the patient.

Most of us are vanilla and we charge the same as our colleagues, we look the same as our colleagues and don't try to distinguish ourselves at all.

We think that our reputation and clinical skill will separate us apart.

...but is doesn't, at least not for anything but a very small group of patients.

Face it - you are average.

How about thinking about how you can be better than average?

[Van Life Episode] 

Money is exchange of value, look for ways to give value and you will make more money.

Practising gratitude can help you to realise how luck you are and to focus on the positive things in your life.

It is also good for your practice, because it is nice to say 'thank you' to your patients now and again and not enough of us do this.

Building a better private practice is all about giving a better service to your patients so that they will want to come and see you rather than Dr A.N. Other.

If you focus on this, then you will be much happier and have a much more sustainable and profitable practice, than if you focus on trying to get new patients.

An asset is something that puts money in your pocket without you having to be there and for most of us, the only asset that we have is our database (and we all have a database).

Unless you have developed a process or way to treat patients that can be transferred to other doctors, then you do not have any other asset. 

If you think that your medical skill or experience is an asset, then it is not, it is a job and is worthless without you doing it and so can be sold or transferred.

When you realise the value in your database, perhaps you won't ignore it as much as you have been.

We are all time poor and yet it is important to get content out there, so perhaps the easiest way is to use your voice. 

This means dictating blog posts/emails. Talking in to your iphone to make podcasts (like this) 

...and if you can add video to it, making videos, preferably live so you don't have to edit and can't back out.

It is important to spend some time thinking about what your goals are in life and then making plans to achieve those goals. 

Otherwise, you will default to the usually goals of trying to make more money and get more work and forget why you are doing those things.

It is very easy to breeze through life and look back and think 'what have I achieved'.

The milestones are clear when we are training but once we finish training, there can be a tendency for the years to run on with not much happening.

Time moves fast, so you should think about what you want to achieve and where you want to be and start moving towards that every day.

One day you will not be able to work towards your goals because you will be too old, so play the game while you can and while you have still got a seat at the table.

Medicine is a great field to be able to grow in to an authority figure will very little resources needed. 

We must position ourselves as experts in our field and we can do this ourselves without needing any external support or infrastructure. 

We must appreciate how lucky we are and start making ourselves in to the leaders in our fields.

There are many different solutions to a problem and the choice of products is dazzling. 

If one thing was better than another, we would all use that. It is a wonderful balance and it is unlikely that you will find any significant benefit in one thing, no matter how much time you spend looking, so just accept it and choose one.

It is important to delegate and empower your staff to do things to help you. This is essential if you are going to build a happy and successful business.

However, it may also lead to a decrease in quality, but do not get stressed about this - it is almost inevitable.

They may do things in a different way to the way that you would do things, or it may be frankly worse than you would do it.

DON'T JUST STOP.

Use it to build on your systems and processes for delegation and accept that there may be some hiccups along the way.

We must learn to delegate more, but we must also spend time on systems and technology to support our staff so that we make sure they do things the way we want them to be done.

You can't expect people to just know.

It is important to try to better yourself and look for help and guidance from others

...but be careful who you listen to and be aware that they do not know you.

At the end of the day, you must consume as much information as you can, but then you must process it and use it for your own unique situation.

It is natural to want to do everything ourselves or at least to oversee things, but it is impossible to grow a successful practice and have a good life this way.

You need to empower the people that you work with so that you can free up your time to allow you to focus on the things that are really going to make a difference.

If you have something to prepare - leave it to the last minute.

Parkinson's Law dictates that the job will take as long as you have got to do it in.

Most people focus on new patients first, then existing patients and their staff last.

I think you should turn this upside down and make sure your staff are happy first,
...then existing patients (you won't get many new patients if you don't look after the existing ones you have)
...and only then, the new patients.

Make sure your staff are happy and it will show through to your patients and create a practice where you look after your patients well and the word will get out.

Don't focus your efforts on new patients at the expense of these things.

Don't forget the simple things.  

Make it obvious for patients to see the things that set you apart from others.

This is the main thing that you should be focusing on because the things that you do the same as others, they can find elsewhere.

Tasks that will have a direct effect on a patient coming to see you should be prioritised over

- those that might make things run smoother in the background,
- or be a good idea,
- or possibly make a difference in the future.

Suzuki just make motorbikes, whereas Harley Davidson stand for more than that.

Most doctors just do doctor work and don't try to stand for more than that.

Think about how you can differentiate yourself by standing for something more.

Every time a patient has come to see you, there will be a reason that they have chosen you.

Our job is to give patients an obvious reason for them to choose us rather than leaving them to rely on all of the soft differences that separate most of us.

I know it sounds basic, but if you want something, try asking for it!

Like:
- asking for a review
- asking for a referral
- asking if a patient wants to come back for a follow up appointment
- or if they would like to book a procedure

Sometimes you have to go back to basics and realise that building your practice is not actually all that hard.

It is not all about the medication that we give, there is a very real effect of the way the medication is given and how the patient feels about their treatment.

You can use this effect to get better outcomes in your Private Practice.

If you want to grow, you have to delegate jobs and it is easy to get frustrated if people do not do things the way you would like.

...but don't get frustrated - you can't expect them to 'just know'.

You have to spend time on setting clear goals and only then can you decide whether they are doing a good job or not.

Tonight I will be talking about the importance of getting help - whether that is by outsourcing, or employing or using technology.

We are programmed to sort out problems ourselves from a young age and it takes a mindset shift to move away from that (it seems like cheating!)

Stop worrying about things that don't make a difference to your patient's experience.

...but start by thinking what would be helpful for your patients.

This was brought home to me when I heard Steve Jobs talking on a YouTube video recently: https://youtu.be/oeqPrUmVz-o

I have been formulating an idea about how I can get across the importance of time management and getting stuff done and I have come up with the APDS - find out more!

I wonder why most doctors don't have a robust practice and I think it is because they are too comfortable and not prepared to give anything up in order to get long term stability and control.

We are not used to managing our own time and so are very bad at it when it comes to managing our private practice.

Hold yourself accountability and schedule in time to work on your business, otherwise it will never happen.

I love technology and utilise countless bits of software and add-ins and apps to drive my Private Practice, but hands-down there is one app that beats all others and I am giving it away FREE!  

Want to know what it is? 😀

Technology can enhance the human side of your practice and is essential if you want to deliver a first class service.