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Private Practice Marketing: 3 Secrets I Wish I Knew When I First Started Out
I don't know about you, but I am still waiting for my first class in graduate school about how to develop, market, and run a private practice. I'm also still waiting for my father to have a discussion with me about the facts of life. My wife and I have 2 kids, so I guess I figured it out for myself. Just like I had to figure out for myself how to market and build a practice. So here are three secrets I wish I knew when I first started my practice. Secret #1 - Grow Rich in a Niche A niche is simply a narrow and specific area in which you want to specialize. The opposite of having a niche is being a generalist. In the private practice therapist world, I call it "Death by ICF." Most therapists will tell you that they work with individuals, couples and families. Well, who doesn't? Doesn't every one? If you say you work with individuals, couples, and families, who don't you work with? Individuals, couples and families makes you sound like you arejust a garden variety plain vanilla therapist. It tells potential clients nothing about what you do. It makes no one say "That's the person I want to talk to right away!" Choose a niche in which you enjoy working. What really gives you a kick to do? What do other people marvel at you doing well? Then make sure it is self replicating. Recently I was talking with some friends at lunch and the subject came up about what would need to happen in theeconomy for each of us to continue to do well in our respective careers. I realized that all I really need to stay in business is for people to keep getting married and having kids. #2 - Return your calls I know it sounds so simple to do, but it's also so simple notto do. I'm always stunned by the number of counselors that tell me about how many days old messages they have on their desk to return. I have a rule that I will try my very best to return a call in the same day I received it. Sometimes it gets a little stressful when I have 8 calls to return, five more clients to see, and a family that for some crazy reason wants me home at night. Here's how I reframe it to help me handle it better: "I've worked very hard for a long time to get this many people to want to talk with the likes of me......." #3 - Return new referral calls within two hours I'm even more shocked by the number of clients that havetold me that they were given 3 names, I was the first to call back, and one of the others took a week and the other one never returned their call. Unbelievable. At this point in my practice, as a result of these tips I am giving you, usually when a new client calls specifically and only for me, I still get back to them within a couple of hours. As you are building your practice, many of your clients will be shopping around for a practioner. Be the first one to call back. Practice building mentor coach Jeff Herring, MS, LMFT is the President of BuildingYourIdealPractice.com, empowering private practice professionals to build, market and live the practice of their dreams. You are invited to subscribe to the free Getting Clients Newsletter and our free monthly Practice Building Tele-Seminar
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RELATED ARTICLES
Polishing Your Translation Style - Marketing Your Services You have read part 1 & 2 of this article series (see below for link). And, you are probably asking yourself "what else is there to say about improving one's translation style?" The answer to that, my friends, is the most important part of the message.Let's for a moment consider our profession from the perspective of the client. You have a translation project that needs a translator. You pull out all the stops: you hit the search engines; post on translation directories; you even call in a few favours asking for a reputable professional translation service. In short, you get the "word out." Pretty soon you have around a hundred (probably more) potential candidates. Then, based on your translation project criteria, and other priorities and considerations, you cull the list down to 10 candidates. The surviving candidates bring the exact same qualifications and benefits to the table. At this point you do an in-depth analysis on each potential candidate, and the material you have gathered on that candidate. So, here is the question: Who do you commission to take on your translation project?Part 3 of this article series answers that question.Applying the lessons of part 1 & 2 of this article series will put you in the final line up. However, although you may be the most accomplished professional in the business, it does not necessarily ensure that clients will contract your services. It is as simple as that-brutal to be sure, but the truth none the less! Here is where you get to ensure that you are not one of the "other nine."Let Your Reputation Precede YouWe are all somebody's client-no pearl of wisdom there, I am afraid. However, think about the time-and we have all experienced this at one time or another-when you made a major purchase decision for a particular product or service without the usual angst. It just seemed the most obvious thing to drop the "green", or money, on the table. You were totally comfortable with your decision. Why was that? Dell (computers) was my experience, and not because Dell produces the best computers, either. For me, it was because their reputation for quality, and quality of service preceded them. What is the lesson that can be applied to translation style?Deliver on the promise. Always deliver client projects on time. Better yet, don't just beat the deadline-deliver the project with time to spare. If for some reason, an act of God hopefully, you will not be able to deliver on time, let the client know in advance. The response may not be pretty, but it will be appreciated. And, whatever you do, do not come up with a lame excuse! Of course, nobody sets about a project intending to miss the deadline, and yet many do. You can avoid the "unavoidable" by not accepting projects with unrealistic or impossible deadlines. Negotiate a more reasonable deliver date, or simply refuse the job altogether-your reputation will not suffer. Working within your abilities is important, too. Do not accept material that you have little or no expertise knowledge about because then you will definitely end up making lame excuses. And finally, always make sure that you will be working within your abilities by evaluating the source text before you accept the project. Check it out yourself-do not take somebody's word that it is a business text.Take a page from Dell's operations manual-make your clients feel comfortable by developing a reputation for delivering more than you promise. You are already standing tall in that line up.Operate like a Professional to be a ProfessionalStart by knowing your client. That is, do some preliminary research on your client before submitting your material. This is important for a couple of reason. First, your research will manifest itself in the proposal submitted, and the client will definitely pick up on it. The message is powerful: this candidate is interested enough in the job to "go the extra mile!" Second, you are playing at a psychological level-you are appealing to a universal sense of vanity. Everybody likes to feel important enough to be "researched."I recently received an email from a freelance translator. This person had skillfully worked an original phrase from an article that I had written into the resume. Now, you just have to know that I took a closer, longer look at that resume! What can I say, I'm only human.Too much sweat? Apart from the obvious benefits, you may discover some interesting information. For example, your research may turn up a pierce of information that will land you at the head of the line up. Alternatively, you may discover that your client has a history of not making payments in which case you probably want to remove yourself from the list. A word of caution is in order. When working research into your proposal, be subtle and forego the flattery.Professionals know how to listen to the client to understand what is required. Have you ever thought about the difference between "listen" and "hear?" And the "buzz" that comes with a reputation as a good listener-pure gold! One hears it all the time: these guys knew exactly what I wanted, and they got it right! Apply your listening skills and let your reputation precede you as a professional that gets the job done right first time. You will be rewarded many times over with repeated requests for your services.The job does not start until the paper work is complete! You need a contract that is detailed, and you need an agreement on that contract before anything happens. At a bare minimum, your contract should have clauses cover pricing, terms of payment, limitation of liability, delivery of product (service), dispute resolution, termination of arrangement and confidentiality. Now, some may think that a contract at this point will scare a potential client away-quite the contrary. It speaks loud and clear of "professionalism!" In addition to protecting yourself, you are dealing up front and honestly with an issue that is of obvious importance to the client. And, at the same time you are providing transparency. For example, the clause on pricing will tell the client upfront how much your services will cost and how those figures are arrived at. There is no greater turn-off than a "black box" pricing structure-lurking sticker price shock at its worst! Records. There are a number of very affordable project management software packages targeted at translators that do a good job of organizing and storing business records. E-mails, faxes, invoices, contracts, purchase orders, receipts, source files and translated files should all be stored. Some would say that this is a good business practice, which it is. I would argue that this is essential to being a professional. Organizing and storing records will ensure that clients get a prompt response to inquiries. In addition to lending an aura of professionalism to your operation, stored records are a great source of information when your business grows to the point where data mining becomes feasible. Plan for the future now!I am a repeat customer of Dell. All our hardware (laptops, desktops, and servers) are Dell machines. As our business growths, there is a continual need to upgrade. How do I know what components to purchase? I simply log into my Dell account and enter the product number of the machine I need to upgrade. Every single information record about that machine is accessible-now that is business record keeping! Of course, not everyone has deep pockets for a state-of-the-art system, but you get the message.How long should you keep records for? In some countries, you are required by law to keep business records for a certain period of time. If you employ a project management software tool you essential have the option to store records forever (recommended). At a minimum, store records for at least one year.Communicate like a professional. This is a vast topic that I could never do justice to, and in an article of this length, I also run the risk of losing the original message. Allow me, instead, to focus on written communication since this is probably the most common form of communication that you will have with clients, and in most cases, it will be the first communication that you have with a client. Your writing abilities either are one of your greatest assets, or one of your greatest liabilities. That's it. A Japanese friend found herself in the un-enviable position of having to e-mail the entire company alerting them to an error she had made on a project that she was the lead project manager for. This was a critical error on a major project on which everyone had been slaving away for months. Tempers were very short. She asked for my input. I immediately realized that she was so stressed, and in such a hurry to fire off that e-mail that she had not done the best job she could have done on format, grammar or style. I explained to her that normally people would overlook such issues as trivial, but in the current situation, she would probably be put to the stake! We re-worked the e-mail several times, took a lazy dinner, and then re-worked it some. How did her colleagues respond? In her words "Oh... it was good response!" Written communication is incredibly powerful. Take writing courses if you have to. Definitely re-work everything that clients get to read until it is perfect. And remember this, once it is out there, it becomes a permanent record that you have no control over (i.e. can not edit) for ever.You can dominate the line up by projecting an image of a true professional. Researching the client, listening carefully to identify what the client wants, tying up (legal) issues that are of concern to the client, employing project management tools, and communicating in a clear and concise manner all serve to focus that image and polish your translation style.Do Not Make Clients Look For YouGetting referrals, putting out resumes, working the phones, and pressing the flesh are marketing approaches that I am sure you are employing to stay on the client's radar. What more can you do?If you maintain visibility by employing any of these approaches, then like the rest of us, occasionally you drop of the client's radar. How does this happen? Well, physical addresses change, as do phone numbers, when you move. Maybe your e-mail address changed with your new ISP that you got a great deal on. Or, simply, you changed your e-mail provider because you were unhappy with the service. Do you even remember all the places where you have posted your contact details? The point is this: your hard work at staying visible is all for naught because the client will not be able to contact you about a proposal during this transitional phase, if at all. An internet web site offers a permanent solution. Most professionals shy away from a web presence for a number of reasons. They assume that the cost is too prohibitive, that they do not have the technical skill requirements, or that the commitment is too great. This could not be further from the truth. Unfortunately, these misconceptions may be preventing you from harnessing the full potential of the web to grow your freelance business. A web presence is within anybody's reach!What are the possibilities? Your internet address, or domain name, will never change, which means that you will have a permanent sign pointing to your office door. You will always have the latest version of your material in front of the client that can be accessed from anywhere at any time. In effect, you will be open for business 24/7. A web presence will not only stabilize your income, it will provide the opportunity for growth-planning for the future.Stay accessible to clients, stay in the line up.Who Do You Do Business WithLet's revisit that major purchase decision that we happily made a while back. Sure, the product (service) came with a good reputation, the operation was professional, and we did not have to look too hard for it. In other words, even before we made the purchasing decision, we were already quite comfortable with the idea of making a purchasing decision. In effect, we were already "pre-sold." However, pre-sold is not quite the same as "sold." That fleeting interval between pre-sold and actually making the purchasing decision-laying out the green-is where it all happens. Sales people refer to this as "closing the sale." And sales people know that in order to close the sale, the client must not only feel comfortable with the deal, but must also like the person making the sale. Surprised? Do not be, you do it all the time, and so do your clients!All things being equal, we buy from those we like. That bears repeating: 10 candidates offering the exact same qualifications and benefits, and clients will always go with the professional they feel most comfortable with and like.I am afraid that there is not much that can be done about character-we are who we are. But, there definitely are some things that you can do to improve your "likeability" ranking.A good, positive attitude attracts clients. Clients do not want to work with professionals; they want to work with professionals that project a positive attitude. Just as we avoid colleagues that are unpleasant to be around, so do clients avoid contracting professionals that do not project the right attitude. Show appreciation for having the opportunity to work with a client. Send a card, nothing fancy or expensive, with a personal and original thank you message. You should try it-it works wonders.Have a genuine interest in your client's best interest. Share you insider knowledge of the industry with your client. When you can not take on a job (maybe you have enough work, or are not qualified for that particular subject matter), reach out to your network and forward the job to a colleague. You can also point clients to web sites that can handle their translation project. Clients appreciate these small acts of kindness, and they certainly do not forget about them!After completing under graduate school in Japan, I returned to Zambia briefly to help in the family business. We made it a policy to recommend customers to establishments-even if they were competitors-that most likely carried the product that we could not provide. Did customers ever appreciate it! They ended up coming around more regularly and making more purchases. Not only that, but even our competitors started referring their customers to us during stock outs. Of course, we made sure not to run out of stock too often-clients also have businesses to run?The customary caution is not to introduce the client to a nightmare. A good rule of thumb to follow is to never introduce the client to a product (service) that you yourself would not layout money for. When clients like you, you are the line up. ConclusionUltimately, the success of your translation style can only be measured by the number of your clients, and the number of projects that those client entrust you with. That is very much a function of how successful you are in making your clients feel comfortable with your deal-as defined by reputation, professionalism and visibility-and by climbing in the "likeability" rankings. Using Purchased Leads A little advice about using leads that you purchase from another source; One-A-Day Marketing Vitamins Is your business growing, or are you on a plateau in need of a boost to move up? I know that I always tell you it is best to have a positioning statement and a plan. But sometimes, you just need something to get you off square one. Is Your Marketing Working... That is the question, you should be asking yourself. Many feel that it is I'm sure. But is it really! How to Magnetize Your Business Do you ever wonder how some businesses always seem to be doing so much business? And how they seem to do all that business without really trying that hard? Most of us would like to have business come to us, rather than chasing it. Think of a magnet ? pulling business towards your company, effortlessly and naturally. Sounds good, right? But how do you actually become a company like that? Here are some ways. Listen To What The Marketing Experts Say But more importantly, watch what they do. If you do much online shopping, you're sure to have seen some great, and not so great, sales letters urging you to get that oh-so-fabulous product that will solve all your problems right now. Promotional Marketing Products ? Selecting the Perfect Item People are known to shop on impulse- buying an item just because it is on sale, or purchasing something because it looks great in the store. When shopping for promotional items, you really can't succumb to impulses. Instead, you must carefully decide on an item that will help meet your objectives. How To Choose a Qualitative Research Market Qualitative research, whether individual interviews, in-homes, focus groups, ethnographies and the like are conducted all over the world, as everyone knows. But how are the markets to be studied selected in the first place? Marketing Mimics Life Clichés. We've all heard them...and hear some of them so often that we categorize them as tired, stale old sayings. But, the fact is, particularly in both life and in small business marketing, that there is a validated truth in these commonly applicable and very popular clichés. Measuring the Return on Your Direct Mail Investment In direct mail lore, there's a rule stating that you can measure the success of your efforts by a minimum response rate of 1-2%. In other words, if you send out 10,000 pieces, you'll have a successful mailing if at least 100 recipients respond to your offer. (One percent of 10,000 is 100.)That's one view of direct mailing success. Permit me to offer a different perspective: one from the small business world. Specifically, I'm referring to those small business people who work by and for themselves. Call them "One-Man Bands," "Working Soloists," "Free Agents," or whatever you'd like.To help you remember these two perspectives, let's give them a couple of catchy names:1. The "Playing the Percentages" Perspective. This is the "industry standard 1-2% response rate on your mailings" perspective you've heard so much about. This is the yardstick favored by businesses that are sending large quantities of direct mail to sell mass market products.For example, if I own a pizza parlor, and I'm doing a "use this card for 10% off on your next order" mailing to all residences within a three-mile radius of my business, I might have a mailing list of 10,000 names. You'd better believe that I'm going to watch the overall response rate like a hawk, and I'm going to be looking at precisely where those hungry customers are coming from. If most of them are coming from a handful of apartment complexes next to a college campus, I'll know to send my future mailings to those complexes. 2. The "You Only Need A Few" Perspective. This is the one for those One-Man (or One-Woman) Bands who are selling services that take a fair amount of time to provide. Like marketing consulting, public relations services, graphic design, or customized computer software applications. For these folks, a handful of new or repeat clients from a promotional mailing is quite enough. After all, as the owner of a one-woman graphic design studio told me once, "I don't want to be a victim of my own [direct mail] success." Postcard Direct Mail Marketing Works (Its Cheap, Quick, Affordable and More) Used the right way and with the right audience, postcards often outperform their mailbox "competitors" in money saved and revenue generated (the competitors are sales letters, self-mailers, unaddressed flyers, dimensional mailers and catalogs). Here's why postcards are so effective. 5 Ways To Entice Your Parallel Market to Trade Links Lots of people get confounded when attempting to exchange links, you're not alone. The people who have the spot you want are competitors. The people who don't aren't worth exchanging links with. What to do? Discovering The Benefits That Hook Your Prospect Benefits! They're what marketing is all about. No doubt you've heard the mantra over and over: "Benefits, not features.. Benefits, not features." Mortgage Marketing - How to Write a Mortgage Marketing Sales Letter That Gets Results! Have you ever sat down to write a sales letter and been at a complete loss where to start? It happens to all of us. Writing Business Newsletters: Avoid the ?Me, Me, Me? Mistake Effective customer newsletters find the right mix of promotional and 'real' content to maximize readership. How To Use Humor Successfully In Your Business Communications For generations people have been saying that laughter is good medicine. And now the scientists have taken an interest it turns out great-grandma was right. The boffins have discovered that laughter releases helpful goodies in the body which boost your immune system. In fact the therapeutic benefits of laughter are now being harnessed by academia and the business community into laughter workshops and other formalized chuckle sessions. Get the workers laughing and you raise productivity, so it seems. Direct Marketing Puts Information In The Buyer?s Hands Direct marketing is advertising from a manufacturer or front-end supplier directed to the ultimate consumer of a product or service. Another way of looking at direct marketing is selling to a consumer directly, whether is from a printed magazine campaign, TV or radio spot, or from a direct mail package. It means that salespeople are not physically moving your product; promotions are. Direct marketing is a simple approach but also can be useless if not done right. The Added Effectiveness of Promotional Products in Your Marketing Plan Recently, I stopped by a new car wash in my town and while preparing to insert my six quarters into the machine to start the cleaning process, the owner came over to me and thanked me for stopping in. He also handed me a pen that had the name and address of the car wash imprinted on it. Marketing With Business Cards Many businesses today overlook the importance of business cards as a very powerful marketing weapon. Their business cards contain just a name, company, address and phone number. But smart and savvy marketers know that an effective business card should also contain the company theme and it's prime benefits. Global Market in the Cyber world?Go and Get It ! With the Internet opening up the doorway to the global market, everybody is up and running to reap the maximum benefit of this widely used medium. Not only has Internet gained importance as an important medium of communication but also has given a platform to thousands of people to nurture their entrepreneurship and realize their dreams of self-employment.
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