The First Critical Process
There are a few critical processes in running your business. And usually there are fewer than we think that are truly critical, the ones that all the others rely on.
I have boiled it down to 5 critical processes for a Physical Therapist Private Practice. They are all similar, if not exactly the same, for most businesses. And focusing on these few critical processes, making sure they are working, is the underpinning to a stable and profitable business.
The first Critical Process is Marketing Activities. I am calling it “Marketing Activities” to emphasize the activity part. It’s the stuff you do, or somebody in your company does, that is critical. I am not referring to marketing as a department, or a group of people. The Critical Process is the activities that are done.
The desired result or output from your Marketing Activities is lead generation. It is literally that simple. The point of doing Marketing Activities is to generate leads, people interested in becoming your customer.
We want a tangible end result from the time, effort, and money invested in your Marketing Activities. SEO rankings, Facebook likes, brand awareness, and understanding your customer do not matter if no one is calling, visiting, or inquiring about what you sell.
To know if your Marketing Activities are effective, and how effective, it is imperative that you track your total number of leads. Leads are anyone inquiring about your service or product through any channel. A new patient phone call is a lead. A walk-in (potential) customer is a lead. An email asking about your product or service is a lead. An inquiry via your contact page on your website is a lead. It does not matter the channel, what matters is that they are interested enough in what you offer to take action, giving you the opportunity to turn them into a paying customer.
If no one calls, walks-in, or contacts you, how will they ever become a paying customer? And without paying customers you do not have a business.
You are currently spending some amount of time, energy, and/or money on Marketing Activities. It may be quite a lot. I know practices that are spending $7,000 per month to have someone else do their Marketing Activities. I also know practices that do not think they are doing anything, that people call solely based on word of mouth. But that word of mouth is also the result of your Marketing Activities. Even if you are only handing your business card to delighted customers, you are doing something to spread the word about what you offer. How else would anyone know about you?
But do you track the number of leads generated by your activities? If not, then you may be relying on the number of new patients or customers to determine the effectiveness of your Marketing Activities. But new customers and new patients are the result of a sales process, not the result of Marketing Activities. I’ll be going into that in the Second Critical Process post, not this one.
Tracking your leads allows you to figure out how many leads you are getting from each activity. It also allows you to compare the time, effort, and money you spending to produce those leads. You can break it down for each activity. And you can follow up with those who do not convert.
Once you have figured out what activities work, you can then assess whether they are efficient and reproducible. Knowing this will allow you to increase the intensity of a given activity to predictably generate more leads.
I encourage you to do a return on investment calculation for any and all of the Marketing Activities you are currently doing. Make sure to include the time, effort, AND money spent on each activity. Compare that with the number of leads generated from your activities and you will be able to determine whether the activity is a good use of your time, effort, and money.
Hopefully you can use this when being sold a marketing program in the future, too.
As Jack Daly says, “there are no expenses in business, only investments!” What are your investments getting you?
Want to learn more about this and the other Critical Processes? Check out my upcoming course for PT Private Practice owners.
