It made me cry at my kitchen table
Celia Champion
Helping clinic owners to achieve their goals by supporting them to have a practice less reliant on them; be more efficient; manage their teams better; plan for their exit AND enjoy the journey along the way!
If it is too good to be true, it probably is
One particular email exchange really set me off this morning. A physio we have worked with for several years, sent me an email asking for my thoughts about a ‘competitor’ of ours who he had decided to sign up to.
This company has come up in the past in conversation with other clients who have signed up. I’ve not had anyone share any true success stories though…I have had the embarrassed ‘it’s good stuff…I just need to implement it and then it will work’ comments. Well for what is now a 30K per annum price tag, that’s quite an expensive dabble! (You can negotiate a discount but it is still going to be 20K…)
What really upsets me is that therapists are being lured into promised quick growth and a huge flow of new patients and these therapists that get sucked in are not stupid people! The companies offering this are just very clever marketeers. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is.
Luckily my client, after being lured in with a clever Instagram post, realised soon into the process that it wasn’t for him and he managed to get out and get a refund. Sadly that has not been the case for others who have invested their £10K / £20K / £30K emotionally on the back of clever marketing, left to feel embarrassed and making excuses as to why it hasn’t worked ‘I just need to implement it’
What upsets me even more is that this type of high profile, noisy ‘business coaching / consulting’ marketing damages how everyone is perceived in the marketplace and creates a mistrust in anyone offering support in practice growth and development. The ethical, quieter companies are too quiet, steering away from pushy marketing campaigns but inadvertedly end up ‘whispering’ about the support they can offer.
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Overwhelmed by the noise, mistrust and bad past experiences, practitioners end up deciding to do nothing and continue the struggle on their own. This makes me cry even more! Running a practice, being a practitioner, juggling family life and maybe, just maybe, squeezing time in for yourself, is challenging. And it really does not need to be that way when there is supportive, professional and ethical help out there.
So, how do you navigate through this noise, mistrust and bad past experience? As I said earlier, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. One of the things that stood out in our email exchange was that my client very quickly realised that their values were not aligned at all. The service he signed up for obviously works for lots of practitioners but for it to work and for you to take on advice and implement, it must feel right. When in doubt, don’t!
With regard to bad past experience, don’t let the tail wag the dog. Just because you’ve had a bad experience with one company, don’t immediately assume all companies offering similar services are the same. That’s like going to an Italian restaurant, having a bad meal and deciding all Italian restaurants are rubbish. Don’t go in blind though. Do your due diligence – check reviews, ask to have conversations with their clients, dip your toe in…
There is great support out there for practitioners and you don’t have to do it alone. Just be careful not to get sucked into something that is too good to be true…
Dip your toe in, get in touch to book a chat
"Economically Inactive" Thinker, Writer and Investor at Retired
1yHugs. Have a read of that client list (current, past and future) and remind yourself that you have a great presence in the market, and you don't need a fab Insta post to attract the right clients. Relieved your client got out, and got a refund.