"Sometimes, I just have to shock myself
with abusive brain patches, just to clear my
mind of my self-limitations."
You should be paying more attention to my medical practice business advice and to the very specific things that you are hungry for. Last week I exchanged emails with a reader which set me to thinking about going back and completing a project I had placed on the back burner.
This businessman had actually taken the time to send me an email thanking me for the information I have been providing. It wasn't so much about getting a pat on the back, but much more about what I discovered during our exchange of emails.
He's in a business of consulting with physicians, other health care providers, and hospitals regarding billing systems and collections. During those sales and repair problem visits, he admits being asked repeatedly about the medical businesses need for information and how to market their business in this tough economic time.
What he felt was needed by medical practice businesses and for physician practice management of medical practice businesses was not video tutorials, referrals to websites, or a book to read on how to manage their marketing or business projects. They just need something easy and simple like a 3-ring binder where they can flip the pages to the spot they need info about, and read down the list of steps about how to set up a system and maintain the process indefinitely.
From my personal view, that binder would have to be expanded to a dozen binders,
and cover the hundreds of pages necessary to adequately provide the following
necessary items...
- The setup instructions step by step process
- Barriers and problems to avoid or overcome
- Reasons for doing each step a certain way
- Timing of each step and why it's needed
- Descriptions of how each step meshes with the business
as a whole segment assigned to teaching new employees - the processes and many other associated features to make it all work
The reason that it would be such a multiple binder project is that the information would have to be presented in an easily understandable format, worded and described in such a way that any office business employee would be able to pick it up and promptly understand what it tells them to do, understand how to do it, and understand the reasons why.
In general, copywriting of most advertising and marketing promotions has to be worded for about a 5th grade level of education. And that, my friends, is probably why the idea has been on a back burner for so long now.
However, as is often true of entrepreneurs, that sudden spark of creativeness jolted me out of my comfort zone leaving my shoes behind. We learn that the word "impossible" has several different meanings depending on the degree of inspiration one is fired up with. For those whose feet are nailed to the floor, it means no one can do anything about it.
For those who are watchers, it means that they intend to hang around awhile because someone might be able to actually find a way around the impossible thing, and they want to be there when it happens. They they'll know how to handle it as well.
For entrepreneurs, it means that regardless of the perceived difficulty that might be involved, "impossible" amounts to a virtual hologram that one can walk right through--when one finds a way to get past it. That thought put me in a mindset that, creating the binder and the data can be done not as a compulsive person would do it, but, by the way a practical minded person would do it and save a lot of paper and ink.
Compulsive perfection for doing projects is a definite handicap. I have learned about business, projects, marketing, and any other life work, that it is a complete waste of time trying to make everything perfect before you try it or sell it. Presenting a lousy speech which has excellent value to the listeners is much better than the opposite.
There's a substantial body of evidence why we should only shoot for "good enough." Evidence why "good enough" works:
1. If I created a 1,000 page marketing "starter file" which anyone could read and understand, likely no one would attempt to read it or even use it. If it's 1,000 pages, the perception is that it is way too complicated to be understood, without ever trying to read a section of it.
2. No matter how much you seek perfection in what you do, there will always be glitches, unexpected external intrusions, things left out or not consciously considered, things that have to be changed or modified, and supernatural ghosts who keep drinking from your coffee cup.
3. Imagine for a minute what Michelangelo could have accomplished in his painting if he had not been such a perfectionist. Compare his work with that of Van Gough, who smeared gobs of paint on the canvas until he thought it was good enough. Is one better than the other?
4. Because physicians and other healthcare providers are in reality, selling their expertise to their patients. It is reasonable that in order to see more patients and make more money, they have to reduce their sales pitch to a "good enough" level with patients.
So, how do we decide on what's "good enough?" I didn't know it at the time, but my intent and perfectionistic instincts to explain things in depth, answer all questions, and enlighten all patients as my way of doing a good job in my practice, burnt a huge hole in my bank account for years. I should have been tied up and whipped for that ignorance.
My decision--I'll someday create a binder physicians and their employees can use for marketing planning and promoting their medical practice business. Sometime in the future I'll make the time to do it, even if I'll miss my daily back scratch by my wife.
Tell me what you think about all this! What do you need in your medical business? Don't be a
pansy--yell it out and shake the rafters!
----Professional Probe----
"By dolling out the right product information
to the appropriate recipient, it requires getting
in line and making yourself available to receive
what is being provided, especially when you know
the provider, the dispenser of the product, and
the essential value of what you receive and how
it is guaranteed to satisfy your appetite."
"Ya-know... that sounds exactly like a medical
practice marketing sequence, for the purpose
of reinforcing medical practice management."
Articles©2013-2022/CGG INVESTMENTS LLC. All rights reserved. #104, 3-16-22
