Private Practice Success Newsletter

October 2007, by Lynn Grodzki, LCSW, MCC (Master Certified Coach)
www.privatepracticesuccess.com

In my email newsletters this year, I have been examining a series of business models that hold up well in the current changing economic market. These models can help you position your practice for more success right now, as well as prepare you for a brighter future.

This month’s model is the Product-Driven Practice. With this business model, you keep your base (your existing clientele) engaged over time by adding carefully considered products (any and all services, methods, or related items you offer for sale to your clients.)

A word about products: For mental health therapists, products are primarily signataure methods in which you are trained or certified. For coaches, products may be methods and assessments or licensed materials; for other healing and helping professionals, products may also include a range of shelf items (books, vitamins, equipment, etc.)

The Product-Driven Practice

The primary assets of any small business are its clients.

Serving your clients well means anticipating their needs. When your clientele trusts you, they will follow your lead and consider any new products or services you offer. Your job is to make sure that the products and services you bring into your practice don't damage that trust.

With a Product-Driven Practice, your line of services becomes a focal point of your practice. Clients find you based on your unique methods or products. You have to keep your offerings current and timely to retain your client base.

Many therapists, coaches, healers, and consultants have a Product-Driven Practice, but they don't give much thought to how they select their services. It is often an unconscious process.

By raising your awareness regarding your selection process of any and all services and products you bring into your practice for your clients to purchase, you can also raise your profitability and viability.

"A business is successful to the extent that it provides a product or service that contributes to happiness in all of its forms." (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience)

What is your process when you decide to add a new product or service? Many professionals select products based on what I would call an "informal assessment," which might include the following aspects:

• Asking others for recommendations

• Looking for what is available

• Considering your price or convenience

• Having direct experience

• Hearing anecdotal experience

• Feelings (intuition or a gut knowing what is right for your clients and for yourself)

This is all fine and completely normal way to select product. Hopefully added to this is "due diligence" -- evaluating any measures, research, data available to back up the claims of the vendor (provider of the product.)

But if you are in private practice, this list is incomplete. Let me show you why.

"Customers don't always know what they want. The decline in coffee-drinking was due to the fact that most of the coffee people bought was stale and they weren't enjoying it. Once they tasted ours and experienced what we call the third place.. a gathering place between home and work where they were treated with respect.. they found we were filling a need they didn't know they had." (Howard Schultz, Chairman of Starbucks Coffee )

As a business owner, you also want to always consider the obvious and hidden costs of each new service or product you acquire: The money, time, effort, and energy required to bring it into your practice, integrate it into your existing work, and/or introduce it to your clients.

Any and all new services and products you add may represent a bigger investment than you originally thought. It makes sense to have a business-wise method to evaluate each product/service/training you invest in. Here is a checklist to help you on that path:

1. Who is the target market user of this product or service?
2. Who will ultimately make the decision regarding its purchase?
3. What features must the service or product incorporate to satisfy not just the user but also the purchaser
4. What benefits can I guarantee the product/service will provide?
5. What return on investment can I expect and when?
6. What opportunities can I expect that this training, service, or product will provide?

And don't forget these last two items:

7. How much competition do I face from other professionals in terms of who else is offering the product/service?
8. What support does the vendor of this training/product/service offer to help me recoup my cost in terms of referrals, clients, networking, accreditation, visibility?

"No matter what your product is, you are ultimately in the education business. Your customers need to be constantly educated about the many advantages of doing business with you." (Robert G Allen, author of "The One Minute Millionaire")

One licensed counselor who works with high level executives (mostly men struggling with addictions) wanted to add couple's therapy to her existing practice services. She was not trained to work with couples, so the initial investment was in getting trained. She soon found that there were about a dozen decent methods of training available.

She first relied on a process of informal assessment -- asking colleagues, thinking about her direct experience, hearing about others who had used different methods, reading a book, listening to speakers at an annual association conference -- and then narrowed her choices down to 3 possible training programs which all seemed equally good and sound.

She requested a coaching session with me to get my thoughts and apply the above business checklist.

First she clarified her target market. "The target market for the sessions are couples, and I already see one member of the couple as a client," she began.

I asked who in the couple would ultimately make the decision to purchase couples therapy sessions. This was not clear to her. Would it be the existing client or the spouse who might ultimately decide whether to purchase the service or both? "I'll need to get some information from my client to figure that out," she said. "It's an interesting question, to know who finally will make the decision. The method I select must be attractive to both addict and spouse. I need them both engaged in the couples work."

After talking to her clients and giving it some thought, she eliminated one of her three choices, a method that was very directive and confronting of couples. It would be a hard sell to the addict who was already having trouble moderating his feelings and anxiety as a newly sober individual. She wanted a method that would be easier to recommend whole-heartedly. She had two methods left to decide between.

When she thought through item #5, return on investment, she told me, "One method takes half as long to learn and costs half as much. I can recoup my training expense earlier. That is hard to argue against."

But I wanted her to continue with the list. The last item on the checklist, #8, proved important to her final decision. One of the vendors offered marketing help for its trainees; once she finished accreditation, the organization would help provide referrals by listing her on its website and had a budget for regular print ads, promoting the method and the website to couples in a popular national magazine. The other program, while less expensive and requiring less training time, did not have a comparable marketing program.

With all other things considered, she felt that the vendor who had a commitment to building market share for therapists was the one she would purchase training from. "They care about my future and want to help me use the training and stay in business," she said. "That means a lot to me."

My client took her selection process from unconscious to awareness. She liked the end result, and found that she could more easily justify the expense to herself of the training, having combined her informal clinical assessment with a pragmatic business decision.

Upcoming Teleclasses and Workshops

October Teleclasses Start Next Week -- Register Now!

It can be hard work to own and operate a private practice.

If you feel isolated or alone when it comes to making decisions, if you need to understand the ins and outs of the business of therapy, or if you need to get to the next level with more clients, more money, more organization, or just more support --- these low-cost teleclasses (only $45 per call) may be the perfect solution! The teleclasses start the first week of October and are designed for therapists, coaches, consultants, and healing professionals, in the convenience of your home or office. You will be with Lynn and other colleagues from around the country as you connect by phone, using her Workbook as a guide. Pick the best course for your stage of practice development.

Basic Strong Start Teleclass

This 4-month teleclass is highly supportive, motivational, and informational. Use this class to get unstuck, set new goals for the rest of 2007, or re-energize your practice.

A) Mondays at 2:00 PM EST or
B) Wednesdays at 3:00 PM EST

Advanced Strong Start Teleclass

Brand new, by request! Ready to go further? This is the class for you. Pre-requisite: Basic Strong Start, attendance at previous workshop, or permission of the class leader.

C) Tuesdays at 12:00 PM EST

For information, dates & times, policies, or to register go to:

www.strongstartclasses.com

Upcoming Workshops

October 12, 2007: Toronto, ON

October 13, 2007: Toronto, ON

To register for Toronto, contact: Leading Edge Seminars: www.leadingedgeseminars.org

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Books by Lynn Grodzki, published by WW Norton. To order, click on each book.

	The Business and Practice of Coaching By Lynn Grodzki and Wendy Allen (2005) Reviewed by author Richard Leider as "Nothing less than a radical rethinking of the essentials of building a coaching practice. A must read for all coaches, master and novice alike."
	Building Your Ideal Private Practice By Lynn Grodzki (2000) The best-selling guide to what you need to do and who you need to be in order to have a highly profitable, personally satisfying private practice. Often called the "private practice bible" this book has become a resource for tens of thousands of your colleagues.
	The New Private Practice:Therapist-Coaches Share Stories, Strategies and Advice Edited by Lynn Grodzki (2002) A groundbreaking look at the profession of coaching through the eyes of 16 successful therapist-coaches who tell you how to become a coach, what to charge, and show you how they coach their clients.
	12 Months to Your Ideal Private Practice: A Workbook By Lynn Grodzki (2003) This planned, motivational workbook will help you build the practice you desire. The workbook incorporates fresh ideas, new exercises, further skill sets and much more to give you a direct experience of being carefully coached by Lynn, month-by-month, for a full year.

More next time,

lynn@privatepracticesuccess.com
See the website for additional articles, information about individual coaching, and upcoming classes.