Marketing Groups
Posted on June 11, 2007 - Filed Under General |
When I practiced in Southwest Washington, I was a member of LeTip for a year. Recently I was invited to join BNI. Both companies are marketing groups. Geographic areas set up groups of business professionals who get together on a weekly basis with the goal of learning about each business. Each business professional is then in a position to offer referrals to each of the other businesses in the group.
These groups, for which people pay to join, attempt to set up marketing groups that frequently happen on a very organic level amongst like minded practitioners. As an acupuncturist, soliciting other healthcare providers to refer to your business is probably a far better long term scheme. In the short term, groups such as BNI can be a good way to build visibility for your business.
The downside of the groups for people in healthcare is the fact that people often don’t talk about their health problems to other people they know as business associates. This limits the number of potential referrals you’ll get. If you are an acupuncturist, then the unless the other business person has actually experienced your services they may not be able to talk convincingly about the benefits of what you do.
The upside is that once a week you are out there promoting your business. You need to come up with an enthusiastic teaser every single week and ask for more patients. Why is this an upside? I got about three referrals from LeTip, all other people in the group, over the year that I was a member. However, my business was busier than it ever had been from other sorts of referrals that I didn’t go out asking for. Maybe it was just the intent.
Will I join the group here? I’m undecided. I know that I can create an organic referral network and have it work for me in the long run. The question I have to ask myself is how willing am I to go out and do it?
Comments
Leave a Reply
