← The Smart Chiropractor Podcast
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- [00:00]
Dr. Jeff Langmid
Foreign.
- [00:12]
Dr. Jason Deutsch
Welcome to the Smart Chiropractor Season 2. I am Dr. Jeff Langmid here with my co host Dr. Jason Deutsch. And all season long we have been breaking down in 30 minutes or less the mindset and the strategies you need to implement product sales in your practice. That is our focus of season two. We've talked about the platforms, we've discussed some of them mindset. We've even discussed how to think about curating your specific list of favorite things inside of your online store. But today we're going to discuss recurring or subscription products, what we mean by that and why it can be so impactful as a foundational piece of how you build and grow e commerce. Now, you have not hit subscribe on this podcast yet. We're going to encourage you. Please hit subscribe, follow along on YouTube for the video components. But let's start with recurring or subscription products. What does that even mean?
- [01:03]
Dr. Jeff Langmid
Well, I guess it would be simple to say, for example, a vitamin supplement is usually the most common. Somebody could purchase a bottle of supplements from you. Or somebody could subscribe and purchase a bottle of supplements every 30 days and they say yes once and they keep receiving those supplements month after month after month until they cancel. And there's an important philosophy behind all of this because it would seem logical, like, well, let me just sell them the first one. You know, I'm going to make up a number. $50 is an easier yes than $50 a month. It would seem that way. But it's somewhat counterintuitive as Amazon is teaching us, as are a variety of sort of up and coming and in some cases super successful companies like the razor companies that are subscribed. Dollar Shave Club is an example. And a variety of other consumer products that drop ship directly to you month after month after month. For women, sometimes it's hair coloring. For men it's, you know, razors and you know, there's all kinds of subscription products. Now why is it actually easier for them and for you to recommend a subscription than a product? The answer is if you've ever been on the receiving end, you know, I know you know, I've people recommend a particular supplement to me three to almost four weeks into it. I'm getting to the end of the bottle. I'm not feeling much different. I'm not talking to the person who recommended it to me much recently. I'm going to bet you I'm not reordering, which is not to the person who recommended it to me's benefit, nor is it theoretically to Mine. If you recommend a product, a supplement as an example, an information product, or any other type of thing that does require to be used and or consumed on a consistent regular basis, we're doing them and we're doing us a favor when we make the recommendation of a solution, not just an event. In other words, if this is a product that somebody's going to want to take consistently for the year, then saying we're going to drop ship this to you every month automatically without any further hassle, effort or work is actually serving me more to get the outcome I want. Not giving me the out to I guess cheap out whenever the opportunity exists. And many people are looking for outcomes, not just the cheapest option. And my I guess example of that in a different category would be if gyms charge per visit as opposed to memberships to come as often as you'd like, we would have an even more obese society than we do right now. I know I would question every visit to the gym. Is this worth the 20 to 25 dollars the day rate is versus the several hundred dollars a month to go every day if I want to. So there's a psychology to it and I'll go to the other side now. The psychology for the practitioner I think much of our profession unfortunately isn't expanding their mindset wide enough to understand the real long term personal benefits of offering these types of whether it's subscription products or even memberships to your practice. The most stressful thing most chiropractors deal with is needing more new patients. The most common reason they need more new patients because they need more money. And if you need more money and that's what you operate from, I assure you that desperation comes through in your conversation and it's sort of like an odor. We're just not aware of it. We get used to it. But other people can sense it and smell it automatically. And we've all heard feedback of people going that chiropractor just over recommended everything. While simultaneously there are chiropractors that only make long term recommendations. What's the difference between the two? I think the answer very much is energy. When you make recommendations based on their needs, not yours, that comes through. And so subscriptions or recurring, you know, programs or those types of things in most cases most of the time I'm sure there's exceptions or. But in most cases, most of the times is actually to the person's greatest benefit and to yours as well.
- [05:37]
Dr. Jason Deutsch
Yeah, I was speaking a little while back with a guy who is a higher up at a Large company, it's heavily involved in chiropractic. And you know, from a product perspective, they actually weren't interested in practically doing anything that wasn't a consumable. And that was because, you know, doing one offs just. It's hard, right? It is hard. It's difficult, it's laborious. But hey, that's. It also can be valuable, right? You have some things that just don't make sense. They're not a consumable. There's something you love, you buy it one time, you have it for five to 10 years. It's something that the patient loves, that you love. That's why it's your favorite things. Get that into your store, make sure it's available. However, consequently, you also need to, and we'd encourage you to ensure that you do have. Think about those items again that you utilize at home that are recurring, that are subscription, that are consumable. All we mean by all three of those different words are that it is something that runs out, you know, over time, you know, and that then it requires a fulfillment, a reorder, right? So you can stretch that a variety of ways. The easiest example always is to look towards supplements and vitamins because they're so obvious. But there are many other things within the realm of what, you know, we might love as chiropractors that also fall within that. The beauty of it, as you sort of started to talk about, I'm going to have you expand on a little bit more, is that as you start to build up that sheer number of individuals, right, you have five people this year that say, yes, you have 10 people next year, you have five people next month. You know, you start to build that up, you start to get compounding recurring revenue coming into yourself. So instead of working, you know, pretty hard, and this one item, you know, it helps people. That's great. You made a small margin on it. You're happy, they're happy. That's awesome. But I'll tell you what's even nicer is when that individual goes to a recurring or subscription product, and now you're getting $5, $10, $20, whatever it might be in profit or revenue per month. And those five people become 10, become 20, become 25. And over time, you're able to sort of build this foundation, build this sort of book of business to a certain degree, build that you're serving them. They stay engaged with your practice because they're receiving the recommended product, they're utilizing the product, and everybody's able to continually benefit off of that. That's wonderful because it also extends the relationship that you have outside of just the hands on care that you deliver. And that starts to, as we've discussed, diversify your income streams. It starts to stabilize your revenue in uncertain market conditions, if you can't see people, and much, much more.
- [08:21]
Dr. Jeff Langmid
This is business 101. I mean, if you just look from an investment standpoint in the real world, those businesses, you know, SaaS, they call them, you know, software as a service, the concept of building up a membership base or subscription base or recurring revenue that is predictable and dependable over time is what gives the most financial value to a company. And that's not just theoretical. There's a real, real financial value to that. If somebody were to sell a chiropractic practice, for example, imagine if you went to go sell your practice and said, yeah, every first of the month we process $25,000 of membership money from members of our practice and from clients of our ongoing supplements or our Smart store, for example, if you wanted to sell your practice and you had current recurring consistent revenue coming in, that was consistently coming in, not we do X amount of dollars per month consistently, but you start from zero on the first day every month and hope you reach those numbers. But people under, in many cases, written agreement, right? Not blood contract, but you know, a written agreement that, yes, I'm going to pay you X amount of dollars per month every month ongoing, whether it's for a year or until I stop. That adds another level of value, whether it's financial value or whether it's security value, emotional security. Knowing every first of the month I'm processing enough credit card payments to cover my monthly expenses. There is a peace of mind that comes with it that as far as I'm concerned, actually is priceless. And that to me is what every business owner's goal should be is, you know, yeah, it's great to swing for the fences, but it's nice to be guaranteed you're getting on base. And so, you know, those are the decisions. Everybody's a little different. There are adventurers who love the adventure and love the adrenaline and live under the drama and stress of life. And then there are people that like to automate it and make it as simple, dependable and easy as possible so that you can enjoy your life because it's not the drama that's so enjoyable. And these really are sort of the strategic business ways to get there in any business. But for some reason that just hasn't been really brought into our profession very much. You see it everywhere. And there's quite a few things, you know, you mentioned supplements are the obvious one. But I think of things like, you know, a pain relief cream. Many people are in chronic pain, they should be getting that every single month, not just when they run out and for, you know, finally get up the courage to get out and go somewhere. If there was ever a time people want the convenience of drop ship it to my house month after month after month so I don't have to remember and go out anywhere. This is that time. And so you got your rubbing creams, you've got things like your tapes, rock tapes and other kinesio tapes. There are consumable products that are not just supplements that if you're creative people, I think your goal for chiropractors should be how can I be creative? And sometimes that's even some chiropractors coming up with memberships, you know, they'll teach something to a VIP client or group of clients, you know, for a monthly fee, a membership. So I think that's really what this profession would benefit from is imagine if every chiropractor was pretty much at some level guaranteed or practically guaranteed that your expenses will be covered. Right. How would your life be different? How would your practice be different? How would your relationships be different if your spouse could count on a certain amount of money coming in to at least cover the bills? Okay, at least cover the bills. And there's a way, there's a formula we've actually created to get to that. We'll talk about that in another episode. But that's the mindset is how do you make your life as financially stress free as possible, as ethically as is appropriate to be by being of service, but being smart. And again, smart means if somebody's going to consume something over and over, do them the favor of not having to have them, remember, not having them to reorder. I'll sort of summarize. I remember, you know, as controversial as it is, a certain president today, that was a real estate maven years ago, I remember saying in one of his books that it was just as easy to sell a $1 million property as it was a $100,000 property. It's a sale. And the same thing would apply to here. It's not much different. If you're going to sell the supplement, then sell the supplement and you're making one transaction and it's easier for them as well. They're buying an outcome, not a bottle. And if that goes well, that's ridiculous, then my pushback to Beat would be, why one bottle? Why 60 pills? Why not one pill at a time? Why not seven pills at a time? Right. Just because that's the convenience of what they packaged in the bottle. That's what we're talking about is packaging. So package 12 bottles, but just give it out to them once a month. It's all how you want to look at it. But it's easier for somebody to say yes to a solution and can cancel at any time for them to go, okay, I'll try one and. And then have to remember to be enthusiastic to want to buy again. Month two, month four, month eight, month 12. We're doing everybody a favor when we do the thinking for them. And obviously all of this is inappropriate recommendations. Nobody's saying get somebody on something they don't need. But if you are strategic in what we're teaching in the stores, then you're going to prioritize what we call the everybody everyday products. What are the products that all people or almost all people need almost every day, regardless of condition. And if you can create a library of your favorite things that fit that criteria and then you follow our DPR filter, you know, is there a demand? Is it profitable, and is it relevant to what you're teaching? Then instead of feeling like you're selling something, you're actually putting something out there that's going to have a sort of vacuum, a demand, a suction of like, wait a minute, I don't have to go to Costco to get that anymore. Wait a minute. That's a better quality at the same price. You know, thank you, Doc. We haven't had the tools, we haven't had the motivation. We haven't had the profitability to do that up until now. But now that we do, this is a crash course on how to make that happen.
- [15:01]
Dr. Jason Deutsch
There's three things there, I think, that are really important. We just dive into the weeds and get super practical. When you think about recurring products, there's an array of them, but you touched on three that are important. I'm going to get technical here. Topical analgesics.
- [15:13]
Dr. Jeff Langmid
Thank you.
- [15:14]
Dr. Jason Deutsch
Topical analgesics would be one, tape would be another, or supplements would be another. So you just think about those three categories and then think to yourself, you know, how many patients have you seen in your practice? You think about it right now, it could be 500, it could be 10,000. It could be somewhere in between. Okay, so let's say it's 1,000. Newer, younger. Doc, you have about 1,000 patients that you've seen. I'm going to then ask you, how many of those thousand do you think have purchased supplements, tape or topical analgesics out somewhere? Have they purchased any of it at all? I'm going to go under this wild assumption that it's not 0.01%, right? It's probably 50 to 75% of many chiropractors patients have purchased those products somewhere. All we're saying, and are still doing it exactly, is if you're able to serve even just 10% of them by offering, by teaching and then inviting them to purchase through your channel, your platform, you're going to be cooking with gas pretty quickly here. And again, you strengthen the resolve and the relationship because now you're offering not just, I'm going to go and try to pick out atopical analgesic and hope for the best. And my cousin Nancy told me about this one and my Uncle Jim said he tried this one time on the bottom of his foot and it made his ear feel better. You know, this one is a pretty bottle, right? There's all of those factors. And you know, now you're able to not only control the destiny of your pract by creating additional revenue opportunities, but you're also able to again, serve your clients and your patients. Your patients are buying this. I mean, it's just like, let's just take a jump off into crazy pants territory. Your patients are going to purchase these products and services somewhere. The only actual question is, are they? Do they have the opportunity to purchase it through you? That's really where it comes down to. So you're leaving not only them in the lurch by like, okay, like, figure it out, but you're also not giving yourself the chance to deepen the relationship, to have an additional revenue stream and to really curate a experience beyond just what you deliver with hands on care. What you deliver with hands on care is an incredibly important and impactful component of this. It's the core for almost every single practicing doc out there. And that's awesome. But think about the lifestyle experience somebody can have with your practice throughout time, if they're able to continue to learn from you, if they're continually able to learn about things that can help them live a higher quality of life, because these are the things that you're recommended in your practice anyway, but you're just doing it offhandedly instead of being able to actually make it as simple as possible for the patient to engage with.
- [17:57]
Dr. Jeff Langmid
You know, one of the things you had told me a while ago, I want to make sure everybody hears is the Idea that if they don't buy the right product from you, they're going to buy the wrong product from somebody else. It's just that simple. And I would challenge most chiropractors to imagine for a moment, if you think about the time, energy and effort and expertise that you have to curate, think about the products you and your family purchase every single month yourselves and what information, what knowledge, what expertise do you have to choose the products you choose? And I'm going to stay within the health category, assuming you may not be an expert in cleaning agents or other consumables like that. So within the health realm, whether it's your daily greens, whether it's your protein powders, whether it's your whatever daily supplements most people should be taking that you have learned to take because of your expertise through your training, I think most chiropractors would be horrified if they were able to sort of virtually audit their client base, their patient base to see a what they're not taking and should be. And those who are taking something, what they're settling for and buying, which is likely the cheap commodity that's convenient. And you know, in their email every day from Costco and Amazon and everywhere else that's actually saying buy it, buy it, buy. So depending on what leverage you want to use for yourself, if you are, you know, an authentic chiropractor that really wants to be of ultimate service to people, letting them go figure it out for themselves and be victims of the best marketers or the best discount, I'm not sure is serving your community to the highest level that you could be. Now you go, well that's not my job and you could choose to be right. However, if it's not your job, whose is it? Is the medical doctor's job to make sure that they're having the right health oriented supplements? Is it their whose job is it? And if somebody took that job like we're suggesting you do and it wasn't you, how would you feel then, right? How would you feel about somebody going in, oh, you'll never guess. My medical doctor has an online store. I buy everything from him now or her now. But I thank you for my adjustments only. It just doesn't feel right or fit right. People have a hard enough time understanding what a chiropractor is beyond what you do when you hurt really badly and the drugs don't work. They just don't. Collectively, the rest of the 90 plus percent of the people that aren't coming consistently to us have no clue why they would beyond that, and many of them don't even come for that. So this may be just another way, as we've talked about in previous episodes, and I'm sure we'll talk about in future episodes, that when it comes time to reorder a supplement, they go, oh, Target, I gotta go there again. Oh, Amazon, I gotta get online again. When they should be saying, oh, my chiropractor, I gotta get back again. There are subtleties when you go to sleep and it's on a pillow or a mattress that a chiropractor recommended, you thank your chiropractor. Thanks for the great night's sleep. I'm so glad they recommended this. This transcends our personal philosophical arguments about, well, I'm not a mattress salesperson, I'm a professional. I get it. You don't have to sit and demonstrate the mattress. But you likely have some knowledge that would be beneficial to other people, that if they knew, they'd make better choices, and maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to profit from it. And if you tell me you don't need the money, I say donate it to a cause that does. So those are the different, I think, benefits and possibilities of thinking in terms of memberships, of thinking in terms of subscriptions, of recurring revenue. Every business is trying to figure that out. All right, you got Netflix. You've got all the monthly subscriptions. Apple's now got subscriptions. It is the way of the future, and there's a really smart reason for it. And as the smart chiropractor to smart chiropractors, this is one of the most important topics I think our profession can start embracing. It would dramatically transform how we operate if chiropractors didn't have to collectively be so desperate in needing more new clients every single month just to get by. And unfortunately, I think that is the perception many people have, because whether we're aware of it or not, that's how we collectively show up. And I know there's exceptions, and I know my superstars are out there, that this doesn't apply to. But collectively speaking, it applies to all of us. If your brand is chiropractor, you get painted with these prejudices, whether it's worth it, whether you deserve it or not. And we have the opportunity to change that, and technology allows us to change that. But it's up to us to do what we want our people to do, which is to think different, take new actions, be willing to do different things. Meaning I don't just go to my doctor and take my prescription and have my insurance fulfill it because that's what I've always done before. But they're trying and exploring something new. That's the opportunity, I think, for us as a profession as well.
- [23:32]
Dr. Jason Deutsch
I like it. Think subscription, Think recurring, Think consumable. That can be the foundation of what you build in e commerce. What you build in your online store, your SmartCare store filled with your favorite things. If you would like to learn more, be sure to head over to the smartchiropractor.com, check out the blog. We have a variety of fantastic resources that dive into e commerce, the practical applications and steps for it. And if you have not subscribed yet to this podcast, please do so. And while you're at it, leave us a rating or a review that helps more docs find out about who we are and what we're talking about. We appreciate you taking the time to listen in and we will see you in next episode.
- [24:13]
Dr. Mike Marino
This episode brought to you by the Smart Chiropractor at the Smart Chiropractor, we solve the two biggest chiropractic marketing challenges, content and consistency. We combine an incredible content library with powerful automation tools to supercharge your marketing. The result? More new patients, more referrals, and more reactivations with automated digital content marketing. Here's what Dr. Mike Marino had to the smart chiropractor's content, auto posting and other tools is Simply the best ROI I have seen in 20 years of practice. To learn more and get started, visit thesmartchiropractor.com today.