So, What Do Profits Have To Do With Marketing? Funny You Should Ask…
“Profit is the result of the performance of the business in marketing, innovation and productivity. It is the test -the only effective test – of performance.” ~ Peter Drucker
Marketing, as covered in our free Special Report: Private Practice Marketing 101, includes every aspect of your business:
- your services
- your pricing strategy
- your advertising and promotional campaigns
- the place – or method of delivery – of your services.
Each one of these factors impacts the profitability of your practice.
Yet even if you’ve got all those things “right”, and you’re enjoying a moderate success, if the success doesn’t translate into significant increases in profits, then there is still a missing piece.
There are “behind the scenes” fundamentals that it takes to build a profitable practice. This includes improving cash flow. When you don’t have the cash to run your business, you won’t have the cash to implement marketing campaigns or promotional activities to grow your practice.
If you’ve been bringing in enough to keep things going, but not enough to effectively promote your business, fund your retirement at the levels you desire, build the house you’ve dreamed of having, or even to take the vacations that you want, it’s time to back-up and examine what’s missing.
To paraphrase Peter Drucker’s quote above, profits are the only real measure of success in business.
So, what are those “behind the scenes” fundamentals?
Start by being very clear on who your best client is (their profile or description). Next, focus on shaping your service offerings to attract this client. To get started, dial-in to our free teleclass:
7 Keys to Identify and Target Your Ideal Client
Free Teleclass – Tuesday, April 14th – 8:00 p.m. Eastern
5PM Pacific – 6PM Mountain – 7PM Central
If you believe that “everyone” is a potential client, then you are missing an opportunity to grow your practice the most effective way – through knowing your clients and targeting your marketing effort (services/products, price, promotion, etc.) specifically to your niche.
Designed for self-employed professionals who are re-evaluating where they are with their practice with a goal of getting more new clients, this is a lively, interactive session where you will discover why you aren’t getting the results you want and how to identify and target your best client.
- Why you might not be getting the results you want
- How to identify the market that’s right for your business
- How to target that market
To register, leave a comment below and you will receive the dial-in instructions by email.
Register today and I’ll “see you” on the call!
Dianne
Generally, I support Drucker’s comments but I wonder if he adjusts that any with the current state of the economy. Profit is the measure of success no question.
But “Profit is the result of the performance of the business” and “It is the test, the only effective test, of performance”; with this economy and people slowing down in paying bills; would you say the business didn’t perform or would you measure the profit differently? I don’t know. Anybody reading this figure that out yet?
I’m registering for the teleclass, please send the phone number.
Randy, that’s an interesting question. How you collect your payments is part of how your business performs, so in that sense, I guess his statement still stands, even in a recession.
Thanks for your comments Randy and Jim. Great point, Jim! Your strategy for handling payments is key to the success of your practice.
Your plans must include what you will do when the client does not meet their payment obligation. Even if you have a retainer or down paymnet, what do you have in place to automatically occur when there is no response to your invoice? For example, at what point do you consider a payment as late?
Jim, you’re in the class! You’ll be joining Curtis, Debbie, Maxine and Karin.
Any readers who want to join us, please leave a comment here or send me an email and I’ll send the dial-in instructions via email.
“Seven Keys to Identify and Target Your Ideal Client” is Tuesday, April 14th at 8PM Eastern.