Dear Bill

I have found people simply don’t pick up and read pamphlets and even if they are handed one, they either leave it by accident or they don’t open it. I wonder how many other doctors would tell you this?

Actually, I have been told this countless times. By many chiropractors. For over 40 years.

Yet, since 1999 we continue to provide thousands of brochures to hundreds of chiropractors each month.

Does our website and catalog somehow bewitch chiropractors into buying something that doesn’t work, or they don’t want?

Unlikely.

Most are repeat orders, which I suspect wouldn’t be happening if brochures had gone out of favor like reception room magazines.

Granted, with the emergence of the Internet, brochures, as a source of information, are decidedly archaic. But thankfully, that’s not the purpose of pamphlets these days.

The Myth That Patients Will Self-Serve

Back in the day, before chiropractic became more mainstream (say, pre-1990), a well-stocked brochure rack was the Internet of the day.

Where else could someone learn about chiropractic and what was possible? The public library? Not with its anti-chiropractic titles.

So, it was out of mere survival that many chiropractors populated an extensively curated brochure rack. Hungry for information and anxious to explain their experience to others, many patients helped themselves and the word spread.

Today, depending upon patients to self-serve is a limited strategy for sharing the chiropractic gospel. Because as you have observed, few patients find the need to help themselves and most brochures collect dust.

The Myth That Brochures Are for Your Patients

Turns out, brochures aren’t for your patients. They’re for the friends and family members of your patients.

I think it’s helpful to think of brochures as new patient “seeds.”

Having them and sharing them is a form of sowing. Some seeds will fall on hard ground and be wasted. Others can return a 100-fold return. You just don’t know which ones. Which makes their use a numbers game.

Far too many chiropractors want to reap without sowing.

Which is why it works best to attach your energy to each brochure and not wait for patients to take. Instead, you reach for let’s say, your headache brochure and say: 

"This week we want to help as many people with headaches as possible. If you know someone you think we could help, I hope you'll give them this. And if they live in another town, we'll consult our referral directory to make sure they get a great chiropractor." 

Then hand them the brochure.

This is about making a referral request tangible and supporting the desire many patients have to tell others about their experience. Yet, ask a couple patients how they describe to others what their chiropractor does and why you’d want to see one and you’ll likely be discouraged by what comes out their mouth.

Will some patients leave a brochure behind? Of course. Will others discard them in the back seat of their car? Sure. But this is about broadcasting seeds.

Thankfully, it’s just a brochure. It costs pennies.

Ask Bill your question.

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