Why Being Fantastic Isn't Enough

Why Being Fantastic Isn't Enough by Bryan Knight

"Word-of-mouth will have people lining up for months to see me." Wrong.

Why is being marvellous at what you do not enough to build a great business?

Because:

• Clients may not want to share you
• Clients may not want others to know they consulted you
• Clients may think that they did all the work
• Clients aren't clear on what makes you different
• Clients may assume you are fully booked for months
• You don't ask for referrals.
  

Your clients may become quite emotionally attached to you (despite your best efforts to maintain a professional distance!). In which case, they don't spread the word about you because, like siblings with a new toy, they don't want to share their treasure.

Clients who have seen you about something highly personal may be reluctant to mention this to others. Thus there is no word-of-mouth spreading from them about how wonderful you are at helping persons in distress.

In many practices -- especially those focused on one form or another of psychotherapy -- the goal is for the client to become more self-reliant, independent. A consequence of this success is that the client credits himself with whatever progress has been achieved. So, again, the client has no reason to talk to other people about you.

Clients can be happy with the work you've done with them but still be unclear about your specialization(s). So if, for example, they are chatting with someone who suffers with a phobia they may not think of referring that person to you because they know you only as an expert on depression.

Ironically, clients may also assume, because you are so wonderful at helping them, that you're booked up for months.

This ties in with the most common reason that just being amazing at your profession is not enough:

you haven't asked for referrals.

How you ask for referrals is less important than that you do ask.

Copyright 2006, Dr Bryan Knight. "Marketing Action Plan for Success in Private Practice" the ebook with the double-your-money back guarantee by Dr Bryan Knight Hypnosis Headquarters http://hypnosis.org.