Read on for the simple 5-top steps you can take to become a sought-after "Go-To" specialist in your city.

• Does NOT require any extra advertising costs.
• Total integrity by adding value to your community.
• Your patients will THANK you!

Many therapists and clinic owners ask me for the 'secret' to having a practice full of Dream Clients & Patients.

They want a practice where they accept referrals from other health care providers and provide brilliant clinical care.

It's actually very simple when you break it down into these five (often overlooked) steps! 

1. Become a Specialist (not a generalist):

When you define your specialty, and really zero in on your niche, your clients and referring partners will seek you out and easily refer others to you. Your specialty can be based on a population (Kids, seniors, active adults) a condition, such as Fibromyalgia, a sport or activity, like tennis players or gardeners, or defined by a common goal, like having an easy labor and delivery for pregnant women, or looking and feeling great for their wedding. 

When someone has a very specific complaint, goal, or issue, they want someone who knows exactly how to support them to reach their goal. (If you have a painful knee, I suspect your preference would be to seek care from a knee specialist rather than a general service provider. If you wanted to get in shape for your wedding or have an easy birth, a specialist who is an expert at supporting clients to accomplish that will be much more valuable than a generalist.)

When you're a specialist, it makes it easier for you to continue to stay up-to-date on the current protocols and science specific to your specialization since you don't have to know everything about everything. 

Your reputation as a specialist in that area of the body, that specific population or that unique goal will help other people recommend you to their friends and family because there usually are not very many other specialists who will practice or know exactly what you do or know. 

2. Identify Your Precise Dream Clients: 

Once you know precisely WHO you prefer to work with, and WHO you provide the best results with, everything falls into place. 

(a) Your marketing language speaks directly to your dream client, using their words, phrases, references, and needs.

(b) You know exactly where to find your dream clients because you can now identify where they 'hang out,' what groups they might be in, and who already works with them, so they can easily refer them to you. 

3. Decide Your 1 Marketing Method: 

Your community needs to see you in public to start to know you. Determine the ONE way you will promote yourself and do it consistently and do it well. Be sure the marketing method matches your skills and style, so you enjoy it, rather than it feeling like a chore. Are you comfortable with public speaking? Get on podcasts, teach your own workshops and classes, or give presentations for other organizations. Do you like to write? Write blog posts, articles for the local newspapers, or contribute to your Dream Client's group newsletter, blog, or a professional publication. 

4. Create Your Unique Appeal To Clients (U.A.C. — pronounced 'yak'): 

As a specialist, you are already different from the majority of other service providers in your town who are generalists. However, you must also identify what is unique to you, that NO ONE else (or hardly anyone else) offers that appeals to your dream clients. 

It's not enough to say, "I provide amazing customer service" because most clinic owners say that. 

Instead, think about what you do provide that is unique to you or your practice that really appeals to draw clients in. A therapeutic approach, like my 7-Step D.I.A.M.O.N.D System Framework? A controversial, yet unique and undeniably desirable 100% satisfaction guarantee or they don't pay? An online app that patients can access from their phones to track their home-care exercises instead of handing them an old sheet of copier paper with stick drawings? Do you have weekend or late-night appointment hours? (These last four unusual attributes are precisely what my San Francisco Pain Relief Center offers as our UAC!) 

(Here is a video to help you zero in on and identify YOUR UAC — Unique Appeal to Clients!

5. Create A Unique Experience For Clients:

We must recognize that our clients have many choices when it comes to choosing a therapy provider. Their decision to choose you over the other providers in your city is based on a multitude of variables, not just where they spend their money and possibly more importantly, where they spend their time. They are looking for someone who has a solution to their problem or a way to support them to accomplish their goal. They want it to be fun and as great an experience as possible. They want to trust they are in good hands and have found the best provider for their needs, budget, time-frame, personality, and expectations.

Obviously, we cannot be (nor should we strive to be) the answer to everyone's prayers, and it goes without saying that you and your office should be warm, comfortable, clean, and easy to get to. Building a healthy therapeutic alliance is key. There are other, not-so-obvious things you can do to set yourself apart and give people something to yak about. (Going viral, anyone?) 

Updated equipment might be great for you, but most clients don't even recognize a new hydraulic table under the sheets since they cannot see it. What they do notice, however, is how they feel when they are receiving your therapy. One of the best' secrets' to client happiness (and physical ease for us as a provider) that also is a huge UAC is the use of a bodyCushion™ support system when my clients are on the therapy table. As soon as they lay down, they know something is different (better) because their body is more supported, and they feel less pressure on their abdomen, allowing them to breathe deeply and relax completely. They also feel the gentle spinal traction from the forward flexion of their spine and gravitational pull on their legs. Having your clients lay on the bodyCushion sets you apart from all other providers who have clients simply lay flat on their therapy table. The cushion provides better physical support and comfort for them, and for you, easier access to areas of their body that are sometimes difficult to get to when they lay flat on the table. The unusual shape is something clients can see from the moment they look at your treatment table, and their physical experience will be unique, too. 

The more unique our client's experience, the more apt they are to share you with their friends and family and, of course, on social media.

There you have it. 

Start today with these 5 steps and put them in place. Within a very short time, you should start to see great traction as your reputation as a specialist begins to spread, your brilliant clinical results speak for themselves, and your clients report back to their doctors, friends and colleagues that their experience with you was unique, warm and comforting!

Remember, "education and information without application is opportunities wasted." 

For more help on becoming the 'Go-To' Specialist in your town, jump over to www.IreneDiamond.com to get your free biz success strategy tips emailed to you each week! 

And for more 1-to-1 support, get on my waitlist for an opening in my coaching roster.

As a "Pain Reliever & Mover-Improver," Irene Diamond founded San Francisco, California's very first Wellness Center, Diamond Pain Relief & Wellness Center, in 1995. Her clinic enjoys referrals from pain specialists and health care providers from across the USA. 

Through her Dream Practice Mastery Academy, Irene mentors physical therapists, massage therapists and other wellness providers and clinical practices (up to $5M gross annual revenue) to design their Precise Private Practice to work ONLY on the Precise patients they believe they can support. The goal is to generate terrific financial wealth while helping clients and patients get brilliant, precise, clinical outcomes. As the "secret weapon" behind many of the world's most successful clinics, Irene's mentoring has boosted their incomes and generated more referrals, all while working fewer hours and with a ton less stress! 

Irene leads online and in-person training 1-3 times a year on the unique, clinical rehabilitation framework she developed, Active Myofascial Therapy ~ The Diamond Method (soon to be re-named, Active Modulation Therapy), giving practitioners the powerful ability to transform their practice into a more profitable and fulfilling business while providing fast, effective, long-lasting improvement for their clients and patients. 

As a 2013 Massage Hall of Fame inductee, Irene is a frequent guest author and speaker for many professional publications, blogs, podcasts and association events, sharing business growth strategy, practice management, and marketing. 

Irene will be hosting a monthly Q & A group coaching call (no cost to attend) "Ask Irene- Biz Tips For Clinical Specialists" sponsored by Body Support Systems. More details here.