Marketing guru's such as John Carlton teach 3 kinds of positioning.  Positioning your practice appropriately within your local community is perhaps the best long term path to success.  There are great, actionable, lessons that can be learned from each type of positioning. 

1-  The first type of positioning is establishing your "eye level".  In retail, this means literally having your product at eye level.  It is the best and most direct indicator of sales.  Relating this to interdisciplinary relationships; we should have our practice at "eye level" of other physicians in the community.  We should be engaging them on a consistent basis through Case Notes, Monthly Research Briefs, and occasional meetings.  This keeps your practice at "eye level" and not hidden on the back of the shelf!

2-  Second is where your "ad" appears in magazines and publications.  Ad agencies long ago learned to charge a premium for the first dozen pages of advertising in their publications.  Of course this is because while 90% of readers will look through the first dozen pages; not even 10% will make it to the end of the publication.  Our lesson to be learned from this is to keep our communication short and poignant.  Physicians are not going to read 10 page research papers, or 15 page case notes forms.  Quite simply, it is important to provide one page updates that grab their attention.  

3.  How you position your service in the "readers" mind.  This is perhaps the most obvious with how it relates to your practice.  Does your practice exude professionalism?  Do people in the community know that your office works with (not against) other physicians in town?  Have you positioned your office as the only logical choice for primary care physicians to make chiropractic referrals?  

As you can see, how we position our office will make a huge difference in our success not only with interdisciplinary referrals, but also with our friends and neighbors.  

-The Evidence Based Chiropractor is the fastest growing chiropractic marketing group in the profession.  The service, founded and run by Dr. Jeff Langmaid, is dedicated to increasing chiropractic utilization by showcasing research.  Marketing to medical doctors through research is proven, cost effective, and can dramatically improve your incoming referrals.  Join us.  Lets grow chiropractic together.