The most dangerous number in business is the number 1

So what do we mean by this quote? An American marketeer that I actively listen to is called Dan Kennedy. Many of you may be familiar with him. If you aren’t, he is a very famous author and professional speaker. His books are a mist read if you own a business. I have read all of his books myself and I like to buy them as gifts for my own clients to read. Dan describes the most dangerous number when you rely on one of anything in your business. For example, one customer, one form of marketing to attract new prospects, or maybe just relying on one major employee and if that person were to leave- what impact could this have on your business?

Let me give a practical example. Many years ago, I only delivered one course that was my Two-day Ethical Sales and Communication programme. Once people went through this programme, that was it.

If you fast forward to now, I have four other instructors and we still deliver the two-day programme. Alongside this we also have Advanced Master Class, a Reception, Speaking and Confidence, High Impact Presentation, Practice Managers Club, Entrepreneurs Club and In House Programme where we go into Practices and will design a course for them. Although the Two-Day Ethical Sales and Communication programme is our most popular course, we don’t rely so heavily on this course anymore.

In our business, we don’t solely rely on ways of attracting new clients, if we were to add up all the ways that we market our business it would be around 18 different methods. How many different methods of marketing do you use to attract new patients?

If you are a Referral practice, do you rely on one or two big referrers to give you your new patients? If so then you might need to expand your base. What would happen to your business if this practice stopped referring overnight?

If you are an NHS practice, do you offer private treatment to your patients or does the majority of your income come from the NHS? Although the NHS provides thousands of patients, you only have one customer, which is of course the NHS. If they make any wholesale changes to their contracts- what situation would you be in?

Last year, many of my Orthodontic clients lost their NHS contracts overnight and most of my work was helping them to grow their private income. Overnight they lost their biggest client. Some of these practices had a contract for over 25 years and this disappeared.

Maybe you rely on one extremely good employee I know of one practice who has an incredible employee, a brilliant treatment coordinator, however, if anything was to happen to her, the practice would be in trouble.

I urge you to take a step back and investigate your practice and see if you rely on one of anything. If you do then I strongly suggest that you act upon this immediately. If you market for new clients, expand on the methods that you use. Don’t rely heavily on one method. If you are an NHS practice, why not upsell the private options and grow, don’t just rely on one customer. Taking the time to do this might be the most rewarding time you spend this year.