The role of physician is a highly demanding one. For many years, the lay public has looked upon physicians as being highly educated, even all-knowing. It is a daunting task to say the least to keep abreast of the ever-increasing clinical literature. Becoming an excellent clinician requires a continuous focus on patient needs and the growing body of scientific literature.

Given these demands, how much focus gets directed to the other areas of a physician’s practice and a physician's life? How a physician defines success in their practice determines their behavior. However, we learn practice as a result of modeling other doctors. If our peers and mentors don't know something, chances are, we don't either. If you model excellent clinicians, how good will you be at managing a practice and financial success and vice versa?

The perception of what your role is determines what kind of practice success you have. I suggest your role is in reality, a hybrid. You at the same time, the provider of physician services and the marketer of your physician services. To think otherwise is a classic physician practice mistake.

There is a lingering perception that we as physicians are either not qualified to market our services, or it is beneath us. We conveniently avoid the process of learning marketing and practice building. We hope that our intelligence and skill will be telepathically transmitted to the masses, so throngs of patients may beat a path to our door.

But we forget the way our patients and our referral partners see us. We forget they are busy people, with lives of their own, and with concerns that go beyond our services. We forget to build relationships with repetitive communication geared to the most precious wants of our clients and referral partners. In general, we take a shortsighted and egocentric view of our marketplace. And we wonder why practice growth can be so elusive...

Disillusioned that our results don't meet our expectations, we assume there isn't a better way, or we believe somebody with greater wisdom can build our practice for us. And often there is someone who has greater experience and knowledge in practice building than us. But does that someone -- and that guru -- have our best interests at heart? Do they have specific knowledge and experience in marketing physician practices?

If you accept the primary responsibility of building your practice... if you take it seriously... if you're willing to dedicate your time and resources to continuous improvement of your practice... then the use of a practice building consultant is a wise idea. After all, why reinvent the wheel when you can model someone who's already accomplished what you want to do?

But if you believe you can delegate the responsibility of building your practice, you take a huge leap of faith in outsourcing that all-important role to the guru. It's a paradigm shift that every physician must make before their practice becomes successful and lucrative.

Part of the problem... the resistance that physicians often create to building strong practices... is the fact that we've had little or no training in marketing and practice building. We spend no time thinking about what makes our practice special and unique, our patients’ perceptions of us and how to craft that into an effective message, and direct that to the right market via the best media.

Physicians in general, demonstrate a high degree of perfectionism. Were selected to be people who do well academically -- who test well. If we’re given a task that we know nothing about the easiest thing to do is to ignore it and hope it will go away.

And our hopes will be realized... our patients, our practice and our income will go away if we neglect this most important area.

The corollary is true also. Physicians with successful practices focus on practice building. They do so automatically without being asked to. They schedule time every week and every month to actively build their practices. They involve their staff in the building of their practices. They use leverage to internally and externally market their practices. And they measure the key variables and leading indicators they must track to gauge the overall direction of their practice.

How do you know if you're succeeding? How do you know if you're reaching your full potential as a physician? I think it's difficult if not impossible, to become a really excellent physician if you ignore key facets of your practice or your life.

A successful practice isn't an accident. It's the product of education and implementation of successful strategies. An unsuccessful practice is in an accident either. It's the byproduct of stubborn, consistent avoidance of learning and implementing the successful strategies.

So the question is, what are the top 10 or 20% of my activities I should focus on and improve so they can bring me the lion’s share of the results. Who are the top 10 or 20% of my patients, payors or referral partners that bring me 80% of my business, and how can I deepen my relationship with them? Who are the bottom 5% that I need to fire to free me up to be more effective?

Medicine is a unique business in many ways, but it is not unique in one basic way: it is based on relationships. Relationships with your patients and referral sources, especially. The deeper the relationship, the longer it will last and the more it will bring you. Despite our incredible degree of technical knowledge and proficiency, our income will be limited to the extent we form effective relationships.

Many specialists, for example, will pay high dollars to advertise in expensive magazines of in an attempt to create brand awareness for their practice. But will they call the referring physician back after the first patient visit and at the conclusion of care? Will they thank the referring physician, personally? Will they ensure updated clinical notes are sent? Will they take a moment to teach a clinically relevant pearl from their specialty to their referral partner to reinforce their status as an expert?

Referring physicians have an abundance of choice these days. Being a specialist does not necessarily guarantee success. But having strong relationships with busy primary doctors creates a significant advantage no matter what's going on in the marketplace.

There is a useful point here from a totally different business. Real estate agents know that one of the best ways to advertise is to place a sold sign on the lawn of a house that they have recently sold. It is proof that their methods work, and it is seen by their target market... neighbors who may have a house to sell in the coming months.

More than anything having a successful practice is a matter of choice. Choose to succeed. Choose to be the best physician can possibly be. Making that choice will shift your focus of attention from solely on patient care to a hybrid of excellent patient care and building a lucrative, efficient practice that grows automatically.