Explain to your staff that the practice will benefit greatly from the sales of cervical pillows both financially and also in improved patient outcomes. The success of the practice is important to all who work in it and a successful cervical pillow program will provide significant revenue for the practice. A training session for staff is essential for success. Your staff will not talk to patients about cervical pillows if they lack knowledge as they may be afraid that they will not be able to answer patients' questions. If you do not have good results with a certain brand of cervical pillow or your staff does not support it, try another until you get a product that works and that your staff will support. Be sure that your staff understands all of the components of the pillow, why it provides superior cervical support and how the pillow is better than pillows which your staff may have seen in stores. If you do not have this information, ask your supplier for it. Offer your staff a discount on the pillow so that they can actually sleep on it. If the pillow is a good one you will soon have a staff of enthusiastic experts who are enabled with their own personal experience to sell "their favorite pillow" to patients. Most of the doctors who sell our pillows tell us that they sleep on it themselves and enthusiastically relate to us how great they sleep on it. If your staff can do the same they will sell a lot of pillows.

Visibility

You should keep a well-stocked display of cervical pillows in a public area of the clinic. A display rack of pillows that you can replenish is a must and it will greatly increase your sales. The display should be professional in appearance and informative so that patients can read for themselves why the product is effective and how it will benefit them. Make sure the display is kept neat, filled and well maintained to present a clean professional image. Your supplier should be able to provide free displays for this purpose. Ask for one. Most quality cervical pillows have extensive product information on the package and brochures that explain their features and benefits. If this information is available in a waiting area your patients will read it as they wait and will usually ask questions. If there is a receptionist there make sure that he or she is very familiar with the product and can make a compelling presentation. It will also keep the patient occupied if they are waiting for treatment. Doctors report that 25% of patients who purchase cervical pillows return specifically to purchase more or send in a relative or friend to purchase one. These recommendations and automatic repeat sales can be a valuable source of revenue and can introduce your practice to potential patients who may not have known about it otherwise.

Why should you offer cervical pillows in your practice?

82% of doctors surveyed recommend cervical pillows to their patients. Overwhelmingly, those doctors, in fact 97% of them, recommend that other doctors should offer them in their practice as well. What's even more compelling is how many pillows that patients who visit these doctors buy. Of doctors who recommend cervical pillows, 30% of them report that more than 50% of their patients buy cervical pillows! A recent survey found that based on respondents results, a doctor who offered ½ of patients a cervical pillow had a 40% probability of selling pillows to more than ½ of patients. Apply these percentages to the number of patients you treat in a month and you have a good guideline on what you can expect for cervical pillow sales in your practice. In an January 2008 poll, 57% of doctors responding said that they treated an average of 21 to more than 40 patients per day. Based on this number of visits, patients might purchase more than 10 pillows per day! Using an average selling price of $60 to $70 dollars, this would be $12,000 in revenue per month.

If your results aren't as good, take a look at some of the suggestions offered here about display, staff training and how you talk to patients about cervical pillows. Make sure that the pillow you offer is of the highest quality with attractive and informative packaging. If the cervical pillow you offer looks cheaply made and is packaged poorly, it may detract to the professionalism of your practice and you should upgrade to a better quality product for better results. If you attend a conference, talk to other doctors about their experience as well.

As we talk to doctors around the country they relate to us how many pillows they provide to their patients. Results vary of course based on the region and how big the practice is but we hear many stories of doctors selling 20 pillows every month and more. A good quality cervical pillow will sell for 60 to 70 dollars so extra revenue of $1200 to $1400 per month is a reasonable expectation. If you chose the correct pillow there is no downside. Your practice will benefit from the extra revenue and patient outcomes will improve along with their satisfaction with your treatment and total care approach.

Phil Souza is executive vice president of sales and marketing for Chiroflow Inc., a Toronto-based corporation. He can be reached with questions and comments at .