An American Medical Association survey1 found that a desire to help people is the driving force behind many of the people who choose medicine as a career. But even with such a desire leading the way, business operations must also demand their fair share of attention to ensure that selfless decree can be heeded.
That’s why it’s important to always keep an eye out for opportunities to increase a practice’s revenue. A DEXA machine can play a vital role in supporting new revenue streams. Here are five ways it can achieve that.
1. DEXA Powers Revenue Diversity
Investors consider diversification a must for healthy portfolios. Businesses today are no different. A diverse portfolio is crucial to attaining and retaining a healthy bottom line. One study found that “diversification — whether measured in terms of products and services, geography, or number of customers — correlates strongly and positively with financial success.”2
A DEXA machine is an ideal diversification tool. It provides a range of services (measurements of bone density, muscle mass, visceral fat) that work across multiple business types (medical, wellness, nutrition, fitness).
Settling on diversification as a revenue stream strategy means confronting a number of questions. Below are such questions and how DEXA addresses them.3
|
Diversification Questions |
Diversification Answers |
| What can our company do better than any of its competitors in its current market? | Despite its clear — and medically backed — advantages, many people continue to rely on outdated and ineffective methods such as body mass index and skinfold tests as gauges for their health. Body comp testing is gaining ground on them, but the window is still open on getting the jump on competitors and offering more thorough and reliable data. |
| What strategic assets do we need in order to succeed in the new market? | A staff experienced in client service and the technical requirements of their roles, a measure of public awareness, strategic partnerships (with, for example, physician practices and/or corporate wellness programs): these and other represent a nice complement of strategic assets. |
| Can we catch up to or leapfrog competitors at their own game? | Competition today is becoming much more about client experience than about any other business trappings. While a competitor might have a DEXA machine, your office’s capabilities to exceed client expectations represents the true point of distinction. |
| Will diversification break up strategic assets that need to be kept together? | A DEXA-based diversification effort strengthens strategic assets since they all flow from the same foundation of technology-enhanced wellness support. |
2. DEXA’s Features Anticipate Market Needs
It’s a quote so well-worn in business that you’d expect it to be frayed, yet it remains as relevant as ever: “Skate to where the puck is going.” It’s how hockey legend Wayne Gretzky explained his effectiveness on the ice. Since then, it’s been adopted by the business world as axiomatic. In a world beset by an obesity pandemic as its population ages more rapidly than ever before, there was literally never been more apt circumstances to deploy a resource such as a Lunar iDXA.
Fighting back against the diet-and-lifestyle circumstances that increase diabetes and cancer as well as the bone health concerns of an aging populace means deploying powerful new strategies. And a DEXA machine is as powerful as they come: with a scan as brief as just a couple of moments, DEXA machines can quantify several key markers impacting health today and the prospects of a healthier tomorrow — which can be leveraged in a plan to begin improving both immediately.
3. DEXA Services Can Be “Productized”
One recommended course of action with respect to business diversification is the idea of turning solutions you offer into products or programs. That means incorporating a DEXA machine’s capabilities into a package of services or as a key component of a client wellness program. This results in enhanced value and a potential new revenue stream.
Examples of this might include a body comp scan as part of:
- A fitness program operated in partnership with a personal trainer
- A nutrition program conducted in-house, with a local care facility, or with a participating dietician
- An annual health assessment (to provide additional services to — and realize a new revenue stream from — current clients)
Such programs work well in terms of revenue streams because they scale better4 than labor-based services that, beyond a certain size, can tax your available resources and space.
4. DEXA Works With Partnerships
Speaking of partnerships in the wellness space: DEXA offers a great opportunity to create a revenue stream there, too. Personal trainers, nutritionists, life coaches, corporate wellness program directors: all of them could introduce genuine distinction and value to their respective services — and a new revenue stream for you — by teaming with a DEXA-powered practice. More than 500,000 small businesses are started each month, an amount that practically guarantees viable partners are waiting for you.
Finding and negotiating with them can be a challenge, however. Keep the following points in mind and you should do fine:
- Identify businesses with complementary goals. As previously stated, this could be personal trainers, nutritionists, etc. Keep in mind that you’re looking for partners with complementary goals, not overlapping goals. Before you reach out to any, make sure you can elucidate the benefits they will potentially receive. The “WIIFM?” element is crucial to demonstrating your interest in a win-win arrangement.
- Connect with those businesses. Reaching out to potential partners may be as simple as sending an email, making a phone call, or asking for an introduction from a common LinkedIn connection. Joining your local chamber of commerce can also present a great opportunity.
- Consider a test phase. Maybe the personal trainer gets a volume- or milestone-based discount on DEXA scans for a predetermined period, with your clinic receiving a certain percentage. Tests are so important to ensure an effective rollout of a new revenue stream that they comprise our next point in full.
5. DEXA Tests Well
Few words engendered greater disdain in our younger years than “Time for a test!” or any of its variants. But times change. Now, we understand that tests in business play a critical role in establishing a strong foundation and helping ensure productivity — and profitability — with any effort.
Testing new DEXA-powered revenue streams assumes, in most cases, one of the following two scenarios:
Scenario #1
In circumstances where a practice already has a DEXA machine to provide bone density examinations, testing a new revenue stream is a relatively straightforward process. After all, the machine is already there, the staff is already trained, and clients already have some awareness of it.
Scenario #2
Ironically, instances where a clinic does not already have a DEXA machine don’t require a markedly different process. The assumption here is that a clinic considering a DEXA machine already has a business plan already developed around providing bone density exams or body comp tests. Investigating revenue streams is still about adding to something rather than creating something entirely new.
In both situations, the aim is to expand upon established services. Doing so will ideally involve a test phase that:
- Gauges the efficacy of the revenue stream and/or its execution
- Requires only a modest financial investment
Not every attempt to introduce a new revenue stream succeeds. (If you don’t remember Amazon’s Fire Phone, you’re not alone.) But with proper planning and careful testing, a new revenue stream powered by a DEXA machine presents a strong move at the right time.
Next Steps
If you’re looking for additional revenue streams for your practice, contact us today. We look forward to putting our 20+ years of experience to work helping you!
References
1https://www.ama-assn.org/survey-us-physicians-overwhelmingly-satisfied-career-choice
2https://www.bdc.ca/en/Documents/analysis_research/diversification_financial_performance.pdf
3https://hbr.org/1997/11/to-diversify-or-not-to-diversify
4https://www.ignitiongroup.com/propulsion-blog/seven-ways-to-create-new-revenue-streams
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