** I will start with a short apology, we had a holiday here in Israel, which found me enjoying full 4 days with my family and actually managing a few naps in the middle of the day!
The down side of this particular holiday is the consumption of too much diary products and not having the needed mood to post, so I’m sorry for the lack of posts, but as you can understand, my body was bombarded with damp, and a general mood of laziness.
Now that this was explained, let’s go on with the post. **

Imagine a world where the number of Chinese Medicine clinics is the same as dentists clinics.
Imagine a world where the number of working Chinese Medicine practitioners is the same as the number of working medical doctors.
Sounds like a sweet dream?

According to Burton Kent, the author of the eBook “Never Market Again“, this dream is possible.
The name is very attractive. And the fact that the author of the eBook is in marketing made me read this eBook with extra attention. Since I think that this product is important for the world wide Chinese Medicine community, I dedicate a post for the eBook.

It seems that things in the US are rough just as they are in Israel, where Chinese Medicine is concerned (the numbers are different):
Kent claims that 1 of 5 graduates actually go on to practice Chinese Medicine, every year there are about 5,000 graduates, and there are only about 23,000 working clinics across the USA.
How can this be? What goes wrong in the process of graduates becoming practitioners?
Kent points at a number of reasons- the first one is graduates being un-able to promote themselves. Another reason is money.

Psychology claims that there are two main reasons why people go to therapy- relationships and money issues. The fact that graduates aren’t able to promote themselves properly due to various reasons, and the fact that they are un-able to charge fees that are suitable for the service they offer, both things are huge problems. Not to mention that they repeatedly place a stick in the wheels of the new clinic and practitioner.
It’s the same in Israel.
I myself remember that at times, I had a discomfort to talk about money: “ummm…. hmmm… errrr…. do you think…. maybe, if it’s not too difficult for you, we could talk about…. you know…. that thing…. money?”
I remember as a student, people talking about well known practitioners here in Israel, how “horrible” it is that they charge a fee that seemed to be too high for some students, and how “anti-Chinese Medicine” it is to be a self-promoter, and how “anti- Chinese Medicine” it is to take money altogether… Is it?

It is time to change this line of thinking.
Of course, no one says that now we will charge ridiculously high fees from our patients, but it also means that we are not going to charge all of our patients due to an ideal notion of practicing Chinese Medicine. After all, the bills we have to pay are still there and we need to earn an income.
Also, no one suggests that we should start a massive campaign, in which we talk very highly of ourselves- sometimes forgetting that we need to back this up with our abilities. But we should also take action and not wait for others to do our work for us.
Burton Kent suggests interesting ideas that all follow a certain strategy, and you can use it immediately.
My guess is that you are doing some of his ideas anyway, but Kent adds more ideas that at the very least are worth to think about, at least in my opinion.

“Never Market Again” talks of 3 basic ideas:
Relationships, education and word-to-mouth.
Most of the marketing strategy in this eBook is done with the patients we have right now, and Kent offers ways for us to make our connection to our patients even stronger.
We all know that the more we invest in our relationships- any kind of relationship- we get more, and our relationships with our patients are no exception. We all know that we treat the person behind the disease, but do we actually see the person that is behind the patient? Do we only think of the patient in the context of the clinic?
As I write these words I realise how much of the 5 Elements theory can be used here in the terms of getting to know our patients now just as people with an imbalance, but as people, period. Do we remember to do that in our clinic?
Kent suggests we should nourish our relationships with the people who come to see us and also pay attention to aspects outside the clinic walls. This does not mean that we should have coffee with our patients, but for example- send a birthday card on our patients birthday.
Kent offers many ideas throughout the eBook, some will be better for you and some you are already using, and all of them follow these 3 basic ideas mentioned above.

Burton Kent is not of the Chinese Medicine world. He is in the marketing world, and his path met the world of Chinese Medicine through clients. Today he consults practitioners from the USA, helping them to build their clinic according to the principles mentioned in “Never Market Again“.

“Never Market Again” costs $49.
When we remember that we want to have as many ideas as possible in order to have the dream clinic we have in our minds, $49 is another investment in our path.
If you order this eBook, you will also receive a copy of “The Faucet”, which will introduce you to paid advertising methods to supplement the word-of-mouth from “Never Market Again”.
I found this eBook to have many ideas that I already used, many ideas that sparked other ideas, and other ideas that I didn’t like so I didn’t use them (maybe one day they will be better suited for me). No matter how I look at it, the eBook offers good content to have in my marketing arsenal, which I think is always a good thing to do.
Burton Kent also says in the eBook- if you read the eBook, apply it’s content, and you don’t have a busy clinic, let him know and he will send you a refund.
Either way you can’t lose.

Did you read “Never Market Again“? I will be happy to hear your thoughts, leave your comments here.