How Marketable is your Dental Practice?

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How Marketable is your Dental Practice?
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• What YOU think is great does not match the
  perception of the dental consumer!
• In our two-part blog posting series, we are
  going to discuss what makes your practice
  attractive to the consumer. In the first part of
  our blog series, we are going to discuss the
  difference between the dentists perception and
  the dental consumers perception of dentistry. We
  also dive into the damaging consequences of using
  low prices to entice new patients to join your
  practice.

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• The second part of our series will cover the
  top marketable attributes you can use to promote
  to the dental consumers in your area. We will
  also provide you with insights and
  recommendations on how to improve your
  marketability in the future.

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• Whats so great about YOU? Understanding the
  marketability of your practice

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• As we stated in one of our dental marketing
  guides, effective marketing starts with a better
  understanding of the dental consumers mindset.
  If you can relate to the needs of ordinary people
  and communicate with them at their level of
  understanding, your marketing efforts will have
  more impact and produce better results than those
  of your competitors.

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• The next critical step in developing a good
  marketing strategy is to gain a better
  understanding of your own practice.

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• Now, this statement may ruffle a few feathers.
  If youre like most of the dentists we work with,
  you believe that if theres one thing you know
  inside out and upside down, its your dental
  practice. You built it from the ground up. You
  carefully selected every piece of equipment,
  stick of furniture and retractable pen within
  those four walls. You spend most of your waking
  hours in it. What could you possibly not know?

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• Its a very reasonable question, and one that
  well answer in a moment. The answer will help
  you see your practice in a totally different
  light. Throughout this series, youll learn how
  to identify elements of your practice that are
  truly marketable, and that the general public
  will find desirable, impressive and compelling
  enough to make them to pick up the phone and make
  an appointment.

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• These elements are not going to be any of the
  things that might come to your mind right now.
• Lets start by examining the difference between
  reality and perceptionand the ways in which they
  can play havoc with the way you market your
  practice.

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• Reality and perception Why you and your
• patients live on different planets
• Dental consumersthe people youre trying to
  reach with your marketing efforts have an
  existing, known reality related to dentistry.
  Their reality is based solely on the sum total of
  their prior experiences at the dentists office
  (if they have ever had any). Thats it.

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• Perception is a whole other ballgame.
  Perception has NOTHING to do with reality. Humans
  create perceptions about something from indirect
  influences, such as information they receive from
  friends and family, items they see in the paper,
  on the web or on TV, and the pervasive effect of
  advertising.

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• For instance, have you ever owned a pair of
  Nike sneakers? If you have, your experience of
  Nike sneakers is based on reality. If you
  havent, you have no real experience and have to
  fall back on perception to make your evaluations.
  Whether that perception is positive or negative,
  it has no relation to reality. Of course, that
  perception can be just as powerful as the
  realitywhich is why marketing powerhouses like
  Nike spend more than a billion dollars each year
  to alter peoples perceptions!

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• How about Geico insurance? If you dont have a
  Geico policy, you probably still have perceptions
  about the company and the brand. If we ask you
  what you think about Geico insurance as a
  product, youd have an opinion. If we asked you
  what you thought about the cavemen or the talking
  Gecko, youd have an answer. If we asked whether
  you liked or disliked Geico, you would have
  something to say. Yet everything you think and
  feel about Geicohowever strong those assumptions
  and opinions might beare perceptions without any
  basis in reality.

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• If we shared your perceptions about Nike with a
  footwear designer, or your opinions about Geico
  with an insurance professional, they would
  probably feel as though we were speaking
  different languages. Their insider knowledge of
  the reality of these subjects means that they see
  them in a totally different way.

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• Thats exactly the phenomenon you face when
  marketing your dental practice to the ordinary
  consumer. Your reality as a dentist is NOT the
  perception of the dental consumer. The dental
  consumers perceptions are so far removed from
  your reality that you really are almost living on
  different planets.
• So how do we get everyone back on the same page?

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• Recognize existing perceptions and use them to
  your advantage
• By recognizing the ways in which ordinary people
  perceive the field of dentistry, you can figure
  out what really impresses and appeals to them,
  and then market the heck out of it.

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• Fortunately, the average dental consumer is
  easily impressed. The previous chapter revealed
  how little most people know about dentistry. Most
  have never even heard of things like periodontal
  laser treatments, one-visit crowns, one-visit
  whitening or dentist-administered migraine
  treatments. The dental consumer knows hardly
  ANYTHING about todays dentistry. Their
  perceptions of your practice are so limited, its
  easy to wow them. Things that are a routine part
  of your business are revolutionary to your
  potential customers. You live with dentistry
  every day, and the excitement wears off. For
  consumers, its all new.

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• Almost everything about todays dentistry can be
  made to be at best exciting, and at the least
  informative and useful information! The key is to
  go down to the consumers perceptual level when
  you start to build your list of marketable
  attributes.

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• Why digital x-rays are a major newsflash
• Lets take a look at a specific example of ways
  to exploit the difference between consumer
  perception and reality.

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• Lets say there are 25 dentists in and around
  your general market area. YOU know that all of
  the dentists in the area employ digital x-rays in
  their practices. To YOU, the consumer benefit of
  digital x-rays is hardly even worth mentioning to
  the general public. Everybody offers them, so
  they dont offer a compelling reason for anyone
  to choose your office for their dental needs.
• Wrong.

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• If none of the other 25 dentists in the area
  promote their use of digital x-rays, the
  perception of the dental consumer will be that
  your offering is unique. As far as they know,
  yours is the only office in the area offering
  this remarkable technology, and if your marketing
  materials sell the benefits of digital x-rays in
  language the consumer understands, they will pass
  over your 25 competitorsall of who offer the
  exact same serviceand book an appointment with
  you.

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• Lets look at another example. Lets say you
  started using CAD/CAM technology in your practice
  a few years ago. To you, its old news. Sure,
  its a useful part of your practice. Sure, its
  pretty fun to play around with. But none of your
  patients are going to care about how fun it is
  for you to tinker with your CAD/CAM machine.
• Wrong again.

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• How do you think the general public would respond
  to some of these benefits?
• Same Day Restorations No Temporary Teeth!
• No need to bite down on a tray of nasty blue
  gunk
• Instant adjustments for the perfect fit!
• Years worth of dental work done in just one visit!

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• Maybe you recognized some of these consumer
  benefits maybe you didnt. Almost every
  business owner is too close to their own area of
  expertise to effectively promote their own
  business. Thats why advertising/marketing firms
  exist. But by understanding the gulf that exists
  between public perception and the reality of your
  dental practice, you are more than halfway
  towards being able to beat some of those
  professional marketers at their own game.

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• Step outside of your own knowledge base. Take a
  fresh look at the many services you offer, and
  the advantages to the consumer that those
  services provide.
• The dental consumers limited perception is a
  pretty powerful marketing agent if you know how
  to make it work for you. Once you understand the
  publics perception of dentistry, you can use it
  as the baseline for your list of marketable
  attributes attributes that youll showcase in
  all of your marketing materials.

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• The Value Gap Why leading with low prices is
  a big mistake
• As you have seen, the difference between
  perception and reality can be used to your
  advantage. But there is one area where the
  difference is not in your favor. This is the
  value gapa term that doesnt mean a whole lot to
  people who dont have a business degree. But its
  an important concept to understand when its your
  business to promote the value of your product or
  service to the public.

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• So, what is the value gap? The official
  definition is the positive or negative
  difference between the perceived value of
  something and the true value of something.

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• In dentistry, the value gap means the public
  still believes dentistry is the same as it was 50
  years ago. This is great news when it comes to
  dazzling them with new technology that youve
  been using for 15 years, but its bad news when
  it comes to convincing them that your services
  dont cost the same as they did 50 years ago. The
  dental consumer believes your fees are too high
  because they do not understand the value of
  what you provide. And prestoyouve got a value
  gap.

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• Now, the value gap is not real after treatment.
  Patients do pay you the fees you charge AFTER you
  treat them, and they see the value of the service
  you provide. The value gap only exists before
  they become your patients. This is an important
  distinction.

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• The most important thing to understand is that
  lowering your prices will NEVER close the value
  gap. In fact, taking this approach will only
  widen the gap further and have you chasing after
  scarcer and scarcer dollars.

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• Please consider the following two statements
• Promoting your practice primarily through
  financial incentives makes the existing value gap
  larger. If you make the value gap larger, there
  is downward pressure on pricing (your fees) and
  your fees will be harder to collect. (In other
  words, low prices deflate the value of the
  service you provide.)

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• Promoting your practice primarily through the
  benefits of todays dentistry makes the existing
  value gap smaller. If you make the value gap
  smaller, there is upward pressure on pricing
  (your fees), and your fees will be easier to
  collect. (In other words, charging full price for
  your services reinforces the perception of their
  value.)

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• Make these two principles your new marketing
  mantra. Repeat them every time youre tempted to
  distribute a tacky postcard offering a 59
  exam-and-x-ray special or participate in one of
  those discount coupon books that usually end up
  in the recycling bin anyway.

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• Attempting to attract people to your practice
  that are interested in great healthcare (rather
  than a deal) will ultimately provide you with
  the practice you desire. Yes, we understand that
  good prices and good service are not mutually
  exclusive, but dentistry as a whole relies WAY
  too much on attracting new patients primarily
  through financial incentives. When you do a good
  job of promoting the value of your services, you
  dont need to compete on price. Ever.

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• In part one of our blog series on dental
  practice marketability, we discussed what makes
  your practice attractive to the consumer. Many
  dentists have a much different perception about
  this compared to what the consumer thinks. Well
  show you how to use the consumers perceptions to
  your advantage in your marketing materials. We
  have also seen how the lag between the perception
  and reality of dental technology offers an
  opportunity to promote old technology as an
  exciting and unique consumer benefit.

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• We hope we have also shown you the damaging
  effect a different kind of consumer
  perceptionthe value gapcan have on your
  business. If you retain only ONE marketing
  concept from this blog series, we sincerely hope
  its the idea that marketing yourself on price
  alone only devalues the service you offer.

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• Stay tuned for part two of our blog series,
  where we cover the top marketable attributes to
  use when marketing. We will also cover
  recommendations and insights on how to improve
  your marketability in the future.