Do you remember the old book titled “Differentiate or Die; by Jack Trout? Well I’ll give you the good news first, if you are reading this – you haven’t died yet.
And then the bad news, the key word is “yet” – because there are more things you have to differentiate against now than ever before.
Before, you just tried to be different than your competitors down the street or in the same building or on the same block. That might have been enough when people found a dentist and kept a dentist. Then, patients were loyal. As long as you didn’t mess it up and you at least were trustworthy – they stayed.
Now… oh boy, is this a different story.
Not only do you have to compete against other dentists, but you have to compete against insurance and against the big bad corporations. Then there is competing for patients’ attention, time in their schedule and their money. And that’s where most practices do a terrible job. They might be nice to patients but they don’t compel them to want to invest. They haven’t differentiated the value and benefits of proceeding with treatment versus not, the consequences of doing nothing at all or less than what has been treatment planned.
Isn’t a crazy world out there my friends? Well actually, when is the last time you took a good look around at “your world” and discovered the new realities that we are living with in dentistry today.
You have so many forces fighting against you. Are you fighting back? If so, are you winning? How?
And what are your plans and strategies to keep winning again tomorrow, to win the next patient that walks in or calls on the phone or visits your website.
Well, I have a surprise for you coming next week. I just finished up and am releasing my newest book all about this topic!
How to truly differentiate your practice. To not only stand apart from the crowd of dentists in your city, town, or neighborhood, but also to fight back against the corporate takeovers, the dental discounters and the insurance scammers.
Know this: wherever you have gaps in your process and you do not fully and continually position yourself, control your patients’ experiences, and otherwise differentiate against all of these forces – you risk losing your patients.
If you do this right, your biggest reward will be patients who do not make decisions based on price or convenience or insurance or anything else that is commodity driven. Your reward will be returning back to the times when relationship, trust and genuine care will keep your patients in your practice.
You deserve that. More importantly – your patients deserve you!
But you have to give them reasons to want to be your patients.
Read this next sentence carefully…
Patients believe they can get dentistry and everything do: ANYWHERE ELSE. Do you understand this? Patients do not know how to differentiate between good and bad, better or worse, quality or not, or any other determining factors. Therefore, you are starting in the one-down position.
You have to regain the advantage in order to even have a chance at winning them over. You do this not by random accidents, but with 7 specific and essential elements of differentiation in your dental practice.
You’ve worked hard to get where you are today and for your future success, but your sacrifice isn’t enough, dentistry alone isn’t enough. You have to step up to the big leagues of your dental business and achieve true legitimate differentiation in order to give your patients knowledge and reasons to choose you again and again.
That’s success and the battle you must fight (and win) day in and day out in your practice. Stay tuned for the big book release next week.
