The saying goes: “What a lovely grain of sand, too bad you’re lying on a beach.”
It should be changed to: “What a lovely dental practice, too bad it’s exactly the same as the rest of them.”
Hopefully, as a business owner, you’ve heard of a U.S.P. or Unique Selling Proposition. It’s what makes your practice different and unique from all the other practices out there.
If you are truly unique, your advertising and marketing is easy. You have a solid message, and it’s easy to communicate that with your audience.
But, for the most part, dentists have set the bar incredibly low, and have a very tainted idea as to what makes them unique.
For instance, that CEREC machine sitting in the corner gathering dust may have made you unique 10 years ago, but now every dentist has one of things.
Oh, and the fact that you care for your patients… that’s not unique either. In healthcare, caring is implied. You cannot be unique for something you are supposed to do.
Dentistry has become a commoditized service due to the relative marketing ignorance of the whole. This goes from top level boards and educational facilities down to you, the individual dentist.
A dentist is a dentist is a dentist as far as any consumer is concerned. People are indifferent to even their own dentist due to the fact that there are few, if any, that are truly going out of their way to stand out.
Your office color, your location, and even how long you’ve been in dentistry is not good enough to differentiate you from the crowd. Oh, and the dental spa… that discontinued being popular and unique once the housing market went in the shitter. Everyone calls themselves a “dental spa” now.
What’s truly unique? Maybe the dentist with an alien themed practice complete with UFO style reception desk and hot pink furry exam chair.
Or maybe the dentist with a wine tasting every first Thursday of the month to show his passion for wine. No shameless pitches for a FREE exam with every tasting, just some like minded people getting together in a location and doing something they love.
It could be the Ultimate Fighting fan dentist that plays UFC fights non-stop in his office and has a cage theme in his exam rooms. (This guy kills it with the 25-45 male crowd. You know, the ones that don’t buy from you.)
There’s even the pilot dentist who has his old flight pictures, military flight suits, and even a propeller from an actual P-51 Mustang in his practice. His patients love to talk with him about his new project and even gives away flights to top patients every now and then.
WAIT, if you notice, the real thing that makes the practice unique is the personality of each dentist within them. They have taken something about themselves, and made it the focus of the practice.
This allows them to do something they love while they also run a successful dental practice.
It also makes sure that they look forward to Monday mornings.
So, what the hell are you really doing to make yourself stand out. If you’re boring, quit doing that. Find something you love to do and figure out how you can make it the pinpoint of your practice.
Then you can stand out among those average frustrated dentists out there.
