Barak Granot is a marketing industry leader and founder of DentoMetrix, a boutique dental marketing firm with a rapidly growing client list. A sought-after speaker and author, Granot challenges dentists and marketing professionals to rethink traditional plug-and-play marketing campaigns, especially in relation to price promotions. Granot’s upcoming book, Attract Better Patients – How To Position Yourself As The Go-To Dentist For Higher Value Cases, tackles this concept and more.
The crux of Granot’s teaching lies in the positioning. According to the marketing guru, many dentists try to begin their marketing campaigns without setting this important foundational element. Granot explains, “People resist the marketing because they don’t like to be marketed to. They are hearing the same message over and over from every practice.”
Granot describes two types of dental patients. Approximately 50% are looking for price and promotion, while the remaining half are seeking quality. This latter group is shopping for trust, not for price, which is crucial for dentists to understand. For example, if dentists want to attract a higher-value patient looking for quality but choose to promote their practice on price, they will be more likely to appeal to the price sensitive group rather than the quality-seeking group they were after in the first place.
In a 2013 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Survey, J.D. Power and Associates found that the “price shopper” segment was the least satisfied with their hotel experience. Granot has observed similar results in the dentistry field. His team has found that patients who choose dentists based on price tend to be less loyal to the practice, more likely to switch dentists based on the latest coupon offer, and less likely to invest in their oral health. The difference in average patient spend is staggering, with deal seekers spending an average of $450/year and trust seekers spending approximately $1,500/year. Granot elaborates, “I’ve seen dentists that are successful in both methods. It’s not a bad strategy, but you should understand which group you are marketing to.”
When dentists do not focus on positioning and find themselves in a high-volume low-price business, there can be unexpected costs. In addition to extra paperwork and negotiations with insurance companies, the dentists often have to rush through appointments to be able to see more patients. A common result? Patients are more likely to give bad reviews. The bad reviews limit the type of clientele a dentist can attract, and the downward spiral continues.
Granot’s years of experience in the dental marketing field has taught him that most dentists do not want to operate this way. “Dentists love what they do. They are there to serve. They like good quality work on their patients and need room to do that.” To do this, dentists must learn to attract this affluent group of patients, which are notoriously more difficult to convince. This is where the positioning comes into play.
Before crafting the positioning strategy, however, Granot mentioned two hurdles dentists must overcome. The first, according to Granot, is to accurately define the dentist’s role in the practice. As CEO of their business, dentists must make sure they are delegating efficiently and leveraging their strengths. This may mean outsourcing social media or scheduling so that they can fully devote their time to what they do best—serving patients. Granot elaborates: Running a business can be taxing. If you delegate and have that taken care of, then you can focus on providing the best care.”
The second barrier many dentists face is the concept of promoting themselves in general. Dentistry is different from other professions. Not too long ago, there were legal restrictions on promoting individual dental practices. As a result, more veteran dentists have trouble with marketing promotion. They see is as putting themselves on a pedestal.
Granot wrote his book to help dentists overcome these hurdles and provide them with a step-by-step guide for developing compelling positioning strategy that gets results. Attract Better Patients – How To Position Yourself As The Go-To Dentist For Higher Value Cases is scheduled to be released in June 2016 through Blue Ocean Publishing Group. In closing, Granot shares his bottom line: “Make sure that you have the positioning in place, that you stand out from other dentists in the area, and that people view you as the authority. That will pay off.”