What is it about what you are or what you do that makes you better than 90% of the alternative offerings available in your area?
Your competitive advantage is the focal point of your practice.
If you don’t have a competitive advantage of some kind you can’t compete.
If you don’t have a competitive advantage you MUST develop one, and make it the centerpiece of all your marketing.
The individuals who will most appreciate your competitive advantage are the people who will respond to your marketing efforts, so you first need to be crystal clear about the type of person you want to attract and what makes them tick.
This is basic market research and it is crucial to success, but sadly it is either completely ignored or bypassed on the basis that everyone assumes they have something ‘unique’ that people will line up to buy.
Some of my coaching clients feel sure that they offer a ‘superior service’ to their competitors, but when asked, they struggle to articulate what that is.
Remember, if you can’t clearly describe this ‘superior service’ to your patients then you will most likely provoke the response, ‘I’ll think about it, let me get back to you’.
It’s because the patient is simply not clear on why they should buy from you as opposed to putting it off or going elsewhere.
There is another big mistake that many new aesthetic practitioners make.
They go straight into the marketing and it fails abysmally, so they assume they need to drive down their prices in order to attract patients.
Therefore, it comes to no surprise that they start to attract patients who are most interested in low cost treatments and products.
It’s a well-known statistic that 14% of the buying public will only ever buy the cheapest.
Regardless of whether or not the product or treatment or practitioner is good, credible or even legal, 14% of people will only ever buy the price.
However, a patient who comes to you for price will also leave you for price, so it’s almost impossible to build up a loyal patient base, and this is one of the biggest frustrations of many of my coaching clients who have unfortunately sleepwalked into a price war.
If you feel you are losing patients on price you need to go back to the drawing board and develop a new competitive advantage.
Whilst 14% of the buying public are only ever interested in the cheapest, a whopping 85.5% are looking for VALUE FOR MONEY
(by the way, in case you were wondering the remaining 0.5% are that tiny segment of the buying public who will only ever buy the most expensive).
So keep your treatment prices marginally higher than your competitors but add MORE VALUE for the patient by offering some juicy bonuses in your treatment packages to enhance the patient experience.
People are naturally drawn towards anything that’s FREE, even if it’s stuff they don’t particularly need – they’ll still take interest because it’s FREE!
So think about what you can give away that is relatively low cost for you but hugely appealing to the patient; the aim is of course to still make an overall profit.
By following this approach you will attract the value seekers (85.5% of the market) as opposed to the bean counters (14% of the market).
Value seekers will continue to buy from you and refer you to their friends as long as you are perceived to be providing the best overall value in your treatment packages.
One final thought – many aesthetic practices believe they have a competitive advantage on the basis of a product alone.
Their marketing is all about their product and they talk on and on about how unique their product is.
If you fall into this bracket I have some bad news for you…
Nobody cares about your product!
Nobody cares about how or where it was made.
Nobody cares about its secret formula or how much research has gone into its development.
Basically, nobody cares about what your product IS. All they care about is what your product DOES.
Forget about its ‘unique’ features and stick to the benefits – explain or demonstrate how it improves the quality of life for the patient.