How to articulate your value proposition as a dentist
If you’re a dental practice, you need to articulate your value proposition.
It doesn’t matter what size you are. You need a value prop.
If I were to press many dental practices about theirs, they’d say, “Well, I’m a dentist, so my value is that I do dentistry.” But that’s not the full answer (and it doesn’t set them apart from other dentists).
A true value proposition incorporates the services provided, yes. But also distinguishes how, when and where those services are provided — ideally in a way that sets you apart from other dentists in the area.
If you’re having trouble identifying your value proposition, there’s a system you can use to figure it out.
Many years ago, I read a book that would change my life: Business Model Generation. Published in 2010, it continues to be a wonderful tool, whether you’re a small private dental practice or running a multinational telecom business. The book provides a means of moving through and building your business model visually, which, for my dentist colleagues, is usually very helpful (as we’re generally visual people).
I use an exercise from the book called the Business Model Canvas. It’s an activity I typically reference when I’m lecturing, and I’ve written about it previously.
For dentists, I recommend you sit down with your office manager (you can also include your entire team if you want) and think about how to build your business model together. As the dentist, you’re going to own this. But if you build it together, it helps your team understand the decisions that are made to help your practice perform optimally.
We won’t go through all the steps in this article, but the first two are the most critical.
First, identify your target demographic — the customers, or in our case, the patients.
Who are the types of patients that you love to treat? Who are the types of patients you want to see more of? There may be a predominant number of these types of patients in your community (hopefully there are). How do you get more of them into your practice?
“Busy professionals” are a type of patient — they’re a target demographic. “Retirees” are another target demographic. So too are “soccer moms and dads.” Segmenting your demographics in this way is the first step toward identifying the needs, concerns, and problems within that group.
As you identify these needs, concerns, and problems, you move on to step two.
Step two entails creating a value proposition for this target demographic.
You should still avoid talking about your specific products or services. If my target demographic is “busy professionals,” my value proposition to them is not “veneers.” That’s not a thing that addresses their obstacles to getting their needs and wants.
So, what are the things a busy professional wants to get out of their dental appointment? They want to be seen efficiently. They want evening hours and lunchtime hours, so they can be seen around their work schedule. Off the bat, you’re figuring out the hours of operation you should keep — and maybe even what the decor of your office should look like. You start to answer questions about payment solutions, and the vibe your reception area should give off. There are thousands of decisions like these when you’re creating a business or refreshing it. Those decisions should be made with your target demographics in mind, as part of a unique value proposition that differentiates you from your competitors.
These first steps — which I believe to be the most critical in the business model canvas — are often missed by dentists. They hang up their shingle, and say, “All right, I’m here to do dentistry for whoever walks in the door.” As a result, their marketing efforts can look very generic. Whether they’re using direct mail, SEO or social media, they’ll look like they’re trying to appeal to everyone.
My advice to dentists is to determine two or three target demographics.
If you’re identifying 20, that’s too many. Your practice needs to be focused.
After you identify your two or three, then look at the value propositions you would create for each one. (They may overlap and that’s great.) Focus your business on those value propositions.
When I share this part with audiences, light bulbs go off. They realize they need to stop being everything to everyone. Because when you create something truly special — when you roll out the red carpet to certain target demographics — you separate yourself from the pack.
In my private practice, which I sold in 2021, our target demographics were busy professionals and retirees. What that meant was, if you were a retiree, or you were a busy professional, and you were coming into our practice, you didn’t walk into a reception area that had broken crayons and children’s toys spilled all over the place. There were no cartoons playing on the TV, because we wouldn’t be continuing a branded journey for our patients if we did that. As a result, we weren’t seen as being a “kid’s dentist” — and patients were more likely to do advanced procedures with us.
This is certainly some of what we’ve done at Tend. We focus on busy professionals, and tailor a special experience with them in mind.
The experience with our brand begins the moment a patient interacts with us online or gets a referral from a friend. It continues on through their first visit to our studio. It’s important that every point through that members’ journey consistently delivers and builds on those expectations. If at any point there’s an inconsistent experience, we risk having someone be less enthused about being a member.
We have our target demographic. We know their friction points with traditional dentistry, and have removed them. We’ve done ample research on what they need from their appointments, its effects, our hours of operation, and the experience when they come in a Tend.
And that allows us to roll out the red carpet for them.
