It is a question I ask groups nearly every week. Who is your competition? If you are in dentistry for example, you might make the mistake of saying that your competition is the dentist down the street. That kind of thinking might be seriously limiting your success.
Think about it:
· Over 50% of the people in any market do not go to the dentist on a regular basis.
· 80% of the population has some type of periodontal disease.
· You’re not everybody’s “cup of tea.” Not everyone is going to like your personal style or your way of doing business. They will go somewhere else. That is the bad news. The good news is that other people are not going to like the dentist down the street and would rather come to you.
“Competition” in a healthy sense of the word may be the best thing that can happen to any business for several reasons:
· To one extent, the more competitors there are, the more educated the market becomes and the more likely more people are to buy.
· Healthy “competition” creates the opportunity to differentiate and tailor your service to a more specific clientele that will be more satisfied because you are more closely serving their needs.
· “Competition” makes everybody better because you have to stay on top of your game to stay relevant.
I have always thought how much better dentistry would be if dentists, especially in the same market, were willing to share their clinical data. If they would compare and help each other improve clinically, the entire market would benefit as well as the patients in it. Besides, patients rarely make the decision about their dentist based on clinical quality. Unfortunately, they are not very good judges of clinical quality of care. Quality is the moral and ethical responsibility of the dentist.
So think of the vast untapped market of patients that are waiting to be served. In most markets, there is plenty to go around for everyone if you are properly positioned and move forward with a defined purpose instead of being threatened by the “competition.”
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