Dental Ortho Marketing and How to be a category killer
Let’s talk about ortho and dental ortho marketing and how to make you start out from others in your particular niche.
Category killers in dentistry are procedures or combinations of procedures that when marketed and packaged correctly eliminate most competitors and remove pricing constraints on a procedure that when performed generically is commoditized.
Others doing similar (but poorly marketed, packaged, and sold) or more generic versions of these procedures always find themselves in brutal pricing wars, stuck in circumstances where fees are difficult to get, much less raise.
Those seeking out and creating category killing strategies (both in marketing and selling) by using the correct dental ortho marketing tools have the freedom to price these procedures based on their care, skill, and judgment, and invariably demand and get 50-200% more for their procedures while having happier patients.
Name a specific treatment niche and the choice is to either compete mostly on price OR remove most pricing complaints via marketing and selling.
Many are trained in the clinical skill sets but few will take the steps needed to BE a category killer practice. The bridge that divides these two camps is ownership and belief in the phrase “I am the Problem. I am the Solution.”
We’ve been teaching this concept of the “category killer” since the mid-2000s, being the first in dentistry to apply this term to the practice of dentistry specifically dispense ads and training in accomplishing such. An introduction to the importance of marketplace advantages (the ones that matter) can be found here—it continues to be the #1 book of its kind at Amazon.
For doctors who want to dominate a particular specialized procedure in their regional area, understanding the concept and then implementing strategies that create a local category killing advantage is not only possible but highly desirable considering today’s economic reality. Those who do so enjoy a much different life professional and personally as a by-product of helping patients who need them the most.
As with any niche one intends to leverage this concept, the procedures do matter and the dental ortho marketing helps send the patients to you over others.
Here are the ones in ortho that can’t be leveraged to create category killing: traditional ortho that most orthodontists do and “invisible” braces of any kind. Yes, regular Invisalign and other “invisible” imitators can be bundled to create some advantages but they lack the one thing patients want the most which is speed.
Services or combination of services that deliver speed in ortho (e.g. Fast Ortho, Six Month Smiles, Wilckodontics, and Invisalign Express) are the ones around which create category killing advantages can be created predictably when: 1) these services are positioned against the things about ortho that patients hate, 2) the message is put to a wide regional prospective patient audience and 3) when the dental ortho marketing is tied into a check-list method of selling with the right shock and awe related information.
The average fee for a category killer ortho case is $7,500 and the fee can extend to $20,000 depending on level of complexity AND patients are happy to pay for the results delivered.
Who can gain these advantages? Orthodontists “could” but most are locked into a different era and are fearful of dental ortho marketing as it might upset their referrals (100% incorrect belief). Generalists or prosthodontist with a focus on ortho. Pediatric dentists. For the techniques utilizing surgery, periodontists and oral surgeons may be part of the marketing and selling team (splitting marketing costs since after all they are benefiting from all this work).
What’s involved? Category killing ALWAYS requires the use of mass media (invariably some combination of radio, newsprint, niche website PLUS online patient acquisition, and long form TV) PLUS dedicated sales training in check-list selling for the doctor and team. If you have the clinical training or are in the process of getting it, and fully embrace all of these concepts, then you likely have what it takes to turn these procedures into real advantages in your market area. Monthly marketing costs will range from 5-15%–realize that fees for those in this category have no restrictions. These practices can “afford” to out market everyone around them.
Ready to have a category killing advantage? If you compete in the ortho niche and have relevant clinical training or are getting training in one or more of these modalities, we can have a discussion about building your custom category killing advantage in your location. You can speak with me if you want to move forward with this concept
FYI: My first year fee for creating a customized category killing advantage program is based on a multiple of 2-4X the fee range of the particular category killing case type. This includes CREATION of all marketing, implementation in the practice, accountability and team training. As I only work with one practice in an area in a particular category killer procedure, it’s in your best interest to have a discussion sooner versus later on this topic if you’re ready to be the THE category killer in a particular niche. You can also learn more by going on my website.
