career planning for doctors
How leading doctors create a strong vision for their practice
Career planning for doctors in private practice needs vision. Let’s go over three powerful failproof elements of a strong vision for your practice or clinic.
career planning for doctors
How leading doctors create a strong vision for their practice
Kris Borgraeve
March 1, 2022
As a doctor, do I seriously need a USP?
standing out as a doctor
A conversation about unique selling propositions might make you frown. What has become a natural conversation topic in other corners of the marketing industry, seems out of place in healthcare marketing.
Standing out as a doctor in private practice is critical. If your service is positioned as a commodity, then you may come under increasing digital pressure.
"I often meet doctors who tell me that their referral flow seems to dry up and that more digital-savvy colleagues seem to have more effective lead-generation tactics."
It’s often about how you label something, isn’t it? When I ask doctors to work on their USP, I meet resistance. But what if you reframed it just a little bit?
What we want is to create a set of clear articles or web pages, that help the patient find out what you specialise in. Within your niche, what is your uniqueness?
They can come from different areas and I thought I’d list a few to get you inspired:
- Clinical expertise: The most evident uniqueness factor or USP you can use as a doctor is your clinical expertise. Ten years in theatre performing a certain procedure type means a lot to the next prospective patient.
- Team: As a patient, I want to know that there is a backup, a team with complementary know-how and experience.
- Qualifications: If you hold this unique degree that allows you to gain a deeper insight into certain symptoms or conditions, then it is definitely worth highlighting your qualifications.
- Culture of care: And now we move to the more intuitive uniqueness factors or USPs. Your culture of care is often intangible, and it ties in with how you look at the non-clinical aspects of your practice. What is the communication style? What is the human vibration patients pick up when they enter your practice? What does the practice feel like?
- Levels of holistic care and patient participation: The way you position yourself as a specialist with a focus on your status and position, as opposed to being really open-minded, holistic and willing to listen to the patient’s story, concerns, opinion or beliefs.
- Technology: The diagnostic tools that you use can help you position your practice as innovative.
- Research: Your participation in, or access to research, makes a difference in your perceived leadership position.
The uniqueness translates into the choices for your digital and online presence: photos, colours, graphics, and the tone-of-voice in the copy on your website. It makes career planning for doctors a more predictable process with a focus on results.
As a doctor, do I seriously need a story?
storytelling for doctors
The rational doctor says: Just give me more patients. Give me more traffic, clicks and conversions.
The patient is looking for information, and she is also looking for a trigger that can either deliver trust and rapport, or a move that takes her to another clinic’s website.
So why do I believe that you need a story? Because once the first connection is established, and the patient has chosen to stay on your website, we’re not there yet. You have not convinced a new patient, not just yet.
"Story can be as rational or fluffy as you want. It’s about giving the patient something that replaces the human experience of first meeting you. It’s about adding a layer of human affinity to the digital process."
Make the story about your childhood dream, your fellowship, your dog, your favourite moments in theatre or with patients…Make it about anything you want, but give the patient a window into your personality, and make sure it’s executed with precision on your website. A few lines about who you are, a natural and authentic photo, and a story that just confirms that you are a human being in the first place, then you are this amazing leading specialist doctor who can help us. Check out Dr Alex Koefman’s About page if you are looking for inspiration (happily created by Digital Practice, oh yeah).
Focusing on the human story brings career planning for doctors to a whole new level. It gives your practice the full power of an in-depth marketing strategy, rather than some scattered tactics.
As a doctor, do I always need to focus on growth?
business growth for surgeons
Maybe you are flat out. Maybe your waiting list is spread out over weeks to come.
Somewhere deep inside, you know that you are actually really busy.
But are you building the ideal practice? Creating leverage? Getting ready to take a step back every now and then and let others do the heavy lifting?
"Growth is not always about getting more patients. Often, it’s about refining your offering and reinspecting the business avenues of your practice. Your own growth could be about doing things differently and getting more satisfaction out of it."
So here’s our two cents, working with specialists every day. When we have a growth plan that focuses on clear and tangible goals, we just see more joy, satisfaction, pride and team retention.
So when you create that vision, define what growth means to you. More patients, a different selection of patients? A different profile? More work for other associated team members or allied health staff? Turning your practice into an asset? Moving into other geographic areas?
We can help you map the goals and priorities. It’s the foundation to create an effective marketing strategy for your private practice.
How growth focus, USP and story work together
business plan for doctors
This is how these amazing building blocks work together.
- Your growth focus is the combination of your ambitions and goals, and the market research we bring to the table. What are patients searching for in your niche?
- Your USP your Unique Selling Proposition is the value behind the value. You thought you were delivering babies. In essence, you are the partner for couples who brings peace of mind during those 9 months. You thought you were a chiropractor. You are the facilitator of more quality of life for the person who wants to be a great grandfather.
- Your story is the fuel behind your marketing. It turns extra traffic and clicks into new relationships. The foundation of a connection that could turn strangers into raving fans and turbo-referrers for years to come.
Taking time to look at these building blocks in career planning for doctors is not a waste of your time. It’s time invested in the backbone of your private practice as a business and we’d love to help you with that.
Let’s create a great vision
business mapping for doctors
Unpacking the brand story of a specialist doctor is what we live and breathe. Book your free 1:1 strategy session so we can talk about a futureproof vision for your practice. Career planning for doctors in private practice is what we thrive on, with a strong focus on lead generation and reputation management. We look forward to working with you!
- Tags: Leadership
