The Benefits of Competition When Marketing Your Private Practice
The topic of competition when marketing your private practice has come up again a few times lately with clients and at a presentation I was giving so I thought it was about time to say a few words on the subject.
When you are struggling to get clients it is easy to get caught up in a scarcity mentality where you fear that if you tell someone what you are doing they are going to do the same thing. Although understandable, this kind of thinking can actually cause you to struggle even more and even cause you to end up failing miserably. Why? Because it takes a great deal of energy and positive thinking to succeed. If you are walking around fearing other practioners are taking your clients you won’t have the time or energy to focus on what you have to do to succeed.
Now I am not saying you have to devulge all your ideas to everyone all the time, or that at times, you might not lose business to "competitors." However, I am also not suggesting that you ignore your competition. We are talking about balance here. You do need to know what your competition is doing so that you know how to position yourself in the market. However, you will actually be more successful if you can think from the perspective of how you can benefit from your competition.
Benefits of competition? Yes, there are many. In fact, I believe in the new style of marketing where we see our competition as allies instead of enemies that can do us harm. If you are good at what you do, have a clear and unique target market, have services that are in demand and know how to market your private practice effectively, there is no reason why you should fear your peers who are also in private practice.
Be confident in your marketing, know what you are doing and why and find a way to partner with your "competitors" as much as possible and think of them as allies. All will benefit in the long run.
