News Stories News: Around The (Acoustic) Horn
Marketing Boot Camp Prepares Dispensing Professionals for Competitive Marketplace
Oticon’s marketing team chose a “boot camp” theme to reflect the intensity of the 2-day training session and the transformation they aimed to achieve in practitioners’ confidence and readiness to put their new skills into action. “We wanted to provide a well-rounded view of how marketing touches all aspects of a hearing care practices,” says Gordon Wilson, vice president of marketing for Oticon Inc. “Our program addressed not only the key skills needed to prepare ads, brochures, and other merchandizing materials, but also explored how to ensure that the way their practice is perceived by their clients—the “outside perception”—is an accurate reflection of the “inside reality” of their services, staff, product offerings, and patient care.” Seminar participants represented a variety of practice types from large multi-office practices to single office practitioners. All were retail-oriented practitioners who wanted to grow their practices, find a way to distinguish themselves from the competition, and motivate clients to purchase more frequently. For many, the seminar offered an opportunity to quickly learn new skills, techniques, and strategies to “jump start” their marketing plans. Others were looking for guidance on up-selling clients to the newest and most advanced solutions. Marketing for the competitive advantage. Keynote speaker Brian Gibson, senior partner and founder of Monopolize Marketing, focused on breaking down common misconceptions about marketing a hearing care practice. “It’s not about building your image or making people aware of who you are, or glossy tri-fold brochures, or going to meetings and handing out business cards,” he explains. “It’s a carefully planned system that pre-sorts, pre-screens, pre-qualifies, pre-disposes, and increases the desire of clients to do business with you on an ongoing basis.” Gibson shared insights on competitive reconnaissance—scouting out the competition in a community to determine how to best position a practice to give it a competitive advantage. He also asked participants to stop thinking of marketing as another form of selling and to begin thinking of marketing as client education. “If marketing is done correctly, by the time clients contact you, there is little or no selling on your behalf. Your marketing system has already educated them and primed them to be receptive to what you are offering,” he noted. “This was an important message for our participants to hear,” says Wilson. “Long before they contact a hearing care professional, many people with hearing loss are actively seeking information about hearing loss and hearing solutions. A well executed marketing program enables practitioners to reach out to potential clients and provide them with the information and motivation they need to take action.” Relationship and impression building. Boot camp participants also learned that marketing does not stop at the front door, but continues throughout a practitioner’s relationship with a client. Jan Fraser, founder of Womens Conferences.org and author of the Women’s Success Journal, offered practical tools for communicating a practice’s unique value. Fraser recommended writing scripts—short, prepared communications that articulate the key services practitioners most wanted to promote—and practicing and using them on a regular basis. She advised providing customized scripts that could be used whenever staff interacted with clients including:
“Never underestimate how much of a client’s impression of your qualifications is based on the way they are treated by your staff,” says Fraser. “It begins with the first call to inquire about services and continues through every interaction that follows, right up to their most recent appointment.” Sessions also took practitioners through basic training on email and Web marketing. Brian Gibson shared advice on how to grow an email list to tailoring messages to “hot buttons” for patients and tips for incorporating a call to action in every Web communication. “People visiting your Web site come with a variety of mindsets, says Gibson. “Some will be in a hunting mode; others will be looking to solve a problem. Still others will want to learn more about something and others may want to buy immediately. Your Web site should have something for all of them.” With overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants, Oticon plans to build on the success of the Marketing Boot Camp with an additional session planned for the later in the year. “Our goal is to help hearing care professionals develop the marketing strategies needed to attract potential clients who will benefit from their expert care and to build loyalty, satisfaction and referrals among existing clients,” says Wilson. SOURCE: Oticon Inc
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