The Unabashedly Competitive Doctor is Quietly Eating Your Market Share

The business world of marketing for doctors is fiercely competitive, and the environment is getting worse. The not-so-obvious part is that your friends and colleagues are often the primary sources of competition for new patients and market share.

Medical doctors, generally, tend to be competitive-minded in many ways. That’s no surprise. There’s competition throughout medical school and residency, and finding and landing the ideal job situation is a challenge. But what often goes unnoticed is that among colleagues, there’s a lot going on below the surface.

Marketing-minded physicians and surgeons need to be aware that some professional associates—friendly and cordial in daily interaction—are full-throttle business competitors below the surface. And they may be quietly eating your market share of business.

Today, physician offices are going toe-to-toe in the new consumer-driven market to reach, attract and retain patients. Although these are usually outstanding providers, they want your business. They proactively want to win at the ongoing game of new business development.

Defending the competitive challenge…

Therefore, the problem that we’ve discovered is two-fold. Either practices don’t recognize that unabashedly competitive doctor, or they elect to do nothing. As a result--in each case--the competition wins. In fact, a head-in-the-sand denial about competition doesn’t work. It pays to recognize your primary competitors, and take a page from their playbook. They have no reservations about reaching out to empowered consumer/patients.

We often help medical practices reach and attract the patients and cases they want. If you’d like some help getting started, please give us a call at 800-656-0907. It’s important to understand that your professional team member and friendly colleague may be your tough-as-nails business competitor.

In the long term, your best defense is to revisit your SWOT Analysis and sharpen your competitive strategy. It pays to look closely at Strengths, Weaknesses (the internal factors), and Opportunities and Threats (the external considerations.)

For additional reading on this topic, see: Competition and the Revolutionary Rise of Healthcare Marketing and The Much-Neglected Secret to Beating Your Healthcare Competition Online.

Stewart Gandolf, MBA, CEO