Marketing Ear Service

Chapter 20 Marketing Ear Service



Ronald E. Whitford, DVM


The veterinary profession is undergoing major changes in the demographics of delivery of some services and products. Today’s pet owner is more educated and pickier in decisions regarding pet care. Today’s consumers are ever increasing their standards of “best value.” Over the past several years, due to the introduction of new heartworm preventives and flea control products, many practices have seen the service/product mix of total revenues swing much more toward product sales as a major source of gross revenue. Recently I have evaluated practices with as much as 40% of total gross income coming from the sale of products. This in itself is not bad for as long as it lasts, but it does greatly increase the vulnerability of these practices to decreased income if and when these particular products become easily accessed over the counter (OTC). It is very disturbing to see that the vast majority of practices are showing more gross profit income coming from the sales of these products than true bottom-line profit in the practice, as defined by taking the true net income reported and deducting a fair investment return for land, building, and equipment, as well as 25% of gross income product by owners, as which is the fair compensation paid to another veterinarian for performing services for the practice. After these statistics are reviewed, sadly, many practice owners would be better off working as associates in another practice, eliminating the risk they are taking for the very poor returns they currently receive.


It is crucial for long-term survival that practices immediately change to a major emphasis on providing professional services rather than merely being vendors selling products. Fortunately, there is significant pathology in the majority of patients we see every day. The problem in most practices today that minimizes the detection and treatment of pathology is complacency—being satisfied with less than maximizing the potential of every patient seen.


From a profit perspective, it is better to select potential profit center services that offer minimal competition from sources other than licensed veterinarians. Placing major emphasis on marketing services rather than products greatly reduces our risk of competition, limiting it to veterinarians committed to at least the same level of quality veterinary medicine as ourselves.


Marketing of professional services also has definite financial bearings as well. Typically products are priced simply by doubling the cost to determine retail price. Therefore approximately 50% of the selling price is “hard costs.” That 50% is all that is left to help pay the daily clinic overhead. However, when professional services are charged, the percentage of gross margin profits over “hard costs” of materials needed to provide those services is much greater, typically being at least 80% of the fee charged. A rule of thumb in pricing professional services is that the fee should be at least five times the costs of materials needed. The result of this strategy is that 80% of the fee charged now becomes available to help pay daily clinic overhead, as well as leave some bottom-line profit as well.



More Bad News


Latest surveys show that pet populations have stabilized. Fewer people are adopting pets. A primary reason for this is thought to be the “inconvenience” associated with taking care of pets with today’s hectic lifestyles. Due to the fact that the number of veterinarians continues to increase as a result of new graduates entering practice and current practitioners choosing to remain in the profession longer, one can assume that the number of pets available to be seen by a veterinarian is decreasing. It also is a known statistic that many pet owners are choosing not to replace deceased pets. All these factors underscore the importance of retaining as many clients as possible in the practice as well as maximizing the number of services provided for each pet presented. It is estimated that the typical practice in a relatively stable community with minimal transient populations loses 30% of its clients annually through normal attrition—owners moving, pets dying, etc. Survival of this profession depends on finding as many problems as possible and making appropriate recommendations for pets to live the longest quality life possible for every pet presented to the practice.



There Is Some Good News


Pets are predisposed to many conditions because of specific breed predilection or environmental conditions. This is especially true for ear conditions and disease. Fortunately, there is more pathology out there than would be needed to keep every veterinarian busy 24 hours per day, 52 weeks per year. The biggest problem, however, in capitalizing on this fact is complacency—many veterinarians seem to be disenchanted with the current financial situation and feel hopeless about reversing current trends.


The human-pet bond continues to grow tighter and stronger. Many pets are no longer considered “disposable.” Pet owners who value their pets as four-legged family members want the same high quality of veterinary care as they expect for their own human health care. There are now more than 6,000,000 dogs and 6,000,000 cats in the United States older than 6 years. As pets age, in most cases they become even more cemented in the human family. Fortunately, as these pets grow into the “senior years,” the aging process initiates many medical conditions, including ear problems. Therefore ear care programs can be developed to help catch problems earlier, allowing the practitioner to either prevent, minimize, or slow the progression of the particular problem.


Even though the United States economy has been weakened over the past few years, pet owners who consider their pets to be true “family members” have proven with their pocketbooks that they still expect and are willing to pay for quality pet health care.


Of all the marketing strategies and options currently open to the practitioner today, none is more professional, more restricted to services provided only by licensed veterinarians, or has more potential to grow both gross and net income than the professional marketing of services related to ear care. These services are not easily duplicated by sources outside our profession because of the expertise required to diagnose and prescribe the appropriate treatment to resolve abnormal conditions. Clients often relate ear infections to the very painful conditions seen in human ear problems. A veterinarian’s best clients—those who want and can afford high-quality pet health care—readily accept ear care services. Pet owners in need of these services cannot readily price-shop for comparison, leading to the potential for higher gross margin profits, resulting in higher bottom-line nets. Unfortunately, a survey of practitioners today would show that only a very small percentage of practices are currently placing a significant emphasis on ear care as a major profit center.


Other reasons the practitioner should seriously consider placing more emphasis on ear hygiene, diagnostics, and treatment include the following:


• Pets have two ears, thereby doubling the potential for problems over singular internal organs.

• The ear canals of dogs and cats are anatomically formed in such a way as to increase the potential for medical problems.

• People do not put a price on pain control. Ear infections are perceived to, and often do, hurt—and the pain is perceived by the owner who observes a bad odor coming from the ears as well as the pet scratching, shaking its head, or whining when the ears are touched.

• Ear infections are often lifelong problems. Unfortunately, however, a major reason for chronic otitis is a failure to treat long enough as well as to determine the underlying problem creating the environment conducive to otitis (e.g., allergies). It is not all the fault of the practitioner; many owners fail to return on time for rechecks or to treat according to the recommended treatment schedule or for sufficient periods of time to gain total resolution. It is human nature (coupled with today’s busy lifestyles) to avoid placing ear treatment at a high-enough priority to effect a long-term cure.

• People often feel guilty when their pet has a recurrence after they understand that it has occurred because of a failure to continue treatment long enough. The feeling of guilt may make the client more willing to seek more extensive treatment at a later time.

• Clients often leave one veterinary practice for another because the first veterinarian failed to diagnose, explain, or treat the pet’s ear disease adequately. A failure to do the job correctly the first time often causes a practitioner to lose all other potential services for the duration of the pet’s life. Therefore there is a bright future for practices willing to give ear care the respect it is due and to work diligently to resolve problems and help pets lead healthier, longer lives.


What Is Marketing, Anyway?


Marketing is nothing more than communication. It is simply providing facts and benefits about the services recommended so clients can make educated decisions. Therefore marketing, as strictly defined, is not enough. We must market assertively. This means being the “pet’s spokesperson/advocate.” We wish only for the pet to have the opportunity to receive the best that veterinary medicine has to offer. Marketing assertively is not only providing facts and benefits about the recommendations but doing it in such a way that the client wants to accept those recommendations.


We must first know what pets need and what we can provide. We must then consistently find the problems with thorough medical history-taking and comprehensive physical “nose-to-tail” examinations. We must take time to develop trusting relationships with our clients so they perceive that we are making recommendations that are truly in the pet’s best interest. We must also take the time to understand our clients and what is most important to them, learning how to stimulate each individual client to the positive response we desire. The marketing strategy of the 1990s was to listen to the client and then give them what they wanted. However, it has changed today to “listen to the client and then lead them to what the pet needs.” This is accomplished by learning the “hot buttons” for each individual client. Each client is an individual with unique perspectives and desires.


Some marketing fundamentals to remember:


• Be prepared. You must know the “whys” and “whats” as well as the “hows” for the services and products you recommend.

• Avoid creating the impression of high-pressure selling. Clients love to buy but hate to “be sold.” Few people buy from pushy sales personnel, at least not more than once.

• Marketing is not manipulative or unethical; it is simply providing facts and benefits so the consumer makes an educated buying decision.

• Clients must first trust us and have confidence in us as medical professionals rather than merely vendors selling “stuff.”

• We must discover the needs of each client in order to make the appropriate recommendations in the form of solutions. The key is assisting the client in finding the right solution for the specific problem.

• Clients must believe we care. We must develop friendships before clients will trust us and allow us to gain client compliance with our recommendations. People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. We show we care by being sincerely interested, listening, asking good questions, and knowing what to recommend by correctly interpreting what the client wants along with what the pet needs.

Much research has been conducted on the “buying process.” People buy to feel better or to solve a problem. We want solutions that lead to “peace of mind.” Owners request veterinary services to make the pet feel better, which in turn makes them feel better, or to solve a problem with the pet, which again makes them feel better. Eighty percent of all purchases are based on emotional issues rather than logic. Therefore it is important to first determine the emotional needs of the client. Emotional buying requires emotional selling. Marketing is nothing more than a battle of perceptions. We must position ourselves as caring, concerned pet health care professionals interested in providing the best that veterinary medicine has to offer.


Clients must first trust us before they will accept our recommendations. Some principals to understand include the following:


• People are interested in themselves and want to be noticed.

• People crave to feel important and be appreciated.

• People want to deal with other people whom they can trust.

• People tend to judge other people and organizations on the basis of first impressions.

We must never forget that every time clients have any interaction with the clinic, they are reassessing the perceptions they have of the value received. The sum total of these assessments forms the basis of the “new” overall impression of a practice. Perception is reality. For clients to accept our recommendations readily, they must believe we are professionally competent. Because almost no clients are capable of judging true competence, this perception is grounded in areas in which they can make comparisons. Such things as friendliness, cleanliness, professionalism, state-of-the-art equipment, and time efficiency are common factors that enter into the final overall impression perceived by the client of the veterinary practice.


We therefore gain clients’ trust by making them feel important and confident they have made the right decisions for their pets. Treating the client as an individual, giving frequent compliments, respecting the client’s opinion, using the client’s name and pet’s name often, being a good listener, respecting the client’s time, and expressing appreciation are all ways to make the client feel important.


Successful marketing depends on communicating with the client. Communication is incomplete without comprehension. We must talk in language that the client understands. One of the biggest obstacles we must overcome is thinking the client understands what we are talking about. Most clients will never tell a veterinarian when they don’t understand something due to embarrassment. We must never assume a client knows what services the pet needs or what we can provide.


Children are great teachers of successful marketing tactics. All we really need to know about marketing successfully can be learned by watching toddlers who want something:


• They are persistent. They know it takes six to eight interactions just to get someone to think about something. They know it may take 16 to 18 interactions to get to the “yes.”

• “No” always means “maybe.” “No” means they did not provide enough facts and benefits about what they want for daddy to give it to them!

• They are never embarrassed to ask over and over again. They know the average sale in America only occurs after the consumer has said “no” four times. They know that only one in four salespersons persists through the four “nos” to get to the “yes.”

• They know that most sales are based on emotions rather than logic—and that emotional selling requires emotional buying. Crying works!

Clients have three types of needs that the veterinarian must solve to gain compliance. These needs include the following:


• Professional needs: Making the pet well or keeping it well.

• Emotional needs: Making the client feel good about owning a pet, seeking veterinary attention, and choosing a particular clinic to provide those services. Meeting these emotional needs is the number-one reason that clients return to the clinic.

• Consumer needs: These needs are most often the reason a client visits for the first time. They include convenience, costs, and so on.

Successful marketing is an accumulation of many different strategies. First and foremost is the creation of a perceived high medical competence. Trust results when the client believes the veterinarian and staff really know what they are talking about and are committed to high-quality care. After this barrier has been broken, our marketing efforts become much easier and must be directed toward “emotional” selling. Our success depends on using the following basic strategies to persuade clients of their need for the services we are recommending:


• Show how the pet benefits.

• Show how the client benefits.

• Detail the consequences of failing to accept the recommendation now.

• Communicate the consequences of failing to accept the recommendation at all.

• Show how others (pets or people) might benefit from acceptance of the recommendation.

Enthusiasm is crucial for marketing professional services successfully. Enthusiasm can be generated only when there is a genuine belief in the value of the recommended services. The last four letters in the word enthusiasm can be defined as standing for “I Am Sold Myself!” The best salesman is the one sold on the product. This creates a more enthusiastic selling approach. One should remember that the only thing more contagious than enthusiasm is apathy.


An enthusiastic response to your recommendations by the client comes from involvement. We must do everything possible to involve the client in making the diagnosis as well as instituting treatment. Some ways to involve the client include the following:


• Show the problem on the pet.

Related posts:

  1. Simple Diagnosis and Treatment of Pruritic Otitis
  2. Ototoxicity
  3. Inflammatory Polyps
  4. Diagnostic Imaging of the Ear

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Sep 10, 2016 | Posted by in SMALL ANIMAL | Comments Off on Marketing Ear Service

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