What if your client services were truly mind-blowingly different from your competition?
My new dentist in New Orleans offers exactly such a service, and it’s one that everyone can learn from.
In 2019, my wife and I moved out of Connecticut down to New Orleans.
In many ways, we had to start life over. The hardest part was rebuilding our network of trusted service providers.
We had to find new doctors, trainers, house cleaners, barbers, accountants, mechanics (racetracks 🙂 ), landscape designers (yep), and of course — the dentist.
Normally, finding a good doctor/dentist is not easy, and going to the dentist is about as unloved as public speaking.
We luckily found a great personal trainer whose wife is a dentist.
We looked on her website (https://sweettoothdds.com) and it was very cheery and unique. So, we gave her a try.
When I went to her office, I was impressed by her thoughtful, all-inclusive approach to my health and well-being.
It’s easy to think that a dentist is a dentist is a dentist. People generalize landscape companies this way, too.
Here are three things she did that made her stand out:
1. When I came for my appointment, we first spent time in her office, where she interviewed me on my oral history and measured the health of my gums and mouth. She then took actual photographs (along with x-rays) of my mouth from many angles. My first impression was, “Wow, this is a completely new and better way to help me feel comfortable and confident in her services.” She didn’t even clean my teeth — that was to come later.
2. Two weeks later, she invited me back (for teeth cleaning) and gave me a custom presentation on the health of my mouth, along with a PowerPoint with photos of my teeth, a score of my gum/teeth health, and upcoming problems I was likely to experience in the next years (unless I took action on addressing these issues).
3. Her sales approach was so soft-pedaled, caring, and proactive. I will be spending more money than I ever thought on my teeth, and I will be doing so in such a proactive manner that I will feel good about it too. Honestly, who feels good about their dentist?!
Here are three things YOU can do to stand out:
1. Treat your new clients with the knowledge of their “lifetime value” i.e. how much money they could spend with you over the next 5+ years if you took the time to build a broad, trusting relationship with them.
2. Onboard your new clients like you would an important, new employee. At my “CEO/COO” conference two years ago in Atlanta, Teddy Russell showed how they onboard clients with all their division leaders touching the client and the property, and how that greatly boosts their impact and sales with that client in the first year.
3. Invest time in getting to know your client after you make the sale. Normally, salespeople tend to reduce their excitement and interest in a new client after the sale is made, especially maintenance. But that is exactly the time when your clients’ excitement is starting to grow. Match their excitement with yours. Doing so will result in immediate referrals by your clients (I guarantee it) and it will allow you to create loyalty and increased sales right off that bat.
Your challenge:
Understand what your competitors are doing and develop a client onboarding process and product profile that will be completely different from your competition, and completely wow your clients!
Note: My new dentist did use a renowned dental consultant (similar to what I am– but in the landscape industry) in order to radically improve her business operations.
You don’t need to do this alone, but you do need to get all your company on board. This is not a gimmick, but a way of life.
