Converting to Concierge? Timing is Everything.

Before making the transition to a concierge or direct care practice, having a solid marketing action plan can make the difference between success and failure. A well thought-out plan identifies: who you want to target; with what message; which tools best deliver that message; and, just as importantly, when the tactics will be put in place.

If you are choosing a new office space, the time-honored adage, “location, location, location,” is probably instrumental in your decision-making process.

Well, there’s an equally important mantra for the marketing of your practice—“timing, timing, timing.”

Starting early enough – allow for at least four to six months lead time, and having certain crucial pieces in place at the right time, will help you avoid numerous costly mistakes that keep you from opening your doors on your target date.

Why Start with Marketing?

Let’s say you wanted a home renovation project to start happening now. Many months ago you would have begun by finding an architect to figure out the design for you, and hired the general contractor too, who would in turn have arranged for the necessary sub-contractors to show up at the right time, in the right sequence.

It’s tempting to wait to seek out marketing help until after you have secured your space, set up your legal entity, and have your financing in place. But marketing, financial, operational and legal elements all impact one another.  If marketing is not addressed simultaneously, and at the outset, it’s like waiting to bring in the electrician once all the drywall is sealed.

It’s not unusual for a client to tell me in our first conversation that they’ve already chosen a name for their new corporate entity, and they’re ready for marketing now. When we talk about how that name will support their practice vision and brand identity, the pause on the other end of the line is concerning.

Why Does It Take So Long?

Others may say they just need a website—or a letter to patients—to introduce and promote their practice, not realizing a typical concierge conversion or launch involves at least a dozen major core components to introduce the practice to patients, prospects and referrers—stationery, letters, information sessions, ads, signage, website development, and membership sales preparation, among others. Each of these components involves a myriad of moving parts to coordinate and manage.

Just as completing a home renovation involves an entire design and construction crew, implementing these marketing tools effectively requires the combined effort of many members of the team—a strategist, a graphic designer, a copy writer, a web developer, a photographer, a researcher—and a project manager to pull all the pieces together. Plus, there’s your own time involved to discuss options, review materials, and make decisions along the way.

If that project manager happens to be you, and if you “know some people” who can help you with the key components, do consider that those individuals working separately under their own time constraints have the very real potential to throw your launch date off-track by many weeks, or even months. Starting the process early enough in advance will help to alleviate rushed decisions and compromised outcomes.

First Things First

Those professionals you hired for your remodel? They wouldn’t put up wall studs before laying a foundation. They wouldn’t put the roof on until the framing is in place. They wouldn’t order fixtures, paint or siding that didn’t correspond to the overall renovation plan.

It’s the same for rolling out your marketing campaign.

Your stationery needs to be designed and printed before you can send letters introducing your new practice to patients. Your name, URL, tag line, and logo needs to be explored and developed before you can create your stationery package. And determining your brand identity, based on how you want others to perceive and experience your new practice, needs to be done before settling on a name and designing an effective logo.

Generous lead time based on a well-calculated plan is your necessary framework on which to build these crucial pieces of marketing that will grow your practice and allow it to thrive.

© 2013 Latady Physician Strategies. All rights reserved.

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Latady Physician Strategies helps physicians transition to Concierge, Direct Care and Hybrid practice models that help them treat their patients the way they want to be treated, while rediscovering their enjoyment in practicing medicine.

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