I think of marketing messages as conversations starters.
Here’s a big question. Who’s eavesdropping on your conversations with doctor prospects and clients?
As with most of the pearls of wisdom I share, I learned this one the hard way.
Years ago, I was on family vacation. At the hotel restaurant I tuned onto a loud emotional conversation from the next table. This group was talking about their pooled frustration trying to get and pay for quality medical care. One woman shouted, “Oh, those rich doctors!”
Inspiration struck. I went back to my hotel room and wrote an article I called, “The Myth of the Rich Doctor.”
I sent the article out to my list of financial advisors, my list of doctors and posted it on my own blogs.
Clearly I struck a nerve. I got about 10 times as many views as even my most popular blog post.
I got positive feedback from the people on my lists.
- “Wow! I thought I was the only doctor who did this.”
- “Thanks for sharing these eye-opening insights.”
- “This makes perfect sense.”
However, I did something new. I posted the article on LinkedIn where anyone could read it.
And the haters came out in full force.
I got comments like:
- “Cry me a river. Look at the cars in the doctors’ parking lot.”
- “If we didn’t pay doctors so much money, I could actually afford healthcare.”
- “Why should a doctor make ten times or a hundred times what a teacher makes! It isn’t fair!”
Here are the lessons:
When you strike a nerve, it’s like striking marketing gold. That’s how and why I came to write the book The Myth of the Rich Doctor.
When you strike a nerve, you attract the haters. It’s never fun to hear the haters. But don’t let it scare you off. Just sing along with Taylor Swift’s sage advice, “And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake.I shake it off, I shake it off.”
Always be aware of who is eavesdropping on your conversations with doctors. It your message is, “Doctors pay too much in taxes”, doctors pay attention. However, haters could say, “They damn well should! Oh, those rich doctors!”
A financial advisor had the chance to put a marketing message in front of doctors through a publication. He was thrilled. The person selling him the ad said, “You’ll get your message in front of tens of thousands of doctors.”
I said, “Hang on a minute. This publication is for patients–not for doctors. Maybe doctors glance through the publication before putting it in the waiting room. However, if you KNOW that patients read this, be very mindful of the message you put there.”
Let’s say the message, is “Doctor, are you worried about retirement?”
A patient could see that and say, “I know what I pay my doctors. Why wouldn’t doctors be ready for retirement?”
A patient might even say something critical or sarcastic to the doctor about your marketing message. Do you think that doctor would call you after that?
Doctors are careful to have private conversations outside of the listening ears of patients.
What would patients think if they overheard your conversations with doctors? If it reflects poorly on doctors, make sure that your conversations are private.
What do you think?
To your success,
Dr. Vicki