O CC U PAT I O N A L M E D I C I N E Evaluating Your Clinic’s Competitive Strengths ■ FRANK H. LEONE, MBA, MPH T he ability to recognize, understand, evaluate, and articulate your clinic’s competitive strengths is central to a superior sales and marketing performance. Yet even the most polished sales efforts tend to fall short in one or more of these areas. An urgent care clinic is likely to either neglect its competi- tive strengths or offer a wooden recital of them. Clinics are rarely proactive in: n assessing their strengths vis-à-vis their competition n matching competitive strengths with sales prospect val- ues as appropriate n expressing their competitive strengths in a persuasive manner. I believe that seven principles are essential if you wish to take advantage of your competitive strengths. 1. Keep “competitive” in your definition of “competitive strength.” A competitive strength is not necessarily an attribute in a pure sense (e.g., 24-hour service, multiple delivery points, certified staff). Rather, a competitive strength is simply something you do better than your competition. For example, in one market having a board-certified occupational medicine physician on staff may not be a competitive strength because competitors also have board- certified physicians. In another market, a program may use an experienced, but non-certified, physician but still main- tain a competitive edge because the competition’s medical director is neither certified nor experienced. We are talking about relative—not absolute—attributes in virtually every instance. Frank Leone is president and CEO of RYAN Associates and executive director of the National Association of Occupational Health Professionals. Mr. Leone is the author of numerous sales and marketing texts and periodicals, and has considerable experience training medical profes- sionals on sales and marketing techniques. E-mail him at fleone@naohp.com. w w w. j u c m . c o m 2. Let your market define what is important. Assume that you cannot wait to tell your clients and prospects about a new board-certified occupational medi- cine physician who has joined your team. Think first before you rush out to share the good news. If your market is mired in recession, or the majority of injuries seen in the clinic are minor, some employers may perceive your board-certified occupational medicine physician as too expensive or over- qualified for their needs. Accordingly, it is imperative to match your clinic’s distinguishing characteristics with at-the- moment marketplace value before anointing the character- istic as a “competitive strength.” “If a clinic doesn't have a genuine competitive strength, it must develop one.” 3. Your competitive strength is directly correlated to the difference in perceived value of that advantage between your program and your competitors. The value of your potential competitive strengths are di- rectly related to the strength of that advantage among your competitors. Assume that research indicates that employers desire 24- hour access and that you are the only clinic in town with such coverage. This strength is not very strong if a competi- tor’s clinic is open 20 hours per day or the competitor has an arrangement with a prestigious local hospital emergency department for after-hours care. It is necessary not only to note what competitive strengths your clinic maintains but also to subjectively es- timate the gap between that advantage and the status of the next best option. To genuinely assess the power of your clinic’s competi- tive strength portfolio, you need to answer three questions: JUCM T h e J o u r n a l o f U r g e n t C a r e M e d i c i n e | M a y 2 0 0 9 43