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 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.

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 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.

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.

• Explain the importance of preventing and treating potential problems.

• Show the client how to administer medications properly.

• Observe and praise the client’s efforts to use the medications.

• Schedule telephone progress reports and frequent rechecks to help the client perceive the progress being made.

Smiling is one of the best ways to show enthusiasm. Smiling breaks down barriers, drops defenses, increases credibility, shows we care, and defuses anger. The most important thing we can wear is a smile. We cannot afford to “have a bad day.” Clients don’t really care what kind of day we are having—only how we affect their day!

Rejection is a normal part of successful marketing. The Coca-Cola Company sold only 400 bottles the first year. Marketing research has determined that (as mentioned previously) it takes six to eight interactions just to enter the subconscious mind of a consumer. Additionally, it may take 16 to 18 interactions to get them to agree to the recommendation. The average consumer says “no” four times before finally agree­ing. Sadly, as we’ve noted, only one in four salespersons is persistent enough to make it through the four “nos.” Everyone hates rejection, and the tendency is just to drop the subject to avoid confrontation. However, a mission statement of being the pet’s advocate does not allow us simply to forget about offering what the pet really needs for the best life possible.