Mindshare: What do your customers think of you?

Your business is defined by its 'position'. (What it means in a potential customers mind.) Every successful business takes a position. If you're a plastic surgeon that specializes in breast augmentation, that's your positon; the breast augmentation specialist. Apple = cool and easy. Audi = safe. Listerine = kills germs.

If you don't have one, you're in trouble. If you're in search of a position, figure what the always is. Then do something else. Toothpaste always comes in a squeezable tube. Business travelers always use a travel agent. Politicians always have their staff screen their calls.

Figure out what the always is, then do exactly the opposite. Do the never. Think about what physicians 'never' do.

Doctors make you wait.
Doctors won't give you a direct answer.
Doctors talk down to you.
Doctors charge you for everyting they can.
Doctors want to sell you something.

While these may be generalizations, you'll recognize that they are not far off of what your clients perceptions are.

Surface offers a number of things that potential clients don't expect. Some of these we do just because they're unusual and other docs don't.

We offer flat pricing and we'll tell you on the phone how much something costs.
We offer 1 hour free consultations with our physicians.
We focus exclusively on education not sales.

When I ask physicians 'why' they're doing something a certain way, the most usual answer is that 'everbody else is doing it that way so it must be the way to do it'. Wrong. Doing what everyone else is doing is the way to make your business nondescript and mediocre. Do what no one else is doing in ways that work for your clients.