Fox vs Rabbit.

Uncategorized Jun 20, 2018

John Gribbin illustrates a point in one of his books that should smack readers into attention, like a 2×4 to the forehead: “A rabbit who runs away from a fox is not competing with the fox, in evolutionary terms. It is competing with the other rabbits. The ones who run fastest and zigzag most unpredictably, will survive and breed; the ones who don’t will get eaten. The fox, of course, is in competition with the other foxes.”

 

How often in your business do you think you’re competing with the fox? When you see a large group audiology practice or corporate hearing care chain offering hearing aids, do you think, “Those are my patients going to the competition.”

 

I see a lot of audiologists and hearing specialists doing this with direct-to-consumer hearing aids, retail stores and pharmacies offering hearing aid amplifiers. They think these foxes are their competition. They aren’t.

 

It might sound condescending but it’s true: you only have to run faster and more successfully than the other rabbits. If you get really good at this, you can build yourself a little concrete rabbit house with a fox fence and fox alarm; even put a moat around it and fill it with hungry alligators, preferably ones with an appetite for fox.

 

I haven’t focused on anything but ‘premium’ treatments since January 2017. Most practice owners think that’s insane. In reality, it lets me focus better on my true ‘A’ patient. I only compete with a few rabbits in this area. When I was treating everyone with a pulse, I competed with every rabbit in town.

 

Audiologists who are really good at treating with high end technology or who have hours, locations, services or prices that differentiate their practices are wisely competing with fewer rabbits. They’ve installed moats that most don’t even realize they have.

The list here is long and requires more time and space than this column allows, but suffice it to say, the most powerful way to out-compete the other rabbits and to leave the foxes scratching their heads is to be the best at building relationships in your market. Deliver so much value and have such a strong connection with your patients that they never leave.

 

We do this in my offices by removing all the risk, guaranteeing satisfaction, crawling through broken glass for our patients, and by staying open late, arriving early and putting physical employees in our offices on the weekends to handle patient requests and repairs. We’re always open and patients know it.

 

When you play your game in an entirely different field, it’s easy to let the other rabbits get chased by the fox.

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