Until you properly differentiate, you’ll always be seen as a commodity.

Today we live in a time where practices really do not understand how to properly differentiate. It is very rare to find a truly differentiated practice. If you look out there, everyone is saying they are the most comfortable, the most gentle, the most caring, and transparent. Everyone says the same stuff. “Get the treatment you deserve.” It sounds great, but it is not differentiated.

What happens is that people look at all the other practices, and because they have a hard time differentiating, every dental practice becomes a commodity. So what happens when you are a commodity? You get price competition, a race to the bottom, and all the negative stuff that we do not want for you.

When you differentiate, yes, you polarize. That means you attract some people and you also push some people away. But the people you attract are far more in number than you need as a practice to thrive. So essentially, you do not end up sacrificing anything at all. What you end up with is a caliber of patients who are more willing to do treatment, willing to pay higher fees, and more aligned with the insurance you want. They are also less likely to finance things. All of these things are possible when you differentiate properly.

In today’s video, we are going to look at a glimpse of how to understand differentiation and how you can apply it to your dental practice. If you want to go deeper and really implement this to get the full benefits, I urge you to take our strategy course. The link is in the description below. It will walk you through differentiation, and by the end of it, you will know exactly how to differentiate yourself.

All right, let’s get started. First, how we approach differentiation is by drawing two axes. We have an x-axis and a y-axis. On this chart, we are going to plot all your competitors, or rather, your alternatives. Once you differentiate, you will find they are not actually competitors at all. You are playing for completely different audiences, coming from completely different angles.

Differentiation is the process of removing yourself from the competition, letting the commodities stay there and play their commodity games, while we go and make a change for people by differentiating. The purpose of differentiation is to be better. I do not want to differentiate myself as someone who is crazy, ineffective, or inefficient. Sure, that would be different, but that is not what we are trying to accomplish. What we want is to be better as a result of differentiation.

So how do we become better? What is better? Better is completely subjective. We have to figure out who we are differentiating for first. What you might consider better could be completely different from what I consider better. If we differentiate in a general way and try to appease everyone in the community, everyone is too diverse. We want too many different things, and we like too many different things. As a result, if we average all preferences, the result is boring and meaningless.

Trying to appease everyone is not our path to better. Instead, we pick a very small group of people. That group becomes the basis of our “who.” We do not choose the who demographically. It is not location-based, age-based, gender-based, or demographic at all.

Of course, there are exceptions. If you work in pediatrics, you have some demographic constraints. For example, I am a board member at the Korean-American Dental Association. Our membership is open to the public, but our marketing works best for Koreans, which is a demographic attribute. So work around your demographic constraints, but the who is largely determined by psychographics.

Psychographics are how behavioral psychologists predict behavior. We want predictable behavior because when people encounter our differentiated practice, the predictable behavior we want is for them to choose us. That is why we start with psychographics. Who you serve is largely determined by psychographics.

If you want to go deeper, take the course. There is an entire section on identifying the five belief systems of your target audience, figuring out what they consider better, and creating a system around that.

After we figure out the who, we list out differentiating factors. We write out all the things people might care about when choosing a dental practice. These become axes.

For example, one axis might be personalized versus efficient. Many practices position themselves as personalized, but some people value efficiency more. Another axis might be high quality versus cost-effective. Some patients care deeply about materials, decor, and signals of quality. Others care more about affordability.

A luxurious marble front desk might seem appealing, but if someone believes dental care should be cost-effective, seeing that desk may make them assume prices will be high, even if they are not.

Again, it starts with who you are choosing to serve, what they care about, and differentiating in a way that serves them best. We will talk about aligning this with your values as well, but first we need clarity on how they define better.

Next, we write out ten axes like this. You already have two, so add three, four, five, all the way to ten. Try not to copy common examples. When you push yourself to come up with ten, you uncover things you actually care about and differentiation that is more aligned with you. I challenge you to create ten axes.

Once you have them listed, move to the next step. Step three is crossing out all the axes that are too safe, meaning every dentist already claims them.

For example, personalized versus efficient. Many dentists claim personalized care, but fewer claim efficiency, so this one might stay. High quality versus cost-effective is everywhere. Many dentists claim high quality, and many claim cost-effective. That is too common and too safe, so we remove it.

After removing the common and safe axes, you should have three to five left. If you only have three, that is fine. If you have five, you have more options.

From those three to five, circle the two axes your audience cares about the most. For example, you might consider interior aesthetics, such as clinical versus cozy. If your audience does not care about that, do not circle it. But if it makes or breaks their experience, then that axis matters and should be circled.

Now you have two axes. The order does not matter. Which one goes on the x-axis and which goes on the y-axis is irrelevant. This reinforces the idea that “better” depends entirely on the audience.

Now comes the fun part. In step five, we use AI. This is a recent addition made possible by modern tools. We write a prompt, which is in my workbook and course. You can use tools like Perplexity, ChatGPT, or Claude.

The prompt essentially asks the AI to scan your competitors within a certain radius and place them on your axis chart based on what they claim on their websites. The AI can only analyze what competitors say, not how well they actually perform.

What you usually find is that competitors claim extremes, but in reality they cluster near the middle. They may be slightly more efficient or slightly more cost-effective, but not truly differentiated. Most practices only differ by about 10 percent.

The challenge is to break out of that 10 percent box by radically aligning your practice around your chosen differentiation.

After mapping competitors, you may find one or two practices that are truly differentiated. That simply means you choose a different quadrant. There is usually massive opportunity in every direction.

If your ideal quadrant already has competitors, you can add a third axis. Two to three axes are ideal. More than that becomes confusing. People can understand “this and this,” but not “this, this, this, this, and this.”

For example, a third axis could be friendly versus professional and clinical. If all competitors present themselves as professional and clinical, and your audience values friendliness, that third axis can remove competitors from your space.

You might all be personalized and high quality, but if they are clinical and you are friendly, that distinction is meaningful. To the right audience, that is better.

The trap is doing this exercise, feeling good, and then stopping at the website copy. These axes must guide everything you do as a practice.

Differentiate yourself, align your practice with those differentiating factors, and you remove yourself as a commodity. When you do that, you stop worrying about competition and pricing because no one else delivers care the way you do.

For the right group of people, you do it best. And that group is far larger than you need to thrive. You will shift into an abundance mindset.

I hope you try this exercise. It is powerful, and more than anything, I hope you apply it. Thanks so much.