(Unique Selling Proposition)

What kind of practice do you want? As you go through chiropractic school, you probably have many ideas about what you want in your practice:

• What kind of technique do you want to utilize?
• What types of patients do you want to see?
• What types of special services and benefits do you want to offer?

If you really want to “hit the ground running” with your practice when you graduate, you must be able to clearly define your practice. This concept is termed by marketers your “Unique Selling Proposition” (USP).

The USP concept is valuable for several reasons:

• It provides you with a focus for your thoughts. You can’t be all things to all people
• It provides you and your staff with a focus for your marketing efforts.
• It provides prospective patients a clear idea of what and who you are.

So what’s a USP? Your USP answers the question,: “Why should I go to your chiropractic practice rather than someone else’s?”

In other words, the USP identifies what makes your practice unique, special, and different.

Some people call this branding. A brand is something memorable that will help people connect with you and your practice.

Other people call this niche marketing. A niche is a place in the competitive arena, like cereal on grocery store shelves. A niche is your “place on the shelf” that lets people know you are different, and how that difference matches the needs of your potential patients.

Creating a USP involves thinking about your practice in several different ways, and writing up a paragraph or list of things that describes your practice. This descriptive paragraph should include:

1. How you want to practice. What techniques do you want to use? Do you want to see lots of patients every day (a volume practice) or just a few? Think about how this technique will be of benefit to patients; how it will make them feel better and stay well adjusted.

2. The types of patients you want to see. Although as you start out, you may want to attract all types of patients, you still need to define your “ideal patient” so you can focus your marketing efforts on those people. Will you have a pediatric practice? A PI practice? A sports practice? A family practice?

3. The conveniences and benefits you have that other practices don’t. You may want to establish certain hours for working people (early morning, late evening), or perhaps be available to see new patients the day they call in. Or, you may want to set aside a day for walk-in patients, or let people know about your ability to read sign language or speak Spanish.

These types of conveniences and benefits differentiate you from others. Select some benefits that make people notice you.

When you have made all of these decisions, write them down in a short paragraph. This is your USP. Your USP will evolve and change as you encounter new concepts and as you visit practices.

Even if you are not ready to write out your USP now, think about it as you go through chiropractic school. As you visit practices, note what you like and don’t like. Visit technique clubs to see which ones interest you and which don’t. Check out advertisements for other chiropractors to see what benefits they emphasize.

Most important as you go through the exercise of creating your USP is to find elements that are meaningful to you. If you are creating a practice according to someone else’s expectations, it won’t be yours.

You need to be excited about coming to work in your practice every day because it feels like the place you want it to be.

Start today to create this vision of your USP and keep refining it until it feels absolutely right. Having a USP is one of the most important factors in starting your practice quickly when you graduate.

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