June 2002

Bob Levoy’s success file
Positioning Your Practice for Success

How does your office compare with other chiropractic practices in your community? Is it known for the best care? The friendliest staff? Does it have a reputation for being on-time and efficient? State-of-the-art? Reasonably priced? High-priced?

Such attributes help determine the positioning of your practice in the marketplace - which potential patients consider when selecting a chiropractor. One of the ways to visualize how your practice compares with others, is to create a “positioning map,”.

You can use this type of positioning map to evaluate your practice and others in your community (on a scale of 1 to 5 or -5) on each of two attributes. If you are in a densely populated area, evaluate practices within a given radius of your practice (e.g., 1 mile).

The “positions” of seven practices (A-G) are shown, based on fees (low to high) and quality of care (poor to excellent). A positioning map helps identify aspects of your practice in which you have a distinct competitive advantage, or conversely, those aspects in which you’re not the leader and may need to make changes. It can also identify positions that are less competitive - so-called “gaps of opportunity” - that may provide direction for repositioning your practice more favorably.

Mr. Levoy, a management consultant based in Roslyn, N.Y., has conducted more than 2,500 seminars for health-care professionals. Those seminars have included programs for the American and Canadian chiropractic associations and numerous state and provincial chiropractic associations.