Does selling your services mean selling out?

No. As an expert, it's your job to educate clients about the products and services necessary to promote happy, healthy pets. And as current events and trends have increased clients' interest in their pets' welfare and the money they'll spend, they're more than willing to comply with your recommendations—if you offer convincing reasons why they should follow them.

Discuss what pets need

Of course, practices need to continuously increase their revenue to keep up with rising costs. But when they're desperate to make sales, clients can tell, and they start to doubt your priorities and interest in their animals' welfare, says Caitlin Rivers, a Firstline Editorial Advisory Board member and a veterinary assistant and technician supervisor at Metzger Animal Hospital in State College, Pa.

Figure 1

Instead, view revenue as the result of client education efforts. "If your goals are to provide a better life and better care for a patient and its owner and to create a three-way interaction between the practice, client, and patient, selling products and services is part of your care," Rivers says. And there's no limit to the products and services clients are willing to purchase if they feel they're necessary.

Marketing that works

We'll say it again—consistency and repetition breed compliance. And compliance equals revenue. But a consistent message doesn't need to be a boring one.

Figure 2

For example, a Breed-of-the-Month program is a fun marketing strategy to educate clients and bond them to your practice. Team members choose their clientele's 12 most popular dog breeds and create a bulletin board of breed-specific information and a corresponding handout. The materials may include the American Kennel Club's breed history, description, and standards; common ailments and the tests and procedures clients should anticipate; fun facts; team members' photos with their dogs of that breed; or other fun tips and facts. Then you can select a winning patient of that breed and include its picture in a practice calendar for the following year. At the end of each month, you'll transfer the bulletin board materials to a scrapbook, creating a homemade book of breeds to keep in the practice's waiting room.

Show clients your priority is animal welfare, empower them to understand their pets' needs, and they'll trust your recommendations and follow through.

Recommendations that increase compliance