Note: Practice management as well as management of small business and small business marketing must rely on the power of moral authority. Using moral authority will help to get new patients and grow your management. Use patient marketing skills to show your authoritative power through morality.

Most professionals, such as doctors and dentists, have forgotten how to use the important fact above, Moral Authority. Real power in the world or workplace is not the technology or the weapon power you possess but the moral authority that you possess. To be honest, I can see why business owners forget. I am the first to admit that it is easy to forget, as it seems so imperative to have superior technology and professional skills in any practice.

It is the ‘moral authority’ that has more power than all the technical skills and years of experience a person has. What is moral authority? It simply means the moral image which you portray to other people and that is strong and unwavering. Being known for a person who stands for certain virtues, being known for a person who gives help with no vested interest in mind, being known for a person with certain ethical standards – this perceived image alone will attract enough people to you and your practice and thus make it safe for people to trust you with your recommendations.

People are not looking to do business with a sleek sales person or a doctor with 10 diplomas and 50 years of experience. People are looking to do business with people they can trust and they can like. And how do they know they could trust and like you? This is the job of “UN-Advertising” which is having other people toot the horn for you versus you having to toot your own horn – as in advertising.

The personal likable doctor will always get more business, will always be able to charge more for his service than the technically perfect, but socially not well-known ( and thus not well-liked) doctor. And that’s the way it is.

It is all about perception. It is the perception people have about you that counts, and this perception must be about 5,000 times stronger than you think it should be.

If you think that your authority, your reputation, your being recognized is great, but you are not having all the good paying patients to fill your practice to the rim, and you are not in the need to hire more doctors, then the perception of the people around you about you being an authority is not strong enough.

People elect presidents of countries, choose doctors, lawyers, car mechanics, and spouses, etc. by personal liking of their character – by what is the perceived moral image.

Some business people, whether they are doctors, or car mechanics, who have tried hard to market their ‘professionalism’ and yet do not get enough customers, wonder why they are having financial problems despite ‘superior’ technical skills.

It was not their profession, or their uncompromising drive for perfection in their profession, but their neglect of building a moral authority that has failed them.

Did you know that Harvard University’s MBA program does not admit any students who have no record of participating actively in social and community activities?

Check it out – the Dean of Harvard has talked about this in an interview on a Charlie Rose show.

Remember: In the medical profession, for instance, do not depend only on traditional advertising to ‘convince’ a prospect to come to you, why not establish a strong moral authority in your medical practice and thus have other people tooting the horn for you? You will see that attracting a higher quality patient pool would not be so difficult once you have established that moral image through the help of other powerful entities around your medical practice.