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New and Improved Pricing Strategies

The Veterinary Hospital Managers Association (VHMA) and Veterinary Medical Association Executives (VMAE) – organizations committed to helping veterinary practices thrive – have entered into a strategic partnership to realize their shared goal of advancing practice health in veterinary medicine. The collaborators are pleased to announce the launch of a free three-part webinar series, New and Improved Pricing Strategies.

Of all the business decisions that a veterinary practice must make, those involving setting prices for products and services are among the most important and impactful ones. No other decision affects the practice’s revenues or profits as directly or significantly as a pricing decision does. Price changes have a direct, immediate, and measurable effect on a veterinary practice’s revenues and profits.

Strategic pricing is not just about making more money or earning higher profits for their own sake. Beyond the economic importance for veterinary practices, strategic pricing has the potential to address significant high-level problems that are endemic to the industry. These involve being able to pay wages to staff members that go beyond the minimum wage and afford a more stress-free and sustainable lifestyle.

Just as important, a strategic pricing framework supports the pet, positioning pets for longer, happier, and healthier lives through more affordable care. The webinars are available free of charge to members of the VHMA and veterinary medical associations! The VHMA will issue a one (1) hour continuing education certificate to attendee for each session attended.

Learning Objectives

Clients have been pushing back against the cost of veterinary care for years. We all know that some of this is unreasonable but constantly increasing prices without offering more value also doesn’t work. We’re at a point where we need to think about more sophisticated pricing strategies, what really adds value to the veterinary experience in pet owners’ minds as well as different models of veterinary care delivery for different kinds of clients.

Implementing a pricing strategy isn’t just about deciding what percentage to use to increase fees.  Pricing is a marketing issue and is just one component of the traditional 4 “P’s” of the marketing mix:  place, promotion, product, and price, all of which must be considered in price determination. Although few practices will completely revamp all of their prices at a single time, increased understanding of pricing strategies can help practices improve what they are doing.

Objectives

  • Review pricing strategies most commonly used in practices and where improvement is needed
  • Identify the metrics a practice needs to review to determine if pricing strategy changes are needed in the practice
  • Understand the components of an effective pricing framework
  • Explore new pricing strategies that could be used in your practice
  • Learn how to assess the successfulness of any pricing changes

Webinar Schedule

January 26, 2021, at 1:00-2:00 pm EST

What does the research tell us about pricing in veterinary medicine?

Should you rethink your pricing strategy?  How can you tell?

March 23, 2021, at 1:00-2:00 pm EST

What are the components of an effective pricing decision framework?

How does the cost of providing care fit into price-setting?

How does the concept of value fit into price setting?

May 25, 2021 at 1:00-2:00 pm EST

What are some new pricing strategies that make it easier for pet owners to say yes to more and better care?

How do you implement them?

Speaker

Karen E. Felsted,
CPA, MS, DVM, CVPM, CVA

Dr. Felsted is a CPA as well as a veterinarian and has spent the last 20 years working as a financial and operational consultant to veterinary practices and the animal health industry. She also spent three years with the National Commission on Veterinary Economic Issues as CEO. She is active in multiple veterinary organizations, has written an extensive number of articles for a wide range of veterinary publications and speaks regularly at national and international veterinary meetings. In 2011 and 2017, she was awarded the Western Veterinary Conference Practice Management Continuing Educator of the Year and in 2014, the VetPartners Distinguished Life Member Award.