LightForce’s Playbook: How to Turn Professional Gatekeepers into Your Biggest GTM Champions
In healthcare technology, conventional wisdom suggests going direct-to-consumer to create demand. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, LightForce Orthodontics CEO Alfred Griffin revealed a different approach: making professionals the heroes of your growth story.
Understanding the Power of Professional Influence
LightForce’s strategy stems from a fundamental insight about healthcare decision-making. “The number one reason a patient chooses an orthodontic appliance, whether it’s aligners or braces or anything like that, is because their orthodontist recommended it,” Alfred explained.
Instead of fighting this dynamic, they embraced it. “We wanted to lock arms with providers orthodontists like me, like my dad, and really help them win and help them be the hero of the story,” Alfred shared. This shaped their entire go-to-market strategy.
Creating Real Value for Practitioners
Their approach focuses on solving genuine practitioner pain points. Traditional braces require constant adjustments and approximately 17 office visits per patient. LightForce’s technology enables more efficient treatment, with “a greater than 40% reduction in the number of treatment appointments and a greater than 40% reduction in the total treatment time.”
This efficiency gain became particularly valuable during staffing shortages. As Alfred notes, “A lot of the ortho staff didn’t come back, and so they needed to do more with less.” Their solution allowed practices to scale their most valuable resource – the orthodontist’s time.
Building Professional Trust
Rather than spending on consumer marketing, LightForce invested in building credibility within the professional community. They’re now present in “roughly 23 orthodontic residencies” which Alfred describes as “kind of the thought centers of orthodontics.”
This focus on professional education and validation has paid off. LightForce achieved 300% year-over-year growth and now serves approximately 10% of North American orthodontists, all without significant consumer marketing spend.
The Digital Practice Model
LightForce’s technology enables what Alfred calls a “digital practice” where orthodontists exclusively use clear aligners and LightForce. “If you look at the business profile of those practices,” he explains, “I would expect them to have lower or better operating margins.”
The economics work because “they should have higher lab fees and lower staff costs. Lower overall overhead, so their profit per visit should be much higher.”
Lessons for Professional Channel Strategy
LightForce’s experience offers valuable insights for companies selling through professional channels:
- Make practitioners the heroes of your story
- Solve real operational pain points
- Focus on professional education and validation
- Enable better business models
- Build relationships with teaching institutions
The Future of Consumer Marketing
While their professional-first strategy has succeeded, LightForce sees potential in adding consumer marketing strategically. “We’ve actually spent very little effort to this point in consumer education, and that’s going to be a focus probably for 24,” Alfred revealed.
The key difference? They’re building on a foundation of professional trust rather than trying to create consumer demand from scratch. This approach acknowledges the unique dynamics of healthcare decision-making while preserving their relationship with practitioners.
The key takeaway? In professional channels, success comes from enabling practitioners rather than bypassing them. As Alfred puts it, sometimes the most effective strategy is to “help them win and help them be the hero of the story.”
For founders building in regulated or professional-driven markets, LightForce’s experience suggests that investing in professional relationships can create more sustainable growth than expensive consumer marketing campaigns.
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