Be a Top Doc!

Another Dentist in need of rescuing asks:

Anyone had any experience with Top Docs marketing program? I was given the whole spiel yesterday and the cost isn't huge....Just wondering if anyone has heard of it and what their thoughts were.... BS meter is running wild... But my practice has really slowed and I need to try something different.

Athena to the rescue!

I've had several clients over the years who were voted "Top Dentists" and put in a book and given a plaque.  I'm not sure if this is the exact same program as you are referring to, but I think it's similar enough to chime in.

As I remember it, my clients had been voted as the "best" as a result of a survey done by the company who produced the listings, which was definitely a for-profit enterprise.  Of course, it was great for these clients to be recognized as such, but did not in their experience result in happy new patients.  I've also been approached on clients' behalf by other similar companies, all selling the idea that their "best: logo or video or infomercial or whatever is what will bring credibility and (I guess the reasoning goes) draw in patients like flies to honey.  Again, not in my experience. Certainly not all by itself.

What does bring in happy new patients is a truly skilled doctor who has an excellent rapport with patients, an excellent practice and team, and excellent referring patients of record.  So I would recommend you spend that $6000-$12000 where you may need it most: teambuilding, streamlining internal systems, launching internal marketing initiatives, investing in CE and generally being a Top Doc.

Monday afternoon question that nobody really wants to answer and that you can't REALLY market without!

Recently a dentist asked a couple questions on new patients. 

He asked:

1) For marketing purposes, I was told a new patient acquisition will cost $50-$100. So if I am trying to get 50 NP per month, I should spend $2500-$5000 monthly. Is that correct?

2) I read that a new patient will generate $750-$1500. Over the course of what time frame? Some posted that on average a NP will need ~$250 worth 

of treatment. Other posted $700. So I am a bit confused. It is such a huge gap.

Athena saves the day by answering:

The important thing is to know your numbers:

-How much do you spend in time, money and energy attracting each new patient? How does that translate to production (and how do you define that?) and how do those numbers translate into the actual number of new patients you actually need in order to reach your goals?

-What are your goals?? Do you even want more patients or would you rather have more profitable cases for example?

-What is your marketing budget? How are you using it to reach your goals?

Now, once a patient is in the door, there are a lot of questions to work on:

-What kind of patients are you attracting with your marketing budget? How much do they value your service? What types of cases are they presenting?

-Where are new patients coming from - what marketing methods are attracting the most and/or the best patients?

-What's the case acceptance rate of insurance referrals vs. specialist referrals vs. patient referrals vs. external marketing leads?

-Where are the points of contact once in your practice where you can increase their level of trust in you and your service, and therefore their case acceptance?

-Please remember when considering a marketing budget, by the way, that contrary to popular opinion that insurance simply funnels patients into your practice, you're still "paying" for new insurance patients, and typically much more than undertaking your own controlled marketing effort - the difference between the market value of your services and what insurance will pay is the cost you're paying to get those people in the door.

In Response To My Previous Post,

Our hero in a small town asked me the following: "Yikes...guilty as charged (usually coming from or going to the gym on my way there)
Does this show people I am a "normal" guy or does it send a not-flattering portrayal?I could see where it would go either way."

My answer:
Yes! It does matter, especially in a town your size... Remember, everything is a marketing op

portunity - even the fact you go to the gym is marketing. None of it is inherently good or bad - our only yardstick is "does it help you reach your ultimate vision" or not? Is it helping you create the practice of your dreams, or not??

I wear sweats in appropriate situations, but always with the knowledge that I take up physical space, do not magically disappear when I feel like it even when I just need a gallon of milk, and inevitably and invariably have an effect on those around me. We all do.

You are many, many things, including both a normal guy and the town dentist, which not unlike a minister, puts you in a special class in your marketplace. Other dentists in larger markets might be able to disappear when they want to - you cannot. The good news is you get to decide how to "be" in your community.

Earlier I mentioned our desire to find and obsess about magic bullet cures to our marketing woes instead of dealing with the real issue, which is that you are selling yourself to people who inherently do not want to trust you (50% of Americans are dental phobic, after all) or give you their money and time. You are selling a service that they cannot touch or feel or evaluate at the time of purchase, and which they generally really, really, really do not want to have to buy. They do so anyway because we've successfully convinced them through modern dentistry that quality dentistry leads to a quality life, and they buy it from you over someone else only because they like and trust you.

Your #1 marketing method, then, is to a. acknowledge that basic truth, and b. use it to your advantage without fear or apologies, beginning with one on one conversations and connections, trusting in yourself, your training and your ability to positively change lives through your skills, talents and experience. Once you have that core self knowledge, branding and marketing yourself as a service becomes a breeze, again because the yardstick becomes "does this help me reach my vision, or not?"

So tap into your humanity, both the good and the bad, and use that to determine how you want to portray yourself, just be sure you're in control of it and making a conscious choice.

HOW TO MARKET IN A SMALL TOWN?

(The only dentist in town (pop. 2000) with 2-5% growth posts his question on DentalTown. Most answers are focused on websites and SEO from website and SEO providers. But not me :)

We tend to get distracted by the latest marketing "toys", such as the websites, SEO and social media marketing of the past decade, hoping to find some sort of panac

ea or magic bullet to our ongoing marketing woes, trials and errors. But they are all only tools you can have available, part of a much larger arsenal that allows you to communicate consistently and repetitively who you are, what you're about, and why others should care. That's all marketing is - consistently and repetitively sending your message to your marketplace, and we're all already doing it all the time, whether we're conscious and in control of it or not (think about going to the grocery store in your sweats vs. your Sunday best - the result of that typically unconscious decision automatically gives others a clear message about who you are in this world and what matters to you.)

Websites and SEO are always important, but small towns function by a different set of rules, ie one on one communication and real relationships (Internal Marketing). Combine that with a finite population, a good portion of which seems to need to travel elsewhere for work, and you're actually doing quite well with a 2-5% annual growth. I'd have expected much worse...

Two thoughts:

- Continue to focus all your attention on Internal Marketing rather than paying for external methods, since a small town is all about relationships and who you know and everyone already knows you're there and available to them - incorporating a lot of external marketing could very well backfire on your current standing in the community. Meanwhile, also make sure your website is an accurate representation of the patient experience and your vision and mission as their dentist.

- Change your hours to accommodate out of town workers: late evenings, early mornings, Saturdays, in order to attract those few locals who aren't already able to be part of the practice, then begin a concerted internal marketing effort to spread the word and make it as easy and convenient for them as possible to switch.

Words from the Wise

A very good friend and longtime client of mine, Scott Hunter has become an important touchstone in my life.  Without fail he sends out his very simple and very brilliant newsletter to thousands of subscribers every two weeks.  I highly recommend signing up to receive them at http://www.thpalliance.com.  And here is one of my favorites:

Is There Really Truth?

by Scott Hunter

I really find that the hardest thing for most people I talk to to get is my assertion that there is no such thing as reality. There really isn’t. You think what you see is really there. It isn’t. What’s worse, you actually believe that what you see is the truth. It also isn’t. Already ready to argue with me?

So before you stop reading, consider the fact that every one of the 6.8 billion people on the planet lives in a different reality; meaning that if you looked out through the eyes of all these people you would, in fact, see a different version of the world. And don’t you find that in just about every conversation you have with another they see things differently than you? So how could any one individual claim to know what’s real?

If you’re still with me, the question you should be asking yourself is: what’s determining my reality? Actually, it’s pretty simple. You know that voice in your head? The one you call self-talk, or thinking, or mind chatter? Well inside of that voice is the story of your life. It’s the sum total of all of your life experiences, the meaning you gave to those experiences, and the decisions you made as a result.

Humans think they see with their eyes. That is one of the many illusions of life. It’s not the truth. We see with our minds. We take that internal conversation, the story I just discussed, and project it out onto the world and that becomes our reality.

It’s like going to the movies. You sit in the theater and look at a big blank screen on which the movie is projected and think that’s where the movie is. But the movie is in the projector in the back and the bulb and lens in the projector project the movie onto the screen.

So it is for you and I. We take the movie playing in our minds and project it onto the blank screen of life and think that what we see is the true. It isn’t. It’s only our truth.

What’s the real significance of all of this? It lies in how human beings operate. Listen to this carefully: our actions are ALWAYS exactly the appropriate action any human being would take given how life occurs for them. In other words, we are always reacting and what we react to is how whatever is in front of us occurs for us.

And who is determining how whatever is in front of us occurs for us? We are!

Each of us is playing a game called: this is my life. And we are the ones totally responsible for how that game plays out. As many of the great teachers teach: it’s never what happens that determines the outcome. It’s how we respond to what happens that determines the outcome. And we are always choosing our reactions.

So give up the victim game, stop complaining and stop blaming others if things are not going the way you would like. The good news is that you have total access to the only person whose determining how things are turning out: YOU.

In conclusion, take responsibility for what comes out of your mouth.

Everything you say becomes your truth. If you understand this, you can really create for yourself a magnificent life.

The REAL Website Deal

Who says corporate America doesn't care?  

Last spring, after the AACD meeting in New Orleans, my good friend Frith Maier, president of Sesame Communications, told me she wanted to conduct real research on how a website helps or hinders a real consumers choice of dentist.

This is invaluable information for anyone who has or needs a dental/ortho website.  And the information is free, conducted by a third party research company, and not at all about Sesame and all about how to build a website that actually works.

General Dentist:  http://athenamarketing.com/images/Sesame_Website_Study_General_Dentists.pdf

Cosmetic Dentist:  http://www.sesamecommunications.com/tothepoint/sesamedesign/cdparvideo.php

The Larger Perspective

Carolyn Addleson, wife of Dr. Larry Addleson in San Diego (http://www.sandiegoartofdentistry.com), forwarded this article to me last fall.  Unfortunately, I don't know who to credit as the author, but the content is exactly what we all need to be reminded of.

The Warren Buffet Perspective

Billionaire, Warren Buffett pumped $5 billion into Goldman Sachs, and then followed that up with a $3 billion investment in General Electric.

In troubled times, Warren drives a hard bargain and ends up with extraordinary value. In other words,Warren buys low and then sells high. He is a contrarian. While others go into the panic mode, Warren Buffett goes into the shopping mode.

This same kind of thinking can be applied to marketing. While others are into a cut and run mode, the smart money looks for marketing opportunities. Right now consumers are spending more time than ever before evaluating their daily product purchases and their long term brand loyalties. Now is not the time to cut and run out on your marketing budget…now is the time to seek out opportunities.

“A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops a clock to save time.” Henry Ford

Here are some reasons why our current economic environment can spell opportunities for marketers:

Your competition is hiding. The landscape is not as crowded. That means your own marketing has a higher probability of getting noticed. In fact, in your product category, you may be the only guy out there who is in the face of the consumer! Normally we have to sit around and say “how the hell can we be different?” Now all we have to do is show up.

Now is the time you need the business! When the economy is weak, your business will only get weaker without marketing. It is a vicious cycle.

Out of sight…out of mind, and out of mind can mean out of business. If your competition is hiding, right now you can have a larger share of mind. Familiarity breed preference, and preference leads to long term customer loyalty.

Customers are hunting. When the economy dips and consumers move into a state of fear, product purchases are scrutinized, and loyalties are challenged. That means you can position your product as a need….not just a want. People are looking for value and meaning. Now is the time to be very pragmatic and honest with your marketing. People are looking for products and services they can trust. That means while they are hunting and evaluating, you need to be out there marketing and not hiding behind your desk.

Attitudes are shifting. What was important yesterday may not be so important in today’s environment. That can spell new opportunities for your product or service. Take a survey…do some focus groups…find out what is driving the emotional needs of your core customer. How has it changed? Where are the new opportunities? How must your message change?

How can you reposition the competition and make your brand more relevant for the next 12 months of economic hardship?

Marketing Never Stops. If you stop your marketing, you are wasting the brand equity you have built so far. This is not a start and then stop process. Your customers need evidence of product performance, and a reason why your product is absolutely positively the best in the category. When a consumer makes a budget cut…you don’t want to end up on the cutting room floor. That’s why marketing doesn’t stop because the economy is bad. It is exactly the time you need to turn up the volume.

These are tough times, and they may be some of the most creative and opportunistic times in years. Put on your Warren Buffett hat and look for the bargains. Create new demands. Stay close to your core customer.

Dig deeper and look for the essential ties to your customers. And never ever stop fishing for new customers.