SmartBox Dental Marketing

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Patient Attraction Episode 1070

You could be getting more new dental patients, but you’re not for one simple reason. The people you market to don’t have a reason to choose you over any other dentist. That sounds harsh, but it’s true. The things that dentists believe impress patients aren’t what patients value. Basically, they’re marketing to the wrong people in the wrong way. It’s a matter of perspective, and if you want to have more new dental prospects calling your office, you’ll need to adjust your perspective. I’ll be back after the break to tell you how to make your dental practice a preferred destination for prospects.

– Thanks for watching the Patient Attraction Podcast™.

– I’m Colin Receveur.

– There’s a universal truth that dentists may not be aware of.

– And many of those who’ve heard it are reluctant to believe it could be true.

– Dentists are viewed by dental prospects as being equally competent.  

– If that got your hackles up, I don’t blame you.

– My dad’s a very successful dentist, and I know thousands of practicing dentists.

– I have a very good idea of what it takes to complete postgraduate dental training courses while working full-time.

– And I understand that dentists with additional training and hands-on experience in various areas are likely to be more able than other dentists.

– I get it … but your prospects don’t.

– To the great mass of people, dentists are all advance-degreed professionals.

– That title and that degree confers legitimacy to your prospects.

– But since all dentists have the same basic credentials, they’re all considered equal.

– One is basically as good as another, except in rare cases.

– Your prospects don’t care whether you’re a DDS or a DMD, and they don’t understand the difference.

– They don’t care whether you’re a fellow of a particular professional organization.

– The vast majority don’t even care whether you belong to the ADA.

– I know, that’s hard to believe.

– So dentists are basically viewed as being interchangeable, and most dentists’ marketing does nothing to correct that view.

– I get why that happens – you went through four long and hard years of dental school.

– You paid off or are paying huge school debt.

– You’ve probably taken some postgrad courses.

– You’re justifiably proud of what you’ve accomplished, and you want the world to know that.

– Your website touts your credentials, your state-of-the-art equipment, and your expertise.

– Your marketing is full of dental terms and jargon.

– You might even have videos of dental procedures that do nothing but scare your prospects away.

– Basically, you’re marketing to impress other dentists, which does nothing to give your prospects a reason to choose you.

– Because almost every other dentist’s website has the same crap on it.

– I say “crap” because all of that is essentially worthless for achieving your goal of putting more new patients in your chairs.

– I’ll say it again – your prospects don’t care about any of that.

– The low-value prospects who are price- and insurance-driven care about cost, period.

– The ones who aren’t driven by finances – patients who can and will pay more for the right dentist – want something else.

– And if you want not just more patients but better patients, your marketing has to give those better patients what they want.

– They need reasons to choose you instead of one of your competitors.

– They’re looking for a dentist they feel they can trust and relate to.

– They want a dentist who explains, in terms they can understand, how he or she is going to make their lives better.

– Do that, and you can get the lion’s share of the 20 percent of your market who will stay, pay, and refer.

– You’ll get patients who are prepared t[...]

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Patient Attraction Episode 1069

A lot of dentists complain that their marketing isn’t bringing in enough new patients. The reality is that their marketing may be working, but those new patients aren’t making it into the practice’s dental chairs. Every new prospect who calls your practice but isn’t appointed is a waste of your marketing investment. There’s one crucial link in the patient funnel that not enough dentists pay attention to … their phone answerers. I’ll be back after the break to share some shocking statistics with you and to tell you how to stop bleeding marketing money.

– Thanks for watching the Patient Attraction Podcast.

– I’m Colin Receveur.

– The vast majority of dentists – and I’ve met thousands – think their phone answerers do a great job appointing new patients.

– I wish that were true, but we have hard data that says it’s a myth.

– We use our exclusive Zetetics® phone tracking to record the source of every new patient call and the calls themselves.

– Our dedicated team of Call Quality Analysts listens to every call for every dentist every month.

– We compiled the call data for all of our Elite-level dentists every month for a full quarter.

– We were very unhappy with the results, to say the least.

– On average, among our Elite dentists, a whopping 54 to 77 phone calls a month weren’t answered during business hours.

– That includes calls not completed, calls that rolled to voicemail, and hang-ups while on hold.

– Those dentists were converting roughly two-thirds of new patient calls.

– They averaged about 30 new patients each month from their online marketing.

– If 65 of those unanswered calls were from prospects, those dentists were losing more new patients than they were appointing.

– With an average case value of $1,200, that could be nearly $50,000 a month that each dentist isn’t getting.

– But those dentists swore that their phone answerers were doing a great job.

– Every new prospect who calls your practice but isn’t appointed is a waste of your marketing dollars.

– And that’s a direct hit to your income.

– While your practice may be the rare exception, I feel safe in saying that you’re bleeding money over the phone.

– I don’t blame dentists, though.

– Hopefully, dentists are busy enough that they’re spending their time in operatories solving patients’ dental problems and making money.

– If dentists have the time to hang out in the front office and monitor phone call technique, they have a whole other level of problem.

– But let’s say that they do have time.

– Would they understand where their phone answerers aren’t doing a good job?

– Remember, not all prospects are appointed even in the best practices.

– Phone answerers can go wrong in very subtle ways, and dentists aren’t trained in dental practice phone technique.

– Dentists aren’t even trained in selling their case solutions.

– Almost all of them learn on the job via trial and error.

– So, dentists are bleeding money, and few if any of them know it.

– And even if they do know, they don’t have the skill set to correct it.

– There are many phone skills training programs out there, but they’re pretty much oriented to generic customer service.

– They don’t take into account the unique concerns, fears, hopes, and needs of dental patients.

– Those training programs are another waste of your money.

– But there’s one phone training program specifically designed to meet the needs of dental practices that will pay dividends.

– And it’s available exclusively through SmartBox Web Marketing.

– Our proprietary phone training and certification program is uniquely designed to help your phone answerers appoint many more new patients.

– And we have two levels of phone training to meet the needs of[...]

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Patient Attraction Episode 1068

I’ve talked with a lot of dentists whose practices were in financial trouble. What I found, almost without exception, is that these were good dentists. They had good training, good hands, and good staff. What they didn’t have were good patients, in terms of their case value. These dentists were working way too hard for too long and not getting enough in return. They were lucky if the return on their marketing investment was barely 3 to 1. If that sounds like your practice, take heart. I’ll be back after the break to tell you why you’re not getting enough value for the money, and what you can do about it. Stay tuned.

– I’m Colin Receveur, founder and CEO of SmartBox Web Marketing.

– Thanks for watching the Patient Attraction Podcast.

– I think dentists should have fun doing what they went to school to learn.

– I also think they should make a really good living while solving patients’ dental problems.

– The dentists that I talked about before the break weren’t having fun, and they weren’t making the kind of living they should have been.

– The common denominator with all those dentists was their marketing.

– They’d “drunk the Kool-Aid” about how to get new patients.

– The traditional wisdom is that dental prospects are only interested in saving money when it comes to their dental needs.

– That’s why so many dentists advertise low prices, specials, discounts, and the like.

– And as a result, they get low-value patients who have absolutely no loyalty to you or to your practice.

– So those dentists are constantly advertising for the same low-value prospects.

– Their daily schedules aren’t what any of them envisioned when they were in dental school.

– Drill-and-fills, one-off crown replacements, routine exams, some root planing, and if they’re lucky, maybe a veneer now and then.

– It’s a lousy return on dental marketing dollars.

– And it sucks the joy out of dentistry.

– But it’s what dentists do, and keep doing, until they can’t do it any more.

– That’s pretty much where those dentists were at.

– They were scraping the bottom of the dental prospect barrel.

– They had cash flow but they weren’t getting ahead, or at least not nearly as fast as they should have been.

– Fortunately for a lot of them, their practices were in pretty decent markets with untapped potential.

– There were a lot of prospects out there who weren’t looking for a deal from their dentist.

– They weren’t motivated by low price or insurance acceptance.

– Those better prospects had the ability and the willingness to pay more for the right dentist.

– And they didn’t define the right dentist as someone who completed a particular post-graduate program.

– Or who had written a bunch of papers they wouldn’t read.

– Or who had the very latest technology.

– The right dentist for these better prospects was a dentist they could relate to and trust.

– And a dentist they saw as an expert.

– Some of those dentists became SmartBox dentists.

– We set about transforming them into the best and only logical choice to solve their prospects’ dental problems.

– That’s not an event; it’s a process that requires a great deal of expertise and effort.

– SmartBox’s industry-leading Patient Attraction System transformed their practices and their lives.

– Those dentists got not only more patients – they got better patients, too.

– And their ROIs soared.

– Quite a few of our SmartBox dentists are getting ROIs between 1700 and 4600 percent.

– And what SmartBox did for those dentists, we may be able to do for you.

– Now, don’t get me wrong – we’re not a good fit for every dentist.

– Although we keep dentists abreast of the results of their marketing, we encourage them to get back to doing[...]

Will Your Back Survive Dentistry?

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Patient Attraction Episode 1067

It’s something that dentists don’t talk about much with non-dentists. Dentistry isn’t good for dentists’ backs or necks. If you do a search for “dentists back pain,” you’ll see listing after listing about how to minimize pain and damage – not about how to avoid it completely. Those injuries are a limiting factor for many dentists, leading them to reduce their hours or even to sell their practices before they’re ready. After the break, I’ll tell you the best way to safeguard against the economic effects of back and neck injuries. Stay tuned.

– Thanks for watching the Patient Attraction Podcast.

– I’m Colin Receveur.

– I know thousands of dentists, and my dad’s a very successful dentist in the greater Louisville, Kentucky, area.

– I also know that regardless of where they practice or what their specialty is, those dentists have a couple of things in common:

– Sore backs and sore necks.

– Some of them have debilitating pain from hunching over patients’ mouths day in and day out.

– If you’re just starting out in dentistry, this probably isn’t on your radar yet.

– But if history is any guide, it will be sooner or later.

– If you’ve ever had any kind of back injury, even a pulled muscle, imagine living and working with that pain day after day.

– Or living with even more pain as time goes on.

– I’m not bringing up this topic to scare anyone.

– It’s just a reality that dentists live with but that way too few actually plan for.

– That’s particularly true for dentists who do a lot of low-value cases, hour after hour after hour.

– I’d certainly urge you to take advantage of any technological advances that can reduce the likelihood of injury.

– But “reduce” isn’t the same as “eliminate.”

– The time to prepare for the possibility of having to reduce your income or sell your practice is now.

– And the best way to do that is to increase the average case value of the patients you treat.

– There are a number of advantages to seeing high-value cases.

– One is that you don’t have to be booked hour after hour.

– You can give your back and neck some down time.

– Second, you increase your revenue, making your practice more lucrative now and when you have to sell it.

– And third, you’ll have more fun.

– I know from listening to dentists that an unending string of drill-and-fills, routine exams, and crown replacements is demoralizing.

– There are any number of so-called big-case marketing firms out there.

– But they share a common flaw – they don’t know how to appeal to dental prospects.

– They routinely include language in your marketing that flies over the heads of the people you want to attract.

– Big-case marketing firms position you to impress other dentists.

– But your prospects don’t care about technical terms, the details of your advanced technology, or the postgraduate training you completed.

– They care about whether you’re going to be able to solve their problems.

– They care about whether you’re going to take care of them while they’re with you.

– They care about whether their lives are going to improve thanks to your efforts.

– If your marketing goes on and on about what great hands you have, or the advanced tech you employ, your prospects will tune out in a heartbeat.

– To get new patients with the ability and willingness to pay more for a dentist they like, trust, and relate to, you can’t talk down to them.

– Your marketing has to address their fears and concerns, and answer their questions, in a way they can understand.

– Your prospects have to be able to relate to you and know that they can trust you.

– They have to come to view you as the best and only logical choice to solve their dental problems.

[...]

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Patient Attraction Episode 1066

If you’re a dentist who’s been in practice for many years, you’ve probably made some provision for your retirement. Many dentists include the sale value of their practices in their retirement plans. That doesn’t always work out, as many baby boomer dentists found out during the Great Recession of 2009. They had to put their retirement plans on hold while their practices recovered lost value. Another recession is coming, so the time to ensure that your practice holds its value is now. I’ll be right back to tell you more after the break.

– I’m Colin Receveur.

– Thanks for watching the Patient Attraction Podcast.

– I know thousands of dentists, and overall they’re realizing different levels of success with their practices.

– Some have a very upscale market, and they’re able to charge premium rates for some services.

– Others operate in smaller, solidly middle-class markets, and they get the occasional high-value case.

– And some are in smaller rural areas where the average case value is lower.

– There are exceptions to all those examples.

– But what’s important is that the economics of the market in which a dentist practices can have an impact on their retirement.

– There are buyers for virtually every practice at every level.

– You want the highest price possible for yours.

– Most dental practices have barely recovered from the hit they took during the Great Recession.

– How is your practice performing relative to your competition?

– You might be doing well now, but how would you fare in another recession?

– That’s not an idle question, because the next recession is actually overdue.

– It’s not a question of if there will be another downturn, just when it will hit.

– If you’ve been in practice for 10 years, you’re looking at having to weather 2 economic crises.

– But if you’ve been in practice for decades, you could be looking at having to put off retirement.

– Unless you take action now.

– There’s a way to safeguard your practice against the coming recession and boost its ultimate sale value.

– And that’s to market to better patients.

– Now, every patient deserves quality dental care, but not all patients represent the same lifetime case value.

– You need and want patients who will stay, pay, and refer – better patients.

– That’s the opposite of the one-and-dones, price shoppers, and insurance-driven patients that fuel most dental practices.

– And your better patients aren’t motivated by the same things as your lower-value patients.

– 20 percent of your market has the ability and willingness to pay more for a dentist they like, trust, and can relate to.

– They’re all about the experience they can expect while they’re in your practice – and the trust-based relationship they can establish with you.

– They’re not living paycheck to paycheck.

– They don’t need to defer dental care.

– Insurance and price are very minor considerations to these prospects.

– So if you’re going to attract better patients, you need a different marketing approach.

– Your marketing has to establish you as the relatable, trusted dental expert.

– You have to become the only logical choice, in their minds, to solve their dental problems.

– You’ll need a systematic approach to your marketing to position yourself as the go-to dentist.

– Every part of your marketing has to work toward that goal.

– That means your website, your blog, your social media posts, your doctor and patient testimonial videos, and all other aspects.

– Creating that systematic approach takes time and a lot of effort, but the results are well worth it.

– These better patients are your insurance policy against another economic downturn.

– Of course, you won’t make any money while you[...]

How Low Can Your Dental Practice Afford to Go?

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Patient Attraction Episode 1065

Most skydivers will tell you that free-falling is an awesome feeling. But skydivers have parachutes to help them land safely. The problem with falling without a chute is that you always hit that sudden stop at the end. For dentists, the sudden stop happens when they’ve cut prices to the bone to attract new prospects but still can’t get the new patients they need. If you want to avoid the “thud and crunch” that comes with slashing your prices, stay tuned. I’ll be back to tell you how to avoid falling at all.

– I’m Colin Receveur.

– Thanks for watching the Patient Attraction Podcast.

– I know thousands of dentists, and maybe 6 of them are also marketing experts.

– The rest just play one on TV, as the saying goes.

– Look – I’m a small business owner who’s also a digital marketing expert.

– But even though I practically grew up in my dad’s dental practice, I’d never try to perform dentistry.

– I’m not trained in that discipline, and I’d make a mess of it.

– But almost all the dentists I know act as if they’re marketing experts.

– They’re hands-on with their marketing even though they’re not trained for it.

– That holds true for the ones who outsource their marketing to another company.

– Most of those dentists are still second-guessing the marketing firm’s recommendations, ads, and so on.

– There’s nothing wrong with using a marketing company, but there’s nothing particularly right about it, either.

– There are very few dedicated dental marketing firms out there.

– The vast majority of marketers apply general marketing techniques to address the unique wants, fears, desires, and needs of dental patients.

– That doesn’t work too well.

– It just leaves dentists competing for the same pool of dental prospects in a way that doesn’t favor one over the other.

– In fact, most dentists and marketing firms still advertise the same way dentists did 20 years ago: on the basis of price, specials, and discounts.

– You can get some new patients that way, but they won’t be high-value patients.

– You get price shoppers and insurance-driven patients who don’t have a shred of loyalty to your practice.

– So you wind up having to come up with new offers every month or every quarter.

– And when a competitor cuts his or her prices, you have to cut yours to compete.

– It’s worse if you’re in a busy market with many dental practices.

– There’s a race to the bottom that damages dentists’ bottom lines.

– And there comes a point where you just can’t afford to cut your margins any more and still stay in business.

– That’s the “thud and crunch” that comes with a sudden stop at the end.

– Advertising on price is a race to the bottom that few dentists will win.

– If you want to avoid that sudden stop at the end, you need to stop falling in the first place.

– Dr. James Kiehl in southern New Hampshire knows all about advertising on price.

– He said,  “Some of the advertising I’ve done in the past was more offer-driven, free exam, X-ray kinds of things.

– “When you bring patients in that way, you’re chasing them with the next offer or they’re chasing you for the next offer, all the way down the line.

– “Since we’ve implemented our SmartBox Patient Attraction System, we’re definitely getting the quality patients that I want to see come into my practice.” 

– Stop trying to get more low-value patients, and focus on getting better patients.

– That approach is easier on you, and it’s great for your bottom line.

– SmartBox works with more than 550 dentists on 3 continents to help them get more patients, more profits, and more freedom.

– Many of our SmartBox dentists are enjoying marketing ROIs between 1700 and 4600 percent!

– H[...]

Why You’re Getting Less From Your Dental Marketing

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Patient Attraction Episode 1064

Dentists as a rule spend a fair amount of money marketing their practices. There’s no hard-and-fast rule, of course, but a good average would probably be 3 to 4 thousand dollars a month. Now, we all know that money doesn’t buy what it used to, but when it comes to dental marketing, dentists are getting less return than they should be. I’ll be right back to tell you why that’s happening and what you can do about it. Stay tuned.

– Thanks for watching the Patient Attraction Podcast.

– I’m Colin Receveur.

– When it comes to dental marketing, there are only 2 metrics that matter.

– Those are new patient butts in chairs, and the average case value of those new patients.

– There are several factors driving down both of those numbers for a lot of dentists.

– Dental insurance reimbursements have been decreasing for a number of years.

– And that trend shows no sign of slowing down.

– Delta Dental has been a major driver of the dental insurance squeeze.

– Not long ago, Delta cut dentists’ reimbursements in Massachusetts by some 30 percent.

– When insurance pays less, it shifts the burden of payment onto patients.

– But since worker incomes haven’t nearly kept pace with rising costs, patients are increasingly reluctant to spend on dental care.

– You might have the best marketing in the world, but large out-of-pocket costs are a major deterrent for dental prospects.

– When those prospects do look for a dentist, their main motivation is price.

– If that statement outrages or offends you, there are 2 good reasons for that.

– One is that you probably make a good 6-figure personal income per year.

– You’re probably not clipping coupons for the grocery store.

– The second reason is that all dentists today are seen as being competent.

– That’s both a blessing and a curse for the industry.

– It’s a blessing because overall, people are probably less reluctant to visit a dentist than in years past.

– It’s a curse because your prospects have no reason to choose you over any other dentist … except for price.

– That leads to dentists’ cutting their rates to attract more new patients.

– So, you’re getting fewer new patients, and the ones you get are looking for the lowest cost possible.

– When it comes to the 2 metrics that matter, you’re batting 0 for 2.

– But there is a way to up your batting average.

– That’s to change the prospects you target with your marketing.

– There’s a significant group in your market who aren’t motivated by price.

– They’re willing to pay more for a dentist they relate to, one they view as a dental expert and can trust.

– If you want to get those better patients, the ones who will stay, pay, and refer, you need to become that dentist in their minds.

– Your better prospects have to come to view you as the best and only logical choice to solve their dental problems.

– That’s not something you can accomplish overnight or by using the traditional dental marketing channels.

– 90 percent of your dental prospects begin their search for a dentist online.

– Your website has to appear high in the Google search engine results page.

– Very few people will continue to page 2 and almost none to page 3.

– That means you need state-of-the-art search engine optimization for your website.

– The website itself has to contain content that’s designed for patients, not to impress other dentists.

– At SmartBox, our writers aim for a middle school reading level, and they clearly define all technical terms.

– The content has to be of high quality, by Google’s standards.

– Content has to be expert, authoritative, and trustworthy.

– That kind of writing isn’t easy, and it takes a lot of [...]

What Kind of Freedom Is Most Important to Dentists?

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Patient Attraction Episode 1063

Happy 4th of July to everyone! This is the holiday where we gather to celebrate our independence, and to eat too much and shoot off loads of fireworks. Our forefathers paid a heavy price for the freedoms we enjoy, so I think it’s the perfect day to think about those freedoms. On this July 4th, I want to talk about one particular way dentists can use “the pursuit of happiness” in their professional lives. I’ll be back after the break to tell you more.

– I’m Colin Receveur, founder and CEO of SmartBox Web Marketing.

– Thanks for tuning in to this special Independence Day episode of the Patient Attraction Podcast.

– Dentistry is a great profession, and it’s usually ranked as the first or second best profession in the U.S.

– I see a problem with that statistic, though, because I know thousands of dentists, and too many of them are unhappy.

– They’re unhappy because they’re working too hard, too long, for too little.

– Their practice is an unending stream of drill-and-fills, crown replacements, and similar, unsatisfying procedures.

– It wears on dentists after a while because there’s no real enjoyment or sense of accomplishment.

– There’s just a lot of bending over and drudgery.

– There’s also the sense that the next day will be just like the current one.

– That’s not why dentists go to dental school, in my opinion.

– Most dentists have certain types of dental challenges that really get their enthusiasm up.

– It could be implants, or orthodontics, or periodontal disease.

– The point is that handling more of the cases they love to do can put the joy back in dentistry.

– In my opinion, dentists have sacrificed too much and work too hard to not enjoy what they do.

– That’s part of the reason that SmartBox Web Marketing exists.

– My dad is a very successful dentist in the greater Louisville, Kentucky, area.

– I’ve seen the times when he wasn’t doing what he loves.

– Now, in part thanks to SmartBox, he’s the go-to doctor for dental implants in the Midwest.

– And he’s having a ball doing what he truly enjoys.

– I want you to have the freedom to pursue more of what you love, whether that’s specific dental cases or some activity outside the office.

– Doing low-value cases day in and day out won’t get you that freedom.

– SmartBox uses our industry-leading Patient Attraction System to help dentists get more patients, more profits, and more freedom.

– Attracting more loyal and higher-value patients gives you a return on your marketing investment that you won’t believe.

– Many of our SmartBox dentists are getting ROIs between 1700 and 4600 percent.

– And many of those higher-value patients can present with the types of dental problems you love to solve.

– That’s what Dr. Thomas J. Feder found when he partnered with SmartBox.

– He told us,  “Our average case value has increased.

– “People are coming in looking for dentures and implants.

– “The practice is now overwhelming our dental lab.”

– If you’re missing the joy of dentistry, and you’re serious about your success, here’s what you can do.

– Go to www.PatientAttractionBlueprint.com and schedule a Patient Attraction System Blueprint call.

– We reserve those sessions for dentists who want to see a Patient Attraction System that can double or even triple their practices.

– Join us for our next podcast.

– Until then, keep moving forward.

 

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Dentists Shouldn’t Try to Wrestle the 800-Pound Gorilla

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Patient Attraction Episode 1062

You know the old joke: Where does an 800-pound gorilla sit? Anywhere he wants. When it comes to the heavyweights of the dental industry, corporate chains are at the top of the food chain. And just like it’s a terrible idea to try to wrestle a gorilla, dentists shouldn’t take on corporate dental offices on even terms. When we come back, I’ll tell you how to change the battlefield to one that corporate chains can’t compete on. Stay tuned.

– I’m Colin Receveur, founder and CEO of SmartBox Web Marketing.

– Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Patient Attraction Podcast.

– Did you know that Aspen Dental has more than 600 offices in the United States right now?

– Did you know that those offices service at least 15,000 patients a day?

– That patient figure was taken directly from a 2016 interview with Aspen’s CEO, Bob Fontana.

– It’s worth noting that during that same interview, Fontana said that his company had over 550 offices.

– That’s roughly 9 percent growth in about a year.

– There’s no doubt that Aspen is one of the heavyweights of dentistry.

– The sheer size of the organization gives it huge financial reserves and economies of scale that you can’t hope to match.

– Aspen has had problems in the past, but lately, the company’s management seems to have gotten its act together.

– They pose a serious threat to the long-term survival of your practice going forward.

– You might already have corporate dental offices in your market.

– If so, you know how hard it is to match them on price.

– It’s those economies of scale at work.

– If you don’t have corporate dentistry in your market, you’re still not safe.

– You might think that your market is too small for corporate to take notice.

– You’d be wrong.

– If there’s money to be made in your market, corporate dentistry will be there sooner or later, if they’re not already.

– While Aspen gets most of the press, and the blame, it’s only one dental chain among many.

– There’s no telling which chain will take a new interest in the area where you make your living.

– And you know those new dental school graduates?

– It may be some of them opening new corporate offices in your market.

– Others may open new private practices.

– What’s that going to do for your bottom line?

– If you try to take on corporate dentistry on their terms – price and availability – you’ll lose.

– You’re trying to wrestle the 800-pound gorilla, and you’ll lose.

– It’s not necessary to try to match corporate dentistry’s strengths.

– You can, and should, market to the prospects who aren’t moved by price and availability.

– Corporate dental chains are weak when it comes to establishing trust and relationships with dental patients.

– And 20 percent of patients in almost any market are willing to pay more for a dentist they like, trust, and relate to.

– They’re not interested in discounts or coupons, or in seeing a different dentist every time they go in.

– Those are weaknesses you can capitalize on so that you’re not trying to fight the dental chains where they’re strongest.

– To attract those better dental prospects, you have to differentiate yourself from the great mass of dentists.

– Consumers today assume that all dentists are competent, so one is just about as good as another.

– You have to break out of that mold by establishing yourself as a trustworthy, relatable dental expert.

– Be warned – it takes a great deal of time and effort to change people’s perceptions of you.

– You won’t accomplish that through the occasional postcard campaign, email, or radio ads.

– And a dental website that talks about the dentist rather than solutions to patients’ needs[...]

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Patient Attraction Episode 1061

There are reasons to be concerned about the economy – particularly when it comes to the profession of dentistry. Now, you might think everything’s looking good for the economy, but here’s a not-so-fun fact: On average, economic recessions in the U.S. happen about every 5 years. In fact, we’ve had 33 recessions in the last 150 years. We’re 8 years out from the Great Recession, meaning that we’re overdue for another downturn. After the break, I’ll tell you what’s coming, and what you need to do to ensure your practice survives.

– Thanks for watching the Patient Attraction Podcast.

– I’m Colin Receveur, founder and CEO of SmartBox Web Marketing.

– It’s not news that economies run in cycles of expansion and contraction, or boom and bust cycles.

– We’ve been in a somewhat subdued expansion since the Great Recession of 2009.

– That’s 8 years, and the longest economic expansion on record is a decade.

– We’re already in the third- or fourth-longest expansion in the last century and a half.

– It’s not a question of whether we’ll have another recession, but when.

– The smart money says it’ll be soon, and dentists have to be prepared.

– The Great Recession did a number on dentists’ incomes.

– Many baby boomer dentists who’d planned to retire found that they had to defer those plans.

– They wound up working much longer than they’d intended while their practices regained lost value.

– Most dental practices have barely recovered to pre-2009 income levels.

– Consumer spending on dentistry was flat for well over a decade and has only begun to show signs of increasing slightly.k

– In other words, most dental practices aren’t in a great place to survive another recession.

– When a recession happens, or even threatens, people tend to cut back on nonvital purchases to hoard money.

– You might disagree that dental services aren’t vital, but that’s not how your patients and prospects will see it.

– Food on the table, car payments, and keeping the lights on are more important.

– So at some point, your revenue streams are going to take a hit from people deferring elective or even necessary dental care.

– But economic uncertainty isn’t the only danger your dental practice is facing.

– There are 3 other forces in play that threaten dentists’ livelihoods.

– You’re almost certainly aware of them, because they’re practically impossible to escape these days.

– Those forces are corporate dentistry, new dental school graduates, and declining insurance reimbursements.

– Almost all dental practices are already facing one or more of those challenges.

– Many practices are finding it hard to cope with 1, much less 4.

– I’ve named those forces, together with economic uncertainty, the Four Horsemen of Dentistry.

– The effect of each force reinforces and multiplies the others.

– Corporate dentistry undercuts you on price and availability, damaging your new patient stream and your income.

– New dental school graduates are fueling corporate dentistry’s expansion.

– When those grads have paid off their school debt, they’ll join existing practices or open practices of their own.

– And crappy dental insurance reimbursements are squeezing dentists’ margins everywhere.

– An economic downturn is the trigger that will send all those forces into overdrive.

– And you might recall that the Four Horsemen usher in the apocalypse.

– But there is something you can do to prepare your dental practice for the coming dental armageddon.  

– I’ve written a new book titled “The Four Horsemen of Dentistry: Survival Strategies for the Private Dental Practice Under Siege.”

– It not only gives an in-depth analysis of the forces you’re facing, but it also gives you a roadmap through the unknown.

[...]