My mom sent me a nice newspaper clipping. Seems quaint doesn’t it. The reality is most of your ideal candidates for all kinds of procedures are, guess what, reading the newspaper! While most dentists have abandoned this sure-fire method of finding fee for service cases. Oh well, our members will continue to get their cases with the ads we provide on good ole’ shaved tree (and quite a few on radio as well–and not internet radio but good old broadcast).
Anyway, the story above is about the most famous GI to ever have passed through the local Fort, closed many yeas ago. People visit the museum just to see “The King” getting his hair cut. The barber would eventually wind up being a patient of my father. The other most “famous” patient of his time in practice was the father of “Mr. Brady.”
One of the Kardashian has a boutique here in Miami–always packed with people photographing it or moving bags of schlock out of the store after emptying the shelves. That’s not the kind of celebrity one needs in their practice (besides maybe a few colleagues in L.A.)
Intentionally calling celebrity or mini-celebrity patients to one’s practice and to leverage their presence as ways to convince other patients to join a practice is a best business practice these days. Sorry if that offends any old fogies but it is one sure fire way to have more cases than others. And unless you are truly Methusaleh, this concept is as old as the days of the very first mass market printing press (Napoleonic era) and radio/phonograph (T.A. Edison).
This headline, inadvertently created by some writer’s on the tonight show is in actual use attracting cosmetic and implant patients routinely in several of our alumni Elite Program practices. A great example of power of celebrity pulling a LOT for a local practice. Obviously, to get access to this little gem, you have to do our top Program. Outside of that, all have access to the concept. You simply need to go out and create/get your own celebrity.
A couple of items of interest this week, seemingly unrelated but actually a lot in common that apply to you, your practice, and your kids if you got ‘em.
First some insight by Thomas Friedman on the one social motivator in common from every one of the recent riots from around the world be it the middle-east, Israel, and now UK. That commonality is a scared middle class fearing it and its’ offspring being left out of attainable and affordable futures. Old, lazy, middle class jobs, going bye-bye by the millisecond. Get ready, the fun is only just beginning. What are you up to in getting better at promotion and selling to those who can and will be able to buy your services?
Funny thing is, you can take that same news and apply it to anyone in the service professions as well. Your future requires a much higher level of operational skills, yes the easy stuff (the dentistry) is still important but in the hard stuff (promotion, presenting, and selling your services.) outweighing the others’ import 10 to 1. While its doubtful dentists will be burning their compressors in anger anytime soon over their sinking futures, those who attack these non-clinical issues ahead of their peers will be the ones who maintain their accustomed lifestyles both in practice and personally.
Wal-Mart discount model ALWAYS comes with problems.
Whenever, I discuss pricing models and review the littered field of discounters that have come and gone, Wal-mart invariably comes up. Wal-mart is finally getting out Wal-mart’d by other entities and is feeling the pain. Besides simply suffering in its category, Wal-mart is painfully learning that consumers driven by cost simply aren’t loyal (sound familiar to those 100% entrenched with 3rd party reimbursement?) and exude the mantra of “what have you done for me lately” at every turn. Yes, angry cornered dogs can and do still bite and there is plenty of fight left in the behemoth BUT the moral to the story is that he who plays the lowest margin game ALWAYS gets beaten by someone else who will go even lower.
If you’re caught in a decreasing margin game, your choices are: 1) ride it into the ground until you can’t patch the holes in the walls or unclog the toilet anymore, 2) decide to gradually shift what and who you sell to (need specialized tools for that), 3) get off one pony and take up another one (sale the dying practice) and move to start one completely fee for service, or 4) hope retirement comes soon.
Education and then some: Online dental marketing and case acceptance training.
Some of the most uninhabited buildings in the country are our libraries where information on all manner of topics including how to be successful or run a business is bountiful. We’re at the tipping point of online education for those who want to step above others in knowledge and know how.
Virtual and Artificial, but 58,000 Want Course at Stanford University
PALO ALTO, Calif. — A free online course at Stanford University on artificial intelligence, to be taught this fall by two leading experts from Silicon Valley, has attracted more than 58,000 students around the globe — a class nearly four times the size of Stanford’s entire student body.
The course is one of three being offered experimentally by the Stanford computer science department to extend technology knowledge and skills beyond this elite campus to the entire world, the university is announcing on Tuesday.
The online students will not get Stanford grades or credit, but they will be ranked in comparison to the work of other online students and will receive a “statement of accomplishment.”
The rapid increase in the availability of high-bandwidth Internet service, coupled with a wide array of interactive software, has touched off a new wave of experimentation in education.
For example, the Khan Academy, which focuses on high school and middle school, intentionally turns the relationship of the classroom and homework upside down. Students watch lectures at home, then work on problem sets in class, where the teacher can assist them one on one. Excerpted from Original: The New York Times 8/16/11
This same ability to train online and have your questions handled live by phone or in person with the guru, is now at hand in many arena’s in dentistry both clinically and non-clinically. We’re proud to be the very very very first in dentistry to have a 100% online case acceptance training course accessible by any dentist on the planet who wants to help more patients, stay ahead of the middle class changes that are rolling through all economies (good, bad, and ugly) and to do all of that with minimal or even no travel. I even throw in a Kindle simply because there will be business books that you can read in addition to the training provided for faster improvement.
Received the AAID pre-meeting brochure this week. I’ll be on the main podium providing insight into what works to find patients needing implants. Not surprised that the theme is “stacking the deck” as we will be in Vegas. How many dentists are really focused on stacking the selling and marketing deck? Not nearly enough……
There will be a 2 hour hands-on course put on by me and my team as well. A very easy introduction to some key principles taught in our Programs.
Great organization by the way–many of my roots both clinically and consulting wise lie in my interactions with this group during my early career.’
Feel like driving past sometimes and playing “hooky”?
Do you feel most happy hiding in your private office, doors closed; away from your patients and staff?
Do you cringe when asked, “What do you do for a living?”
When you go to a CE course, do you have a difficult time relating to the other dentists and think, “I don’t feel like I fit in here!”
If you had a “YES” to any of these questions, here’s what I think…
A. You very likely work too many hours. You need to take every Friday off. Yes, every Friday; which also doesn’t mean working Saturday or Sunday. It is what happy dental practitioners do. This also means that you need better structure on other admin. time (the working on the practice part of the equation).
B. Now take a hard, long look at how you practice. Happy dentists don’t “hard close” patients or surprise them with fees. They use selling systems to let patients qualify themselves. Having patients say no to treatment is a combination of wrong patient and wrong selling system. (www.CaseAcceptance.com)
C. You may lack confidence. Happy dentists look and stay in shape. They have a life outside of dentistry. They choose to be happy. If confidence is an issue for you, consider reading Dr. Maltz’s book, Pyscho Cybernetics.
D. Happy dentists nurture relationships; spouse, kids, family, friends. If there is someone who you need to apologize to for not being around more or that you need to spend more time with, these are sure signs that time/work balance is out of whack.
E. Lastly, happy dentists are implementers OR they have strong implementers around them. They manage time wisely and get things done. These types also tend to be our members….
The NYT front page today discusses shopping trends at higher end stores like Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman. Guess what. There sales are back, big time.
While the middle of the middle class evaporates there are still consumers spending money on all kinds of stuff be it apparel, experiences, or services.
A big take-home from the entire article is making sure your message resonates with why the customer is buying (value, longevity, “quality,” status, etc.).
One or two times a year, we put on a case acceptance training summit for helping dental practice’s clarify the message they use to sell their services compared to competitors.
It’s a very big deal to these retailers and it is just as big of a deal to those practices wanting to do anything beyond one tooth dentistry. Click to find out about our dental case acceptance summit.
