Big Case Dental Practice Marketing Blog
The a life saying, “what got you here won’t get you there” has been a pretty good truism for a long time and under the current realities it has become a bottom line fact for where dentists stand with what they face for the coming 20 years of practice….
I’ve talked before about average being over for the middle classes in the U.S. Those not moving beyond average are no longer on the right side of economics in the global age. It is what it is….
For professionals (you) this moving beyond average means not simply an elevation of clinical skills above average BUT of very key critical business skills that include everything from administrative and leadership skill to promotion and marketing…..
We’ve just existed a 70 year period where growth in the profession was “always” happening. Along the way, we bought into a lot of variations of “always.”
It was “always” like this. This is “always” did things. Here’s waht you “always” do. There’s a real problem with the word “always.”
Language and logic students have an aversion to always because they understand it creates real issues with constructing not just sentences but logical arguments that can stand up in writing, law, and relationships be they personal or business.
As a profession we drank the “always” kool-aid of what we thought was predictable when it came to economical what was expected to happen for the “average” dentist in the business of practice without a lot of effort.
We had a short list of “always” trends which contributed to our 70 year run of gradual economic growth for average practitioners being average at everything.
Those “always” trends got us to 2007 and contributed to a profession wide general consensus that they were trends that would always with with us and continue to get us there “forever.” Now, after a post-recession stagnant period never seen in recorded economic history, most dentists wait for the :”always” trends to return while all the data says it’s not happening. In other words, what got us here ain’t getting us there……
So what were the trends that got us to through the good ole’ days before the recession to end all recessions hit and awakened us to a new reality?
The “golden economic age” for average dentists was fundamentally driven by the following 5 MAJOR factors:
#1. Disease demographics. Those born B.F. (before Fluoride) needed LOTS of dentistry on an ongoing basis. FYI. B.F. patients are entering the R.I.P. cycle of life which greatly diminishes their dental needs.
#2. Rapid expansion of general population greatly outpacing provider number increases.
#3. Rising household incomes (even when adjusted for inflation) equaled always increasing expenditures on elective services such as dentistry.
#4. Employers adding on dental benefit packages during the peak of the economic boom meaning FREE money to dentists.
#5. Higher paying jobs routinely available if one was willing to work contributing to the purchase of more elective services over time.
Anyone with even a cursory reading of demographic, job, and economic data likely sees potential problems with 4 of the things above that brought us……those with a basic cursory knowledge of dental disease trends related to flouride will also see a potential issue with item #1.
Hardly anyone thinks or even takes actual time to think these days. For that fact, I’ll return to all 5 items next week so it’s spelled out in black and white to limit the cognitive challenges a few will have with understanding.
Now….Is growth still possible for dental practices? Absolutely, in fact, those making very deliberate choices are doing just that. Those with the correct thinking on dealing with the 5 trends still have amazing futures in the profession because even more incredible technology is always in the pipeline.
Here’s an example of what happens based on one’s decisions……
“Dear Colleague,
After about 1 year to the day of studying Big Case Marketing (Master Dentist Academy Principels), we launched our first print ad campaign in two local newspapers.
We had done some external advertising before, poorly organized, and to nobodies surprise, it was not a success.
With our new, better educated and better planned campaign, we had over 100 calls in the first 2 weeks.
Yesterday we had our first Free Consult day, and scheduled 6 cases at $30,000.00 each.
I can hardly believe it, even as I type it.
We are still learning and modifying our process, but we would never had reached this level of success without the training my Team and I got through Big Case Marketing (Private Consulting & Maximum Case Acceptance System).
Thank you so much.”
Dr. M. S.
Ottawa, Ontario Canada (2012)
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Newton (MA), Miami Beach (FL): Dentistry Today, one of dentistry’s most widely distributed and read trade magazines has named Dr. James McAnally, CEO, Big Case Marketing and President, Master Dentists Academy as a top consultant. This marks the 5th year, in a row, that the publication has named Dr. McAnally to its annual list for his expertise in marketing and promotion of professional practices and in ethical selling professional services. 
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From time to time, things from some of our best clinical post-graduate educators catches my eye like this ad from Dr. Frank Spear.
Kudo’s always go to these folks for providing a wealth of clinical information that puts their attendee’s on a different plyaing field at least in a THEORETICAL sort of way. [By the way, on this kind of subject matter (occlusion that drives most treatment decisions and helps manage health/risk, attemptint to piece it together from a whole bunch of 2nd tier experts is not recommended…..go to one of these reputable educators).
Kudos to Frank for realizing that education is headed down the distance path very quickly. The number of reasons to get on a big plane are fortunatley shrinking with each passing year.
Now….back to what’s not right about this proposition. The flub here is saying that magically you’ll “earn” more because you “learned” or some variation on that theme. (I’ve heard Dr. Kois tell his attendee’s a disclaimer about his courses delivering $$……kudos for that kind of honesty).
But….no disclaimer here. In fact, big promise. Bravo to them for using that message as they certainly understand some fundamentals about a lot of us in the profession. No kudos to anyone signing on who doesn’t have a grasp on what reality is related to selling occlusal based services.
Here’s the reality, as soon as one leaves anything that is emergent or one or two tooth treatment based insurance dollars, it is not simply “learn and then earn.”
Things like worn dentition and occlusal disease often times have a minimal next step of several thousand dollars for some device that takes considerable skill to deliver after astute diagnostics. And then definitive treatment can be $40K, $50K, $60K…..etc. There’s NO WAY to have the “snowball’s chance in you know where” to do those kinds of cases without approaching promotion and selling very differently than 95% of the profession. Thus, to get the little “sold” sign on the case….you need much much much more than this DVD or an entire Spear-Pankey-Kois-LVI-Dawson program.
By the way, we’re one up on Frank, our version of digital learning, isn’t a DVD, it’s immediately available as soon as you sign on for our online training in ethical, behavioral based selling (the Maximum Case Acceptance Online Program).
Here’s what Dr. Abbott (began using the System in last 2010….in a very post-housing bust, broken consumer world) had to say from Phoenix recently: “Just wanted to let you know that October was our best month ever in my practice. This month we have already beat that and are scheduled to do $30,000 in the last next few days. Thanks!” In his case, heavily insurance based practice but selling more effectively and ethically as he diversifies for success in the new reality that all dentists live under…..
Oh yeah…..if you plug into ethical selling, you really will earn more while you learn. In fact, it’s something I put into writing as a guarantee. No clinical CE educator does that….no one……
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Funny how long it takes for information to gain traction. The Journal ‘Neurology’ reported on this topic back in 2008. I was one of the first, if not the first, dentists to distribute a national press release concerning the findings. We were the absolute FIRST consulting group to show its member doctors how to use this information to promote expert status to their patients and how to get more patients out of dentures and adhesives as a result.
Now, nearly 3 years later, everyone’s gone ga-ga over denture cream and its dangers. My mantra to the profession and the media is “what took you so long?”
Funny how in an age of rapid speed of information flow, the important stuff gets buried behind more pressing matters such as what Brad and Angelina pooped out after their last indulgent weekend in Cannes.
There are two things that really suck about “bad news” especially when it involves some medical device problem, fraud, or “adverse event” in the health professions.
- Patient’s get screwed and they subsequently lose faith in their “professionals.”
- The professions make an apology, stare at their belly buttons, and rarely actually turn the bad news into something good that actually HELPS more patients.
Few seize the moment (or know how to do such) to use bad news to position themselves as being far more knowledgeable (that absolutely means BETTER than others and superior to competitors) than their peers and as a result help motivate more patients to make good decisions about their options—especially it if happens to have something to do with preventing nasty things like neuralgias courtesy of denture adhesive. There are plenty of alternatives to dentures and adhesives and using the power of loss surrounding the the bad news of “poison denture adhesive” is one tool to get patients onto better things—dental implants.
Here’s another example and failed opportunity for most: Last year, CBCT, dentists—particularly orthodontists—who are overusing the technology were rightly blasted for doing such (exposing patients to needless radiation) in a New York Times investigative article. How many dentists knew how to take what they likely called a lemon and instead of trembling about the fall-out turn it into a loss minimizer for their patients and prospective patients? Outside of our group of member dentists, probably zero.
The moral of the story: no matter how “bad” the news related to something in dentistry, it will be used by the wisest in the profession to actually benefit more patients. The question is, will you be one of the wise?
P.S. By the way, when these kind of things (bad news) pop up, we always hand the tools for benefit to every member at every level via our monthly newsletter. Very likely a more worthy investment than many of the dues you’re paying to organizations that never hand you anything to keep your business thriving……
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