MYTH – I tried marketing. It doesn’t work. (Or, it doesn’t work in my area)
REALITY – Everything you do IS marketing and it IS working. You just don’t like the results. Learn the why, what, and how of tapping into sources of unlimited new patients.
MYTH – Marketing only brings in the “wrong kind” of patients.
REALITY – There are no “wrong kind” of patients, only poor systems or misplaced expectations. Learn why your practice is no longer inspiring new patients to seek you out.
MYTH – Marketing will make me appear desperate.
REALITY – There is not one thing you own that has not been marketed to you prior to a purchase. Marketing has become the information highway for seeking out and qualifying a purchase. Like it or not, your practice is a small consumer driven business that operates within very specific guidelines dictated by the consumer. Learn how to use “consumer speak”. Consider that we all may become “desperate”: No patients=No income=No business.
MYTH – Marketing costs too much. I can’t afford to market.
REALITY – Marketing is just a “great story, well told”. Listen to your potential patients, and learn how to give them more of what they want and less of what they don’t want. Great marketing taps into the consumer’s spending habits and directs them to you. Marketing that works isn’t expensive, it’s priceless.
MYTH – Discounts and write-offs hurt production. We can’t reach our goals.
REALITY – Marketing doesn’t necessarily mean discounting your fees. Empty chairs, out of control overhead, poor systems, and marginal staff keep you from meeting your goals and hurting your production. We expect all of our practices to operate based on the philosophy of “Produce More, Collect All, Keep Half”.
MYTH – My current patients will see it and want the same deal.
REALITY – Most marketing is directed toward new patients only. There are specific ways to handle any situation that arises. The trouble is that most dentists are “exceptional thinkers”. They think of the one exception to any rule and live their lives in fear that they may have to resolve an anomaly.
MYTH – Marketing isn’t legal in my state.
REALITY – NOT! Going bankrupt should be illegal in your state. Marketing is legal and necessary.
MYTH – I feel that marketing, especially discounts, cheapens the value of my dentistry.
REALITY – The value of your dentistry is in the mind and actions of your patients. Let them, and not you, decide how they consider your practice. As we said, everything is marketing. You get to decide on the message and response to it.