Stand Out! Marketing for Dentists

You trained to become a dentist, with many semesters of specialized schooling followed by years more of hands on experience honing your skillsets. But did you train to run a dental business, especially when it comes to the how-to’s of getting big payoffs from your marketing? For most dentists the answer is there has been very little of that type of training, if there’s been any at all. Dentistry is a profession to be sure, but it’s also a business. Viewed as a business it is not much different than any other kind, for instance motels or restaurants. To a motel an unoccupied room means lost revenue, for a restaurant each vacant table translates to a lowering of that day’s bottom line. Likewise, an empty dental chair between 2:00 and 3:00 tomorrow afternoon equates to that same minus sign for you. And to make matters worse, your landlord, utility company and your staff are unwilling to take on their proportional share of your loss. Darn them! The books central marketing formula is based on an acronym, V.A.M. which stands for Value, Attract and Monetize. The V for Value section tackles ways to add more value for patients so that your business stands out from other dental practices. The A for Attract explores hundreds of different and often imaginative ways to attract patients to your practice. It includes a section called a Short Course in Attracting Online, because these days if you are not online then you’re not anywhere. And, if you’re not online maximizing to your utmost, then you’re losing out to other dental businesses that are. The M for Monetize pulls it all together by looking at how a dental business can run more efficiently, add new profit centers and even get the most output from their staff. Adapted from the recently published marketing book Stand Out! Businesses, Stand Out! Marketing for Dentists is an operational, marketing and let’s call it “profit making” guide written with dental practices in mind. It combines the author’s own extensive hands on experience running and marketing businesses with countless hours of marketing research specific to dental practices. With 246 pages packed with 1,000s of ideas, it’s a certainty you’ll find numerous gems within its pages which you’ll be able to add to your own bottom line. The book is also an enjoyable read, full of humor and interesting anecdotes.