Welcome to Week 1 of our new series, “Beyond The Chair”. We discuss issues facing today’s dental practice owner, and how to stay competitive in your market. Our discussion this week focuses on how to beat Corporate Dentistry (even if they’re not in your neighborhood yet) at its own game and remain competitive in your market.
This week, here’s what you’ll learn:
- Corporate Dentistry’s #1 Biggest Weakness and how to exploit it starting today!
- The only New Patient & Referral strategy we’re recommending to all our clients right now, because it’s simple, free, and all patients love it 🙂
- What to expect from Graig on this vital series on dental marketing, straight from the 4-time recognized Inc. 500/5000 expert CEO of the leading dental marketing company in the country.
- An honest and piercing introduction to corporate dentistry; we pull back the curtain and look at their true intentions and potentially-devastating tactics…and how to stay alive while the sharks start to circle.
- And MUCH much more…
Click “PLAY BUTTON” Below To Watch The Video OR Read The Transcription Below (if you prefer to read): If you’re having trouble viewing this video Click Here
Learn How To Get A Custom Marketing Plan To Beat “The Corporates” In Your Town By Clicking The Link Here => https://lsfd1.wpenginepowered.com/action-plan
Transcription of Part 1:
Benjamin: My name is Benjamin and I am the Director of Marketing for Local Search For Dentists and with me is Graig Presti — the C.E.O. of Local Search For Dentists. This is a weekly segment where we’re going to discuss the dental marketing industry and some of the trends, some of the things that are going on that are good, some of the things that aren’t so good and what you really should be looking out for as you market your practice. Anything that you’d like to add, Graig?
Graig: No, I think that’s a good introduction and yeah, this is something that I think – you know the industry as a whole really needs. Right now in dentistry, there’s probably more confusion in the marketplace than at any other point I can remember in the last ten years – mainly because of technology advancements, there are so many different ways to attract new patients and referrals and do different things. Not to mention there’s a lot of anomalies that are happening right now, you know whether it’s the new graduates that are coming out corporate dentistry, you know large private corporate practices that are there that are really popping up everywhere. But I think when it comes to the solo practitioner, you know really the main point of doing these things on a weekly basis is to really kind of cut through you know all of the baloney that’s out there and give these people some really, really good content that allows them to make better decisions in their business, so you don’t have to worry about making a bad decision with that kind of help. We will facilitate what’s going on right now.
So this is something that I think you know we’ll be putting on, we’ll be hosting on the website for free. We’re not going to be selling anything on this. This is going to be completely, one hundred percent content. We’ll transcribe it, we’ll make it available in a bunch of different ways for them to listen in the car and things like that. So, it will be helpful to every dentist no matter what kind of practice you have.
Benjamin: This is a lot of what we do around the office. We just sit and talk about and just analyze trends – what’s going on in the industry and where some of these less-than-scrupulous marketers are coming in and trying to convince you – you need one thing or the other and we’re here really just to set the record straight.
Graig: Yeah, yeah absolutely…and not only set the record straight, but offer tools that they can use in their business. So you can avoid the pitfalls of making a bad decision from – for marketers and things like that and other folks, you know whether it’s a large company or a one man band, you don’t have to make that mistake and lose out on thousands of dollars. So, there’s a lot out there right now and I think this will be good for everyone to kind of understand where everything is going. You can eventually sell your practice or retire because let’s face it; bad decisions in practice can really affect whether or not you’re going to be able to sell your business for what you want or retire at the year that you want. We hear about that all the time.
Benjamin: Well, let’s jump right in.
Graig: Yes.
Benjamin: Let’s start with corporate dentistry. Define that for me – what is corporate dentistry? This is kind of a buzzword now in the industry so what is it?
Graig: Yeah. I mean, corporate dentistry, right now is a bit of a hot potato. When you look at where it has evolved over the last I would say five to ten years. Corporate dentistry is basically, exactly what it is. It is any practice that is in various cities across the country that has one corporate entity that really goes out and produces dentistry on a large scale. And they’re not owned by private individuals, they’re owned by shareholders and they’re owned by large corporations with large budgets. That’s much different than say, a six-doctor practice that is more of a private-equity practice. The corporate guys are essentially sort of the “Wall Street” of dentistry right now. They’re like the big banks, if you will.
Benjamin: Right. So why are they a threat to the smaller practice?
Graig: There are threats for a couple reasons. The biggest one is that to my point of evolving is corporate dentistry used to be – that corporate dentistry was bad dentistry. Corporate dentistry meant [a private practice owner thinking that] “they’re not really a threat because it’s like a factory over there and eventually the patients would be so satisfied with the service in the treatment that they’re getting. They’ll just flock to me because I can give them the attention and in the service that they need and the treatment that they need.”
Well, that was true maybe five years ago. Right now, what’s happening is corporate dentistry is actually doing really good dentistry because you have you know other groups that are going out and they’re consuming a private practice. What they’re doing is they’re saying, “Hey, Dr. Jones, come on over to us, work three days a week, we’ll pay you very, very well and you won’t have to worry about the day to day. We’ll market the practice, we’ll run the payroll and you come in and do the good dentistry that you would normally do in your private practice.”
And that’s just happening on a very large scale right now. So the patients aren’t getting the bad treatment that they used to get. And they’re also cloaking themselves very well these days. If you’ve looked at corporate dentistry in terms of how they’re branding themselves, there are many more corporate dental offices. We’re here in Austin, Texas…it’s a great day today out here, the weather is always awesome. And there’s a practice that opened up down the road from us and I didn’t know there were a corporate practice until I actually really looked into it because they did such a good job branding themselves as the local dentist.
Benjamin: Like a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Graig: [Yes – a] wolf in sheep’s clothing. You had no real idea what they were and they’re getting smart and really why I know that they’re getting smarter is because they don’t really view the solo dentist as a threat. They know the holes that they have in their practice and they take advantage of it and they’ve got the money to do it.
Benjamin: So as kind of a general rule, what are some things that the private practice owner can do to fight against this?
Graig: There’s a lot they can do because they have a lot of advantages, right? You can almost compare it to like you know the Wal-Mart/Target, big retail store versus going to the mom-and-pop store.
The benefit to that is that the private practice is very nimble. Like the solo dentist, even if you have a close associate or maybe one or two partners, that’s still very small compared to a corporate practice. You’re very nimble, right? As a small business you have the ability to make a decision like that. You don’t need to go through a board of directors, there’s no budget that needs to be approved, you don’t to make you know 82 presentations just to get a marketing campaign approved. You can call us up today and we’ll get you going today.
Because as a solo dentist, you can make that decision right then and there. And that allows you to essentially get some real, real marketing out there quickly in a very nimble way and you can also service your customers in a more nimble way because you’re essentially giving them the attention that they deserve because you don’t have to go through so much bureaucracy. And that’s a huge advantage.
Benjamin: And the analysis part of it too, that you don’t have an entire in-house team that it has to go through. You can work on a smaller scale, you can send something out, test it and see how it works and then be able to be very agile in terms of turning it around.
Graig: Oh absolutely.
Benjamin: Making changes.
Graig: Absolutely. Yeah…let’s say you talk to Local Search For Dentists and you wanted to run one of our marketing campaigns and you could essentially talk to one of our sales reps, figure out if it’s a fit for us and you – and then start to work with us the next day. That’s hard for a big company to do. And then you will realize that being nimble in the marketplace.
So marketing trends happen right, you know referral system trends – they haven’t followed. These big companies – it takes them a while to get to a decision. If Google comes out with a new tool this week, it might take corporate dentistry six months to get it approved, while the local dentist jumps on that trend much quicker than the corporate guys.
I want to help you put an action plan together to get your practice moving in the right direction. Do NOT be a stick in the mud, who refuses to change. This year can be that year for change. Let’s do it!
One word of WARNING: This action plan will disappear with out notice! So don’t delay.
Check it out by clicking the link below:
https://lsfd1.wpenginepowered.com/action-plan
Have Fun & Do Something Great!
Be Bold And Make Things Happen!
Graig Presti, MBA
CEO Local Search For Dentists® A 4X Inc 500/5000 Approved Dental Marketing Agency
CEO New Patients For Life ™
#1 Best Selling Author
PS- Life does get in the way but THIS is the simplest way to keep patients on track, reactivating patients and SPARKING that REFERRAL fire all in one fell swoop with almost ZERO effort what so ever….
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One of my private clients (who will remain nameless) is already breaking his competition in half ….buying practices, just killing doctors who won’t change.
So, if you’re struggling with making heads or tails of what to do that can specifically help you grow your practice then this action plan is a “glove fit for you”.
Check it out by clicking the link below:
https://lsfd1.wpenginepowered.com/action-plan
