Dental Marketing Ideas
Dental Marketing Ideas
- By Howie Horrocks and Mark Dilatush
Call Toll Free 866-DENT-ADS (866-336-8237)
The purpose of this article series is to help you assess where your practice is, and what to do. We're not going to go into the $2.3 trillion in liquidity that has evaporated, why it went away, who is to blame, or offer any political views on the subject. That would be a monumental waste of time. Because in the end, there isn't a whole lot any of us can do about how we got here.
The best thing we can do is prepare for moving ahead. Dentistry is still (even with a nervous economy) entering its "Golden Years". Dentistry is still the #1 individually owned businesses in the US. Just ask any lender of money. They will climb all over each other to lend any dentist money.
Where is my practice right now?
Your practice has its own little economy. Too many dentists don't know how to measure where they were, where they are, and where they are headed. This is the root core of the "uncertainty" some dentists feel when faced with a "nervous economy". Uncertainty causes all humans to become overly stressed. So, if you don't know where you were, where you are right now, and where you are headed-it makes perfect sense that you feel some heightened level of stress.
The opposite of uncertainty is certainty. Certainty relieves stress. So let's take a look at how you can be certain of where your practice is and where it is headed. This is the first step in knowing for sure what you need to do in the future regarding the promotion of your dental practice.
We realize when you initially read the title of this article that you wanted some instant solution to getting more high quality new patients into your practice. But all of you have to start here first.
Active Dental Patients (Tracking Instructions):
At the same time each month (the 1st, the 15th, the last day, it doesn't matter), I want you to do the following:
- Run a re-care report for the NEXT 12 months. As an example, let's say it's May 15th 2008. I want you to run a re-care report for 5-15-2008 to 5-15-2009. I want you to count the number of re-care patients and make note of the total number of patients.
- Run an appointment list for ALL dentists for the same time line (the NEXT 12 months). I want you to count the number of patients currently scheduled in all of the doctor schedule(s). Make a note of this number.
- Add the number of re-care patients and the number of patients in the doctor(s) schedule(s). This gives you the total of truly active patients for your specific dental practice.
- Do this every month on the same day of each month. Do this every month for the rest of your dental career.
Then, build a very simple spreadsheet (as shown below) in Excel. Each month, enter the total of truly active patients in the appropriate column. TTM Revenues = Trailing Twelve Month Revenues. All you do to find that number is run a collection report for the previous 12 months. Doesn't this sound pretty simple?
What you end up with is something like this.
Dr. Smith - Future Predictor Spreadsheet |
||||
MM/DD/YYY |
Active patients |
TTM Revenues |
Avg Rev/Active Patient |
|
5/15/2008 |
700 |
$700,000 |
$1,000.00 |
|
6/15/2009 |
710 |
$723,000 |
$1,018.31 |
|
Let's take a look at a different doctor that has been tracking these indicators for a year. Let's call this dentist, Dr. Jones.
Dr. Jones-Future Predictor Spreadsheet |
|||
Month |
Active Patients |
Revenues |
Avg Rev/Pt |
1 |
833 |
$750,000 |
$900.36 |
2 |
831 |
$761,000 |
$915.76 |
3 |
826 |
$743,000 |
$899.52 |
4 |
819 |
$745,000 |
$909.65 |
5 |
821 |
$739,000 |
$900.12 |
6 |
816 |
$721,000 |
$883.58 |
7 |
811 |
$733,000 |
$903.82 |
8 |
812 |
$738,000 |
$908.87 |
9 |
809 |
$716,000 |
$885.04 |
10 |
811 |
$722,000 |
$890.26 |
11 |
806 |
$731,000 |
$906.95 |
12 |
799 |
$719,500 |
$900.50 |
What conclusion could you make about Dr. Jones's practice using this data? Here are some things that tell us where Dr. Jones is and where the practice is going.
Dr. Jones had a net loss of 34 active patients over the last year.
Dr. Jones maintains a solid average revenue per active patient.
Dr. Jones has seen a slight decline in annual revenues-most likely caused be a decline in new patient flow coupled with an increase in loss of existing active patients.
In Dr. Jones's case, we really need to attack these issues from multiple angles. We need to re-energize the existing patient base. Simultaneously, we have to look at the external promotion of the practice to drive more volume. Dr. Jones is already attracting "quality" new patients to the practice; otherwise the average revenue per active patient would be dropping.
Perhaps all Dr. Jones needs to do is re-allocate some of the external marketing dollars to other mediums that may generate a greater volume of good solid patients.
Either way, Dr. Jones feels ZERO stress. Dr. Jones knows EXACTLY where the practice was, where it is, and where it is headed. Wouldn't it be nice if you knew these things in a "nervous economy". Dr. Jones isn't nervous.
In our next installment, we will go into more specifics on what to do once you know where you are. It is our hope that all of you will begin to become more "certain" about your futures.
For more information click Dental Marketing Ideas
Or Call Toll Free 866-DENT-ADS (866-336-8237)
Howie Horrocks-whh@newpatientsinc.com
Mark Dilatush-markd@newpatientsinc.com
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