Dental Practice Management and Your Marketing Budget

In dental practice management, it’s not just about the dental marketing budget either….

In addition to this change in thinking related to marketing and the insurance company “write-off” as marketing dollars spent, it also becomes critical to move from a sales process geared for selling “all things UCR and/or free” to one that can effectively help patients make good decisions when every option to be discussed will require far more investment than any benefit maximum.  99% of what’s taught for “selling” dentistry is all about “maximums and UCR.”

Thus, for practices seeking to change course, and for correct dental practice management steps, starting with your sales system is THE first and most rational step.

Can one gradually get off one ship and move to the other?  Yes, it is possible to gradually withdraw from plans as time goes by, to sell at higher fees to those (a minority) of patients who stay loyal, and to market your way onto your better ship for the long haul.  Upgrading to a real selling System is, once again, the only way to make any of that a reality.

There are almost no practices that cannot “afford” to take this action step since the investment to obtain, train, and implement a selling system ranges from $5K-$20K depending on timeline and how you want the content taught to you and your team.

Yes, for a few, changing courses might require short term pain to divert personal income to marketing and dental practice management that ultimately sets up the cycle of buying more profitable cases that allow for full fee case marketing and to be a top earner in the profession

For those not understanding any of this or refusing to acknowledge reality, look forward to working harder every year to stay even, or worse, ever harder to actually make less.  The forces mentioned above are ongoing.

P.S.  Just so you know, I’ve lived all of the above.  Felt that my 5% spent on marketing (c. 1997) was appropriate and out of my own ignorance was taking 20-40% “marketing” write-offs every month.   Had my $100K epiphany (c. 1999). Eventually bid adieu to every insurance company while marketing to a fee for service setting which included divorcing myself from the biggest “pedophile” equivalent in dentistry (Delta Dental) which has 90%+ “penetration” in Washington state (c. 2000).   People can and do the same thing now by fixing selling and marketing.  You can do it too!

Check out how by reading my #1 best selling book on Amazon. Or if you are really serious about learning more about how to correctly market yourself, proper dental practice management of sales and staff, go to my website.