{"id":207,"date":"2011-01-12T12:55:59","date_gmt":"2011-01-12T19:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamesmcanally.com\/post\/2716803028"},"modified":"2019-10-23T18:51:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T22:51:16","slug":"dental-practice-marketing-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themcanallysellingsystem.com\/dental-practice-marketing-budget\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Dental Practice Marketing Budget: The Real Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your Dental Practice Marketing Budget: The Real Truth<\/h1><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
\"Dental<\/span><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

Let’s discuss your dental practice marketing budget as we approach a new year.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re gearing up for our Elite Program member\u2019s live meeting on Friday this week.\u00a0 Coming off a fantastic Christmas and New Years.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a photo of my partner, mother and I at Fountainbleau before Christmas dinner at Gotham Steak.\u00a0 No one\u2019s trip to Miami Beach should be without a visit to this grand hotel.\u00a0 It had a face-lift a few years back and is better than it ever was in it\u2019s last hey-day.\u00a0 \"\"<\/p>\n

\u2026..on to the topic at hand\u2026..<\/p>\n

What should you be spending on your dental practice marketing budget?<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll hear most \u201cexperts\u201d state 3-7% in writing and from the podium.\u00a0\u00a0 Here\u2019s the truth:\u00a0 That was right 20+ years ago but is 100% wrong these days.<\/p>\n

Where did this 3-7% number come from?\u00a0 Well, it came from the earliest days when dentists were just starting to market before the proliferation of insurance discounting was an industry norm.\u00a0 In other words, it\u2019s a direct hold-over from a different reality which no longer exists and isn\u2019t coming back.<\/p>\n

Some practices still proudly boast that they only spend 3-7% or even less, when in truth, they are committing anywhere from 10-37% or even MORE to their marketing!<\/p>\n

How\u2019s that?\u00a0 Well, if you write-off anything based on insurance contracts (and 90%+ dentists do), then your write-off IS a direct marketing expense.\u00a0\u00a0 Except in this case YOU don\u2019t decide on where it gets spent or on what type of patient\/case it is spent attracting, the insurance company does.\u00a0 And guess what they are going to do with your marketing expense that you gladly had them? They use it to find more employers for subscribing to their discounted plan(s) and to keep you shackled to the discount IV.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, some dentists agree to a set fee schedule from a carrier and then dependent on a particular plan offered, discount back from the set fee schedule.\u00a0 Double whammy!\u00a0 Those boys and girls are then ones who spend 40% of their fees on marketing and still hold up their hands during my presentations and proudly say they spent 3% last year.<\/p>\n

The most astute dentists (certainly our Program members are in that group), tend to have an epiphany moment when they look at their production\/collection\/write-off tally in a given year and find that on $1M in production they wrote off $100K in insurance expenses.\u00a0 Speaking from personal experience both as clinician and leading consultant, $100K directly invested in external marketing will generate $1.5M-$2M in highly profitable business.\u00a0\u00a0 The minority who get this invariably seek out ways to disengage from the discounting game and enhance their dental practice marketing budget.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the real deal with % of dental practice marketing budget needed ?\u00a0 For those who want to truly attract fee for service cases, complex procedures, implants, apnea, sedation, etc. your marketing expenses for direct external marketing will be 15% of collections.\u00a0 The good news is all those suckers addicted to the PPO write-off cannot afford to compete with that kind of marketing budget and attract the higher profit cases.\u00a0 For those that truly understand this, you get a permanent marketing advantage to stay ahead of your competitors. While they can\u2019t \u201cafford\u201d to market since they are consigning most of their dental practice marketing budget to the insurance company, the savvy can invest it in ways that bring real returns.<\/p>\n

In case you think this is going to get any easier (more middle class patients buying outside insurance, insurance maximums going up, plans getting \u201cbetter\u201d) think again.\u00a0 For those who haven\u2019t been reading what the economists see related to the post-recession reality in the US, here\u2019s what lies ahead:\u00a0 Already stagnant household middle class incomes staying suck at 1970\u2019s levels.\u00a0\u00a0 Income growth will take another 4-5 years to return to 2007 levels.\u00a0 A reasonable chance you might not see your patient\u2019s middle class incomes returning to that level for the rest of your career.\u00a0\u00a0 35% of those changing jobs after the recession have taken a 20% or more hair-cut on income.\u00a0 A middle class used to chowing down at the trough of cheap Chinese imports (artificially making them feel like their stagnant income is worth more) finding a surprise over the next 18 months as newly ignited inflation in China is set to increase import prices by 35%.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the rub with your marketing budget being sucked up as part of the write-offs.\u00a0 The longer one sails on the ship of discounted fees, the harder it becomes to market your way off that ship and onto one where ongoing higher profits and lifestyle are predictable and that only 10% of the profession currently enjoy.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just about the dental practice marketing budget either\u2026.<\/p>\n

In addition to this change in thinking related to marketing and the insurance company \u201cwrite-off\u201d as marketing dollars you are spending, moving from a sales system geared for selling \u201call things UCR\u201d to one that can sell fee for service things that are far beyond insurance maximums and UCR is a must.\u00a0 99% of what\u2019s taught for selling dentistry is all about \u201cmaximums and UCR.\u201d\u00a0 Thus, for every practice seeking to change course, starting with your sales system is THE first and most rationale step.<\/p>\n

Can one gradually get off one ship and move to the other?\u00a0 Yes, it is possible to gradually withdraw from plans as time goes by, sell at higher fees to those (a minority) patients who stay loyal, and market your way onto your better ship for the long haul.\u00a0 Upgrading your selling System is, once again, the only way to make such a reality.<\/p>\n

For many, changing ships requires short term pain to divert personal income to marketing that sets up the cycle of buying more profitable cases that allow for marketing costs to approach 15%.\u00a0 For those who have indebted themselves up to the cranial apex, to \u201ckeep up with the Jones\u2019\u201d or perceived lifestyle dentists \u201cshould\u201d have, they\u2019re in the worst shape as the debt treadmill demands service regardless of how one feels about any of this.\u00a0 For most of those, it ain\u2019t happenin\u2026\u2026<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re seeing the light, now\u2019s the time for action.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 The forces mentioned above are accelerating.\u00a0 Wait too long and you\u2019ll be just more road kill that I\u2019ll talk about from the podium.<\/p>\n

Consider yourself forewarned\u2026\u2026To get started on how to market correctly try my #1 top selling book on Amazon<\/a> or go to my website here.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":5044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,188],"tags":[51,64,41],"yoast_head":"\nYour Dental Practice Marketing Budget-the Real Truth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Your dental practice marketing budget should seek out ways to disengage from the discounting game and enhance your dental practice marketing expenses by attracting\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/themcanallysellingsystem.com\/dental-practice-marketing-budget\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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