Sep

Marketing/Sales in the Dental Practice

I read an article this past week that said that of the 4,000 Colleges and Universities in the United States, only 40 have SALES Curriculums. This BLOWS MY MIND.

Nothing happens without someone selling something.

Everyone sells.

The Priest Sells.

The Rabbi Sells.

The Minister Sells.

The Teacher Sells.

The High School Football Coach Sells.

Every team member Sells.

Most dentists focus too much energy and effort on logos, external marketing and yet have no training in SALES and NO DOCUMENTED SALES PROCESS or system. It is amazing, simply amazing how much money we spend on DENTAL TECHNICAL TRAINING and yet spend little or no money on SALES TRAINING and creating a DOCUMENTED, PROVEN SALES PROCESS.

I’ve always said that we dentists were set up for failure. By our statistics, data we collect every week (and I know you think you are an exception), the average amount of dentistry done per patient by 95% of the dentists in the United States is less than $1000 per new patient.

Now here’s the tragedy. A young dentist graduates from dental school, $200,000 or more in debt for an education; then adds $500,000 to $750,000 in debt ( or more) to buy or start a dental practice. And, maybe rents or buys a small home. So, here we have a dentist who now is in business who:

Is operating without any sound MARKETING PLAN which documents the results of marketing spent.
No SALES TRAINING or SALES PROCESS or SALES PLAN.
No organizational skills.

THIS BLOWS MY MIND. No wonder the average dentist spends his or her entire life simply chasing the money, or in most instances, chasing the overhead.

So, here we are now, in the midst (not the end) of the most severe recession since the 1930’s and dentists are now throwing money at MARKETING but still are only capable of closing less than $1,000 per patient and most of that is covered by some plan.