These past couple of weeks I’ve had so many meetings and consultations with dentistry’s who seem to have different problems obviously but some similar complaint.

One major complaint that has popped up a lot last week was that their Chamber of Commerce SUCKS!

You either feel that the chamber of commerce is “clicks” or maybe they look like they are just playing “high school” all over again!

Well, I couldn’t agree with y’all more! It is exactly that.

Going to the early morning breakfast meets, networking events, ribbon cuttings, and grand openings may seem like fun and sure yeah you’ll introduce yourself and your business and hand out your cards to everyone but, then what?

Did everyone you handed out your business cards to go to your practice? Did they even call your practice? Are you even the only dentist in your chamber?

You’re probably telling yourself, “NOPE”!

So now what? Do we still keep going to these networking lunches, breakfast meetings, ribbon cuttings, and events and keep hoping someone we give our cards to comes in?

NOPE!

What we need to do is market, convince, and execute.

Let me break it down for you.

Next time you go to an event or networking type of deal, do NOT go in with the intention of selling or mentioning your business and “deals” to everyone; they don’t care, sorry. They all have the same hope as you did “Here’s my card, whenever you need this *job* done then come to me and only me and give me your business”.

Throw this way of thinking out the window NOW.

Go in with the intention of listening and just laughing it up and taking everyone else’s business cards and showing genuine interest, even if it’s like the newest accounting firm or dog grooming business that just joined the neighborhood, who cares, just go in with the intention that you will help them out somehow or that you just genuinely care about what they have to say and grab their business card!

Make it a game and see how many business cards you can obtain!

Make sure you grab their cards and know them on a first name bases. Save the cards.

Make sure you create some sort of rapport or at least some type of friendly memorable face time with the manager, owner, or whoever gave you their business card in the networking events at the chamber.

Next day call them, HOWEVER, before you call them BRAINSTORM.

Brainstorm about how you and your business can collaborate. Maybe the business you’re calling is some sort of retail, insurance, or any type of store where they have customers/ clients. Maybe you can convince the owner/ business to have a customer appreciation day and you can give their clients/ customers free or discounted services for being a client of theirs.

This shows the business that you are calling that they appreciate their customers and it also shows that your business is exclusive to them and you play a role with the local community and residents.

Spy on the Chamber of Commerce Directory

Next what we can do is go into your local Chamber of Commerce website and look for any grand openings or ribbon cuttings. Typically there should be a couple each month. Once you find them look for the business and the person that is hosting these events/ ribbon cutting and call them!

Let them know that you want this grand opening/ ribbon cutting to be fun and exciting and you would like to help out and give “free toothbrushes” (or whatever you want to give for free) and have everyone who comes receive free whitening certificates (or whatever you want to give for free).

9 times out of 10 the business you call will be excited about this and happy you reached out. Make sure you ask if you can set up a small booth or table to the side and have all these free products for them laid out on the table, also make sure everyone who receives a free teeth whitening certificate exchanges their name and some sort of contact information.

Use the name “Chamber of Commerce” to your advantage literally!

If you feel like “Michael, my chamber never has grand openings or ribbon cuttings” or “My chamber never wants to collaborate with my business when we network”; well, then let’s just use “being a part of the chamber” as our foot in the door.

This is what I mean. Say you go into a MD doctor’s office that is part of the chamber.

Just walk in and say:

“Hey guys, on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce and *your dentistry’s name* we would like to give you all some free dental exams for the employees and the employee’s family! In our dentistry its ‘MD Doctor month’ so we want to show our appreciation to your staff and the staff’s family!  We would also like some of your business cards to put into our office as well to give to our patients!”

This could also work through the phone.

You see what I did here?

I used the name “Chamber of Commerce” as a way to get my foot in the door, then I let them know we appreciated them by celebrating a month that you made up in your practice, and then I offered them a chance to promote their doctors office by bringing or giving us their business cards to have in our dental office.

Now you have access to the staff and can think of creative ways to market/ cross promote!

Or you can  just go and visit them, tell them the script above, and have people sign up for a free *whatever service you want to do for free* on the spot and BAM be done with it and onto the next business in the Chamber of Commerce Directory.

Try one of these above. No, really, TRY ONE and let me know how it goes!

Honestly, I have a million and one tricks up my sleeve on how to use the chamber of commerce to your best advantage but I do not want to overwhelm anyone so let’s start off with these three methods and see how it goes!

Please let me know how it goes or if you have any questions always feel free to email me at dntlmrktcnsltnt@gmail.com

Find more at: The Dental Marketer Blog