What Type of Marketing is Best for Your Practice? By: Gordon J. Christensen, DDS, MSD, PhD

Some of you can remember when advertising and external marketing were allowed in the dental profession for the first time. There was an enormous negative and positive outcry from the profession. Some thought that the end of the world had come, while others were delighted that they could finally have their name more than two inches high on their office windows. Many years have passed since this memorable decision, and the advertising/marketing controversy has settled. Some dentists have elected to have both external and internal marketing; others have elected to have only internal marketing; and others have not changed from their original conservative non-marketing position. Where are you in your thinking on this important subject? This article is intended to motivate you to consider the marketing orientation in your practice, and to change it if you feel that the modifications would benefit you and your patients.

YOUR PERSONAL OPINIONS ABOUT MARKETING
May I have you think outside of the dental world for a few minutes? What areas of marketing are irritable to you? Can you tolerate telemarketers? They bother me enough that I finally had their access to my phone numbers denied. Can you accept sales people who sneak into your personal life with the pretense of something other than their real sales purpose? I am quite hostile to such salespersons when I find I have been deceived by their initial introduction. Do you follow up on the million dollar sweepstakes offers that are plentiful in your mail? They hit the round file in less that one-second in my office or home. What about the company that sends you a box with a sales pitch in it? You think that the box contains something valuable, but it is only a devious way to influence you to see their sales pitch. I go out of my way to eliminate these irritations from my life. A political party kept sending me irritating promotional packages, tapes, letters marked personal and confidential, Fed-Ex letters, and phone calls until I finally told them to cease and desist! I even eliminated my funding to them, though I had been a financial contributor in the past. The deception present in some marketing tactics is a frustration to me.

To fulfill my intent to provide continuing education in the dental profession, for many years I have had to market videotapes, the CRA Newsletter, and live CE courses. Practical Clinical Courses and Clinical Research Associates have been functioning for 20 and 26 years respectively. To my knowledge, they have survived longer than any other similar organizations in the profession. We have tried to influence you in a tasteful way to buy our products, but we have had to have our marketing orientation somewhere between car promotions and no marketing at all; let us call it marketing for the dental professional person. I know that such marketing is different from the typical devious high-hype business half-truths you see every day in the commercial world and in some dental product ads. What are the differences? In my opinion, professional marketing should be low key, without hype, honest, factual, straight forward, non-coercive, non-threatening, believable information presented in a concise, easy understandable manner. The information should make the observer recognize that there is a need for the product in his or her life, and it should offer enough enticing information about the product to make the observer want to look into it more thoroughly. What is your tolerance level relative to the marketing tactics of promoters from all sources? It is likely that the same tolerance level will be present in marketing your practice. I will describe some of my own dental practice marketing beliefs for your observation and potential implementation.

INTERNAL MARKETING
There is no more powerful marketing tool than professionally delivered patient education, provided by competent staff persons. For over 25 years I have provided thorough patient education in my practice. It has been delivered by dental hygienists, dental assistants, and front desk personnel. Such education is not objectionable to patients. In fact, it is appreciated by them. It is not similar to the “sales” hype noted in some dental practices. It is well within the “comfort zone” for even the most conservative dentists. The educational methods I suggested are: videotapes and DVDs, pamphlets, books, slides and computer simulations on PowerPoint, models and casts, intraoral television, overhead television monitors, previously treated patient testimonials, spontaneous drawings of specific patient needs, and face-to-face discussion. Patient education should be presented in a non-coercive manner. Patient treatment plans should be divided into mandatory and elective portions, so the patient does not have the feeling they are being forced into something they do not need or want. A few weeks ago, I tried to refer a patient to an excellent dentist in another state. The patient had been to the dentist before, and she candidly told me that although she respected the dentist for his apparent quality of service, he had seemed to be far more interested in “selling the bridge” to her than in providing her with other alternatives, and discussing the clinical situation in detail. His marketing techniques may have been too self-serving. She would not go to him again.

EDUCATE, EDUCATE, AND EDUCATE
Document the level of education you have provided in the patient record. If the patient does not accept the treatment on the first encounter, try further education in the future. Eventually, most patients will accept the treatment.

UP-TO-DATE, ATTRACTIVE OFFICES
A marketing method that could be better emphasized in many practices relates to the environment in which the patient receives treatment. Many dental offices have the décor of one or two decades ago, and the furniture, equipment, and office decorations are old, smelly, worn, and obviously not current.

Over my career to date, I have initiated four dental practices. In each one, I have had a different décor and arrangement. In those in which I have stayed long enough, I have remodeled and updated equipment once every five years. By the time hundreds of patients have used an office for five years, the office, furniture, and equipment are ready for a change. Each time I have remodeled, many patients have commented on the change, and their appreciation for it. They have inferred that such remodeling is uncommon. However, in my opinion, dental offices can be too upscale. With a few exceptions, most patients feel uncomfortable in an overdone office, feeling that they are paying for the unnecessary extravagance of the office owner. Look over your office–does it appear to be right out of the ‘70s? If so, you have been given a message, remodel and re-equip the office. Everybody, including you, your staff, and especially your patients will feel better about the new environment.

CHRISTENSEN’S MARKETING PHILOSOPHY
I will candidly admit that I am conservative about marketing. In spite of starting four practices from scratch, I have never resorted to heavy external marketing. All of the practices I have started have required a short time to become financially successful, but eventually, all have been very financially successful. It may have taken longer to start the practices than those with more aggressive marketing beliefs, but the internal methods that I have described have been well within my own “comfort zone” and within my own personal philosophy about marketing in the economy at large.

In summary, determine what marketing methods are compatible with your own feelings about marketing and over-marketing. Evaluate your practice, and see if you are optimizing the marketing concepts with which you are comfortable.

Dr. Gordon Christensen, a Prosthodontist, in Provo, Utah, is Co-founder and Senior Consultant of Clinical Research Associates (CRA), which conducts research in all areas of dentistry and relates it to clinical practice. Dr. Christensen is also the Director of Practical Clinical Courses, a continuing education career development program for the dental profession initiated in 1981. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Brigham Young University and the University of Utah. You can contact Dr. Christensen at: Practical Clinical Courses, 3707 North Canyon Rd., Suite 3D, Provo, Utah 84604-4587. FAX (801) 226-8637. Visit his website at gordonchiristensen-pcc.com.

The following educational offerings from our group (Practical Clinical Courses) will help you with the concepts I have described in this article, please call (800) 223-6569 for more information.
V1180 – Diagnostic Data Collection by Auxiliaries
V4775 – Educating Auxiliaries for Practice Growth
V4750 – Achieving Optimum Acceptance of Treatment Plans