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Howard Speaks Howard Farran, DDS, MAGD, MBA, Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine

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Come Together Right Now
Dentaltown's New Experiment in Market Connectivity
– by Howard Farran, DDS, MAGD, MBA, Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine

Eleven years ago when Dentaltown.com was just a baby, the No. 1 complaint I received from our original members was, "Why are we letting people who aren't dentists on our site?" This complaint referred to people who worked in the dental profession – manufacturers, lab owners, patient finance specialists, dental practice consultants, etc. – who were registered on Dentaltown.com but didn't have DDS or DMD after their names. Back then, most of our dentist members would rather have called the site "Dentisttown."
Many of us can remember before the Internet and Dentaltown connected and changed the dental profession, a lot of the information you received from outside sources was from manufacturers who visited your office or from sales reps who called to fill an order. These company reps were the people who had their fingers on the pulse of dentistry while we dentists were huddled in our operatories, day in and day out, doing what we were trained to do – dentistry. These reps could tell you what was working for the guy down the street and what wasn't. Most of you who know me know that developing "Dentisttown" was never my goal, and I repeatedly stood my ground against these complaints. If people devote their lives to the sacred and sovereign profession of dentistry, I want to hear what they have to say.

I know it seems like I'm kicking a dead horse here, but if we didn't listen to the hundreds of dental companies who cater to our everyday needs and provide us with technologies that revolutionize the way we practice, we might as well be sitting on a rug out on the street chucking teeth with a pair of pliers we bought on sale at Home Depot. The only way we can do fantastic dentistry is by working and connecting with these dental companies. It's not just the hours and hours of endodontic training you've received that makes a root canal a success – it's the 300rpm handpiece that lets you do it with ease. In orthodontics, it's the NiTi wire that makes moving teeth a breeze. I couldn't live without these products and neither can you!

That being said, I am now on a mission to more effectively connect dental manufacturers with Townies. Dentaltown has always provided the connection – now it's time we all come together as a profession and start talking!

We kicked off this mission just a few weeks ago with a visit to Ultradent Products, Inc. I was on the phone with Dr. Dan Fischer, founder and president of Ultradent, and we got on the topic of how a company decides what the market wants and needs. I said, "Dan, most of the time we just go with our gut feelings as to what the market wants, but as dentists, we know guts are filled with fecal matter – so when you go with a gut feeling, you're making a crappy decision." The days of making off-the-cuff moves are gone. Then I said, "Why don't we take the most influential dentists on Dentaltown – the dentists who answer all the questions, the dentists who make thousands and thousands of posts on Dentaltown.com – and get them in the same room as Dr. Dan Fischer?" I explained that we should get a dialogue going so Ultradent could find out what the most motivated dentists in the profession think about the company's products. Ultradent could find out what this group of dentists like, what dreams they have about future products, and what problems exist in their practices that could be solved by dental manufacturers, etc.

Dan was so thrilled about this idea that he sent out invitations to a group of our most active Townies, flew the gang out to Utah on a Thursday and put them up in a great hotel. We had Ultradent's undivided attention and they had ours. The entire next day we spent time with several divisions of Ultradent in the lecture hall, enjoyed time with Dan at his house on Friday night, spent the day back at Ultradent on Saturday and flew home Sunday morning. For those few days, this little corner of Utah was, without a doubt, the most powerful center of dentistry in the entire world.

The trip was a phenomenal success, and I think Ultradent obtained enough feedback to last five years of R&D. Dentaltown.com has more than 125,000 registered members, and when dentists post their problems or questions, it's meetings like the one we had in Utah that will lead to the best answers and solutions. The more our dental companies know and the better connected we all are, the better we can be. It's time we challenge ourselves and every single dental company out there to get closer.

Townies and dental companies need to be beating each others' doors down to talk to each other. It's not enough just to walk by a booth and pick up a sample at an annual dental expo. Those conventions are four days long, but conversations on Dentaltown are happening 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is time that all the dental manufacturers start paying extremely close attention to what Townies are saying. As someone who has spent three to four hours a day on the Dentaltown.com message boards since 1999, if I compare who is winning the Townie Choice Awards to which products I am using, or who is getting the good press, they are all the same. For companies that get the bad reactions on the message boards, I really believe the Townies are correct. Your product doesn't meet their expectations. When your product doesn't meet or exceed Townies' expectations you need to fix it. Dentaltown is not going to go away; in fact it is getting bigger and more powerful every day. So if your product is blue and all the Townies are saying it should be red, maybe it is time to make a change.

To continue our mission in better connecting Townies with dental companies, Dr. Thomas Giacobbi, Dentaltown Magazine's editorial director, joined a group of Townies to visit 3M's headquarters in Minnesota. Tom agreed to share his experience in his Professional Courtesy column this month (see p.14), and he has some interesting information to share with you about how to get more involved with trips like these.
Howard Live
Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, MAGD, is an international speaker who has written dozens of published articles. To schedule Howard to speak to your next national, state or local dental meeting, email colleen@farranmedia.com.

Dr. Farran’s next speaking engagement is September 17, 2010, at the Greater Springfield Dental Society in Springfield, Missouri. For more information, please call Colleen at 480-445-9712.

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