The economy is booming by all reports: growth is near three percent, wages are up, taxes are down, and the stock market is booming.
There’s an old saying – when times are tough, you need to market. When times are good, you really need to market. Savvy dentists will position their practices for maximum success during this near-record run of growth.
How Hard Do You Really Want To Work?
Dentistry isn’t a commodity even though many patients treat it like one. There’s only so much of you and your staff to go around, and when your appointments are booked, they’re booked. If you’re fortunate enough to have a chair occupancy rate of 100 percent, you’re to be congratulated.
Just one question: how long can you keep this up?
To position your practice for long-term success, you need to find the key to working less, but earning more. The key lies in your average case value.
Raising your average case value maximizes your income. Rather than billing $200 or $300 for an hour of your time, you could be billing $500, $1000, or even more. When you’re billing that kind of money, you don’t have to have your chairs constantly filled. It’s your choice how hard you work, and raising your average case value is one of the best ways to ensure that you’ll have a long and prosperous career.
First Steps
Unless you’re determined to firmly remain a general dentist, there is at least one area of greater return that you can focus on. That area might be clear aligners, cosmetic dentistry, dentures, implant restorations, or something else. That’s not to suggest that you can or should begin promoting that service tomorrow; generally, dental practices will need to make some preparations first. The extent of that preparation depends on the current nature of your training and your practice.
But emphasizing a high-profit area is doable, so it’s simply a question of when you throw the switch, so to speak. There’s also the question of how you’ll effectively promote those featured services to the people who want them and can pay for them.
They’re Out There
In any given market, roughly 20-30 percent of dental prospects have the ability and willingness to pay more for the right dentist. The extreme example of this segment are the high-powered executives and celebrities who will pay exorbitant amounts for the Hollywood “dentist to the stars.”
However, you don’t have to have A-listers among your patient base to benefit from this segment of “better” patients. What you do need to achieve is trust between those prospects and you. That’s not something you can accomplish by advertising low prices, discounts, or insurance acceptance.
Advertising chases prospects, trying to get them to act right now, or at least soon. By contrast, attracting the patients you want is a process that gradually and consistently influences more people over time to choose you to solve their dental problems.
Patient attraction demands a systematic approach to promoting yourself and your practice. There are many parts and pieces: website design and content, search engine optimization, content creation and content marketing, reputation management, and much more. Establishing and maintaining a patient attraction system is beyond the capabilities of most dental practices.
Fortunately, getting dentists more and better patients is all that SmartBox does. We provide a steady stream of new patients so you can focus on doing the dentistry.
If you’re ready to work less while taking your practice to the next level, visit the SmartBox website and click the “Get Started” button. Schedule your free, no-obligation Practice Discovery Session
.
Following a 25-minute phone call, we’ll send you your completely personalized Patient Attraction Roadmap that will show you how SmartBox can double or even triple your practice.
With SmartBox, your dental practice will be positioned for success.
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