Note: This marketing plan will help get new patients into your dental practice or medical practice inexpensively. Using correct marketing plans will resolve the majority of frustrations that you may have in new patient marketing.

One thing is for sure, and that is that marketing for any product or service is even more problematic during any recession, such as the current low consumer spending on discretionary items. I remember a saying I learned about 20 years ago in the real-estate business: “Other people’s money” (OPM). Even if you do not use other people’s money for down payment, or the renter’s money to cover the mortgage payment, you probably still use the bank’s money to get the loan, right?

You see, OPM is more present than you might think at first glance. Of course, – use other people’s money for your marketing. Why didn’t I think of that? But how do you go about that is the big question.

First of all when I say OPM, I must point out that getting money only for your marketing is an extremely limited thinking. After all, what would you rather have: $100,000 in marketing budget – given to you by some organization and you never have to pay it back or several small and large organizations promoting you – actually endorsing you and your service – to millions of their clients, members, etc. over and over again?

To make the choice a bit simpler – advertising is less and less believed in bad economic times, and it hardly has any pull at all.

A doctor who some years ago was even a consultant for a national practice management consulting company, realized the truth of the lesser pull on advertising when he put out 6000 direct mailers and paid $1700 for it, and even when he had used all the marketing knowledge he had learned and even taught to the doctors when he was a consultant, he got not even a call. He made (and was teaching) the king of all mistakes in marketing. He is trying to build a marketing system by his own, without the help of organizations which have already built such a system and is actually willing to put his message on.

To contact millions, even only hundreds of thousands of your prospect via organizations which already have an “in” with your prospects is worth much more than the $100,000 spoken about above. Besides, do you really think that anyone will ever give you $100,000 for marketing which you do not have to pay back?

So, the key is to get the same $100,000 and more, in legwork, support, distribution of marketing materials and endorsements. You don’t need money if you have “friends” (very powerful friends, in the form of organizations, media and people living in the community) endorsing and promoting you to millions over and over and over again.

You see, most business people try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to building (marketing) their business. To a certain degree all small business owners, including dental and medical practice owners, have a small and outdated thinking – which is very much the only reason that their businesses are small.

Most (literally all) doctors and small business owners try to build a full marketing infrastructure from scratch with their own money. Doctors, all over the country, soon realize that this is very expensive and does not bring all that much result (simply because the effort to create such an infrastructure is usually too big for the small business and what an individual business owner can put out in terms of effort is too small to amount to anything).

The next step doctors usually take is to stop marketing or cut it down even more (even though one of the reasons it did not work in the first place was the insufficient amount of marketing despite that the doctor had thought it was a lot). Trying to create your own marketing infrastructure can easily be compared with trying to build your own car or for a person to try to “reinvent” root canal without going to school and without using the already invented tools.

But that waste of misspent marketing money and misspent time is NOT the saddest thing in this whole story. No, it is the non-attainment of a big and booming practice, the lack of satisfaction of not being perceived as an extraordinary practitioner because of the successful practice and of course not making the money, which comes with all that, which is the much greater loss. There is a lot of money lost – never made – because of trying to build a marketing infrastructure from scratch and on your own.

Use other organizations’ power to reach lots and lots of people with their already existing infrastructure and already existing audience. Why build roads and trucks when you can put your message for free on big trucks, which are already running down the highway towards your destination at great speed? Why try to invent a car (despite the fact that you are not a car builder) which is already invented and offered for free?

What if you could get the corporate world as well as the non-profit world, and the media sponsoring and endorsing you, your services and your practice? What about if those entities will be endorsing you as an absolute expert and a community leader? What if well-known companies and non-profit organizations start carrying your messages?

You see, just as there is a precise technology for pulling a tooth, getting rid of a cold, building a bridge etc, there IS a technology on how to get the sponsorship of corporations, non-profit organizations, media, other medical practitioners etc.

Don’t try to build your own marketing train, when all you need to do is to hook on to a high speed train!

Remember: Whether in a slow economy or fast economy learn how to market for new customers with using resources other than your own. Good new patient marketing will keep your business strong and thriving!

Helmut Flasch
Author and Founder
Un-Advertising Marketing Strategies

Incoming search terms:

• how do i get new customers to a medical practice

Note: New Patient Marketing is a basic principle used in any dental or medical practice. Advertising is a part of getting more patients. However, without an important step called “UN-Advertising“, you will never get the quantity and quality of new patients that you are looking for.

Most companies and definitely almost all medical practices that do advertising alone are throwing their hard-earned money out the window. They might increase the total collection but almost never the bottom line.
The reason is simple: advertising is hardly noticed and definitely not believed. The amount of advertising in America is way up, but for most it means less and less profits.

Here are the some of the roadblocks you will need to overcome while advertising:

1) If your advertising message only talks about the benefits of your service and your experience and your qualifications, you will sound alike with your competitors’ messages. Patients cannot choose easily among services which ‘look alike’.

2) You are tooting your own horn. People do not 100% believe an ad. Your prospects already expect you to say, “We have new technology”, “We are experienced” etc.

3) Ads have little staying power in creating long term impressions. The minute you stop advertising, no one will remember you.

4) Your prospects are bombarded by 500 advertising appeals a day. You are trying to get your message heard in an overcrowded marketing environment. Thus advertising cost goes up and returns go down.

How about traditional word-of-mouth and networking activities?

1) Many offices depend on word-of-mouth as their primary source of new patients, but depending only on internal marketing alone could not help you to break through production plateaus. You will reach a peak and then stop growing.

2) Networking meetings and luncheons to stimulate patient referrals from other doctors and related businesses are time-consuming. You can send your staff to bring donuts to another doctor’s office to thank them for referrals but how many ‘donut’ trips can you make to ALL the possible referral sources? This time-consuming and costly ‘gift-giving’ will eventually dead-end for most – due to not enough time for the doctor and for the staff to do.

What can I do to get more from external advertising?

There IS a place for advertising but it is after — and only after a reputation, trust, name, etc. has been recognized by the public. It would not matter how long you are in this neighborhood already and how many people you think know you – maybe they do know you, but IF they are not coming in large quantity to your practice then your “brand” is not known, trusted, liked, remembered, looked as better or different!

The missing link with most business people is that they do not know that Un-Advertising is the ONLY thing which can and will start the fire – it is the spark – and without this spark, there is no fire – thus no wind can spread this non-existing fire! Advertising is the wind and doing advertising without first establishing a position or perception which was put in people’s minds by other sources than you will be a waste of money.

Your message must be believed, build trust, increase patient loyalty and make your practice stand out from your competition, especially in these trying times of economic recession.

Now is the time to have your messages stick out more so than ever before.

Remember: Advertising can help get new patients and grow your business but the practice of using it must be consistent. The more consistent you are, the more patients will come in on a consistent basis.

Helmut Flasch
Author and Founder
Un-Advertising Marketing Strategies

Incoming search terms:

• how to increase dental practice
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• HOW TO IMPROVE A DENTAL PRACTICE
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Note: Following proper marketing principles in your dental practice, for instance, will improve your dental practice management skills. Marketing is simply part of good practice management. Establishing management skills by learning new patient marketing skills is essential to stable growth for your dental or medical practice.

Certain basic laws or principles govern the universe, and that includes our bodies, our businesses, etc. The law of gravity is such a principle, which cannot be ignored. Great professionals in any subject matter are great because they thoroughly understand the underlying principles in their field.

A doctor might have to try several different medicines or approaches to get the blood pressure down or increase circulation. The doctor of course will also have to be aware of some slightly lesser principles, which are right below the basic principle of “blood must circulate”. He will be aware of which body parts need more circulation, reasons why circulation might slow down, etc. In short, the doctor knows his basics and can now handle almost any situation regardless of individual differences of why, when and what!!!

If he is in the jungle with no equipment he might simply immerse a person in the cold river and then put him in the big cooking pot with hot water and repeat this whole procedure 50 times to achieve his desired result and in a super hi-tech hospital in NY he will obviously do something else. In the case of a doctor who is only educated in the use of a certain machine or medicine but not thoroughly know, even in his sleep, the basic principles and the slightly lesser principles, he would have lots of people dying on him.

Sure, the doctor needs to know the mechanical steps perfectly as well, but all those things are mere mechanics of which are many more in number than basic principles and which are all derived from underlying basics. A good diagnosis is half the work if not virtually all in some cases. A doctor who is only good in administering treatment and not familiar enough with the fundamentals could not diagnose very well. Business and/or Marketing are no different.

Many doctors believe that a certain marketing action will not work in their area or their profession or their practice. Usually they are right but only about that mechanical action. Those doctors have some knowledge of mechanical actions of marketing, which they may have observed to work or not work as the case may be but they do not know how to connect the dots and to make an intelligent business diagnosis – due to the missing basic fundamentals.

Knowing those basic principles of marketing would give any marketing individual the ability to adjust the marketing vehicle used to get the desired result. Usually this is more business, more money in the pocket and more free time to do whatever one champions. Please remember the doctor in the jungle who puts the sick person in hot and cold water to get circulation going. A marketing expert will know the marketing principles so well that he will be able to “cure his patient” (the company), with minimal resource availability.

In short, a true marketing guy who has been in the trenches and has learned his basic principles well will be able to make any business grow, even if there is little marketing budget available. And he will be able to do it for a doctor in Chicago or a dentist in Kansas or an oil company in India just as well as for a printer in NY or a publishing company in Taiwan or a hotel in Africa.

The business guy, just like the good old doctor whose prescribed treatment does not always work as predicted, will here and there embark on a marketing activity which does not bring the desired results – but he won’t be without many more successful activities up his sleeve and he will use and adjust them as needed and he will in the end succeed.

Most small business owners think only with the mechanics of the marketing and completely ignore the basic principles so they are surprised when a marketing step, which worked for some one else, does not work for them. Then they don’t know what to do when things don’t go as hoped for.

Imagine a really good martial arts fighter! He, at any time, no matter what the position of the opponent in relation to his own position knows what to do; he knows how to bend or kick or clinch or draw. But a less experienced fighter will only be able to do his fighting successfully if the opponent stands and attacks him exactly as in class drills.

Now imagine a good chef, maybe a housewife who cooks well? Could she draw together any meal despite bad equipment, and with little food in the refrigerator even with only leftovers? Could she mix and match spices in ways, which you never even thought of and which make you come back for more? If she is good, yes, she definitely could!

The inexperienced martial artist knows some mechanics but not yet the principles. He simply can’t think fast enough to do what needs to be done and will get beaten up where as the housewife knows the principles of cooking and cook with whatever mechanics she has available to her.

Remember when Hypocrites said something like this. “Don’t be ashamed to admit I don’t know and consult with other practitioners who might know.” Every time you ask for help you will get better at it yourself. And even though there will never be a time you will know it all, you surely will become more and more knowledgeable yourself. And knowledge, if applied and used, is undoubtedly the most powerful weapon one can have in any situation.

So the moral of the story – get the big picture and learn it well. Only then will you be able to correctly use the numerous “mechanical steps” which are needed to achieve your objectives.

Remember: In creating new good paying patients for your medical practice the big picture simply is you must use the skills necessary that may come from third parties to establish a trust within your practice.  It is only with good new patient marketing and practice management skills that your business will grow strong and thrive.

Helmut Flasch
Author and Founder
Un-Advertising Marketing Strategies

First and foremost we must deliver a service and/or products which are needed and/or wanted by someone. This means we must be of help to someone. In the medical field this means we must make people healthy and more importantly we must keep people from getting sick in the first place.

We must realize that people come to us, the experts, for expert advice and that we cannot make our decisions based on what insurance companies cover or do not cover. Insurance companies unfortunately have made themselves “self proclaimed health experts”. Any non-medical, non-licensed man on the street would go to jail were they to attempt to say what treatment is needed or not needed for a particular patient.  But the insurance companies get away with it by hiring their own medical doctors – who of course have lost all their integrity by being nothing more than hired guns for the insurance companies.

We must realize that if we do not perform all the necessary and possible tests and treatments, we can and will be sued for medical negligence. However, if we do tests and treatments which we feel are needed because they could help to prevent future illnesses, we also might be attacked for “overreaching”.  But our first priority is to help the patient to stay healthy, and to get them well if they are already sick.

Perhaps it should also be mentioned that providing this valuable service does not exclude us from being allowed to make a profit because we do also want to get paid for our services and for those products which will accomplish that.

How do we achieve our primary goal and also get paid for it with money left over after the costs of delivering such a service?

First, we need to have a standard way of doing things. This seems easy at first because medicine is scientific. But then again medicine is also an art. So, what we do, and not so much the how we do it, has to be more uniformed than we currently operate. The “what we do” should be guided mainly by the fact that we need to do everything we can to keep the patients healthy and/or get him well.

Second, we must let as many people as possible know that we can and will keep them healthy. To achieve that we must have the contact information of as many people as possible and contact them and let them know about our intentions and our abilities to keep them healthy. We call this marketing, internal and external. There are many, many different ways, but however it is done must be done in large and in uniformed ways.

Third, once people know about and are coming for some initial desire or problem, we must of course fix it. But for now we must also make sure that we enlighten/educate the person on all medical possibilities which could make his life more enjoyable in the future. That is our duty to the patients; never mind that we must do that in order to protect ourselves from lawsuits for negligence.

In order to achieve that, we must have a rigorous checksheet, like an airplane pilot has before taking off. After all, a pilot does this to make sure nothing is left out so that everything is done to prevent any accident which, in the case of flying an airplane, almost surely would mean the loss of life. Well, what do you think we doctors are dealing with? Toys? No, we deal in human lives and must at minimum adhere to as rigorous a checksheet in finding any existing illness or any potential illness, as any airline pilot would use to check for potential malfunctions.

Fourth, finding potential and existing illnesses, and telling the patient about it is, however, not enough. We now must insist, with great patient education that the patient follows through with our recommendations. This is easier said than done.

It takes immense caring for the patient, time and of course, money to educate the patients. It can probably easily be compared with the raising of children, or the taking care of our elders. Suggestions, recommendations, and orders are not necessarily followed at the first attempt. Oh no! But what does a caring mom do? She keeps at it. She uses any and all tools and knowledge available to her.

Let it be said that her most important tool is that of caring. Sure, you say, those are her children. Yes, you are right. And to the degree that we do not take the time and effort to explain the necessity of any and all treatments or tests which we deem to be useful, we are not caring about our patients to the degree that we should be.

We have not only taken an oath, but we will not ever feel fulfilled with our lives if we do not give our last bit of energy to get the patents the procedure they need. Despite the fact that we might not be able to prevent it from happening anyhow, we must give our very best medical treatment, and perhaps more importantly, we must care like the best mom or dad in the world would care. Otherwise the patient is doomed.

Fifth, after we have successfully managed to administer all necessary tests and treatments, we must, of course, have a close to perfect way of collecting payments. This has become more difficult over the years with insurance companies having codes, which constantly change, and which are designed for as slow as possible payment to the doctor. It is also made difficult in that the insurance companies have managed to create the belief in the patients that if they (the insurance company) do not cover it, it is not necessary.

Therefore, as a practice we also need to spend money to keep this administrative step in order, otherwise we will go broke delivering great patient care. Going broke would help no one — not you, your family, nor the patient, who then has no caring doctor to go to. Patients do not want you to go broke – trust me!

It is imperative that we do what is needed no matter the cost. But, if we spend the time and  money to perform all the needed steps of marketing, patient education, administrative work, and spend the time and money it takes to learn those things, then and only then will we be able to keep our patients healthy.

Remember: Being successful in a medical or dental practice is not just about being a good doctor. Invest time and money to learn about medical or dental practice management, staff management and new patient marketing and you will have a smooth-running prosperous practice.