The 5 Mistakes that Can Bring Your High-Performing Practice to Average, Overnight!

Author: Aparna Pawar
Published: 8/09/2021

Give two practices the same marketing budget and very similar locations, and you’ll see one practice drastically outperform the other! Why would this be? With my five+ years of working as a practice consultant for Progressive Dental Marketing, I have experienced some common factors that sets practices apart from each other, even when budget and location are virtually indistinguishable.

Here are the top 5 reasons that, in my five years of work, I've identified makes one practice a high-performing office while the other office struggles.

Differences In Lead Management Systems:

Not having a dedicated person or team in-office to follow up with the leads is the number one reason why one practice performs better than the other. When an office begins marketing and they start receiving an intense number of leads that they aren’t equipped to handle, everyone ends up jumping in to help with the new leads. The office lacks a standardized system in place or person in charge for lead management. Practices that perform well always have one or two people responsible for handling new leads! They utilize their provided lead management dashboard or system, know how to reach out to the patient at least 3-5 times with a consistent “voice” and “tone” of the practice, are properly trained on phone etiquette, and set themselves up for success by sending valuable leads texts and emails through automation.

Treatment Presentation and Closing:

So, a new patient ends up coming into the office from the marketing efforts. Does the designated treatment coordinator know how to present the treatment the patient requires, talk about the patient’s specialized financing options, and close the case? Do they know how to tactfully handle common objections such as…let me think about it… or, I have to talk to my spouse…? Practices that perform well have taken the time to invest in their treatment coordinator’s training and have KPI (Key performance indicators) and incentive plans in place.

One-stop Dental Marketing Agency:

When marketing your dental practice with multiple agencies, there is no cohesion among the marketing strategies, retargeting, and brand representation of the practice. In my experience, overall marketing performs subpar when practices delegate PPC to one marketing company, have a whole different agency work on their TV advertisements, and then find a specialized social media marketing company on top of that! Almost all high-performing practices work with a single, dental focused marketing company for all their marketing efforts. From being able to easily relocate funding between marketing campaigns fluidly, having a consistent style and external “voice” to the marketing, and allow campaigns to work together across tactics, the marketing is far more effective with the same budget! An added advantage is that the doctor also gets one point of contact, their dedicated account manager, who’s able to oversee and analyze their campaigns, make recommendations based on the easily combinable data, and take quick action to make sure that the office gets the best results possible!

Overanalyzing and Micromanaging Clients:

This is the hardest thing for me to tell my clients, but they hired the professionals, so let the professionals do what they are hired to do. There are clients who start broad marketing campaigns and then after a month, decide to change campaigns, strategies, and targeting, because they didn't see the results they wanted right away. Marketing can take time to gain momentum after the start of a campaign and having to wait 2-3 months to start seeing the full results can be completely normal! Having faith in your marketing company and giving time for the campaign to run allows them to collect data, examine your targeted audience and area, and then learn what's effective with the goals you set, small tweaks and adjustments allow the team to make educated moves. That is where I have seen the most successful campaigns performing at their highest level.

Competitive Edge and Reputation:

Reputation matters! Making sure a practice has a great presence and feedback from patients on social media, Google, and in the community is extremely important! High-performing practices collect reviews, before and after photos, and record patient testimonials on a consistent basis to showcase their work to build trust and authority in the area. Campaigns that showcase a competitive side that no other dentist has to their targeted markets can help boost their marketing performance drastically. Having a price point advantage, showing off experience, offering innovative treatments, and investing in new technology that no one is offering are amazing competitive advantage opportunities that can be capitalized on to market with and blow an office’s competition out of the water!

Are you looking to take your practice to the next level?

We would love to help coordinate your next marketing strategy and train your treatment coordinators to make sure you see the results that you deserve to get!

Interested in learning more about closing high-dollar cases? Attend The Closing Institute and learn how to predictably scale implant production by implementing advanced marketing and sales strategies from the leading experts in the industry! With courses in Clearwater, FL and Las Vegas, NV, this isn’t just theory. This is a tried and true method to grow your full arch production and develop your team to strategically and consistently close high-revenue, dental implant procedures.

Dental specialists interested in learning more about Progressive Dental Marketing's award-winning services and continuing education seminars are invited to contact the dental marketing company in Clearwater, FL. Progressive Dental Marketing can be reached by calling (727) 286-6211 or by visiting progressivedentalmarketing.com. Or feel free to explore our website and the several case studies we have!

If you are interested in hearing more from Bart Knellinger, come to one of our upcoming dental continuing education courses. Visit boostfullarchcases.com today to reserve a spot for you and your team!

Progressive Dental is more than just a marketing company, we are a company located in Clearwater, FL dedicated to dental practice growth. Our team was founded on creativity, collaboration and hard work. We are constantly evolving and are passionate about providing the best suite of dental marketing services for our clients. They are the reason we jump out of bed!