Let's Buy a Dental Practice

[OceanDMD]

I don't know. I usually leave that up to the seller dentist to tell his staff. Luckily his OM and RDA are pretty old and ready to retire. I also figure once I require them to use Dentrix on a daily basis they will decide to retire.

This has sabotage written all over it. Many of the "old" aren't retiring right now. I'd lay it out, read the response, and give the 2 weeks as needed.

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Members don't see this ad.

 

[The Hammer]

This has sabotage written all over it. Many of the "old" aren't retiring right now. I'd lay it out, read the response, and give the 2 weeks as needed.

Maybe I didn't make myself clear. I leave it up to the seller dentist to tell his employees that he has sold the practice. I will bring in my OM and RDA. I'll retain the hygienists and his OM for a transition period usually about 2-3 months. If the OM is good with realizing that she is not the queen bee of the practice anymore I may retain her. If not then I will invite her to join another practice before the year is over. The selling doctor's RDA though is more than likely going to be let go pretty quickly once I take over the practice.

It is never a good idea to clean house as soon as you buy an existing practice. The patients know the old staff and you need the old staff for continuity as you transition into the practice. But how long you keep the old staff depends on how well they transition with you. When I bought my last practice I fired one hygienist within two months of buying the place. The rest of the staff were fine with me taking over and I kept them until they retired or moved and then I replaced them.

 

[nitrolegs]

Hi Hammer! From your experience, do many patients leave the practice once the new and unfamiliar dentist takes over. What are you going to do to minimize this? Are you planning to keep the seller dentist around so he can help you out while you get settled in? Thanks!

 

[The Hammer]

Hi Hammer! From your experience, do many patients leave the practice once the new and unfamiliar dentist takes over. What are you going to do to minimize this? Are you planning to keep the seller dentist around so he can help you out while you get settled in? Thanks!

Supposedly whenever there is a transition from one doctor to another the practice will lose 1/4 its patients. When I bought my first practice I gained 25% more patients, when I sold out last year to my ex-partner he lost a third of our active patients.

The practice that I am buying only has 1100 active patients currently. I am very conservatively expecting to have about 1500 of my old patients return. To let my old patients know that I am back in the area I am running large ads in both local papers for about a month.

I think whether or not patients stay or leave depends largely on who is the incoming doctor and whether or not the outgoing doctor and his staff show confidence in the new owner in front of the patients. I have seen other practices that took on a new doctor and the old doctor stayed for a year and the transition was awesome. I have unfortunately seen a new dentist come into a practice and the old dentist get jealous and basically ruin the practice for the new doc. The one thing that I would make sure to have was an airtight clause that I could fire the selling doctor and any staff whenever I wanted. If the old dentist starts giving you problems then cut him loose.

 

[nitrolegs]

Thanks Hammer. When you have the chance, I'd love to hear about some of your thoughts on dental marketing and advertising. Did you make your logos/designs/ads yourself or did you go with a marketing firm? Do they have establishments that specialize in dental marketing? What do you think about radio vs newspaper ads. I'm guessing radio should be tons more expensive since it reaches a much larger audience? Just throwin out some topics...

 

[The Hammer]

Thanks Hammer. When you have the chance, I'd love to hear about some of your thoughts on dental marketing and advertising. Did you make your logos/designs/ads yourself or did you go with a marketing firm? Do they have establishments that specialize in dental marketing? What do you think about radio vs newspaper ads. I'm guessing radio should be tons more expensive since it reaches a much larger audience? Just throwin out some topics...

You bring up some good topics. So now is probably a good time to talk about marketing. I am by no means a marketing expert so what I'll post is merely my opinion and what I've done in the past and what has worked or not worked for me. If anyone has any ideas that they would like to share then please post them.

When you talk about marketing your dental practice to me it falls into three catagories:

1. Branding your office
2. External Marketing
3. Internal Marketing

I define these types of marketing this way:

1. Branding: What you do to make your office different or to stand out from other dental offices

2. External Marketing: What sort of advertising you do to bring patients in the office e.g. radio/TV ads, newspaper/phone book ads etc.

3. Internal Marketing: What you do to keep the patients coming back to your office and to tell other people about your office i.e the all important "word of mouth" advertising


So lets start with "branding". You want for your office to stand out from the other dental offices in the area so that when someone sees your office whether they are a patient or not they will remember it. This in advertising lingo is called "The stickiness factor". In the book "The Tipping Point" Malcolm Gladwell talks about this "stickiness factor" and I recommend getting and reading it. When people think of teeth or the dentist you want them to automatically think of you and your practice. So how do you do that?

Almost all of the time when a dentist goes out and sets up a practice they will name the practice after themselves like "Dr. Augustus Hammer D.D.S. General Dentistry." Or if they are feeling really bold they might tack on "Family Dentistry or Cosmetic/Esthetic Dentistry or Family and Cosmetic/Esthetic Dentistry."

I am about to give you a million dollar tip right now so you all owe me a steak dinner, DO NOT USE THE WORDS FAMILY/COSMETIC/ESTHETIC DENTISTRY IN THE NAME OF YOUR OFFICE! Why not, you ask? Well........

1. That you treat families is usually assumed unless you are a pedodontist

2. That your work is "cosmetic/esthetic" is also assumed. I mean what dentist is going to tell a patient "I'm not one of them cosmetic dentists, so all my work is going to look like **** in your mouth."

3. All of these terms have been overused for at least 15 years so that they have become meaningless to the general public and remember we are serving the general public, if it doesn't mean anything to them it is worse than useless to you.

OK here is tip that is worth more than a million dollars so you all owe me two steak dinners: WHEN IT COMES TO DENTISTRY, THINK LIKE A DENTIST. WHEN IT COMES TO ANYTHING ELSE REGARDING YOUR PRACTICE, THINK LIKE A CAPITALIST.

It always amazes me to see my fellow dentists making a big deal out of things in their marketing that mean nothing to the general public. Most people barely know what DDS or DMD mean much less ***D, MAGD, LVI, Pankey, Dawson, Spear et al. So while these things are admirable to those who have achieved them unless you are marketing to other dentists to the general public they are not only meaningless but also confusing. The only thing that you need the public to know initially about you is that you fix teeth. You want them to think of you whenever they think about teeth or dentistry. So how do you do that? How do you brand your office and set it apart from the sea of other dental offices?

When it comes to getting your message across simple is the best. Less in marketing is definitely more. Coke, it's the real thing, Nike, Just do it, Got Milk? Genius. Everything you need to know about the product in as few words as possible. Keep this in mind whenever you do anything to promote your practice. The more complex the message the less people will understand it, the less they will retain it, the less they will pass it on and eventually it will be forgotten. You don't want that. Especially if you are paying the big bucks to have that message broadcasted.

So the first step is to have an easily identifiable image or symbol that is synonymous with your office. You need a clever, catchy logo for your office that is uniquely yours. A logo that people will remember and that will look cool on your office stationary, your external signage and your front door. So how do you go about getting that logo? To be continued...........

 

[youknowthedrill]

Thanks Hammer. When you have the chance, I'd love to hear about some of your thoughts on dental marketing and advertising. Did you make your logos/designs/ads yourself or did you go with a marketing firm? Do they have establishments that specialize in dental marketing? What do you think about radio vs newspaper ads. I'm guessing radio should be tons more expensive since it reaches a much larger audience? Just throwin out some topics...

I am certainly no expert in dentistry (I volunteer in community dental clinic and have seen many extractions) but I have tons of experience in real estate sales and marketing. Also my family owned a restaurant for a couple of years and I saw first hand which advertising dollars were the most productive for our business and which ones were completely wasted. I know the real estate and restaurant industries are completely different from dentistry, but some of the marketing methods should also apply to dentistry.

When you advertise you are charged for the number of people who will potentially see/hear your ad. I assume that dentists should target their advertising dollars to the households that live and work in the community (but Hammer, please correct me if I'm wrong). To be effective, a potential customer must hear/see you ad multiple times. Repetition is key! You will get more bang with for your buck if fewer people are exposed to your ad many times vs a large group exposed only once or twice.

Radio reaches a broad audience. While thousands will hear your ad, only a few will be your target audience.

Same idea with newspapers if you are in a large city. Newspaper advertising is more affordable, but limit you advertising to a community specific section of the paper. In my personal experience, the age of people reading newspapers has increased in the last ten years. People under 40 are reading the paper online or getting their news from other sources. When we would run an ad in the local newspaper for our restaurant, we always saw an increase in older customers, and rarely an increase in families. In real estate, news paper ads are not very effective in marketing a home to young families today because most of them search online. (Real estate agents run ads in newspapers to promote themselves or their company and to make the seller think that they are doing something to sell the home). On the other hand, small town newspapers tend to run lots of local interest stories and feature pictures of the local soccer team/dance recital, etc so younger families do tend to read these.

In real estate we gave away ink pens, but this wasn't a very effective form of advertising. My husband saw an oral surgeon of Asian descent who extracted his wisdom teeth. The surgeon gave all of his patients a cute T-shirt with a picture of a large fortune cookie on the back that said Dr. XYZ, the Oral-ental dentist. It was cute and my husband wore it for years. It was effective for referrals, because we remembered him and recommended him to several people.

Direct mail was more effective than the newspaper in getting people into our restaurant, but I don't know if that would be the case for dentistry. We had glossy post-cards printed and hired a company to mail them to the households that fit our target market in the surrounding zip code. This was very effective and was money well spent.

Magnets were one of the most effective marketing tools for both industries. They keep your company's name in front of existing customers (patients) and advertise your services to their friends and family members. They cost more initially that running an ad, but the effects last longer.

Hammer, thanks again for sharing your knowledge about running a successful dental practice! (And when are you going to open a consulting firm?)

 

[The Hammer]

I am certainly no expert in dentistry (I volunteer in community dental clinic and have seen many extractions) but I have tons of experience in real estate sales and marketing. Also my family owned a restaurant for a couple of years and I saw first hand which advertising dollars were the most productive for our business and which ones were completely wasted. I know the real estate and restaurant industries are completely different from dentistry, but some of the marketing methods should also apply to dentistry.

When you advertise you are charged for the number of people who will potentially see/hear your ad. I assume that dentists should target their advertising dollars to the households that live and work in the community (but Hammer, please correct me if I'm wrong). To be effective, a potential customer must hear/see you ad multiple times. Repetition is key! You will get more bang with for your buck if fewer people are exposed to your ad many times vs a large group exposed only once or twice.

Radio reaches a broad audience. While thousands will hear your ad, only a few will be your target audience.

Same idea with newspapers if you are in a large city. Newspaper advertising is more affordable, but limit you advertising to a community specific section of the paper. In my personal experience, the age of people reading newspapers has increased in the last ten years. People under 40 are reading the paper online or getting their news from other sources. When we would run an ad in the local newspaper for our restaurant, we always saw an increase in older customers, and rarely an increase in families. In real estate, news paper ads are not very effective in marketing a home to young families today because most of them search online. (Real estate agents run ads in newspapers to promote themselves or their company and to make the seller think that they are doing something to sell the home). On the other hand, small town newspapers tend to run lots of local interest stories and feature pictures of the local soccer team/dance recital, etc so younger families do tend to read these.

In real estate we gave away ink pens, but this wasn't a very effective form of advertising. My husband saw an oral surgeon of Asian descent who extracted his wisdom teeth. The surgeon gave all of his patients a cute T-shirt with a picture of a large fortune cookie on the back that said Dr. XYZ, the Oral-ental dentist. It was cute and my husband wore it for years. It was effective for referrals, because we remembered him and recommended him to several people.

Direct mail was more effective than the newspaper in getting people into our restaurant, but I don't know if that would be the case for dentistry. We had glossy post-cards printed and hired a company to mail them to the households that fit our target market in the surrounding zip code. This was very effective and was money well spent.

Magnets were one of the most effective marketing tools for both industries. They keep your company's name in front of existing customers (patients) and advertise your services to their friends and family members. They cost more initially that running an ad, but the effects last longer.

Hammer, thanks again for sharing your knowledge about running a successful dental practice! (And when are you going to open a consulting firm?)

Dang! You stole my thunder. Everything that you said is right on the money. Repetitions is absolutely the key to getting people to remember your office. That is why I don't think TV or radio ads are a good idea anymore. With cable TV, Satellite radio, the internet, cell phones, texting and ipods there are too many choices fighting for peoples attention for your message to be heard by them enough times to make an impact.

The only way I would use radio would be if I were in a small market that had a very popular talk radio personality who broadcast during prime drive time. I would become a sponsor of the show and make sure that I got plenty of exposure. Even in this ideal situation I don't know that the ROI would be that great.

The one thing that I have begun to reconsider is billboard advertising. A well placed well designed billboard ad in a high traffic area (like around a school or on a heavily travelled morning commuter corridor) might actually be a good investment.

You are also completely right about newspaper ads. In a large metropolitan area newspaper ads aren't that great for ROI. But small community papers are a great place to put an ad, especially in the sections that feature local schools and kid's sports.

And you are especially right about the t-shirts and magnets. Of all the things that I gave away over the years the two things that I saw the greatest return on were clever t-shirts and refrigerator magnets.

Great advice, please continue to post such great stuff

 

[The Hammer]

OK how do you find a catchy logo for your office. Well there are three ways
1. Hire a marketing firm that caters to dental offices. There are plenty on the internet

2. Create one yourself as we dentists tend to be an artistic bunch

3. Or do like I did and just steal one from someone else

First a history lesson: The creation of the Nike "Swoosh" logo.

Nike, originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports, was founded by University of Oregon track athlete Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman in January 1964. They were the distributors for a Japanese athletic shoe company called Onitsuka Tiger.

The company's profits grew quickly, and in 1966, BRS opened its first retail store, located on Pico Boulevard in Santa Monica, California. By 1971, the relationship between BRS and Onitsuka Tiger was nearing an end. BRS prepared to launch its own line of footwear but they needed a logo.

Philip Knight hired Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student at Portland State University to create a logo for BRS. In 1971 she delivered several designs one of which was the familiar "swoosh". She was paid the princely sum of $35 for her work. Supposedly Knight didn't like any of the designs but found the "swoosh" to be the one he disliked the least and running out of time he used it on a soccer shoe that they called "Nike". The rest is history.

Sometimes despite our best intentions we can actually do something right.

When I bought my first practice in 1995 it was located in a strip mall next to a chinese restaurant. It had no external signage whatsoever. The only way that you even would know it was a dental office was on the door in small letters was written "Dr. Harry Oldballs D.D.S. General Dentist". That was it.

I wanted to up the profile and exposure of the office but I had very little money. The office did have a large plate glass "window" that looked out over the parking lot so I decided that I would use that. I thought if I could come up with a clever logo, I'd have it painted on the window with the office phone number right under it. That way anyone driving through the parking lot would be able to see that we were a dental office and what our telephone number was.

If I had had the money I might have gone with a graphic designer. I have had some friends who did and got some pretty nice results. But I had noticed that a lot of them had logos that really had nothing to do with dentistry. One had a logo of a ship at sea, another a big tree. Nice logos to be sure but I wanted something that literally scream "HEY THERE'S A DENTIST RIGHT HERE!" And to me nothing says "dentist" better than a big tooth.

Now considering what I have said about certain words being overused in naming your office I'm sure that you think that surely a big tooth is THE most overused of all images to advertise dentistry, and you would be right. But unlike the words that I have mentioned the image of a tooth is still very effective if you are wanting someone to have the word "dentist" pop into their mind, which is exactly what I wanted. So I decided that my new logo must have a big tooth in it.

Now here comes the part about the stealing. As I mentioned I was broke. But I knew that somewhere some dentists had paid some big money to have a clever tooth based logo created for them, so why re-invent the wheel? Remember genius steals while mediocrity borrows. So off I went to the public library. I got all the yellow pages from the biggest cities in the USA ( New York, LA, New Orleans, Miami, San Francisco etc) and I turned to the dentist sections. Any cool looking logos that I liked I went off and photocopied (if I were to do this now I would just google them and save to file but this was in the stone age).

I found two graphics that I liked, one was the stylized outline of a tooth and the other a graphic representation of a smile. I photocopied them and went home and combined them and viola! I had a new logo. Then it came time for me to name my new practice. To be completely honest I wanted to name my practice "Rockwood Family Dentistry". Yes, yes I almost fell into the same trap but to be fair this was 1995 and the "family dentistry" thing was not nearly as played out as it is now. Fortunately for me the dentist down the street had already named his practice that so I was saved from a mundane office name.

I called my brother and was telling him how frustrated I was that the guy down the road had taken my "perfect office name". My brother in an effort to encourage me said "FCK him! Your office is going to be THE dental office in Rockwood!" And I realized that this was a pretty good name "The Dental Office at Rockwood" ( for some reason I liked the way "at" sounded better than "in". So I combined my "stolen" logo with my new office name and I came up with this:

Its simple, direct and in a not so subtle way made it sound like my office was "The" dental office to go to. So I called up the sign painter and had a huge painting of it put in my office window with the phone number under it and sure enough I started seeing an increase in new patients most of whom told the front desk "I didn't even know that there was a dental office here."

Was it my clever "big tooth" logo that brought them in or just the fact that I was using a larger sign to let people know that there was a dentist in my space. Well to be honest a little of both. The logo worked because it was a big tooth with a phone number under it. Even if people did not see the name of the office next to it they would remember the tooth and as I said before, nothing says "dentist" quite like a big tooth.

 

[noles]

hey hammer could you go into more detail about what makes up the 65% overhead? for example what % of that 65 is salary, supplies, rent, CPA fees, maintenance, advertising/marketing, etc. i know these can all vary greatly but rough estimates would work, i'm just trying to get an idea of what it comprises of.

also, so as the dentist/owner per MONTH you take a draw/salary of aprox. $6k (included in the 65% overhead) then there is the aprox. $10k (which is the other 35%). do you distribute this 10k to yourself monthly or does it remain in the corp as retained earnings until the end of the year where you would use this money to invest/upgrade the office and then distribute the remainder to yourself?

thanks

bump

also what are your thoughts on combined MBA/DDS programs? is the ROI worth it or is "real world" experience along with CE on specific dental practice management money better spent?

thanks again

 

[The Hammer]

bump

also what are your thoughts on combined MBA/DDS programs? is the ROI worth it or is "real world" experience along with CE on specific dental practice management money better spent?

thanks again

I don't know exactly what goes into the MBA/DDS program but to me its probably overkill. You do not need an MBA to run a successful practice. My ex-wife got her MBA while we were married. It didn't help me with running the practice but it did help her take all my money in the divorce.

The business model for a dental practice is very very simple. And now with the excellent dental software out there it is even easier to stay on top of the financial side of the practice. Get a really good accountant who stays current with the tax laws and you are golden.

The skills that will make you the most money are people skills and clinical skills with the people skills being the most important. Being able to manage people whether they are patients or staff is the hardest thing you will ever do in practice. You will naturally drift towards the clinical side but make a conscious effort not to until you are a great people manager. You can do any kind of dentistry you want once you learn how to get the confidence of your staff and your patients. It is very frustrating to have awesome clinical skills but not be able to use them because you are lacking in the personal skills.

 

[goosestuff]

Hello my dental pals, it's story time so gather around the campfire with Uncle Hammer as he recounts his epic struggles to overcome evil wizards, ogres, dragons and crown preps on #30 on a patient with a hyperactive tongue and a hair trigger gag reflex. It's a little story that I like to call.........

Dr. Ziggy Hammer and the Spiders from Memphis
(all apologies to David Bowie)​

Way back in 1989 I was a senior at UT in Knoxville. I was getting a BA in microbiology and zoology with a minor in classics. I was supposed to have graduated in 1988 but I broke my left leg in 8 places on a skiing trip and had to drop out of school for a little while (6 months actually) while my leg healed.

During my convalescence UT went from a quarter system to semesters and my college hours were screwed up. So I decided to become a fifth year senior and get a double major. My fifth year was actually pretty fun, I was working for a concert promoter and living in a frat house and I had a brand new 5.0 Mustang. For a redneck like me it was heaven.

I had entertained the idea of becoming a doctor for sometime. I had shadowed dentists, orthodontists and oral surgeons and I had also worked at an ER to see how I felt about medicine. Eventually I decided that I wanted a Masters in Biology concentrating in physiological genetics which fascinated me. One professor I was working for was looking for the genetic origin of spicule formation in embryonic brittle stars and the other professor I was working for was doing some ground breaking working in recombinant DNA research, using e.coli plasmids as vectors for gene insertion. The modified plasmids' e.coli hosts were then grown in agitation vats and eventually harvested. I spent a lot of time taking care of those stinky vats and it was those vats that eventually made me take the first steps to becoming a dentist.

One Saturday night I had been in the vat lab all day. I had been studying for some test that I had coming up. It was approaching midnight so I took a break and went back to my room. The girl that I was dating at the time was studying economics at Vanderbilt and we had an arrangement that when we were apart for a weekend one of us would call the other at midnight. It was her turn to call me so I went back to my room and waited for her call. Midnight on a Saturday night my frat house was swarming with activity. Some people were going out and some were coming back in. Everybody seemed to be doing something or someone and it all looked like fun to me. I went in my room and my roommate was having sex with his girlfriend in the upper bunk of our bunk beds. I said "Don't mind me" and they didn't, they just kept doing what they had been doing before I got there.

At the stroke of Midnight the phone rings and it is my girlfriend Kim calling from Nashville where it is 11pm. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Hello.
Kim: Hey sweetie what are you doing? (lots of crowd noise in the background)
Me: Oh the usual. Watching Jeff and Lisa screw while talking to you on the phone.
Kim: AGAIN? Do they actually ever go out and do anything?
Me: Nope, they only leave for Cool Ranch Doritos, KY and antibiotics (Kim laughs). So what are you up too.
Kim: Oh well the girls and I met some nice guys from Europe and we have been showing them Nashville. We went to the Boundary and now we're at Mere Bulles (a chic wine bar) drinking wine and watching them try to decide which one of us they are going to try to f$ck. (Kim laughs again)
In the background some dude with an accent says "Come on Kim (he pronounces it KEEM) come back and drink some more wine with us.
Me: Well it looks like Mr. Continental has his eyes on you. Ask him if it is fashionable in Milan to walk around with my foot up his *****. (Kim laughs)
Kim: Oh, don't worry sweetheart, these guys are paying for everything and once they run out of money, I run out the door. International relationships are for the UN not the K I M.
Me: Well cool then, I've got to get back to my vats and I'll let you get back to the Euro-trash. I love you.
Kim: I love you too have fun in the lab. (Kim hangs up)

Once I got back to the vat lab I was feeling depressed. "So this is what my life has come to," I thought to myself. While my girlfriend was out having fun scamming wine off of some European doucebags who were trying to establish international trade relations with my girlfriends private parts I was watching vats full of e.coli ever so slightly jiggle. It was at that moment that I had a profound WTF epiphany. I thought to myself "WTF am I doing? I don't want to spend the next 3 years stuck in a lab much less the rest of my life here. I'm going to apply to dental school first thing in the morning." And that's exactly what I did.

The story continues in my next post.........

So, I've been dying to know what happened with Kim, you and the Euro-trash...

 

[The Hammer]

So, I've been dying to know what happened with Kim, you and the Euro-trash...

Have you read post #385? I'll try to finish up my saga tomorrow. I didn't realize I had left such a cliff hanger

 

[cl263]

I haven't actually logged into SDN since I applied for dental school, but someone showed me this thread and after way too many well-enjoyed hours reading through to the end, I felt I had to drop my very first post onto such a legendary conversation.

Hammer et al, thanks for all the amazing information and ideas. I'll be gradumatating this June and I'll be honest, I'm kinda terrified about going into private practice, and reading this thread only made me realize how little I really know about it. And yet, I feel the drive to get out and get going all the more.

Thanks again. I'm looking forward to more!

 

[The Hammer]

So, I've been dying to know what happened with Kim, you and the Euro-trash...

Ok so here's the wrap up. I flew to Memphis and took a cab over to the dental school. I met the dean of admissions and he showed me around the clinic. School was out and this was an informal tour but he had arranged to have me "interviewed" by about 8 or the instructors.

The "interview" lasted an hour and a half. We didn't talk about dentistry or why I wanted to be a dentist. We didn't talk about school or the research that I was doing. What we talked about for that entire time was: What it was like to tour with a band, what kind of women did I meet, what it was like to tour as a stand up comedian and lastly they wanted to hear what it was like to dress up as Count Chocula at a theme park for an entire summer. No lie that was all that we talked about. I think that we would have continued but I needed to get back to the airport so I thanked them for my time and called a cab. The dean of admissions told me as I was leaving "well, now you know what your interview will be like when you reapply for dental school."

So I flew back to Knoxville and called my parents and Kim and told them the story. They were equally as puzzled as I was. I finally just decided that the dean had just roped these instructors into a "mock" interview and they just wanted to entertain themselves. I pretty much put it out of my mind and got ready to graduate. Since I was living in a frat house I had to also start looking for an apartment for when I began grad school.

Three days before I was due to graduate I was running the movie projector at the campus theater. I came out to my car at midnight and found it covered in sticky notes. They were all from my roommate. Apparently the dental school had added me into the starting classes and had called my home and told my parents who were frantically trying to find me to tell me the news. I drove back to the frat house and called them and sure enough the dean had called and said that I was to start in a week in Memphis in dental school. And the rest as they say is history.

So what happened to me, Kim and the euro-trash?

Instead of going to graduation Kim and I went to King's Island and rode roller coasters. I started dental school and she was still in college at Vanderbilt. We were together for my first year of dental school and then she dumped me in a letter that arrived the day before my first big pharm test at the beginning of my second year.

One month later I met my future wife and married her when I graduated in 1993. We divorced last year but at least I didn't have a pharm test the next day.

Apparently the euro-trash had worked their magic on Kim and she spent a year abroad studying in France before she graduated with a degree in world economics. She now owns an art gallery in Nashville.

Now back to more important things

 

[LaFleur]

Hey Hammer!

I didn't think I'd be posting in this thread yet, as I'm a pre-dental student, but I had a strange thought as I was shadowing my dentist (that isn't even related to where you're taking this blog). I didn't get to ask the dentist I was shadowing about it, since I forgot about it until now and I'm back at school at this point, so I thought I'd ask you.

In a typical dental office I'm assuming you hire some kind of cleaning staff to do your cleaning. How often do they come in and how does that work? Would they come in a few times a week in the evenings or would they have to come in more often?

Just a random thought.

 

[The Hammer]

Hey Hammer!

I didn't think I'd be posting in this thread yet, as I'm a pre-dental student, but I had a strange thought as I was shadowing my dentist (that isn't even related to where you're taking this blog). I didn't get to ask the dentist I was shadowing about it, since I forgot about it until now and I'm back at school at this point, so I thought I'd ask you.

In a typical dental office I'm assuming you hire some kind of cleaning staff to do your cleaning. How often do they come in and how does that work? Would they come in a few times a week in the evenings or would they have to come in more often?

Just a random thought.

There are a couple of ways to approach the cleaning staff. How often they come really depends on how big of an office you have and how busy you are. In my former practice I had the cleaning staff come on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I have hired a janitorial service to clean the office and for a while some of my staff wanted to do it for the extra money so I had them do it after hours.

 

[The Hammer]

Ok I'm back. Time to talk about external marketing of your dental practice. First I would strongly suggest that you read post #457. Youknowthedrill posted some excellent advice some of which I am going to touch on again.

So you have thought of a great name for your practice and you have designed an eye catching logo. So how do you let the world know about your awesome dental practice? What sort of advertising should you invest your money in. I am by no means an advertising guru so what I am going to post are just my thoughts and experiences with advertising my office in the past. Take them as you would any other advice and use whatever you learn to your advantage.

First, here is the logo for my new office:

While I was teaching in Arizona I came up with the name "Arizona Institute for Restorative Dentistry". I liked the name because the initials were AIR D. So I played around with several different designs and just brainstormed on it for a while.

Well then it turns out that I moved back to Tennessee. I still like the name but the initials now spell out TIRD which is a little too close to TURD so I had to tweak it a little bit. So I changed it to Tennessee Center for Restorative Dentistry. I think that Center is a little friendlier than Institute anyway. Since my new office is only 30 minutes from the UT campus and since people in east Tennessee act like UT football is a religion I decided to put a big orange "T" in the logo with. of course, a big tooth.

So what sort of external marketing am I going to do now that I am back in town. Let's talk about the important things that you want to get across in any advertising that you plan on doing.

The things you want people to remember when you are advertising your office in order of importance:

1. That you are a general dentist
2. Where you are located
3. Your phone number and/or website address
4. That you take their insurance
5. That you take credit cards

Really that is all that you want them to get from your ad. The key to marketing is repetition. You want people to hear your message over and over again. The simpler the message the more likely they are going to retain it. Let them call to find out what your hours are and what sort of procedures that you do. An ad with your logo, your phone number, a sentence like "We accept insurance and credit cards" and a statement like "Delivering all of your dental needs in a calm caring environment" is all that you really need. When we get to yellow pages ads I'll talk more about this.

So what types of external marketing are there?
1. TV and Radio spots
2. Newspaper ads/Yellow Pages ads
3. Billboards/Signage
4. Direct Mailing
5. Sponsorship/Events
Of course external marketing is really only limited by your budget and your imagination but those are the big 5 and we will cover each one of them.

1. TV/Radios spots. The big daddy of all advertising but how well does it work for a dental office? TV and Radio definitely reach a larger audience and they are mostly passive. You are watching or listening to your favorite program and suddenly you are bombarded with sales pitches for everything from car insurance to birth control pills. If you are watching TV you can mute it or take a bathroom break but if you are listening to the radio while driving you are stuck. So how well does this type of advertising work for dental offices?

I have two main objections to doing TV/radio ads:
1. They are very expensive
2. They are to general in the audience that they reach
So lets look at both of those problems:

1. They are very expensive: If you are doing a TV spot your first expense will be in the production of the spot. If you are going to spend the money to advertise on television you want to look as professional as possible. You don't want your ad to look like it was shot on someones phone camera and starring the "Star Wars Kid." You want to come across as very professional, warm and caring. You can't screech at your target audience like a used car salesman and to be honest you don't really want to be funny or humorous. You want to put the warm and fuzzy lens on the camera and have a very soothing voice extoll the virtues of your warm and caring dental office.

Producing that kind of commercial is not cheap and will easily run into the 5 figures. Then of course you have to run it on TV enough times that it will eventually stick in peoples minds and again that kind of airtime will easily run into the 5 figures.

2. You don't know if you are reaching your target demographic or not. So television stations will allow you to decide when your ads run and will charge you for the more premium time slots. Some will just plug your ad into where they have a space. Either way but you have no way of knowing if the people who you want coming to your office are seeing your ad. For the large amount of money that you are putting out to me this is just too many "ifs". If I am spending this kind of money I want to be reasonably sure that my message is reaching the people who I want to see it.

Radio ads are not that different from the TV spots. They are a little cheaper to produce but you will still be paying the big bucks to have your spot played during prime drive time.

There are so many different things that are fighting for people's attention these days. Cell phones, iPods, premium cable and pay per view, blu-ray and DVD and tivo which just speeds over the commercials I just don't see how you would ever get a good ROI from advertising on TV or radio. If anyone has had a different experience please post on this thread about it because I would love to hear how you did it.

Next up Newspaper and yellow pages ads...

 

[8 SNAKE]

So what types of external marketing are there?
1. TV and Radio spots
2. Newspaper ads/Yellow Pages ads
3. Billboards/Signage
4. Direct Mailing
5. Sponsorship/Events
Of course external marketing is really only limited by your budget and your imagination but those are the big 5 and we will cover each one of them.

Hammer, perhaps I'm jumping the gun here but I don't see any mention of internet/social media marketing. That would seem to be one of the fastest growing marketing segments today, but perhaps it is not quite as effective for dentistry?

 

[The Hammer]

Hammer, perhaps I'm jumping the gun here but I don't see any mention of internet/social media marketing. That would seem to be one of the fastest growing marketing segments today, but perhaps it is not quite as effective for dentistry?

I was going to put that under internal marketing with websites. I don't have a ton of experience with that yet but what little I do know I will share

 

[DrDientes]

I can't wait to hear about the rest of the marketing/advertising techniques!

 

[The Hammer]

I can't wait to hear about the rest of the marketing/advertising techniques!

I'm in the final stages of my financing so I'm on either the computer or the phone all day but I will post some today and more tomorrow

 

[The Hammer]

External Marketing part 2: Newspaper and Yellow page ads

OK back to work. There aren't many differences between a yellow pages ad and a newspaper ad. I'll cover what goes into a great yellow pages ad and what not to put into one and then I will talk about newspaper ads. So up first:

How to make a great yellow pages ad

Here are the things that are essential to a successful yellow pages ad:

1. Your phone number in BIG NUMBERS. Your phone number should be in the direct center of the ad which is the area that people look at first when viewing an ad. I should be very obvious and dominate in the ad and it should be a contrasting color to the rest of the ad.

2. Your address and a map to your location. The best place to put these are right underneath the phone number.

3. Your website, place it centered underneath your address along the bottom boarder of the ad.

4. Most insurances accepted, plus the icons of the credit cards that you accept, if you take debit cards state that and any other credit sources like CareCredit or Dentacharge that you provide.

5. Always put "Now accepting New Patients" or "New Patients always Welcome" something to that effect. For some reason people always assume that a dentist is not accepting new patients unless you put that in your ads

6. If you have a good logo put it in the top center of your ad. If you want to use a picture that is good as well but:

a. Use a picture of youthful models smiling and laughing showing off their perfect teeth. This is the image that you want to sell, that your superior skills can make a person's teeth look gorgeous thus making them look younger, restoring some vitality to them and making them feel better about themselves. This is a powerful concept once you understand how to use it.

b. adding to what I said above do not use photos of older people with great teeth. What that says to your patient is "even though my teeth will look great I will still be old" that is a negative connotation, one which you should avoid.

c. Also don't use "before and after" photos. One it's an old, corny played out marketing ploy and secondly you don't want to remind anyone that they have a crappy mouth. People can be incredibly ashamed of their oral condition and you don't want to trigger that shame ever. That shame can be so powerful that it can keep them out of a dental chair for decades. If you are going to use close up smile photos always use the "after" ones that look awesome. What you are saying is "I don't care what shape your mouth is in, if you want to I can make it look like this!" This is a very subtle but very powerful marketing technique.

d. If you want a photo of yourself possibly with your staff here is what to do and not to do.

I. You should be in a nicely pressed well fitting white clinical coat with ( if you are a man) a dress shirt and a tie. Your staff should be similarly dressed with white clinical coats and a nice blouse underneath. DO NOT WEAR SCRUBS. You may work all day in scrubs and that is fine but in the face that you want to first present to a potential patient you want to look sharp and very professional. Ever other dental ad with a photo of the doctor and the staff has them wearing scrubs and it makes them all look dumpy. You want to be different and you want to look better than them so don't be photographed in scrubs.

II. Go to a professional portrait studio and have it done by a professional photographer. You will be paying a lot for your ad, don't ruin it by going cheap on the photo. Have photo proofs taken of you and your staff in several different poses and pick the proof that looks the best and use it. Do not line your staff up in a row like a grade school photo in from of your office or in the reception area and have a photo made by a friend or one of your staff's spouses or kids.

III. Why so picky about the photo? Because dentistry is an esthetic art. Especially now that more and more people are wanting cosmetic dentistry and are willing to spend their discretionary income on having good looking teeth. Your photo if done properly will say to them "I like to look good and I know how to make myself look good so I certainly can make you look good." A bad photos says "Either I don't know how to make myself look good or I don't care so why would I go to the trouble of making you look good?"

e. Don't use a photo of your family. Ever. There are two reasons for this:

I. This is about the patient and not about you. You want the patient to believe that you are all about them. You may have a wonderful wife and some beautiful kids but at best the patient won't care and at worst they will be negative about it because they don't want to be reminded that someone has a happier life than they do.

II. You are possibly putting your family at risk. You will have your fair share of crazy patients. If one of those crazies decides he wants to hold a grudge against you, you don't want them to know what your family looks like.

And lastly never ever put a picture of a child in your ad with the caption "Let my Daddy/Mommy be your dentist." Horrible and I still see it being done. Replace the word "dentist" with "heart surgeon" or "urologist" and see how charming it is then

On the left put any services that you provide that sets your office apart from other offices on the right put things like insurance, credit cards and what makes your office a friendly place. What not to put:

a. Root canals- first the general public think that all dentists do root canals so you are taking up valuable space with a negative connotation. Don't do it unless you are an endodontist and then use the term "endodontic therapy"

b. Extractions- the same reasons apply for extractions as they do for root canals

c. Painless shots - the mother of all stupid things to put in an ad

d. Cleanings- this is redundant while not as negative as root canal it is assumed that if you are a dentist you do cleanings

e. Non-specific restorative procedures like "crowns, bridges, dentures, fillings etc" Once again this is redundant. If you do list restorative procedures use terms like "life like dentures, invisible tooth colored restorations, life like crowns and bridges" this is the kind of language that will set you apart in the consumers mind as they read your ad.

Things to put in your ad:

a. As listed above any procedure that you list, make sure that you list it in a specific positive light that the consumer will understand. Lifelike bridge is great, Lava bridge or all ceramic bridge are not so good because the consumer may or may not know what a Lava bridge or all ceramic bridge is. They will however completely understand "lifelike"

b. Any service that you provide that is branded is a great thing to advertise. For example invisaline, bright smile, Zoom, Rembrant veneers, Lumineers etc. These companies spend a lot of money in advertising to the general public and if you use these products you should definitely use it in your ad.

c. Laughing gas is always a plus, so is cable tv or DVD/Blu-rays players for the kids.

Here is a tip, if you are seeing either mom or her child make sure to have them bring the child's favorite DVD or have a stash of them on hand. If you are treating the mom and she wants to bring Junior back so she can keep an eye on him then pop the DVD in before you place the topical. Same thing if you are treating the child. Let the DVD numb them first and your life will be much easier.

I believe that for now bigger is better when it comes to yellow pages ads and color is a must. Even in smaller demographics if a full page color ad is available someone is going to use it, it should be you. It is more expensive but it makes you look more professional than the smaller, black and white ads. If you are going to go to the trouble and expense of an ad then you want to give it ever chance to work that you can. A full page color ad is one that will definitely get the attention of anyone flipping through the yellow pages looking for a dentist.

For now the yellow pages ads are still a good investment but that is changing. Pretty soon the yellow pages will be mostly replaced with websites and online marketing. But for now there is still a sizable percentage of the population that will seek out a service in the yellow pages especially in the smaller cities and communities.

OK next I will post some ads from a yellow pages and talk about what works and what doesn't work. Till then you stay classy San Diego

 

[Phlogicyde]

5. Always put "Now accepting New Patients" or "New Patients always Welcome" something to that effect. For some reason people always assume that a dentist is not accepting new patients unless you put that in your ads

That's too funny. Why else would people think you're advertising?

BTW awesome thread Hammer!

 

[The Hammer]

Ok here are some yellow page ads that I pulled out of the phone book. See what you guys like or dislike about them and post what you think. Here are the ads. For privacy sake I blotted out the names and parts of the addresses.

ADS 1 and 2

ADS 3 and 4

AD 5

 

[dentaldawg32]

Does anyone actually even use the yellow pages anymore? I certainly don't and don't really know anyone else that does. Maybe the older generation does, but even my 65 year old parents prefer the internet. Much easier and with access to patient reviews, much more reliable then going off how "nice" an ad looks in the yellow pages.

 

[The Hammer]

Does anyone actually even use the yellow pages anymore? I certainly don't and don't really know anyone else that does. Maybe the older generation does, but even my 65 year old parents prefer the internet. Much easier and with access to patient reviews, much more reliable then going off how "nice" an ad looks in the yellow pages.

Perhaps you skipped over the part where I wrote

For now the yellow pages ads are still a good investment but that is changing. Pretty soon the yellow pages will be mostly replaced with websites and online marketing. But for now there is still a sizable percentage of the population that will seek out a service in the yellow pages especially in the smaller cities and communities.

When you get out of dental school you will have to have an internet presence. I intend on having my website up and running at the beginning of 2011. In the larger cities like LA or NYC I don't know that I would run a big ad because I don't think that it would have a good ROI. But there are still plenty of other smaller markets where for now a yellow page ad is still a good investment. But as I wrote in my other post I don't think that it's going to be that way much longer.

Also you are missing the bigger picture here. In fact did you even read my post? If you haven't then I suggest that you do, if you have and you think that all I am doing is showing how to make an ad look "nice" you are going to have a long road ahead of you. The psychology of the print ads is the same for any advertising media. With print ads it is a simpler format so you can use them to start to understand the more complex marketing techniques that you can use in video advertising. It is all about using emotion and nuance, knowing what it is that a patient really wants and guiding your marketing towards that want.

 

[DrDientes]

I totally see what you mean about the black and white ads. I naturally didn't even want to look at it because it looked so dull. I found Ads 4 and 5 to be the best eye catchers and made me want to actually see what the ad was about.

 

[The Hammer]

Seriously post what you think about the ads. Pick them apart. The only way to learn is through interaction, not just by listening to me blow

 

[zriceman]

Ad 5 appears to the best to me. It takes up a full page, its in color, and it includes a professional photo of the dentist and his staff. It also include the treatments offered in plain english simplying the treatments to the readers.

 

[The Hammer]

Ad 5 appears to the best to me. It takes up a full page, its in color, and it includes a professional photo of the dentist and his staff. It also include the treatments offered in plain english simplying the treatments to the readers.

Very Wise Grasshopper. Now go practice more wax on wax off!

 

[zriceman]

What would be the annual cost for something like ad 5?

 

[The Hammer]

What would be the annual cost for something like ad 5?

It depends on the area. A small community like what I used to be in a full page color ad like that could run for as little as $1200 a month. This particular ad is in a larger metropolitan area so I would assume that it would be 4 to 5 times that. It ain't cheap but depending on your type of practice you could make that back on one patient. Even the "average" patient is worth between $800-2000. If you retain that patient over the course of several years you have made it well worth your while.

True Story. I once spend about $20K for a year of yellow pages advertising. My ex raised holy hell on me for it. One day I had a patient accept treatment and his treatment plan was around $36K. I said how did you find out about my office? He said "I liked your ad in the yellow pages so I started asking around about you and heard that you were real good, so I decided to make an appointment." I took him to my office and had him call my ex on the phone and tell her what he had told me. It didn't stop her from being pissed off but it made me feel better

 

[The Hammer]

I totally see what you mean about the black and white ads. I naturally didn't even want to look at it because it looked so dull. I found Ads 4 and 5 to be the best eye catchers and made me want to actually see what the ad was about.

Exactly. We live in a colorful world so color is always going to catch your eye, especially when contrasted with black and white. Not only is the using color important in marketing but what colors you use and how you use them is of equal importance.

The psychology of color has been well documented for centuries and there are many great resource about the effects of color on consumers. If you want to see something absolutely fascinating watch a documentary about the construction of a casino. The way they use color and lighting to get you to stay and spend money is genius. And this information is readily available online but I would be willing to wager that less than 1% of dentists put it to use when choosing a color scheme for their offices. I have said it before but it bears repeating, "When you are doing dentistry think like a dentist, anything else to do with your practice think like a capitalist."

 

[The Hammer]

Ok so lets talk about ads 1 and 2. Lets see what they did right and what they didn't do right.

AD 1
What works
1. They have a nice picture of young people with very nice smiles. They also included a child which communicates "we treat children" in addition to stating that in the mission statement right about the photo. The mission statement also lets potential patients know that they treat "those with special needs." The photo and the mission statement very effectively communicate a simple message "we care and we're here to help" Nice

2. The doctors name and the name of the office is in big letters dead center. Right underneath they put the one service that definitely makes them different "free transportation"

3. Nice big phone number in a box to give contrast and make it stand out.

4. The information is good as well. They list the office hours, they list the services they provide, the credit cards they accept, that they accept Medicaid and Care Credit, I really like "no checks" Their address has good visibility, the box on the left lets you know that they are looking for patients and can be very flexible to allow a patient to be seen.


So what is wrong with this ad? Actually not much. The information provided in this ad lets us know that this office treats lower income patients and this ad is a great example of how to market that demographic. They are upfront about their financial policies (no checks, accept Medicare and credit cards) and they offer a unique service that is a great way to bring in this type of patient (free transportation). If you treat this demographic you have to watch the bottom line very carefully. A big ad is not necessary because this patient is looking for a dentist who caters towards their limited financial means so a big ad might actually turn them away thinking that "they can't afford that dentist."

If I had to nitpick it would be this:

1. A little color would definitely draw the eye to it quicker.

2. The ad is very crowded. It is not always a good idea to cram as much information into your ad space as possible, you do need to have some space so it doesn't look to busy. I'll give you an example

I LIKE CARS​

ILIKECARSALLSORTSOFCARSIACTUALLYLOVETHEMTHEYARESOCOOLIHAVEALWAYSLOVEDTOGODRIVINGWITHTHEWINDOWSDOWNILIKEFORDSCHEVYSHONDASTOYOTASFERRARISBMWSMINICOOPERSCORVETTESMONSTERTRUCKSZO6S

You get the picture. Without a judicious use of space the ad becomes a burden on the eyes rather than something you want people to continue looking at while they are thinking out the information provided.

3. They should either provide less information with the same sized ad or the same amount with a slightly larger ad.

 

[The Hammer]

OK I'm sure that some of you might be a little confused at the moment because AD 1 violates some of the rules that I laid down in my "what goes into a great ad" post. Let me see if I can clear things up. But first gather 'round the campfire cause Uncle Hammer is going to tell a story.

When I was a kid my Aunt and my Grandmother had a restaurant called "Mack's Dairy Shack" in the tiny tiny town of Henrietta, TN. It was a pretty no frills kind of place. The furniture was worn, the menu was on a chalkboard as you came in and the selections were few but it was busy and well loved by the locals.

So when I was a freshman in college and I thought I knew everything some friends and I went to Mack's Friday Steak night which was always a big draw for them. My uncle Gary would grill the steaks over an enormous charcoal grill and after they were cooked would send them back to the restaurant in large pans. So on Steak Night you would step up to the window, tell them how you liked your steak cooked and pay $10. $10 got you a steak cooked to order, a baked potato, a large drink with refills, a roll and a trip to the salad bar. Since the steaks were already cooked your order would be waiting for you once you paid.

Friday Steak Night drew in people from all over the area and it wasn't uncommon for people to buy their steaks and take them home to eat because the restaurant's small dining area was always jam packed. It also wasn't uncommon to have people start showing up for Friday Steak night at 4pm and to have a line to the window stretching around the parking lot.

After my friends and I had eaten our fill a couple of them went to help my Uncle with the grill and I helped my Aunt and Grandmother take orders. When everything wound down at 11pm I was helping my Grandmother add up the money and get the bank deposit ready. I asked my Grandmother why she didn't take some of this money and remodel the restaurant and maybe add some more selections to the menu. She looked at me and said "Sugar, the people around here are just country folk. Anything that looks too fancy scares them to death. Some of them are too scared to go order at the McDonald's in Ashland City for fear that they'd look like a fool. They've known me their whole lives and the simpler I keep things here, the happier they are. They don't like things to change and if I changed this place too much a bunch of them would stop coming because they'd think I was making too much money and letting it go to my head. So I keep my menu small and simple and I keep the restaurant small and simple because that's how my customers are; small and simple."

The point that I'm trying to make is my Grandmother knew her customers and what appealed to them so she made sure that her restaurant met their needs even though some of the things that she did seemed to fly in the face of good entrepreneurship. In her case she had to make exceptions to the rules in order to become successful and to stay busy.

BTW my grandmother was 73 at the time of this conversation which was 1985. She continued to run the restaurant until 1998 when she sold it. She lived on her own until 2009 when she died at age 98.

The doctor in AD 1 is marketing towards people who don't have very much money to spend on dentistry. To do that he has to change some of the rules for good marketing that I talked about in my previous post to make sure that his ad reaches his intended audience.

1. I said not to use generic dental terms like extraction, fillings, root canal etc. But this doctor lists his services in very generic dental terms. Much like my Grandmother's restaurant menu, he is keeping it simple and easily understandable because being too wordy would probably scare off potential patients. I liked that he used the term "braces" instead of orthodontic treatment.

2. I believe that you should never use the term "clinic" in the name of your practice. Clinic can have negative connotations to some patients, but not in this doctors case. The patients that he is trying to attract have probably gotten most of their healthcare from a clinic. This is a term that they will be more comfortable with than say "Center for Restorative Dentistry". The name of my practice would probably be a turn off to them whereas Dr. Hammer's Dental Clinic would make them feel right at home.

So next post I'll talk about AD 2

 

[The Hammer]

I hate to interrupt mid topic but several of you have asked me about marketing using social media. This is an awesome clip about it. Also download the previous episode on using social media

http://networkedblogs.com/7uyzh

 

[puncho]

Oh, I always like a good story!

btw, hammer, saw your post on dt about the massad technique. Awesome tutorial w/ all the pics and stuff. Just starting to get my feet wet over there and been browsing/learning.

 

[8 SNAKE]

Seriously post what you think about the ads. Pick them apart. The only way to learn is through interaction, not just by listening to me blow

Ad 1

You already covered that one pretty well. I'm not wild about the shading behind the pictures of the people, but understand they did it to make the mission statement up top stand out. I'd have made the picture a bit smaller and put the mission statement completely above the photos, though. It's too cluttered right now.


Ad 2

Horrible ad. There are three pictures of a building and only one of a person's smile? I'm not picking out an architect here. The first time I look at that ad, I don't immediately recognize that it's a dental practice. Fail.

Way too much white space. The organization of the ad is also quite poor and nothing feels like it flows well. In addition, the text is way too small and all of the descriptions are generic in nature. There's also no mention of payment methods and no clear message about what this practice focuses on. I suppose "Family Dentistry" does that to some extent, but all dental practices are family practices so it's a given.


Ad 3

This ad overwhelmes the reader with text and information. There's so much on the page that your eye doesn't know where to go, so you're quite likely to skip the whole thing and move on. No one's going to work to read your ad.

Color is also missing and the overall organization of the ad makes little sense. That logo should be centered in the page and there needs to be an emphasis on a logo or design of some sort beyond the line under Smile. The mission statement should be centered on the top and the web site should be centered on the bottom. There are also way too many basic descriptions.

I'm not a fan of listing the years of experience. Seems to me like a dentist who promotes 12 years of experience is trying too hard to focus on time in the game rather than competence. I want the best dentist; not the one who's been on the block the longest.

I do like the star bursts around the new patient special and financing options. They do a fantastic job of drawing the eye and convey messages that will appeal to people shopping for a dentist.


Ad 4

Not too bad, overall. The phone number doesn't stand out enough in my opinion and I would not use pink as the color choice. I feel like the ad goes overboard with the list of services offered. There's no reason to list digital x-rays or preventative dentistry and most of the other descriptions are too generic.

I would shift the services to the right side of that ad and put the contact information right in the middle. I'd also try to nail down a better brand image, because this ad says they do it all which indicates to me that it's just a generic practice.


Ad 5

Best ad of the bunch, in my opinion. I'm not sure that I would go with that picture, though. Who cares about a night view of the city when choosing a dentist? In addition, I don't like the picture of the staff. This isn't Dewey, Cheatem and Howe Attorneys at Law. The formal attire makes the staff look stiff and uninviting. I'd also put the web site down with the phone number so that all contact info is contained in the same place. It's way too easy to miss the web site where it's currently listed.

The overall layout of the ad looks nice and conveys a lot of information without going overboard. Some of the descriptions could use better detail and I really don't like how Root Canals and Oral Surgery are the only two bullets that are on the same line. That looks like lack of attention to detail, which is a killer characteristic in a dental practice.

 

[The Hammer]

Ad 1

You already covered that one pretty well. I'm not wild about the shading behind the pictures of the people, but understand they did it to make the mission statement up top stand out. I'd have made the picture a bit smaller and put the mission statement completely above the photos, though. It's too cluttered right now.


Ad 2

Horrible ad. There are three pictures of a building and only one of a person's smile? I'm not picking out an architect here. The first time I look at that ad, I don't immediately recognize that it's a dental practice. Fail.

Way too much white space. The organization of the ad is also quite poor and nothing feels like it flows well. In addition, the text is way too small and all of the descriptions are generic in nature. There's also no mention of payment methods and no clear message about what this practice focuses on. I suppose "Family Dentistry" does that to some extent, but all dental practices are family practices so it's a given.


Ad 3

This ad overwhelmes the reader with text and information. There's so much on the page that your eye doesn't know where to go, so you're quite likely to skip the whole thing and move on. No one's going to work to read your ad.

Color is also missing and the overall organization of the ad makes little sense. That logo should be centered in the page and there needs to be an emphasis on a logo or design of some sort beyond the line under Smile. The mission statement should be centered on the top and the web site should be centered on the bottom. There are also way too many basic descriptions.

I'm not a fan of listing the years of experience. Seems to me like a dentist who promotes 12 years of experience is trying too hard to focus on time in the game rather than competence. I want the best dentist; not the one who's been on the block the longest.

I do like the star bursts around the new patient special and financing options. They do a fantastic job of drawing the eye and convey messages that will appeal to people shopping for a dentist.


Ad 4

Not too bad, overall. The phone number doesn't stand out enough in my opinion and I would not use pink as the color choice. I feel like the ad goes overboard with the list of services offered. There's no reason to list digital x-rays or preventative dentistry and most of the other descriptions are too generic.

I would shift the services to the right side of that ad and put the contact information right in the middle. I'd also try to nail down a better brand image, because this ad says they do it all which indicates to me that it's just a generic practice.


Ad 5

Best ad of the bunch, in my opinion. I'm not sure that I would go with that picture, though. Who cares about a night view of the city when choosing a dentist? In addition, I don't like the picture of the staff. This isn't Dewey, Cheatem and Howe Attorneys at Law. The formal attire makes the staff look stiff and uninviting. I'd also put the web site down with the phone number so that all contact info is contained in the same place. It's way too easy to miss the web site where it's currently listed.

The overall layout of the ad looks nice and conveys a lot of information without going overboard. Some of the descriptions could use better detail and I really don't like how Root Canals and Oral Surgery are the only two bullets that are on the same line. That looks like lack of attention to detail, which is a killer characteristic in a dental practice.

GOOD JOB! I like how you think and its obvious that you have a pretty good eye for this type of stuff. I am impressed

 

[lotexigeus]

Hammer, I am off this Labor day week from school and on my break I am visiting a 67 year old dentist that lives near my hometown. He is my mom's friend's cousin and is interested in me taking over his practice. What are some questions i can mentally bring with me to ask him? I am a D3 btw.

 

[armorshell]

Hammer,

How important do you feel "Mission statements" are, in so much as do you place a lot of value in developing the type of practice you want? I see so much information around about the "right type of practice" you should have as a dentist, but it seems like the "right type" would completely depend on personality, interests and the like.

You seem to be fairly on track with this if my assumption is correct, so do you have any resources or advice for developing a practice around a mission statement, especially one that's non-traditional like your "practice within a practice?"

 

[The Hammer]

Hammer, I am off this Labor day week from school and on my break I am visiting a 67 year old dentist that lives near my hometown. He is my mom's friend's cousin and is interested in me taking over his practice. What are some questions i can mentally bring with me to ask him? I am a D3 btw.

It is never too early to start looking at dental offices that you might be interested in buying. I am impressed that you are already thinking about your future now when you have plenty of more immediate concerns to occupy your thoughts. Having an idea of where you want to be in the future allows you to make decisions based on definite goals as opposed to just letting the chips fall where they may.

Even if you don't buy this practice the experience of evaluating the purchase of it will better prepare you for when you do find one that you want. You will have a better more well thought out idea of what you want and what you don't want and hopefully cut out any guess work. This will reduce the possibility of you getting burned on the deal so once again kudos to you for a great start to your dental career.

Ok here is what I would want to know and the questions I would ask on my first inquiries on purchasing the practice

1.How long has the owner practiced at this location. Where were they before that and did anyone own this practice before them and how long did they own it.

2. How many days a year do they work and what are their office hours.

3. How many hygienists do they employ and what days and hours do they usually work? How are they paid?

4. Once the practice is sold will they stay on for a transition period,

5. Do they own, rent or lease the office space. What are the terms of the lease?

6. How many active patients do they have and by active I mean someone who has been in at least twice in the past year. How many new patients on average do they see per month.

7. What sort of insurance do the accept. Do they take
any HMO or medicare. What percentage of their patients have insurance.

8. What sort of advertising or marketing do they do.

9. Do they do any sort of special dentistry like ortho, molar endo, Do they do anything that would normally be referred out.

10. Ask to see a fee schedule. Also ask what the over head is and what their percentage of collection and what they have grossed for the past 5 years.

This is enough for an initial visit. Eventually you will want to know have they ever been sued and what the outcome was. This is an important thing to know but I wouldn't bring it up on the first visit unless they broach the subject first. Good guestion

 

[The Hammer]

Hammer,

How important do you feel "Mission statements" are, in so much as do you place a lot of value in developing the type of practice you want? I see so much information around about the "right type of practice" you should have as a dentist, but it seems like the "right type" would completely depend on personality, interests and the like.

You seem to be fairly on track with this if my assumption is correct, so do you have any resources or advice for developing a practice around a mission statement, especially one that's non-traditional like your "practice within a practice?"

OK first you are dead on with the idea of "the right type of practice." The only "right type of practice" is one that delivers two things
1. The doctor and staff treat the patients ethically with the upmost care and respect
2. The doctor and staff deliver sound, clinically acceptable dentistry.

How the practice delivers on those two ideals is totally up to the vision of the doctor who owns the practice.

You might envision sound clinically acceptable dentistry as an all ceramic implant supported bridge. I might envision that same case as a partial denture because the patient is on medicare and that's all they can afford. Is one treatment plan better than the other or one vision better than the other? I don't think so, as long as the patient is getting good treatment that meets their dental needs I think that while different they are equally as good as one another.

So now lets talk about "mission statements." What they are, what they are used for and what different types there are.

To put it simply a mission statement is when you have a vision of what you want your practice to be, what sort of treatment you want to deliver and what your overall philosophy of how your office treats your patients and you put this into words as a statement of intent.

Here's an example. Let say that you envision your office as totally hi-tech, delivering cutting edge dentistry including sedation for nervous patients, Sirona Ceracs in every room, Cable tvs on plasma screens in every room and your goal is to deliver the highest quality dentistry possible. So your mission statement might go something like this:

Our mission here at Armorshell Supreme Headquarters for Oral Health is to help our patients achieve optimum oral health by delivering the highest quality dentistry possible. We do this by staying current with the latest techniques and technologies which allow us to give you the best that the world of dentistry has to offer in an exceptionally friendly and caring office.

This type of mission statement lets the patient's know that your office invests a lot of time in learning the newest procedures in the dental world but at the same time paying attention to the rest of the person attached to those teeth.

Or if you envision a practice that seeks to treat patients for whom finances are limited (like the office in AD 1) your mission statement might go something like this "Dentistry for All Ages and those with Special Needs" which is what they have at the top of their ad.

This mission statement is short and to the point. It is basically saying "Hey, we know you are broke but that's ok. We will help you out and not be a jerk about it or make you feel bad or ashamed."

Both mission statements work well. They both describe what type of services they provide and what the overall philosophy of how you can expect to be treated once you arrive for an appointment.

Next there are two types of mission statements:

1. The one for the patients
2. The one for your staff

1. The one for the patients
This is the type of mission statement that I have been describing above. It is the standard that you want your patients to know that you hold yourself and your staff to. A few things to consider:

I. Keep it short to around 2-3 sentences. Anything longer than that and you will start to lose the attention of your patients

II. Keep it simple. This is not the time to break out the flowery prose. You aren't writing a love letter to your patients, this is a declaration of will and intent. You are telling your patients that you will help them achieve a goal of health together. You want your mission statement to reassure them while at the same time to spur them into action

III Your patients will hold you to whatever standard you proclaim in your mission statement so don't write one that you don't ever intend on living up too. It may come back to bite you in the rear

2. Mission statements for staff

Personally I think that you should use the same mission statement for both staff and patients but I have seen some dentists who have two different mission statements. Usually the one that they have for their staff is a list of things that to be honest the staff should already know like
a. We will all show up in time for morning huddle, cheerful and leaving any personal problems at home
b. We will be respectful of our co-workers and gossip will not be allowed in our office etc

To me that is a little bit over the top and to be honest if your staff doesn't know to how to be professional already then I would invite them to work on that at another office. Also if you don't have enough authority at your office so that your staff understand that unprofessional conduct will not be tolerated then giving them '"the rules"under the guise of a mission statement is not going to help at all

So to answer your question, Yes I do find mission statements helpful when developing a new office. It is especially helpful for the staff to remember that this is the vision that we are working towards. When decisions or changes in the practice need to be made it is always useful to see if these actions reflect the vision of the practice as it is stated in the mission statement

Just remember that if as the doctor the vision of the practice is yours then you need to embody the philosophy of your mission statement at all times in your practice. You are the one who sets the pace and tone for your office. If you aren't doing it then your staff won't be either.

Wow, this may be the most "new agey, warm fuzzie" post I have done yet

And just for the record here is my mission statement from my last office

"Our mission at the Dental Office at Rockwood is for our patients to know that their oral health and well being is our highest priority. We are committed to ensuring that our patients achieve and maintain their optimum in oral health through superior service in an exceptionally caring environment.

 

[The Hammer]

AD 2

OK so now lets look at AD 2 and lets start with what they did right. The answer would be.......not much. They did get the name of the practice, the phone number and the address but to be honest I don't know that the ad is attractive enough to keep someone's eye on it long enough to impart that information.

This ad is an enigma to me because it is so bad. Usually the yellow pages sale people will have a few demos personalized to your office to look at so how this vast tundra of wasted ad space made it into the yellow pages is a mystery to me. This ad is the Da Vinci Code of dental ads.

So let's look at it together painful millimeter by painful millimeter.

1. The doctor's name is in a small font way over in the upper left column. As I have said before you want your name to be the first bit of information that your ad imparts. In this ad it is in a location that makes people have to search for your name, not good. Then underneath that in an even tinier font is the generic "family dentistry." They made the name one of the smallest things in the ad and put it in the most overlooked part of the ad and didn't even use a box to highlight it. The only thing worse that they could have done was to put it in a hard to read cursive font.

2. Right where your eye is going to go first we have the an incredibly unimportant piece of information "located in the heart of Germantown." Now if the city that you are located in has a part of town that is very well known like Chinatown in San Francisco or if "Germantown" is a well known affluent suburb like it is in Memphis then placing something like this dead center isn't a bad idea. But in this city, Germantown is an old historic 18 square block mixed zoning area that is undergoing some much needed urban renewal in not such a good part of the city. Even so the very small font that was used makes the location of the office look like a footnote.

3. Then we have my favorite part of the ad, the photos. The first photo is a very attractive young woman with a beautiful smile but it is followed by three photos of a building which I assume is the office. Now we have covered why a photo of a younger person smiling is a good idea. Showing a photo of your office is a good idea as well provided that you have a nice looking office. But these four photos together are just confusing. Who is the attractive young woman? Is she the doctor or just a patient. I'm assuming that the building in the photos is one of the "historic" building in that part of town where the office is located, but due to these pictures being small, black and white and lo-rez it just looks like an old non-descript building. This is the most important area in the entire ad and instead of having an important photo or text we have what looks like an easter egg from the final season DVD set of "Lost".

I could go on and on about this ad but I think you get the point by now. If the previous ad was "a little busy" then in comparison rigor mortis has set in on this ad.

 

[The Hammer]

OK before we dissect ads 3-5 I am going to post two of my previous yellow pages ads. One is an ad that I designed and the other is one that my ex-partner designed with some help from the yellow page sales person. I am also going to do something that is absolutely essential in your professional growth. I am going to critique myself and have you guys critique me as well. We will go over what works in these ads and what doesn't work. And please be honest, I appreciate constructive criticism. Hopefully by pointing out things that you don't think work it will get me to think in another direction and reveal to me things that I may have over looked. So here they are:

Hammer AD 1

Hammer AD 2

 

[8 SNAKE]

I like both ads quite a bit. The layouts and flow of both are great and you nailed the important info that has already been discussed. I'll mention a few tweaks and strong points that I see, since we've already talked about most of the good stuff and your ads nail the major points very well.

Ad 1

* Excellent map (uses major reference points without too much detail)
* I would swap one of those logos for a picture of a smiling patient
* The Perfect Smile and The Dental Office at Rockwood sort of compete with each other for attention and might confuse people about the name of your practice, so I'd give less emphasis to The Perfect Smile
* Pull out the credit card/insurance portion and put them on their own to stand out more
* Blow up the phone number a bit more for emphasis
* Move the mission statement down by the dentists' names to add personalization to the message and avoid confusion with the other message above it
* Ad something about orthodontics/braces under the Family section and Invisalign (if offered) under the Cosmetic section


Ad 2

* Has a little bit more "white space", which helps the aesthetics of this ad
* Love putting the mission statement above the docs because that makes it personal
* The shading effect looks nicer than a solid background color
* Not a fan of the specific picture for a few reasons
- One guy has a jacket and the other two don't (attention to detail)
- I can't tell those three guys are dentists, which should be evident in an ad
- I'd rather see smiling patients
* No map
* No mention of methods of payment
* Phone number needs to pop more, so I'd make it bigger and position it right below the name of the practice and logo
* Dentist names can go on the bottom where the phone number currently is

 

[Phlogicyde]

Hammer AD 1

Hammer AD 2

I like the first ad more than the second, although I think 8 snake makes a good point about The Perfect Smile possibly overpowering the name of the office. Also I'll admit that I completely missed the part about "Orthodontics" when I first looked at the ad. I would probably want to at least mention something about orthodontics in the bulleted area, especially if the orthodontic work was being done by a specialist.

The big thing that gets me about the second ad is the picture. I would have thought it would be best if everyone wore a white coat. I think the white coat conveys to the public the message, "I'm a health care professional and I take patient care seriously." While I think a suit or business casual sends the message,"I'm a doctor, but I'm also a businessman and I make a lot of money."

 

[ddsddsdds]

I like elements from each ad. The map and walmart lets customers know exactly where you are. The second ad mentions walmart but is easily overlooked, however even at a glance the first ad shows where you are located. Most people go to walmart and certainly everyone knows where it is located. The "new pts welcome" is inviting for someone who just moved to the area.

I like the overall design of the second ad better (white space and modern feel), but don't like the photo. In my mind a nonthreatening photo such as the DDS showing casts to a pt and showing the relationship/education would be more meaningful. The modern look of the ad begs for a website. Not all customers will go there, but anyone even remotely tech saavy would and then you'd have unlimited space to showcase your practice. I would consider both of these ads good and personally prefer them to all of the samples posted previously.

Just out of curiosity when were these ads designed? I'm guessing late 90s for the first and early/mid 2000s for the second.

Hammer, thanks for taking the time to enlighten us and help prepare us for life after dental school!

 

[shamrock2006]

I know many of the recent posts have been in regards to advertising...but I wanted to ask a question completely unrelated. I wanted to see what the thoughts are on working in a big city vs a rural area. I'm originally from a big city, my family is there and I'd love to practice there someday. However, as everyone knows, these areas are saturated with dentists. I know some people like to say "well, they have the population to support these dentists"..and "yes, there are a lot..but most of those practices have been around for many man years, so they must be doing ok". I'm having a hard time buying into these concepts. Anyone have any informative opinions/facts on dentistry in a very urban area vs not-so-urban? Is it common for these dentists to be just as successful? Any info would help