ORTHOBITES me straighten your daughter’s teeth. I would love the opportunity to evaluate (at no charge) your other children for orthodontic care. And, if you are satis- fied with our results, please tell your friends and family that we would love to have them come in for a complimentary orthodontic and general dental health exam.” You will invoke many “dental mission- aries” employing this simple technique. And if this makes you feel uncomfortable, employ someone in your practice to do this. It works. n Enlist your staff. You have built-in sales people who believe in you. Sales is not a four-letter word – it is five! Be sure that from front to back you have your staff talking orthodontics. Provide orthodontic models in the operatories, place posters about orthodontics on the walls, place your orthodontic certificates of completion in plain view of your patients, have an “orthodontics sign-in sheet up front – even if you only have two patients; have every staff member, espe- cially the assistants and hygienists ask the patient if he/she likes his/her smile. Have them explain that your office offers a complimentary orthodontic evaluation. And you should be ready to jump on this opportunity like a spider on a web! n Give away a free Panolipse. If you are digital, this cost nothing. The patients are waiting for you. They believe you can do orthodontics if you tell them that you can. They do not want to go down the street and meet Dr. “RO Jones”. They trust you and your staff. They do not want to estab- lish a relationship with another office. They like you and your office because you understand their needs. They know you can do the braces; you told them you could. They really want to simply know the costs involved; what their insurance pays; how long it will take; and how can they pay their out- of-pocket expenses. n Call your orthodontic banding and bracketing patients in the evening. Do you not realize how powerful this is? Think of it – the patient is sitting at home with their family or out to dinner with friends. Their phone rings or they receive a text asking them how they (or their child) is doing from their appointment today – from their doctor! Talk about a “drop your jaw moment”! And they will immediately tell others that their dentist actually called them to see how they were. This is very powerful and it is also mentally rewarding to you. Try it for a week and see what happens. n Keep carnations and potted plants around the office to give to patients. I always give the ladies a flower, whether they are 7 or 87! Ladies love flowers. And if the bracketing took longer than expected or there were some discomfort moments, I give the patient a potted plant in a cute vase. By the way, a good gift for the guys is a spin brush by Crest. It is cheap and it may lead to the patient purchasing a Sonicare. n Have other giveaways on hand. I have several compli- mentary, personalized items in the office. I keep pens everywhere with my office address, phone number and website or I give away coffee mugs with all of our practice data and our office logo. Some- times I place a toothbrush, floss and a tube of Oxyfresh toothpaste in the mug to “wow” them, and I have always had magnetic business cards around and they are stuck on refrigerators or coffee makers all around my area in homes and businesses – an easy access to my contact informa- tion. Patients love little perks like this. And they use the pens and coffee mugs every day. Fig. 1 External Marketing Supplements Your Practice With Additional New Patients Ideally, these patients who respond to your prac- tice become future internal marketing folks. Fig.1 demonstrates how the cycle of external marketing works. External marketing is hard to truly track to the exact referral source. A patient may see you on a bill- board; see you again in a magazine; hear or see you on radio or television; receive a direct mailer from your office; have a dental problem, look you up in the yellow pages; and may check to see if you are a preferred provider on their insurance. In other words, the more you put yourself and your practice out there for people to see, the more success you will have in external marketing. Don’t forget the internet. It is becoming more powerful everyday for attracting new patients. Visit our website, www.gfdental.net. We get a lot of expo- sure from this source. I personally budget 5% toward external marketing. Some doctors I know budget as much as 10%. The key is to do whatever you are doing repetitively (at least five times). www.orthodontics.com May/June 2010 15
Journal of the American Orthodontic Society May-June 2010: Page 15
