Butts In Ops

The Butts In Ops Comprehensive Marketing Program (BIOCOM) is now full.

However, I am accepting applications to start in October 2010.

To learn more, click here to download a 12-page PDF file, a Special Report, on how you too, can increase your production and collections.

If you’re wanting to generate $20,000 to $40,000 or more, per week, in production and collections, you’ll want to pay very close attention to this completely renegade approach I’ve personally developed and perfected over the last 15 years, to flood any dental office with all the new patients you can handle. GUARANTEED.

To learn more, click here to download a 12-page PDF file, a Special Report, on how you too, can increase your production and collections.

I do only work with 10 private clients at any given time and as of this writing am accepting only 2 new private clients.

Yellow Pages, Internet Advertising, Newspapers,
Postcards…What Do I Do To Get More New Patients?

This is a common question asked by most dentists looking to grow their practice, especially as the economy tightens and kind of sort of tries to recover. There are ever-more ways of communicating with potential patients, especially given the wide-ranging reach of the Internet.

Can you attract new patients from Google®? Yes. But, I caution all of my clients nationwide to beware the lure of “easy patients” and companies that stack big promises without tracking and or guaranteeing satisfaction at the least and results in some cases.

What about the Yellow Pages? Yes. You still can attract new patients from this source. And, in fact, with many dentists abandoning the long-standing 800# gorilla, there’s more potential in that particular media than in years past. Having said that, eventually, the Yellow Pages may go away as an effective medium to capture the hearts and minds of new patients.

Are newspapers still viable? Yes. Absolutely. In fact, one local practice reported a very good response from a “niched” newspaper targeting a specific demographic of patient, seeing excellent results within a matter of days after the publication date. It’s done well enough they are running it a second time this month.

Postcards? Can you still really attract new patients with postcards? Yes. And, yes. In fact, postcards, mailed by themselves, are as effective now, as ever. With the economy souring many direct response marketers using postcards and letters to attract new business have halted or cut their marketing budgets, which means your mailed message is getting a lot more eyeballs than in the past 5 to 7 years due to nothing other than lack of competition in the mailbox.

Many of my clients have been mailing postcards for years – and coincidentally, they are some of my most successful clients – several with large, multi-location, multiple doctor and specialty offices. I myself mail postcards each and every month, having dropped about 5,000 this month alone with a very, very respectable ROI.

So, which one do you do?

My answer: As many of them as possible, with the caveat, that as long as the ROI (return-on-investment) is positive, you keep at it.

Before you embark on spending any money on attracting new patients from external marketing, take this quick quiz about what your practice is doing now for existing patients (Which have the power to double your practice in one year or less if properly managed and incented!):

1.) How many referrals are you receiving from existing patients, on average, each month, now?
2.) Have your referrals dropped off recently? If so, what staffing changes, if any, have you made? Yes or No
3.) Do you receive/benefit from referrals from other sources, outside your existing patients? Yes or No
4.) Do you reward your referrals in some fashion? Yes or No
5.) Do you recognize your referring patients and the referrals? Yes or No
6.) Do you recognize birthdays of your patients? Yes or No
7.) Do you communicate with your patients via written word, outside of billing statements? Yes or No
8.) Do you have a system in place to encourage referrals from existing patients? Yes or No
9.) Does your office have a culture that encourages referrals from existing patients?
Yes or No
10.) Do ALL of your team members refer friends, family and others to you? Yes or No
11.) Do you have signage in your office indicating referrals are welcome? Yes or No

I probably don’t have to tell you that the more times you answered “YES” to the above questions, the better your referral numbers probably are.

Surveys to my clients nationwide indicate that for every 1,000 active patients in your practice (‘Active’ means they have a “next” appointment scheduled with you.), you should have roughly 200 new patient referrals each year, or between 16 and 17 each month. If your numbers are higher, you’re doing a lot of things, right. If your numbers are lower, simply do what it takes to change your answers above from a ‘No’ to a ‘Yes.’ Right? Right.

The fastest, easiest way to increase patient referrals and change most of those Nos to Yesses is to send (good old regular US Mail) a regular monthly, patient newsletter.

To learn more, just call my office at 503-339-6000 to request a free information package about our News From The Office™ patient newsletter and referral program.

Or, click here.

Sadly, many business decisions are made absent clear thinking – or, in other words, “accurate thinking.” It’s a term I first heard from an early mentor, Dan Kennedy.

During “tough” economic times, it’s common to see decisions made that dramatically affect long-term equity while sacrificing healthier short-term cash-flow…not all factors are given equal consideration – knee jerk reactions dealing only with short-term numbers, often rule.

Read more about marketing/advertising decisions involving “Accurate Thinking,” here, at my blog.

I wrote this blog post recently for my other website, the Business Anarchist.

Feel free to post your comments. You’ll quickly see where my thoughts about Social Media are headed. At the worst, it’ll be highly entertaining for you! Enjoy…

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[WARNING: What ensues is more time devoted to social media than it deserves. It's a rant, a warning to those "drinkin' the cool-aid," and please, if you CAN show me the money, DO IT. I'm begging to see real, irrefutable proof all this social media crap has some legs to it!]

Books have been written about it (even dentist, Dr. Jason Lipsomb, has penned one), there are websites that are nothing but ‘it,’ professional social media “experts” crawling out of the woodwork, and I gotta wonder: Is there an end in sight to it all?

I’m betting…YES. MySpace is gone. Facebook’s next. Twitter – Honestly, do you really, REALLY care what the hell I’m doing on a Saturday with my kids? I’m bettin’ not, especially if you’re a potential customer considering giving me money in exchange for Butts In Your Ops.

I will say Gary Vaynerchuck’s book is good (Crush It) on business sans the social media part.

Dentists are now even reading and writing about it in their trade magazines. 2 whole pages were dedicated to it in the February 2010 issue of Dental Economics. Worse still, the author heavily mis-quoted information from a source cited in his article. Those mistakes can happen, but I’m willing to bet no one will “notice” and no retraction/correction reported. Lesson: BE CAREFUL what you believe and VERIFY.

Look, I LOVE advertising, I LOVE marketing. But, my love falls short if there’s not anyone able to step forward and say, “Hey, here’s what’s happened to my business and these are the short-term/long-term benefits of relying on social media as a plausible, long-term strategy, and, THIS IS THE MONEY IT’S BROUGHT IN.” Full-on, detailed stats.

I want proof it all works. ANY of it. I want someone tracking the TIME invested into all this “free” social media so we can get a true reading on the cost of it all. (No one seems to believe sitting down and writing fifty, 140 character posts “hey, I’m changing a diaper on the kid right now. phew, it’s stinky,” has a cost to it.)

Vaynerchuck, in his book, “Crush It,” outlines one campaign where Twitter, at a cost of “zero,” brought in 1700 customers. Other “media” brought in less. He argues, “no cost” to Twitter, so a better deal, right?

Sounds great. But, until I know the economics of repeat-ability of that campaign (how likely he could do it all again and generate another 1700 customers), & how long they stayed as a customer (vs. customers acquired via other means).

In business, there are certain customers that arrive to your door from certain media that last longer, spend more, spend more often than others and my entire career, I’ve noted those referred to me by a human (not a 140 character Tweet yet, or a Facebook posting yet) and those that come to me from books I’ve written or events I’ve created and they’ve attended, are the far most valuable customers I can get.

Of those 1700 customers, there may be no depth to them at all…all one-shot wonders. Or, perhaps you’ll get a hundred or 200 out of 1700 that might stick. When compared with the other media, how does that factor stack up? I’m willing to bet, not nearly as good.

What about ROI – nothing in his book mentions ROI?! What was the total order volume for each media used – billboard, twitter and direct mail?

How many of each media are now repeat customers, 14 months later (he did this in December 2008)?

All that matters in business. Long-term customer value far more important than initial. Equity vs. income. More often than not, when my immediate needs are met, I’m chasing and storing equity with my clients to use later. YOU should be too, and I question whether social media will allow you that ability?!

People talk about building “relationships” and customer loyalty when you engage in social media.

If you could build a relationship posting pictures and living via electronical tweets and posts with customers, then you oughta be able to pull it off with your wife and kids, eh?

Then, there’s education – you can “educate” your customers or prospects via social media. How do you do that in 140 characters without directing them offsite to another website? That’s the same damn thing as a banner ad, a google ad, a postcard, etc. SOMEONE is paying for Twitter, somehow. SOMEONE is for Facebook, too. It’s called a TIME investment.

Do the patients you need to drop big duckets in your practice hang around reading “tweets” and posts on Facebook all day long? Doubtful. Really, really, doubtful. The last person I want as a client is someone so grossly engaged in virtual reality (Internet socializing, not real, noes-to-noes, sweaty-palms stuff) that when they DO get results from what I do (putting Butts In Ops), they’re so weird and fragmented no one will do business with them because they are not digitally enhanced.

Successful people, people with drive, determination, something going on in their lives, are not living on or in “social media.” I don’t care what the stats say. I spent a few months engaged in it all, but really, I had enough of high school in high school and to me, that’s all Facebook was and remains to be…that and goofy people trying to direct me to their videos and join their groups and tell me how high of a score they got on some game. It was like “greeters” day at the local Chamber of Commerce. Not my cup of tea. But I’m sure it’s gotta be good for someone?

[See my previous post about Brian Tracy's thoughts on all this crap...He said, "There's not a penny in it to be had."]

What’s the missing link and why WON’T social media ever really work?

I’ll tell you: Social Media is wholly inadequate for building a meaningful relationship with a real client or prospective client. It’s attention-deficit to the extreme.

But, right now, it’s hot, it’s selling and everyone wants this “FREE” media to work. News for ya bub, it’s light years away, I think, if ever.

We’re 10 days into February and the year’s taking off like a top-fuel dragster and I’m having a blast!

If you’re considering Private Client Status here at Butts In Ops (aka Jerry Jones Direct), where you have me personally working 1:1 with you on a practice newsletter, postcards, PR strategy, etc. (virtually ANY marketing and advertising strategy and business growth strategy you can think of), I do have 1 slot remaining.

Thanks to the fellas that’ve raised their hand already – I’m honored. My team (all 2 of us!) will take good care of you. It’s going to be fun working with you and seeing your practices grow in 2010! It’s a welcome site to be working with familiar folks.

A bit of “proof is in the eatin’ of the pudding:” In a non-doctor-managed practice, revenue grew OVER 25.3% last year with my guidance. Not just advertising/marketing, but hiring, firing, practice growth strategy, the works…Yes, SofTouch put up some record numbers – to the tune of over $371,000, on two days a week, in 2009.

That means a non-doctor-owned dental “practice” (the doc’s got the charts and is 100% solely responsible for clinical care) grew 25+% in a recession. Imagine what a doctor-owned practice can do in a recovering economy? I’ll bet twice, three-time as good.

Ready to get things rolling? Submit an New Client Application. Let’s get things started!

I include the terms, “Guilt-Free” in as much of the dental advertising for private clients as possible.

Why?

People generally carry around a tremendous amount of guilt not having been to the dentist in some time. It’s THIS market segment that has the most need, which translates into have the most opportunity for dentists. You see, it’s this group that knows better, but life gets in the way and prevents them from taking care of themselves. They harbor guilt for not taking care of their body, particularly, their teeth.

That doesn’t mean you say one thing in your advertising and then, do another when they arrive. If the office cannot handle with certainty, interacting with patients without throwing blame, guilt, etc. around, then, it’s not a good strategy.

On the other hand, if your office is really good at putting new patients at-ease, and relieving them of guilt and you’re just happy to have them at your practice, then, this “Guilt-Free” strategy works very well.

My “Guilt-Free” postcard is one of several proven postcards you can choose to send to prospective patients around your office.

Today I was at the SofTouch office and noted the last patient of the day was a respondent to the last Guilt-Free postcard I sent in 2009. She’s had a little of $2,500 worth of work done, and today, started 2 crowns.

These little advertising pieces really work.

To learn more, just schedule a free consultation, here.

Starting February 2nd, I’ll be conducting 3, 1-hour teleseminars, at absolutely NO CHARGE.

They will take place Tues, Wed and Thur, February 2nd, 3rd and 4th, from 3PM to 4PM Pacific (6PM to 7PM Eastern).

Here are the date/topics:

Tuesday, February 2nd: How to use Postcards to Double, Even Triple New Patient Flow in 48 to 72 hours.

Wednesday, February 4th: Time Management & Peak Productivity Secrets from the business anarchist. How to get more done in less time and make more money in the process.

Thursday, February 5th: The business anarchist’s approach to “How to use Patient Newsletters to DOUBLE Your Annual Referral Numbers.” Snag my 15+ years of experience with Dental Patient Newsletters and put ‘em to work in your practice.

There is no registration required for these events. The call-in information will be sent to anyone who has “opted-in” to my lists at this website or DentalMarketingTips.com or JerryJonesDirect.com.

Questions? Post ‘em below and I’ll answer ‘em.

“See ya” on the phone, soon!