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I spent three days last week attending a non-Dental marketing meeting attended by some of the great thought leaders.

And interestingly, there were a significant number of Dentists and Dental industry people in attendance, to let you know that this was indeed a place of relevant importance.

It was an intense meeting.

Three full on days from 8:30am to 9:30pm, then 8:00am to 9:15pm and 8:00am to 3:30pm.

Jam full of serious marketing information, on how to really look at the marketing of your business.

For any business, but easily applicable for a Dental Business.

Your Dental Business.

It’s at this point that I’ll often hear the naysayers cry out:

“We’re not marketers. We’re doctors!”

They’ll say:

“Our job is to diagnose. Not sell!”

Well I say that if that were true, then why bother putting on a clean shirt and polished shoes?

If all we’re meant to be doing is offering our professional opinion, then what we look like, and how we look and how we present should have absolutely nothing to do with anything, because it’s our professional training, and our professional opinion that our patients are coming to see us about.

Well heck, why should we even shave or comb our hair, then?

Truth be told, marketing and “selling” of Dentistry and Dental Services is just as important as the doing of the Dentistry.

It is our role as Physicians to diagnose and present and treat all the disease and illness we see in our patients.

And to do that we need to be masters of communication and influence.

Not because we want to coerce and deceive and “trick” our patients into having their dentistry.

We need to be masters of persuasion and influence because way out there, in the big wide world, there are so many other *Big Shiny Objects* competing against our Dentistry in the minds and the wallets of our patients.

First and foremost.

And that’s before we even look at and consider the increasing supply of Dentists and Dental Service providers out there competing for the Dental Dollars of the community.

Fact is, that most Dental Disease is passive aggressive.

It’s often painless and uneventful.

It can manifest itself and reveal its presence only at the last minute, when treatment via routine means may be too late.

As such, because of this hidden lack of urgency and awareness, the simple act of presenting treatment needed to the client or customer can become quite complex and difficult.

In an ideal world, presenting a wound or purulent sore, on the outside of the body, is a simplistic alternative.

“See pussy wound. Fix wound.”

Easy to do.

Easy to present.

Easy to “sell”.

Inside the mouth?

A different story…

“Where is it Doc?”

“That little thing?”

“But its not hurting Doc?”

As Dentists, in the patients’ eyes, we’re often diagnosing the invisible.

And the painless.

And as such, by virtue of this, we need to be on top of our game and be masters of our craft.

The craft of marketing the importance of treating and completing all diagnosed Dental illnesses.

Because our failure to master our craft only creates Dental liabilities.

If we do not present all that we see, and complete all that Dentistry, then we have failed our Customer.

We’ve created a Dental liability.

We’ve allowed a patient, with necessary treatment needed, to leave our Dental Office and roam the streets with a Dental time bomb…

A liability waiting to happen.

And that’s not fair on the customer.

Because pain, and discomfort and inconvenience can rear its ugly head at the most inopportune and inconvenient and inappropriate times.

Not fair.

It is our role as business owning physicians, to make sure that we do not add to the Dental liabilities of the community in which we work.

It is our role as business owning physicians, to master and hone the necessary communication skills and techniques that result in our valued patients not only wanting to have their Dentistry done, but wanting to have it done sooner.

As soon as they can.

Rather than later.

Our role is to create a culture of patients who not only leave with an appointment, but who leave wanting to bring that next appointment forward.

And are happy to receive a call to do so, if an earlier appointment arises.

And a world like that is possible, with the right communication skills.

If we fail to communicate the necessity and urgency of the treatment we see is needed, then we are allowing our customers to go out into the big wide world and spend their dollars on electronics, and travel, rather than their health.

And we’ve let them down…

Our role is not to allow the uneducated to determine the urgency and necessity of their health.

Our role is to treat.

Our duty, to our community, is to be as good at completing that treatment as we can be.

By doing anything less, we’re not doing anybody any favours.

We’re letting our customers down…

*****
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*****

The Ultimate Patient Experience is a simple to build complete Customer Service system in itself that I developed that allowed me to create an extraordinary dental office in an ordinary Sydney suburb. If you’d like to know more, ask me about my free special report.

Email me at david@theupe.com

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