VE POWER OF REPARATION
common way to play the game, but are you common? You only get one shot at getting this right. This is where imagination came in. Walt Disney said, “There is no shortage of money — only of imagination.” I just read portions of a client’s draft copy for a presentation to sell his practice. It has three pages of an almost poetic ode to his wonderful patients. He describes who they are, their values, how appreciative and respectful they are, and how well they refer. Another few pages extol the virtues of living in the area where the practice is located. The distance to a major city and its airport without city life; happy, calm suburban/semi-rural life; small town community; and good schools, even down to its surprising “restaurant row” with great variety. It says: Now you can live where people come to vacation, it’s so great here! Of course, the buyer might fear that small town equals small opportunity, so there’s a map of the big area around the practice stretching all the way to the big city, with dots placed where every patient in the past 12 months lives. It shows people coming from surprising distances, with reasons stated. This is all about what we ad guys sometimes call “romancing the stone,” in tribute to the diamond industry: selling dirt and gravel mined by the ton, setting its worth by a made-up measurement, and setting the price at a year’s salary. Mr. Gamble of Procter & Gamble said, “Any idiot can make soap. It takes a genius to sell it.” He’s right. Any idiot can do the math. It’s better for you to infuse imagination and genius to romance the stone. Almost everything has a price range, not a governing price formula. A new 4WD SUV — from $30,000 to $150,000. Pick a product or service, including yours, and you may find a pricing formula exists, but you’ll find a wide range of deviation from it. So it is with a business or practice for sale. Remember that you are selling your life’s work, turning off your earned income faucet, and exiting. You must get paid as well as you possibly can. And it’s not a bad haircut. It can’t be fixed. For an interesting example of romancing the stone in an ordinary business, read my series of Giorgio letters in “The Ultimate Sales Letter” book. The book is also a useful guide for assembling your presentation of your business for sale.
get excited to buy. A brilliantly painted, beautiful, inspiring picture with them in it is a way of doing this. There is a terrific TV ad for Valencia retirement communities in Florida that has a couple, your stand-ins, walking around,
experiencing it all, saying to each other: Can you SEE us living here? Can your potential buyer SEE himself owning and operating your practice? See it become his? Because completing a sale can take time, with due diligence and negotiation over weeks to months, the buyer’s excitement and desire must be kept hot. A great new patient signs for a big treatment plan — share that good news with your potential buyer. The local art galleries are hosting an “Art Walk” — invite your buyer to join you. Make sure he’s getting your local community newspaper, ideally with your best ad in it. Get him and his spouse “into” the community. (This is how retirement communities sell; they invite prospects to participate as if residents for 30 to 90 days.) You might also let him shadow you for a day in your practice, one you know will be busy and interesting.
Thorough preparation gives you confidence and instills confidence that can be transferred to the buyer. —Dan S. Kennedy
Dan S. Kennedy is a much sought after direct marketing strategy consultant and copywriter, helping build brands and businesses like Perfect Smile® and Proactiv®, America’s #1 acne treatment, MiracleEar®, and Medicare Express. He is the author of the bestselling series of “NO B.S.” books, including the most recent “No B.S. Guide to Succeeding In Business by Breaking ALL The Rules.” As a speaker, his long career includes nine years on the largest public seminar tour in America, alongside four former U.S. presidents, countless Hollywood and sports celebrities, great marketing founder-CEOs like Debbi Fields (Mrs. Fields Cookies) and Jim McCann (1-800-Flowers), and legendary speakers including Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, and Tom Hopkins. His own seminar events have featured celebrity-entrepreneurs like Gene Simmons (KISS), Joan Rivers, George Foreman, and Kathy Ireland. The entrepreneurs’ organization he founded can be looked in on at MagneticMarketing.com. Over 30,000 dentists, chiropractors, and other health care professionals have been in his audiences.
Consider this example:
Imagine your pride and your family’s and staff’s pride at owning THE crown jewel of practices in the area, with its well-established brand and reputation. And imagine coming home at day’s or week’s end NOT exhausted or irritable, because of the sterling quality of its grateful and respectful patients. Imagine being a popular “king” of your small town but with a big city market area and a big income. Few practices can deliver on such thoughts. TELL ME A STORY AND MAKE ME ITS HERO My old speaking colleague, the late, great Zig Ziglar, taught that selling is more a transference of feeling than a presentation of facts. People need to
Stan Kinder - (703) 298-1690 · 11
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