THIS WAY, WICKED WINDS MAY BLOW
About six or seven months ago, my longtime dentist, who I thought of as a friend, in a small practice, his wife and dog manning the front desk, suddenly sold to a DSO and disappeared overnight. No letter, no call, nothing. Quite a shock, actually. I have given the new corporate bumbling idiots a fair chance. Two appointments for hygiene. New X-rays because nobody has gone through and organized all the old records. The hygienist and dentist I met the first time were replaced by the second time. The whole ship appears unstable. A buyer buying not ready to buy? The second dentist showed me several brewing trouble spots on the X-rays and prescribed what should be done at the speed of the Daytona 500, earning a score of -2 on a 1–10 chairside manner scale. For some unknown reason, he apparently thinks he can just tell patients what they have to do. More importantly, in these six months and two visits, nothing was done to create trust. Nothing. No shock-and- awe package of literature, a book, a video about the company now owners of the practice or about the dentist. No “ask” to go to a website for that information and introduction. No concern call after each hygiene appointment. No thank-you note for staying with the practice. NO-thing. I have a theory that people as dumb as boulders about one thing may be that dumb about other things, too. Accordingly, I have gone looking elsewhere, for a dentist, staff, and office that I feel — important: feel — I can trust. Not eager to do that. I have better things to do with my time than find a new dentist. On the list of goals for the year, it wasn’t there. The buyer taking over this practice must be clueless. They bought me but did nothing to protect what they bought. No asset ever protects itself. Sadly, most big companies are dumb companies, and the bigger they get, the dumber they get. But, bluntly, most dentists know next to nothing about internal marketing, patient reassurance and trust-building, retention, or referrals. One of my books, “No B.S. Guide to Trust-Based Marketing,” lays out a very detailed rationale and case for selling trust first, products or services second. If you haven’t closed that first sale, the second one is damnably difficult to pull off. One sign of this failure is made, but then come canceled appointments, case acceptance, and then a change of mind. Patients quietly disappearing. From the standpoint of selling a practice, if you do have your act together with this, you will, by necessity, be educating your buyer and including a sophisticated, organized trust-based marketing system. If you are going to hang around and help with a trust-based, trust-building transition, that has great value. But it is value that has to be explained and sold if you are to be properly compensated for it. None of this should be an “oh, by the way” or a “normal and customary.” I even suggest presenting the transition plan with everything you’re willing to do itemized in it. Present at an open house, present at a dinner for V.I.P. influencers, letter sequence, video in which you introduce the new doc, what else? Your I.P. has value, too, along with copyright, trademark, patent- protected content and media. The person or entity buying a practice (or any other business) may think or assume they are buying the numbers: revenue, net or EBITDA, and number of active patients. But none of that is guaranteed. Every patient transferred to a new dentist and new staff has the question: Shall I stay or should I go? So, what is really being sold and bought is an opportunity. An opportunity to start with a base of past and active patients who can be wooed, who will give their attention
and consideration to messages from the exiting doctor and the new one. And who, frankly, have been under-marketed to. There is the matter of “blue sky.” Often, even with a well-run, successful practice, the doctor has chosen not to exploit all his opportunities. To not do certain very doable things. He may not have been using sophisticated data analysis to identify past or present patients who, by known criteria, are likely prospects for a particular service, and then market to them. Or to use data-analysis-built avatars for social media to find matches for. These are the sort of things that Parthiv Shah does for dentists and are part of his Dental Growth Machine. The dentist may never have exhibited at the annual home and garden show or set up a kiosk in the mall. Or conducted outreach to health food stores, salons, spas, and cosmetic surgeons. There might be a big list of “never got around to’s” or “just didn’t want to do’s” that belong in a comprehensive practice-building plan. Researched and presented properly, this allows selling “plus revenue” that doesn’t exist yet. A seller with ego set aside can “confess to complacency” made possible by having such a good practice, but that could make it a GREAT! Practice. Almost every buyer, corporate or individual doctor, has to believe there is something (or many things) you, the present owner, are not doing as well as they could. They may judge your spending on this or that, or your overhead as a whole, as excessive, and think they will bring better, tighter control or cost efficiencies across multiple practices. They may think your tech is outdated. They may, however, be impressed with other things you’re doing that they aren’t. A dentist client of mine sold his exceptional practice to a DSO, and it immediately hired him for several consulting projects in marketing, even while they considered him a poor manager. Another blew a progressing sale when he and his wife hosted
the buyers for a social evening, and the wives got along like two feral cats thrown together in a small space. The seller’s wife then “couldn’t bear” to put their legacy, patients, and staff in Cruella’s hands. It’s best to keep your attitude unemotional
for this. Personally, you can think what you like as long as you spell my name right on the check for the agreed-upon sum.
—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.
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