THE SMILE MAKEOVER MARKETING DILEMMA:
WHERE ARE THE READY ONES?
They need it, but don't want it. They want it, but can't "afford" it now. They walk in excited about the dream, and leave bewildered about the fees. How can you get the right mix of ready-to-accept-treatment smile makeover clients?
You've done everything the way "they" say and it's not paying off. You're presenting the smile possibilities, offering payment plans, and doing advanced cosmetic dentistry CE. You have all the shiny dental technology, the stylish new dental practice, and the greatest dental team. You even have a cool dental logo and a darn dental good website!
Yet you only average about one smile makeover case a month, less than seven units. Perhaps, you do a bit more but it's still not fulfilling. So why is all this *#@#$@! (or stuff) not creating the type of clients you want?
YOUR Situation & the Dilemma
OVERCOMING COST
DENTAL EXPERTS CHIME IN: How to increase smile makeover sales
ONE DENTAL Service to Victory!
OTHER INCOMPLETE PLANS Offered to Achieve Smile Makeover Success
THE SMILE MAKEOVER Gap is Widening
THE VALUE STRATEGY CHOICE
MOVING BEYOND THE INSURANCE MENTALITY: The cable industry's rise provides insight
HOW DOES CABLE TV'S HISTORY help solve the smile makeover dilemma?
CONCLUSION: Dentists & Consumers Need to Believe in & Choose Value to Achieve Success
YOUR SITUATION & THE DILEMMA
- Okay, you're not in a fast growing, high income, and style conscious area. (However, those dentists call about my dental consulting services, too.)
- Maybe you don't have everything in the repertoire noted above. (Of course, some dentists doing well don't always have it all either.)
- Then again, it might be that you never learned how to sell the sizzle as effectively as the clinical. (But that's probably why you're a dentist rather than Mercedes sales executive.)
These personalized situations increase the complexity and compound the dilemma. But there is more. Read on...
How can this complex dilemma be overcome? There are three simple answers: Drill, Bill and Fill. Remember the simpler days? But now there are many, many answers. The DBF concept hopefully reveals to you a familiar truth: the simplest answers and cheapest solutions aren't always the best. Yet most people want and expect simple and cheap in most of their purchases/services.
The universal high fee purchases that the average person--making more than minimum wage--will accept are home and car purchase, and a college education (their own or kids). Almost every other purchase is either subsidized by insurance or is a choice that is more individual in nature.
How many people go to a GP or a dentist when their employer pays nothing? How many people smoke, don't exercise, and eat out all the time (which often means eat wrong/too much), and then complain that health insurance is now taking too much from their check? This fickle and sometimes perplexing nature, we all possess in some form, creates the dilemma that marketing or some form of "communication" needs to overcome.
Here's an example of this fickleness that is more closely related to smile makeovers: The hourly worker might spend $12,000 on a bass boat but never expect to pay $3,000 or more out of pocket for their dentistry at one time. The upper middle class person might spend $75,000 on a sailboat but blanch at $25,000 for their mouth.
Of course, boats are used by many and can be resold; and only one person uses each mouth and reselling it has not gained acceptance by anyone, as far as I know. Yet, many times the dental patient's objection is the fee that they "can't afford" even with recent substantial purchases under their belt and/or in his or her near future.
This availability of discretionary income means the market for smile makeover services is legitimate but few dentists have penetrated the wall of "cost" acceptance. While this wall can be erroneously built, getting around it is crucial.
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OVERCOMING COST
Cost is not the only dilemma in gaining smile makeover clients. Understanding value is very important in overcoming all objections including cost. Building this type of value is a complex challenge. Overcoming it is often insurmountable in the very short-term, but attainable if a "system" of purposeful communication is developed and sufficient time is allotted.
People want your solution--they just can't "afford" it, which usually means they cannot fathom the value of making that decision right now. Think of how many parents who are not making much money and will still get their children braces. Why does their kid deserve a nice smile? Of course, they want the best for their kid, but where did this value position come from? It does not seem like this child/parent "perfect smile" connection is always present.
For example: Why do some parents in the same "struggling" financial position value other "expensive" things for their children, but not the smile value proposition. Even parents who can afford many "expensive" things for their children sometimes do not value the "perfect" smile for their children.
From an adult smile perspective: Many dentists tell me they have upper income patients who have below average smiles (from an esthetic and/or health perspective) who don't highly value their smiles. They drive up in very expensive cars, take regular exotic vacations, or own two homes, and then say, a smile makeover is not for them: please do the minimum.
Obviously, there are cultural, social and intergenerational reasons for this lack of "perfect" smile valuing. But there are also gaps in how this dilemma has been tackled within dentistry and the general media's attention to this topic.
With all this baggage, can the smile value position be changed in your patients or in local consumers? Yes, but mostly on the margins for now (maybe deeper when today's twenty-year-olds are in their 40s). Fortunately, there are a ton of baby boomers now, which makes this small margin big in actual numbers.
It is a margin baton you can grab and run with to success. Of course, that is easier said than done. Let's look at how some have tried to get it done.
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EXPERTS CHIME IN: HOW TO INCREASE SMILE MAKEOVER SALES
- Dental marketers generally recommend...
- Sending out mailers/running some ads
- Creating a website
- Working on referrals
- Dentist image consultants say...
- Develop a logo/brand/identity
- Make a splash in the media/do an extreme makeover
- Provide comfort amenities/display your expertise
- Dental practice management groups put together internal strategies in...
- Scheduling
- Procedural fees
- Current patient marketing
- Dental practice designers get you to...
- Add the latest technology
- Upgrade your building size and presentation
- Provide structural amenities and comfort areas
- Dentist or Dental Team consultants/lecturers/teachers have you...
- Get your dental team pumped up
- Enhance your clinical skills (cosmetic/function)
- Offer extra services: sedation, bite guards, invisible braces, laser whitening, etc.
All are good dental marketing ideas. Maybe you have tried many or all of these, even other marketing techniques. Although, if you are reading this, chances are they did not bring in a ton of smile makeovers. Why? Value is difficult to promote: dentistry is easy to promote. Dentistry is what people "think" dentistry is, not what is to you and what you know it can be for them.
The reason every item above is still associated with "dentistry" is because these things are often put together in a haphazard fashion. Take for instance the "recent concept" of sedation dentistry. Often this concept is patched onto the practice strategy without considering all the reasons people avoid the dentist and what they ultimately want from their treatment. I call this the marketing "savior concept".
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ONE DENTAL SERVICE TO VICTORY!
One concept or service won't save you. But it is often chosen because the dentist wants results and the "savior concept" has a track record of results. The savior concept also is easy to implement and so it's easy on the brain and seems gentler on the pocketbook.
Unfortunately, the savior benefit often loses its value two or three years down the road (or in less time). This is something the "track record" often overlooks - long-term results. Plus no other image or expertise development has been done during this time to create a matrix of value.
The CEREC has been used as a savior. "Get your teeth done fast" is a great benefit but can reduce the perceived value of expertise if it overwhelms your image. Every dentist in the country, within a couple years, could "offer" sedation dentistry, CEREC, BriteSmile, neuromuscular dentistry and other major or minor savior concepts (procedures, products or treatments). This means most dentists cannot effectively "savior-concept their way" to success, because it is a never-ending product introduction process.
Of course, there is a need to update your products and treatments, but these should not disturb the value of your main or umbrella smile makeover image.
Savior concepts are about "dentistry" (its treatment and product benefits). These concepts are not directed at the "emotional person" inside all of us, and are not focused on your specific expertise/image.
To attract more smile makeover clients, the consumer needs to understand value in a larger context than the benefit a pill (sedation) or a machine (CEREC) can offer. We are emotional people and we need more than a list of benefits, especially when spending 20 times or more than what we usually pay for our dentistry.
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OTHER INCOMPLETE PLANS OFFERED TO ACHIEVE SMILE MAKEOVER SUCCESS
The dental practice management groups come in with a comprehensive internal plan, but often do not develop an external campaign. Yet, these elements are interlinked when it comes to smile makeovers. External helps internal and vice versa; together they more effectively build value. Alone they achieve one-third or less of the success possible.
Having a great team and deep CE expertise is not enough to break through this value barrier. These elements need to be let loose--through external marketing--on a larger audience than your current core of patients.
Bluntly, you might have built up the "wrong" patient base over the years for various reasons. Many of your current patients can be value transformed, but creating a public presence and adding new blood to the mix can push value to the front faster.
Dental consultants often focus on referrals as the "best way" to influence behavior. Yet, this is not very effective with smile makeovers - especially if the referrer has not had one. If you do one makeover a month, it will take you years to build up a solid smile makeover referral base. Plus the value ladder they need to climb is enormous - your referral agents need help to make this efficient and successful.
Many that come into your practice don't really understand how you and things have changed. They cannot wrap their minds around the value of your expertise and the value of a new smile in a few visits. You need to move your communication away from dentistry, as the consumer knows it, and out into the public.
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THE SMILE MAKEOVER GAP IS WIDENING
While many consumer and patient minds are stuck in the past, things can be changed ands are changing. These things are changing in a societal way and because of major media exposure to the general makeover concept.
There are predictions that health care will garner as much as 30% to 50% of our income in the future. Yes, this has a lot to do with "spiraling" health care costs, but the other more vital reason is that we are "demanding it" as a society. As the wealthiest country, many are able to transition their purchasing power far beyond the basics.
In addition, many general consumer items are made by someone overseas making 10 cents on the dollar: giving even those with a not-so-big paycheck more money for health care. Smile makeovers can be a larger portion of that spending if the value of it is communicated to this group effectively and on a regular basis.
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THE VALUE STRATEGY CHOICE
The value building strategy does not have to overwhelm your budget; but it won't be cheap. Then again, the Drill, Bill and Fill strategy still works for many in marketing and dentistry. You, like your patients, have a value choice. What will you choose: simple, cheap patchwork or comprehensive, perfect results?
Even cosmetic dentistry can fall into the DBF realm. Do you present cosmetic dentistry or advanced, lifelike restorative dentistry as just another service or is it your strategy?
Many marketing groups do good "dental work". However, to penetrate the value dilemma, your strategy cannot be based on some generic model of mass dental marketing that is usually associated with a lower value concept such as half price offers. The smile makeover client is a "one-person" communication focus, not an amalgamation of 200 million adult consumers.
Mass generic marketing is a low value presentation, which can diminish the expertise of the doctor by using services offered as a main focus. These generic pieces usually try to hook the consumer on some type of procedure rather than building up value in the overall concept of smile makeovers and the dental expert creating them.
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MOVING BEYOND THE INSURANCE MENTALITY: THE CABLE INDUSTRY'S RISE PROVIDES INSIGHT
We all like free (or no out of pocket) services and cheap stuff when the service or product works in our favor in some basic way. It does not have to be great just enough: like a social security check.
Therefore, we often put off even great value laden ideas: saving for retirement is a perfect example. It takes life experiences and communication from various sources throughout our lives to move us in the value direction.
I think the rise of the Cable Television industry provides a good example of a fee-for-service service that competed against a free service and won out eventually. It shows how value building is a cumulative effect. That value is not built around one service because all services create value together. That finding the right audience can be better than trying to cater to all audiences.
The cable story also relates to how the "free" (paid by insurance) concept of dentistry stays in the minds of dental patients. It is the often thought or stated smile makeover objection: "Why should I pay more? When what I have been doing for years works fine and is free or much cheaper!"
History: Cable television began in 1948 to feed traditional network programming to places where it could not reach otherwise. It took until about 1970 before it was reaching more than one million households. Then deregulation occurred in 1972. This was a fierce battle between the status quo (big 3 Networks) and those who wanted to offer more programming to a regional or national audience.
Satellite transmission and HBO came on to the scene at the same time to boost and spearhead this national diversified programming alternative. In the 1980s it was ESPN and MTV that gave it a much broader national consciousness and a larger audience. But it took until the 1990s to reach 90% percent of households. Now coverage is at about 97%.
While some of the reasons why it took so long to become a commonplace service were technical in nature and capital costs, a major reason was that it cost money. Television had been free for most American for almost two generations. Why should I pay for TV when quite a lot of programming that I still value is absolutely free? The value barrier was very high even though costs were only about $20 a month.
They could get some of us to buy in early because of specific programming: Sports fanatics for ESPN. Movie buffs for HBO. Music junkies for MTV. Yet this was not enough for the general consumer who was still satisfied with what the Big Three were dishing out. They needed to offer something for everyone.
The value proposition had to grow extensively. This would take time. They not only had to convince people; they had to create tons of bad programming to find the gold nuggets. Some people did not get cable until the Sapranos came out.
And of course, some of the "third generation" of TV viewers had to start making these buying decisions to push cable into the mainstream. This third generation was brought up under this new concept in TV. In the case of smile makeovers, it will be today's 20 year-olds that will push the concept into the "commonplace" when they hit their 40s.
While smile makeover penetration might never be 97% of the public like Cable TV, the service can find a place where the consumer with the financial (loan or cash) wherewithal wants and gets the latest procedures to improve their smile. Just like those who buy the "extra things" of today: the Harleys, the third vehicle, oversized SUV/4X4 trucks, or expensive bass boats.
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HOW DOES CABLE TV'S HISTORY HELP SOLVE THE SMILE MAKEOVER DILEMMA?
How is Cable TV's rise in popularity related to your smile makeover strategy and how can you make its example work for you? It is on four levels:
- Overcoming the "not covered by dental insurance" mentality.
- Making dental care services/products part of the strategy, not THE strategy.
- Focusing on the individual not the general consumer
- Building your image overtime with a consistent strategy
1. Overcoming the "not covered by dental insurance" mentality.
- Build up tiers of value by increasing your value evidence internally and publicly
- Present value consistently to overcome the "why pay more when I like what I get cheaper" dilemma
- It can't be done during one consult or with one slick ad running 50 times.
- Tell them about your CE, expertise, and unique training
- Show them the evidence (Before and After photos - yours if possible)
2. Making dental care services/technology part of the strategy, not THE strategy:
- Betting on great one "savior" channel did not make the cable industry a success
- Make your image the overall "cable industry" -- don't bet on one "channel" to save you
- State that you are a smile makeover practice not a bunch of dental services
- This is not to say you cannot serve many audiences/people (not just the wealthy)
- But you cannot serve all audiences, which is what the Big Three TV networks did in the past
- Being perceived as the Big Three, is to still be associated with Drill, Bill and Fill
3. Focusing on the individual not the general consumer:
- Don't hammer consumers with mass marketing to get quick results
- Cultivate a "History Channel or HGTV" clientele not an Ed Sullivan variety show audience
- Slow down and assess who has accepted your smile makeover dentistry
- Rediscover almost/former patients who wanted but didn't accept a makeover
- Develop a cohesive campaign that walks the consumer up the value ladder
- It should not be seen as expensive dentistry - but a very valuable lifestyle choice
4. Building your image over time with a consistent, individualized/personalized strategy:
- As you wait for the 3rd generation to call you--who see Extreme Makeover as the "norm"--stay focused on your goal. Those cable systems that got out of the industry prior to 1980 are still kicking themselves.
- Have at least a three-year plan to implement all the elements
- Employ small, image-protective intermediate strategies to get things moving
- Concentrate on three core messages that you repeat with various perspectives
- Update the presentation of these messages every six to 9 months
- Be consistent so when they're ready, it's you talking to them not your competitor
- You will need to try/test things (make mistakes) to find real solutions
- Build "community support" with appropriate Public Relations
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CONCLUSION: Dentists & Consumers Need to Believe in & Choose Value to Achieve Success
Few dentists will choose this careful and pragmatic method of marketing. Some dentists are in the perfect situation. Others can sell you the shirt off your back. Another group is too busy to bother with it: results now please!
The other group sees value in how they practice dentistry but do not see the value in a similar marketing approach: "I shouldn't have to sell/market my dentistry image carefully because I have a great product and it will sell itself. Why should I pay for the painstaking, personalized value approach? It's much more expensive than the turnkey system."
While this value approach is not for every dental practice, it makes sense for those who want a larger smile makeover client base to evolve their marketing in the same way they've evolved their practice of dentistry. Both a successful (lasting) smile makeover and a successful marketing endeavor in this environment require proper assessment, planning, preparation, testing, refinement and implementation with regular re-care.
Once again, you have a choice just like your patients. It is not an easy choice for them. It is not an easy choice for you. But if you do start to provide consumers with the right information in the right way at the right time, everyone can benefit.
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Dental Marketing Commentary by Dental Marketing Consultant and expert in dental marketing research, Dick Chwalek - Niche Agency Director
For more on Dick Chwalek's dental marketing expertise, read his articles. The article topics include choosing the best dental logo design firm, getting better dental referrals, getting larger smile makeover cases, and standing out in the dental marketing crowd.
While not a dentist, Dick is well versed in many of the latest dental techniques and dental technologies. Recently, he wrote an advertorial for Dr. Kent White of Chattanooga on Neuromuscular Dentistry.
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