I’ve been marketing dentists all over the country for about a decade. In this time, I’ve learned quite a bit about how they interpret information. Understanding how to best communicate with my clients has allowed me to provide custom marketing solutions in a timely way.
I know each dentist that I meet is different, but for fun, I have come up with the 3 types of dentists that I most enjoy working with. Here it goes…
The first type of dentist that I love working with is The Perfectionist. These are the meticulous men and women who enjoy big cases, cosmetics and often advanced services. When interviewing the perfectionist, he or she will tell me that they are “really good dentists” technically speaking. I find many general dentists, prosthodontists, endodontists and oral surgeons fall into this category. They talk about how their work almost never fails and how much continuing education they’ve received. They are often excited about the latest and greatest technology and can’t help but talk about their gadgets. This dentist may enjoy photography or another artistic hobby. This doctor is going to want a website that shows ALL of what he or she can do. I often have to remind the perfectionist dentist that EVERYTHING CANNOT STAND OUT. I help them to prioritize information and selling points for the best ROI. Once I establish myself as the expert and show them that I too am a perfectionist in my field, it’s smooth sailing. I must always explain exactly why we chose a certain layout, font style, color, photo, phone number placement, etc. The perfectionist dentist is a GREAT client for me, because he or she is an open communicator and will give me the feedback I need to make sure he or she loves his or her website. When working with the perfectionist, I must be sure to give him or her deadlines. It’s too easy for this type to slip into paralysis by analysis. It’s up to my team to set deadlines to keep projects moving along. We’ve become experts at working with these doctors and pride ourselves in embracing the characteristics that make the perfectionist doctor GREAT at dentistry and patient care.
The second type of dentist that I love to work with is the People Person. Often times this doctor entered the field because he or she had a parent or relative that was a dentist. This dentist loves talking with the patients and building relationships. He also loves talking to his or her patients. When interviewing this doctor, he or she will tell me about giving back, mission trips or community involvement. He or she will also mention providing high quality work, for the benefit of the patient. This dentist values team training and his or her team enjoys work. This dentist may suffer from the tendency to run late, as he or she gets wrapped up in discussions with patients and team members. This dentist feels energized when he or she can change a patients’ life through dentistry. He or she prefers to build his or her practice organically and sometimes feels guilty about marketing or advertising. I often have to tell this dentist how marketing can benefit his or her community. The exposure allows residents to know he or she is an option. Orthodontists who fall in this category often do very well because they not only establish bonds with patients, but also with referring doctors and local business owners. It’s always a pleasure to take this doctor’s phone call. He or she often starts the call with, “How are your children?” or “How is the weather in Chicago today?” He or she truly enjoys connecting with others. It’s easy to market the sociable doctor, once we get past his or her underlying feeling that “marketing is unnecessary or bad”. This doctor has a very difficult time letting go of an employee. Once this doctor understands how marketing can help him or her to connect with more, great patients it’s smooth sailing.
The third type of dentist that I love working with, is the business person / CEO. This is my personal favorite, mainly because I relate most to this type. On occasion I get the pleasure of working with a dentist that views his practice as a business. He truly embraces his or her role as CEO and wants to build the practice to its full financial potential. These doctors are money motivated, and understand what it takes to grow a business. They read their monthly reports and will even call to discuss them if something doesn’t make sense. This is the doctor that can tell me instantly on a first phone call how many new patients they are seeing on a monthly base and where they are coming from. This doctor is likely to attend business related CE courses and may even consider hiring associates and opening additional locations. This doctor enjoys building relationships and also has an interest in technology, but isn’t afraid to market those points for both his/her benefit and the benefit of his or her community. This doctor has confidence and isn’t slow to let go of a sluggish or underperforming employee. It can be a challenge for this doctor to stick with a given marketing campaign long enough to see results. Setting realistic expectations is vital in working with this type.
All of our clients have the same goal: to grow their business. All are excellent at serving their community by providing excellent oral health. All enjoy helping people. All have some strengths in business. I personally love working with dentists. I chose to focus my business in providing marketing solutions for dentists exclusively because I saw a need for ethical solutions for dentists. I saw many companies were not taking the time to learn about what makes EACH dentist different and to market EACH business individually. I saw that many other marketing companies were not taking the time to learn about the doctor’s specific goals and pain points and do things to help. I love the field of dentistry and I love working with dentists and their teams. It’s rewarding to contribute to an area of work that is undervalued and under appreciated by the general public. Through marketing, we educate the community about the importance of oral healthcare.
