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Communication Programme’ to more than 5,500 delegates worldwide, spoke at every major UK dentistry confer- ence, written two books, have friends all over the world and have an incredible lifestyle. All because I made two telephone calls. Have you ever made a purchase and then received a telephone call from the sales person, or the company, just to say thank you and to see if you are enjoying the service or product that you purchased? I think it happened once in my life and when it did it made a real impact on me. So, why not call a few patients
a day at home to see if they are okay, especially if they have had a challenging procedure, and just ask them if they are alright and is there anything you can help them with? It will take probably less than five minutes to do per patient, but think of the impact it will have. Your patients will be not only impressed, but over the moon. They will tell their friends. Now, if you did this say
three times a day, five times a week, over 52 weeks, you will touch and be impressing over 750 patients. Do you think that will make an impact on your relationships? So pick up the telephone… it is good to talk!
Websites – no one cares that you have nice and friendly surroundings Most dentists make the mistake of seeing a website as some- thing that they “need to do” or even as a necessary evil. If you think like that it will cost you an awful lot of money. The vast majority of websites
don’t make money and a lot of research has taken place showing that the average time before a potential client leaves a website is eight seconds. In other words you have only got eight seconds to capture the interest of your client and keep them on your site. If the front page of the website talks all about you, how long you have been in business for and
that you have a friendly team with lovely surroundings, who really cares? My advice is that you must
see it as a very important part of your marketing because it can generate a significant amount of income to the practice. Please do not shove it onto your ‘web-guy’ who often is a designer and not a marketing expert. They might make your website very pretty and dynamic, but is your website ‘sales prevention’ or is it ‘creating opportunities’? So, please visit your website/
homepage and take the eight second test. Be absolutely ruthless! Does it engage you to want to visit all the other pages, or does it bore the pants off you? Your potential clients are interested in what you can do for them, not about you.
Ask for referrals – if you ask, people will say YES I could write a ı0-page article on asking for referrals, but one thing for sure is it is the easiest way of growing your new client base and, at the same time, it costs virtually nothing, just a thank you card or small gift. Ask all your nice patients
for referrals and they will introduce you to their nice friends. That is how the world ticks and you will be surprised at the results. Just by asking it will significantly increase the opportunities of receiving and generating more patients. At the moment they might think you are full. If you ask for referrals and
keep doing this every day, you will build up a steady stream of new patients. What you need to do is to thank the people that refer new patients to you. Simply by sending a thank you card and maybe a small gift, such as bunch of flowers for women, or book to a man you will delight your referrers and it just might encourage them to send you more. After all, how do you feel
when you receive a thank you card and a small gift as a thank you? It does not happen that often.
Scottish Dental magazine 35
Market yourself to the high end of the market – that’s where the money is William ‘Willie’ Sutton (ı90ı- ı980) was a profligate US bank robber. During his 40-year criminal career he stole an estimated $2 million. For his talent at executing robberies in disguises, he gained two nicknames, ‘Willie the Actor’ and ‘Slick Willie’. He is famous for his answer to why he robbed banks: “Because that is where all the money is.” There is still a large
percentage of the population, where this recession is having no impact at all on their incomes and life styles. They still spend money like they always have done and are still doing very well. My advice is to market to these people. Ensure that your patient base is made up of the high end of the population.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
personally coached more than 5,750 dentists and their team members on his two-day ‘Ethical Sales & Communication Programme’ all over the world. He is also the author of two books, the latest of which is called How to Communicate Effectively & Create the Perfect Patient Journey in your Dental Practice. To receive his FREE email newsletter, which is read by 10,500 people every month, please visit
www.ashleylatter.com to register.
For the last 20 years, Ashley Latter has
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