Next Meeting: 6/19/09 - 11am ET /10am CT /8am PT / 7am Alaska - Dentist Access Code: 789982#

CLICK HERE for a chart to look up your NEW LOCAL DIAL IN NUMBER to be on Friday's call

During last Tuesday's Study Hall we (I/Jeff and Eric) talked with Maxine from Dr. Johnson's office about low 'conversion' rate or case acceptance just recently with new patients.  It's on pages 6 through 9 on the transcript.

As Eric & I discussed it may be the general economy or just a blip on the radar screen that will correct itself next month.  I've not gone through training on case acceptance delivery and conversation structure BUT I would give you some marketing ideas that might help.

Start Testing Different Ways Of Saying / Presenting / Asking For The Okay To Schedule / Perform / Approve the Procedure To See If There Is A BETTER Way.

Let me give you an example that is different BUT you can apply the TESTING process.

I have a local client that's an art gallery.  A couple times a year they will 'show at fairs' meaning are juried in and have a booth/tent to sell their paintings and other art at the fair.

These fairs have 25,000 people come through so there's plenty of traffic and sales.  Their problem?  When someone buys art at a fair the gallery wasn't collecting contact information to be able to bring / invite them BACK to buy more art at their local gallery.

Plus mailings are expensive (their words) and they'd rather send emails BUT they we NOT doing a good job at collecting them at the point of sale.

Historically their BEST artist (meaning business minded person) at the sales table, while the buyer or art paid, could only collect email information 25% of the time.  One in four.

To both explain and prove my point about TESTING WHAT YOU SAY (artists have a hard time understanding marketing) I worked their booth for 2 days straight, taking money and asking for email addresses.  What was MY success rate?

Day one was 75% and day 2 was 80%!  I think I collected over 130 emails from art buyers.  So why was my success rate THREE TIMES theirs?

At the beginning of the 1st day I began testing different ways of asking for the email.  I tried to put myself in their shoes and think "what would I be thinking if someone asked for my email address at a fair right as I was buying a painting, a flower vase or some jewelry."?

I thought I'd probably NOT want to be sent tons of emails (I get too many already) and there'd have to be a good reason WHY I'd give it out, other than just being asked (which is what they were basically doing before).  So here's what I ended up saying that worked the best.  (Note, this is after I'd asked for their name, had written up their receipt and their purchase was being wrapped.)

I'm not a psychologist but I think this particular WAY or STRUCTURE of asking did 2 things.  Up front I'm telling them they will only get 1 EMAIL A MONTH (and not be swamped every day) and there's some element of exclusivity or scarcity (a persuasion principle) about being invited to the gallery reception.

Was I Being a S.M.A.R.T.  A.S.S. Marketer

(System, Measure, Analyze, Response, Test)?

Regardless of my Psych 101 skills, in the course of AN HOUR on day one, I began saying/TESTING different phrases, combinations, wordings to come up with that script.  Yes, I wrote them down.  Yes, I chicken scratched (I MEASURED) the ones that got a positive RESPONSE and ones that did not.  Yes, I quickly ANALYZED the the results.  AND I integrated all this into a little SYSTEM that would be followed up with an email series (now and forever) that would invite them to the receptions at the gallery.

IS THIS THE SAME AS ASKING PATIENTS FOR A $3000 IMPLANT PROCEDURE?  No.

But you can apply the marketing concept to it of Testing a Conversion point in your patient lifecycle to see (just maybe) whatever you're doing WELL now, can be improved on in some way.

You may not get a 200% INCREASE in effectiveness like I did AND it may take weeks to test different ways of case presentation but I bet if you TEST this concept of TESTING, you'll improve your numbers TO SOME DEGREE and that is better than doing nothing.

To learn what SMART ASS means, go to the replay or read the transcript if you missed the call.

Celebrity Is Another Way To Help Improve Case Acceptance

Being FAMOUS is another way to preempt issues of making a decision or price resistance.  If you can be an authority or a celebrity of sorts in your area and with your patients, it can improve your conversion rates.

This is what we'll talk about on Friday's call on 6/19 11am ET / 8am PT.  Your access code is:  789982# and your new local number (pick the best one for you) is on this link. 

See you on the call Friday!   Suzanne & Jeff and the Marketing My Dental Practice TEAM

PS.  We're BUILDING A STRONGER VAULT FOR YOU - click here to get to it.