Jon Petrie

Or are they inadvertently hindering your growth?  With so much activity in the M&A market, it is important to determine who is on your bus – meaning, are the people you work with aligned with your vision and positively contributing to the overall development of your organization? Or are they off the bus, meaning that they somehow negatively impact your progress and impede growth. Many smaller groups that I work with experience significant growing pains through the 5-25 affiliate range because smaller inefficiencies that could once be lived with become larger obstacles as the group continues to grow. This is a critical period for the organization because (a) how you set up your practice sets the template for the progression of your org chart and ensures you have the right people in the right place to ensure your vision is met, and (b) the people you have in place will begin to include outsourced services that need to understand your objectives for long-term growth. Accurately and smartly determining what outsourced services you require is vital and will ensure that the companies you employ are able to embrace your vision and ensure scalability. Although the company may be very good at what they do, are well-intentioned, and have a good track record, at a certain point, you may find their services limiting, and as you evolve and grow, you need to continually ask whether they still suit your needs. Are they on your bus? A perfect example is within your marketing plan. There are many critical points along the patient journey – the path a patient takes to consider, find, schedule, and stay long-term at your practice – and without an overall cohesive strategy, this path can become disjointed, full of gaps, and marred by inconsistency … or worse, suffer from a duplication of effort as different companies implement similar or redundant features. Having multiple providers helping with different stages of this journey can be beneficial when your organization is small, but as you grow, consider how these multiple touchpoints are compounded by the number of affiliates, each with different providers, using different yet similar strategies. Knowing this to be an area of concern, many growing groups will hire a Marketing Manager to coordinate the multitude of efforts by the different providers, which may relieve issues for a small period of time. As you continue to grow though, the Marketing Manager will face increased pressure to connect-the-dots between the different service-offerings at each company and the preference of each affiliate. As an example, I recently started working with a small group in the Southwest. The Marketing Manager was tasked to source a new business intelligence (BI) platform and consolidate the KPI reporting at the executive level. She began by vetting five different companies, sitting through five different introductory meetings, participating in five presentations, and then considering five different proposals. Each company offered varying degrees of marketing automation tools which forced her to investigate the tools already in place at each affiliate and consider the ramifications of replacing them. If you are reading this, you probably have had a similar experience. Near the end of the process, I asked how she was progressing, and she admitted the process was exhausting and that she was more confused on how to proceed than when she started! At the end of the day, you need to be able to scale your process for successful onboarding of new affiliates and you need to have scalable marketing strategies for the practices you manage, which means that eventually you will need to consolidate and find providers who have the ability to grow with you. Here are 6 Key Questions To Answer When Consolidating & Choosing A Marketing Service: 1. How wide and varied are the product offerings within the marketing company? Are they a one-size-fits-all proposition? Do they fall back on the same solution or offer different solutions depending on the circumstance? Do they offer online and offline strategies for growth? No company offers everything you may need, but do they check the boxes on a minimum of 80% of the services you require in order to consolidate? 2. Are they responsive? Are you able to connect with someone directly, or do you have to process requests through a ticketing system? How quickly can you get hold of someone should an emergency arise? Do you have a team dedicated to your account that understand the specific needs and goals of what you are hoping to achieve? Are they proactively servicing your campaigns by offering suggestions on how to improve the results, or waiting for you to ask questions before engaging? Are they making your life easier, or do you feel like you are “doing all the work” and constantly following up? 3. Are they experienced in working with groups that are a similar size as you? Can they outline a detailed onboarding process with set timelines and clear steps? Are they agile and able to adapt to your evolving needs? Are they able to adapt to different, and unique scenarios that may arise? Do they take the time to truly understand the big picture – your unique big picture – or do you feel like they are trying to fit you into their pre-defined solutions? 4. Are they, as a marketing company, continuing to evolve? Do they continue to stay ahead of, or on top of, ongoing trends within the industry? Can they speak skillfully and knowledgably to new technologies/marketing strategies and are they able to consult with you rather then talk at you? Are they able to recommend knowledge experts within or outside the company to help you to navigate possible strategies? 5. Do they communicate a clear and measurable return on investment? Are they able to clearly communicate the return on investment in an accessible and consistent way? Do they work with you to report on the KPIs you and your executive team wants to see? Are you able to view results at a granular and an enterprise level? Do they work with you to improve results, and do they strategize with your team to optimize returns? 6. Do you trust them? Besides results, do you truly feel that they have your best interest in mind? Are they showing you, in action and deed, that they want your organization to exceed its goals? Have they displayed the qualities you are looking for in a long-term member of your team? These are just some of the many factors you will need to consider as you look to consolidate your marketing efforts. Finding an outside marketing agency to be an extended member of your team may take a few tries before you finally land the right one, but once you do, you should feel confident that they are in lockstep with your overall vision – that they’re on the bus – and that they are working hard to help you exceed your goals. Instead of constantly working with multiple vendors in trying to align efforts, your Marketing Manager can now move on to “trust-but-measure mode,” ensuring the results are their primary focus. If you are in this position – consolidating and choosing a leading-edge, responsive, experienced marketing service – please reach out to me. I would be happy to consult with you and your Marketing Manager to see if we might be the great fit you need.

Your dental market is resilient & its long-term outlook is positive The past 6-months has been one of great uncertainty and unprecedented change, particularly within the dental industry. Even today, the industry continues to hold its collective breath. Recovery is slowing down for average practices with production around 75% of pre-COVID levels (per the ADA, although Patient NEWS clients have rebounded strongly with production back to the 100% range in the summer, likely due to our marketing/patient-centric client focus). Without dental services being declared essential by all levels of government, many dental practices continue to be at risk of future closings. For mergers and acquisitions (M&As), this uncertainty has forced many large group practices and DSOs to take a more-cautious approach when pursuing larger transactions or to halt activity altogether. But as the old saying goes, while the cat’s away, the mice will play, and the void left by the lack of larger deals presents great opportunities for smaller, well-funded emerging groups. Jeromy Dixson, CEO at Dental Capital Partners & The DSO Project, recently had this to say about the current climate: “The impact of general economic uncertainty, a presidential election in November, and variable conditions at the state level have created short-term valuation uncertainty. The result has been a slowed market for larger DSO transactions in many cases. Conversely, the market for single or small group acquisitions by existing and well-capitalized (not overleveraged) DSOs is experiencing heightened activity and interest.” The dental market has proven to be resilient. The long-term outlook is extremely positive. Dr. Anthony Stefanou, Founder and Managing Partner of Connect-the-Dents DMD, CBI, M&A, and DSO advisor, and Business Intermediary sees it this way: “While these are challenging times, dental practices will thrive and prosper in the next few years. The long-term value of a dental patient is higher than it has ever been. There will be a plethora of practice opportunities available as more dentists will retire in the next 2-5 years than ever before, AND, even more importantly, many practices currently in their ‘peak years’ have dentist owners who still love, and want, to do clinical dentistry but are not in love with providing administrative services, especially in this environment.” But that is not to say that the initial transition won’t be a little rocky. I have worked with several emerging DSOs, from a communications and marketing perspective, who have taken advantage of the current market by acquiring several affiliates in a very short period. It’s an exciting time and working with these groups is very rewarding, but it’s important to remember that without the proper internal resources and infrastructure in place, the details of transitioning these practices can become overwhelming when not handled systematically and efficiently. Setting aside HR, collections, leasing, existing supplier contracts, etc. (the list is extensive), the existing owner may have let aspects of their practice lapse that don’t immediately present themselves while conducting due diligence. Dr. Stefanou recommends that, “In addition to continuing to be more efficient in reducing overhead/expenses with current affiliates, emerging DSOs should just as equally prioritize the importance of optimizing ways to differentiate themselves (overall and per affiliate) and improve communications with current patients and in obtaining new patients, especially in year one post-acquisition. This is best accomplished by working with experts with proven track records working with dental practices.” Here are the top 7 things to consider when transitioning a new acquisition: Mail a printed letter to existing patients, announcing the new ownership structure. Effective communications should include both mail and email campaigns. Establish the communication cadence pre-, during, and post-transaction to ensure the information reaches patients on time – with increased touchpoints at this critical time. Mail reaches 100% of your patients’ households, and you’ll want to support the news and information with a separate email cadence. A smooth transition will be strengthened with assurance from the outgoing owner, so you want positive messaging from both the outgoing owners and new management. Communicate with the patients’ perspective top-of-mind including images of current and new team members. People inherently don’t like change, so it’s important to reassure them that they will still experience the same great care (or better) than they’ve come to expect from the practice, and when patients know that great team members will stay with the new owners, it will add further confidence and trust. Conduct an audit of existing marketing. Take a look at the dental patient Journey and complete a gap analysis to understand the missing components for potential or newly acquired practices. What are the pre-existing contracts in place and when do they conclude? What is your commitment to these contracts now that the practice is under new ownership? What were the previous owners doing to attract new patients and to keep existing patients? What is working and what isn’t – what was the return on investment if any, for any existing marketing campaigns. Conduct a detailed assessment of the affiliate’s online presence. Is the existing website up to date, optimized for mobile use, and secure? Will it require a brand refresh, team and service updates? Are there any PPC/Google AdWords campaigns currently running? Are there existing Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google My Business, or Twitter sites? Are they up to date and active with consistent, regular posts? What is their review score on Google, and are they attracting positive, new reviews week-over-week? Be sure to get administrative logins for each of these pages as soon as possible and lock out anyone not associated with the team moving forward. Complete a detailed analysis of the market area . This may have already been conducted as part of your due diligence, but now you’ll want to revisit the findings from a marketing perspective. Where is does the current market share reside, where are the most valuable patients and how does this relate to your growth plans? How many other dental providers are in the area? Are they impacting practice growth? What special offers do they promote and how can you differentiate? What does the area look like from a demographic/socioeconomic standpoint? What messaging will attract your target audience – should you promote based on price-related offers, convenience, value, or the services offered? Define your top three marketable attributes – your competitive advantages – and make sure they are designed to the area demographic to attract. Observe the first new-patient experience. What percentage of inbound calls are answered live? How effective is the team at scheduling new patients? How warm and inviting are the on the phone? Is there ongoing training/coaching to assist in new patient conversion? How will they handle questions about the new ownership, new pricing, new services, new providers? Are they prepared with positive patient-focused scripts to help alleviate the fear of change with existing patients? The front-desk team can make or break a new acquisition, so you’ll want to pay special attention to how they react and communicate this change to your patients. Your brand and ongoing patient communications. New ownership/management could mean a new brand, or you may wish to consider the value and positive equity of the existing brand, and that needs to be incorporated into how you will communicate with patients. What brand message do patients need to know – and share? Patient newsletters by email and mail, review requests, appointment reminders? Is there a membership plan that will convert non-insured patients to higher value patients? Can you generate more referrals from existing top-value patients? How will you tackle non-scheduled, overdue, lapsing, and danger patients? Consider using a full-service marketing agency that you trust to handle the details. As you continue to grow, the number of companies you will have to deal with to handle various parts of your marketing for each affiliate could be overwhelming. Managing various brands, stakeholders, and programs for each affiliate is complicated. I’ve had the pleasure of working with dentist owners and operations managers to assist with these components on a location by location basis. It’s easy for us to support you; we have the manpower and the expertise to guide you – and Practice ZEBRA, ZEBRA Enterprise dental software that includes reporting at the solo, region, and group level to give you clear visibility of group results. Marketing campaigns work best as a cohesive whole – not as different, isolated initiatives – and working with an experienced company like Patient NEWS, and me, will take the burden off you and provide you with leading-edge, exciting, informative programs and not a collection of silos that are mismatched, inconsistent, and that don’t support each other. So, although today’s environment presents its own set of challenges, the climate is open for those who are well-positioned to see the potential before them. Call me today for a free consultation.

5 indications that it’s time to work with one trusted agency In certain critical areas of a group practice, centralization can ensure profitability, efficiency, alleviate growing pains, and provide a coordinated effort to achieve objectives. A recent article by the Dentist Entrepreneur Organization (DEO) states it’s a must to centralize certain functions of a group practice in order to grow at a sustainable rate. While it may seem like a considerable initial investment…

3 tips to help you break down silos that hinder growth One of the things that holds group practices back from achieving the level of success they desire is being plagued by the silo mentality. It’s a common problem that affects all types of business, and group dental practices aren’t immune. Different departments compile different reports that only look at information from their perspective (i.e. marketing and number of leads). The bigger picture is seeing how many new-patient inquiries are being generated, how many are accepting treatment plans, how much production has been generated from these patients, and finally, how many are scheduled for future appointments. This is how you get a full 360-degree view of all operational aspects of the practice. One of the key ways to achieve this is to ensure dental teams (executives, practice managers, marketing consultants, etc.) have access to clear and concise data that supports business decision-making, marketing planning, and delivering a consistent message and patient experience – organization-wide. In a recent article by Chris Salierno, chief editor of Dental Economics, he goes into depth about how silos can “cause friction” for group practices and dental service organizations. In his concluding statement, Salierno shares this valuable nugget of wisdom: “DSOs and group practice management will clearly benefit from overseeing multiple practices that are able to freely share information in the same format. Indeed, those practices will be able to work together more cooperatively if they speak the same language. Now, go and find your silos (both obvious and hidden) and bust them down to the ground.” That brings us to practice intelligence and how it can get all the key players at your group practice seeing eye to eye. What is practice intelligence? In short, practice intelligence tells the story of what’s happening – behind the scenes – at your group practice, both throughout the organization and each individual office. Without getting bogged down on technical details, this technology connects to your practice management software to bring all your top metrics and trends to light. You know it’s accurate because it’s coming straight from your offices. One of the challenges group practices have is their data usually comes from disparate sources. A sophisticated tool brings this information together in one central location and presents it in an easy-to-digest format by you and your team members, regardless of geographic location. This is far more efficient than trying to gather – and make sense of – reports from multiple sources. And it’s this high-level view practice managers and executives need to see to pinpoint areas in need of improvement. Examples Of How Advanced Practice Intelligence Breaks Down Silos For Group Practices To stick with the theme of this blog, I’ve put together a list of five examples of how a sophisticated practice intelligence tool makes it easy to pinpoint gaps in your operations as well as see where your teams are thriving. Take a close look. I’m confident you’ll quickly discover the value of connecting to practice intelligence. 1. Improve Patient Acquisition And Retention Efforts What’s the percentage of patients you have scheduled for a future appointment at each one of your offices? What’s the average annual value of those patients? What about the net gain and loss of patients? You may think one of your offices is having a fantastic year because you’ve gained a thousand new patients… but what if you’ve lost more than that? Do you have the answer? Many practices are shocked to discover this is their reality. It could be happening because of perceived indifference – the patient’s belief that the practice isn’t doing enough for them and doesn’t care – or a combination of reasons. But as soon as it’s spotted, the appropriate players can find out why and develop a retention strategy and implement it to reduce the number of patients slipping out the back door. The percentage of patients scheduled stat measures how many patients are connected to your practice at this moment. In other words, it’s the backbone of retention. Top group practices schedule at least 80% of their patient base, according to data we’ve gathered. 2. Call Conversion Says Everything About Your Front Desk Are all your offices answering at least 90% of inbound patient calls and converting more than 75% of those calls? Those are the all-star numbers you want to achieve – across the board – in order to be amongst the top 10% of all dental practices we work with. Once again, practice intelligence brings that information to the forefront in one easy to scan summary. Immediately you can see which offices are struggling to convert new patient inquiries into appointments. From there, your team can get a full list of metrics that show how individual call handlers are performing. Then, these team members can be offered phone training to help them get more new patients into the practice, as well as schedule more future appointments and provide the exceptional customer service needed to improve patient loyalty. Understanding how well your team is doing at handling new patient inquiries and where they struggle will allow you to improve your new patient experience and your bottom line. After all, each new patient you don’t get is a loss of $700-$1,250 in the first year. And it takes 24-50 new patients per month to achieve sustainable growth. You just can’t miss out on these precious opportunities. 3. Discover Your Digital Presence Analytics And Adjust Online Strategies When Needed Tap into how many new website visits your practices are getting, the average length of time spent on each site, and even how many online reviews are being generated. From there, you can drill down further to analyze how specific pages are performing, where visits are coming from, and how top keywords are performing in comparison to the competition. If you notice that certain sites are underperforming, you’ll find great value in these metrics. Are any sites missing key information (i.e. calls to action, keywords, services details)? Is there an airtight SEO strategy in place to get sites to rank high on Google? Are all business listing up to date, including the Google My Business page, for each office? If you’re investing in driving traffic to these sites with direct mail or other print marketing, you’ll want to optimize every website for the best results. These are just some of the important questions to consider when poring over your digital data. Conclusion A practice intelligence tool that brings all this information and more to the surface will not only help eliminate perilous silos but improve harmony throughout your organization. You want everyone working together efficiently and with the bigger picture in mind. It’s what will boost profits, production, and group practice growth. Practice ZEBRA™ makes it possible to get on the right track. The group practices I work with are using this technology to their advantage to track everything related to marketing and practice performance. I want to connect your group practice to this game-changing tool and partner with you to make 2020 a year for the record books. A FREE demo is now available! You can reach me by phone at 888-377-2404 . YES! I want a FREE Consultation!

Achieve your organization-wide goals in 2020 2020 is here. How strong is your dental marketing plan for your group practice? But first, have you had a chance to evaluate how last year went? Did you hit your production, patient growth, and revenue goals at each of your offices? If not, you need to meet with your office managers about team performance and how they’re meeting the expectations of patients, but also examine the full spectrum of marketing initiatives you have in place. It’s also vital to look at how effectively your teams have been managing the patient journey. This journey (see more in tip #3) affects what patients think of your brand. It’s the combination of these five stages that make for the full patient experience. Once you’ve gathered this critical intel, it’s time to establish the overarching goals for your business going forward as well as the transformation you’d like to see at each individual office. It’s the sum of those achievements that will lead you to your major wins. Ideally, this type of planning would be completed in advance of the fiscal year. But don’t fret if you’re not there yet. Once you know what your group practice goals are, have a look at these 6 tips we’ve prepared for developed a unified marketing plan that will help you reach those goals. It’s not too late to adjust what you already have in place. Group Dental Marketing Tip #1 – Review Your Budget Before committing dollars to your dental marketing plan, you must determine where you’re currently spending too much, too little, or just the right amount. Doing so will put your mind at ease and give you the confidence to go full force with a carefully thought-out dental marketing plan. What’s the magic number? That’s a great question. Based on Patient NEWS’ data, the average marketing spend for group practices is 1-2%. But if your group practice is just getting off the ground and you’re acquiring new offices that need a bit of a push, it could take more than that – up to 30%. If your group is generating more than $1.5 million in revenue, 6-8% is a good target. While you have an overall goal, it’s important to be flexible with your plan for each of your locations so that you can adjust in real time to capture opportunities that may present themselves. Group Dental Marketing Tip #2 – Take Stock Of Your Branding In a recent article featured by the Dentist Entrepreneur Organization, Dr. Marc B. Cooper reviews the importance of delivering on your brand promise. A brand promise is what your patients will receive or experience every time they walk into one of your offices. If your teams consistently live up to that promise, the more value points your patients will give to your brand – the recipe for ongoing loyalty and a steady flow of referrals. “The brand promise is a brand’s fruit – it’s the tangible benefit that makes a product or service desirable. A brand promise can be spelled out to the market, or it can be manifested more subtly in the expression and delivery of the brand experience.” – Dr. Marc B. Cooper, Emeritus Faculty of The DEO For your group practice, this brand promise may vary from office to office. That’s okay! In fact, it’s appropriate if your offices have different competitive advantages (aka their unique selling features). Or, you may have one corporate brand with one main mission that each office works hard to fulfill. A good example of that is the fast food chain McDonald’s. They aim to be their customers’ “favorite place and way to eat and drink.” Each restaurant, regardless of where it is in the world, embraces this mission as part its team culture. No matter how your group practice is structured, what’s non-negotiable is that each team delivers on the promise as advertised. If, for example, your practice commits to providing “trusted, caring, and comfortable dentistry,” they must get it right at each visit and with their marketing and communication . One slip-up will hurt that office’s reputation – and that will eventually extend outward to tarnish your brand. Group Dental Marketing Tip #3 – Pay Attention To The Patient Journey Along the way, you must also consider the patient journey. It’s something every group practice owner needs to understand and keep in mind for ultimate growth and success. This journey is comprised of five specific stages each person experiences as a potential patient and your patient-of-record. It starts at awareness and goes all the way to advocacy and growth. If you can deliver the best customer service at each phase, then you’ll not only gain more patients but keep more for the long-term and generate more referrals because of their loyalty. It’s highly recommended you conduct a gap analysis early to determine how well your offices are performing at each phase, as this ultimately impacts your bottom line. Key aspects to look at include brand awareness, online search, front desk conversion, patient experience, and lifetime value (LTV). Group Dental Marketing Tip #4 – A One-Size-Fits-All Approach Might Not Work Because you oversee multiple locations that are in different stages, it’s best to tailor marketing strategies that will deliver the desired results for each. This is where that gap analysis will be worth its weight in gold. It allows you to weigh out everything you’ve done to date versus what you plan to achieve, so you can make the right adjustments to get to where you want to go. For instance, if one of your locations is well established with a large patient base, you may want to focus your efforts and investment on improving patient loyalty. Offices that are in a growth phase, on the other hand, will require a heavy focus on new-patient acquisition. When it comes to acquiring a new location, it’s important to keep the following in mind: What do current patients think of the practice and the service they’re receiving? Before making any major changes, seek valuable input from them. Most patients will take the time to fill out a satisfaction survey if they know it means their future experiences will be better. Rebranding the office. You want to have branding synergy between your offices. The moment a new patient visits your website, sees a paid display ad appear on their browser, or opens a piece of direct mail addressed to them, you want your group’s image and messaging to stick. If it’s done right, it will be imprinted on their mind, and they’ll instantly recognize your brand the next time they see it. New patients will gravitate toward a memorable brand. Just keep in mind… a strong brand doesn’t just look and sound good. It also motivates patients to respond to your call to action and buy. Group Dental Marketing Tip #5 – Uncover Your Target Demographics & Competition Have you identified who your ideal patients are and where they live? With offices in multiple locations, it’s very likely that you need to target different demographics. The good news is you won’t have to go door-to-door to find out who they are. There’s technology for that. A dental marketing agency like Patient NEWS uses advanced mapping analysis tools to give you a deep understanding of who you’re targeting and what they’re interested in. This increases the likelihood of getting patients who will make their appointments and have the highest lifetime value. With this technology, it’s also possible to conduct an analysis of your current patient base to identify location trends of higher value patients. You’ll also find out which practices are nearby and what that means for your marketing. If you have an office in an urban center with high levels of competition, a paid media campaign may generate the most response. If, however, you have an office in a more suburban locale, it will take a mix of online and offline campaigns to raise awareness of your practice. As a result, you can create marketing messages that resonate with your target audiences and get the phones ringing at your locations. Group Dental Marketing Tip #6 – Use Practice Intelligence To Monitor Your Marketing This is an important one. If you want to know exactly what your marketing ROI, this is the only way to get real-time information so you can identify what’s working and where adjustments need to be made. Plus, your teams will be able to make better use of their time. No longer will they have to try to manually track what’s happening with spreadsheets and other outdated methods. With an advanced software platform such as Practice ZEBRA™, at any moment you and your team can see: how many new patients you’ve generated their production value to date & projected future value average number of patients per household. And with a practice intelligence tool, you’ll get all the key performance indicators you need to make data-driven decisions that will impact the operations at each of your offices and their unique marketing strategies. Interested in expert advice to kick your year into high gear? As the director of group business at Patient NEWS, I encourage you to contact me directly.. I’m committed to helping your group practice grow – with sustainable, tried-and-true marketing solutions that deliver big results. Change can be tough, but I’ll help make it so much easier. A FREE Consultation, is yours! You can also call me at 888-377-2404. If you’re ready to make 2020 a year of transformative growth for your group practice, then take advantage of this valuable offer. YES! I want a FREE Consultation !