Secret & effective way to build referrals

Something to think about....

Dental Referral marketing

If your target market is certain types of local dental practices, say, and your goal is to acquire another 25 or 30 of them as your referrers this year, then there is no need to embark upon complex email campaigns or landing pages, or invest lots of time developing your social media presence, your Facebook page or running glossy ads in the dental magazines.

 You’ve simply got to ask for a meeting!

Dental referral marketing can be very, very straightforward, and the goal of the referral marketing expert is concerned is simply to set up a meeting with potential future referrers.

Most of my practices are never looking for hundreds or thousands of dentists, just a select few.

In each one, they want a relatively small number of new dentists who are based within a fairly small geographic radius.

In these situations, asking for a meeting is the smartest thing.

Last month, whilst working with one of my referral practices, we simply rang up local practices and asked if we were referring for periodontal treatment. When she said we were, we said that she would be passing the following day, handing out some chocolate, and asked if we could pop in and drop them off.

 We provided an inoffensive, well-delivered pitch to get a meeting and guess what? It worked.

The same approach may work for you.

You have to think about giving your potential referrers a strong enough reason for them to see you (in this case, chocolate worked really well – and we also provided another little innovative incentive) and, as well, be smart about the amount of time that you are asking for.

 Something along the lines of “I’ve got this really “cool thing” that I think could make a real difference to you… can I have 10 minutes of your time next week to pop in and show it to you?” And then shut up.

This could be CPD/support for the PM etc.

Now, I’m not saying that every single practice receptionist you approach will say “Yes”, but if you deliver it well, a lot will. You’ve just short-circuited a whole load of fluff and puff and accelerated your referral business's growth.

I also know that, in some cases, it won’t be easy to engineer a conversation with the dentist ( sometimes almost impossible)or PM, but then, a few things in life are easy, and there are lots of ways you can make that conversation happen. This visit could be a simple “foot in the door” for another time… a few more visits will work wonders.

What you need

Newsletter

Branded cake/chocolates

Case study

Dates for the specialist dentists diary

& that special cool thing, that’s the hook!

 It works! And you should try it!

To be clear, you have to deliver this well and think about what you can do for the dentist/PM you want to see rather than what they can do for you.

 Put yourself in their shoes.

What would you say to an approach like the one you’re planning to make?

Be honest here. Don’t waste their time.

We all live in the real world.

 So consider your marketing approach. Sometimes, the answer is way more straightforward than you originally thought…

If you are considering building your referral practice, simply get in touch. I’m available to help dentists within Kent, London and Southeast.

What I can do for you...

Looking for a strategy to build new patients…

1- Maximise existing patient base by nailing efficient recalls, provide interesting practice news to existing patients.

2- We communicate dynamically with lapse patients who we need to engage via digital and traditional communciation.

3- Train the reception team on consultative communication and provide them with everything they need to maximise patients acceptance.

4- Work relentlessly with the team so each patient receives the best possible experience so they evolve into "raving fans".

5- We maximise our patient recommendations - by perfecting the "exit drill!"

4- We engage new leads with a  websites which is exciting and bang-up-to date and use social media to boost traffic.

5- Communicate in a cost efficient way to maximise ROI

6- Reach-out to the local community and run events to building great PR.

Overview of marketing for Neodent

Branding is not just a Logo

For so many people branding is just defined as a logo and corporate colours - it's really not ... its a lot more than that.

When used expertly branding can become a strategic driver for the practice and a powerful support when developing practice values and leadership.

A broader more accurate way of understanding your brand is to look at it as a matrix of four key areas.

1- Your services - 

2- The physical environment (your practice)

3- Behaviours - human interaction - your reception team your associates

4- Your communication - Brochures, website and signage social media etc..

You want to have the best practice in town... But  first need to imagine how a Best Practice should look and feel? How does the staff in this best practice behave? How the patient feel about when they arrive?  Defining and creating a constant approach to each of these areas which is driven by your "ideal" picture effectively creates your brand standards. 

You can then develop your brand messages, work on the 4 elements (in the diagram above) and bring the team together. Your brand values then become the central driver in all your actions and decisions. The whole team (including associates) are on "on-pointe" and adhering to the standards you have set.

This can take months of team work and dedication - but once you have your brand values set  it can sky rocket your practice and set you apart from others.

Remember ...every practice has a brand whether you think it you have or not - Your brand is how the outside world sees you. The question is. are you in control and is your brand positive?

Referral marketing tip #1 Serve no matter what...

Referral Marketing Tip 1: Typically 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients.

Many referral centres spread themselves too thin, boasting about having over 250 referring dentists and trying to make every dentist who refers with over-the-moon and completely happy with the services … If you have the team to do it, go for it and you’ll be rewarded. But if you’re an entrepreneur specialist or boutique specialist practice, you many want to think about adapting this strategy. Continue to serve everyone well no matter what, but focus on delivering the highest, most outstanding customer service and client experiences for the top 20%. If can do that, your referral practice will drastically change for the better. Your biggest referrers will feel supported and send even more patients to you and refer more of their patients along with recommending their peers to network with you – they could even become huge brand evangelists for your practice. Work close, support them well and develop meaningful clinical relations where you can both benefit.

Support and nurture

Dental Referral Marketing advice - Series of 5

Almost all of my new client projects come in through referrals. That means most of our new clients and leads come from others telling their friends, family and colleagues about us and suggesting they hire my services.

My most lucrative clients — and frankly most favoured clients — have been the results of someone else’s referral.

Imagine how better your specialist practice could be if your phone rang every day, and your inbox had messages in it everyday from dentists who want to work with you because their colleague recommended you? Imagine how much less stress you would have and how much less money you would need to spend on marketing? What a relief!

Over the next few weeks i will be providing 5 vital marketing tips to help you build a successful referral based practice... watch this space...

Example of a marketing message to build awareness