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Affordable Image provides an Affordable option for your business to have a stunning, unique Image that will attract customers and help your dream grow into a successful reality. They do this by designing innovative branding, strategic marketing, creative tools, and marketing campaigns that will make any business shine. By taking the time to get to know all of their clients individually, they develop close working relationships that help us create optimal branding and marketing packages for each one.
"We view our customers and our employees as Family. It's a huge part of our corporate culture. You won't find these products on the Internet because they come from people interacting on a personal level. Family and values are what we're all about."
-Mike Shoun, President
Contact them: https://affordableimage.com/contact/
0:00 Intro Music
0:42 Episode Intro
3:30 Affordable Image Marketing Agency
9:03 Biggest Challenges When TransitioningZ
15:28 Switch Old Brand to New Brand
20:21 Fixer Upper Practice v.s Well Oiled
24:56 Offsetting Attrition with Marketing
34:09 Wasting Money W/O Converting
38:34 Tracking Opportunities - ROI
SHOW HOST INFO:
As a dental buyer representative, Michael Dinsio helps dentists buy dental practices step-by-step. With over a decade of experience and more than 500 dental transactions, Michael is a key opinion leader in the dental industry. This program helps walk dentists through the process of becoming a dental practice owner via dental practice acquisitions. If you would like a free consult with Michael or would like to work with Michael in the future visit his webpage. https://www.nxlevelconsultants.com/buyer-representation.html
DENTAL UNSCRIPTED HAS A WEBSITE ! ! !
Find all the content from SEASON 1: "Start Up Unscripted"... as well as SEASON 2: "Dental Acquisition Unscripted", it's all here in one spot here 👉 https://www.dentalunscripted.com
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#dentalsharkweek #marketingadentalpractice #buyingadentalpractice #marketing #dentalpodcast
Intro Music by D Fine Us on https://artlist.io/song/15785/howling-at-the-moon
This podcast covers from START to FINISH How to Acquire a Dental Practice. Michael Dinsio, founder of Next Level Consultants has literally seen hundreds of deals as a banker in the industry & he has personally consulted hundreds of dentists as a Buyers Representative. Michael talks with GUEST SPEAKERS about Due Diligence, Legal, Demographics, and more... He invites experts to the show to help you avoid those headaches and heartbreaks. So start at the TOP w/ Episode 01 and work your way through the transition process. We break it down step by step in a true #UNSCRIPTED and genuine way.
00:00
Oh yeah, here we go practice acquisition. There are pitfalls throughout the entire process.
00:25
Acquisition Unscripted, the truth when buying and selling at dental practice.
00:36
And now your host, Michael Dinsio! What's up, what's up guys? Another episode of Shark Week.
00:45
giving you this week of sharks in the marketing tank. Today we have a special guest as always and a friend and partner. This is a cool episode because it went in a different direction than I thought it was. I was hearing it for the very first time myself and I always have an agenda for these things but I love when it goes in a different direction because that's how I learn. Consultants all the time act like they know everything. Guys, they don't know everything and so I'm sharpening my skill set.
01:15
every single day on this show. This is what I use the show, so you're learning with me. But Shark Week, we're doing it. This episode, like all episodes in Shark Week, we talk about return on investment, ROI. Return on investment, return on investment, return on investment. It's super important because you need to know if you're gonna spend some money, what are you getting back for that money? We talked about how to prep before the closing as you think about marketing. It's super important.
01:45
There's things to do, things that you need to think about before you buy the practice. We talked about like how a marketing company should approach a situation differently if you're buying like a really good practice that throws off a lot of patience already. How do you approach that versus how do you approach a practice that you're buying that might be more of a quote unquote fixer upper?
02:13
So totally different thing you might approach something like that like the startup we talked about goodwill and how to maintain the goodwill through through marketing companies and then the last thing I think is really important that that you guys should probably hang in on this episode for is What are some good questions to ask marketing companies before you hire them? I feel like shark week is gonna give you that through this whole week of like, you know
02:41
meeting new marketing companies and understanding what they bring to the table and asking really good questions. So great, great episode. I'm excited for you guys. Hopefully you're following along. I have the marketing conversation at least five times a week with all my clients. This is a week of marketing people that know their stuff. And if you're not listening to every single episode, you're missing out because marketing is key to growth.
03:10
And that's why we decided to do it. So marketing shark week continues. Let's get it going.
03:17
Okay, everybody, we're back. Another episode of Dental Acquisition Unscripted. Again, your host, Michael Dinsio, founder of Next Level Consultants. You guys know my story, but today we are getting into marketing. And I'm really excited about this episode as I am all these episodes because marketing is a make or break deal in a lot of scenarios, situations. And I think finding the right marketing
03:46
firm partner really does set you apart from your competitors. And as we're heading down this path of acquisition, it's different, right? Marketing for a scratch startup is gonna have a different approach than marketing for an acquisition. And we're gonna get into that today. And so let me just get right into the introduction. I'm introducing and bringing in
04:15
A good friend of mine and a partner that I've worked with for gosh, many, years. Mike, damn it. See, this is what we were talking about. I, we all call him shown. Uh, no, his name is shown Mike shown. Uh, but we all call him to something different. So Mike, can reverse it's Mike. But it's shown, but
04:40
Kind of the nickname, I suppose. We just had that conversation, so I really screwed myself up. Everybody calls me Denzio, but it's actually CEO. So we just go by whatever people call us, right? But Mike is the founder of Affordable Image. He's owned the company for 27 years. He's a beast of knowledge in this space. They're a nationwide firm and helps hundreds and hundreds of doctors across the country do
05:08
Do better, get new patients. And so today on the topic of marketing, specifically with an acquisition twist, I'm blessed to have you on the show, buddy. Thanks for being on. Absolutely. Thank you, Michael. And CEO, I appreciate it. You got it. You didn't mess that up. the love. Yes. No, absolutely, buddy. So let's just get right into it in the spirit of unscripted and cutting right to the chase. You know, I'm thinking about someone buying a practice mic, right?
05:37
And we could go in a hundred different paths here. We only usually do these for 30 minutes. So we're going to be limited to that. So that's going to cover three or four topics. My big thing is, you know, as someone comes into a practice to purchase, what are some things they should think about pitfalls they should consider as they're walking into ownership? And I'll, and I'll preface that in that.
06:03
a startup, as we talked about in previous episodes, startup unscripted, you get all this time to prepare for this great opening day, whereas acquisition, you can't do anything because you don't own the practice yet. You can only do something when you get the keys and it's your practice. And so that puts a lot of pressure on you as a marketing firm. So let's talk about that.
06:30
first steps and actually I didn't give you, I didn't even give you a chance. Why don't you say a little bit about affordable real quick. I thank you, Mr. Dencio, Mike down affordable image. We are a marketing company, national marketing company. Our specialty is dental marketing. We've been doing the dental side of the marketing for about 20 of those years. We, we love the dental, the dental industry for so many reasons. The people are amazing.
07:00
The people that have been in this industry are staying in this industry because it's such a great group of people. The doctors are amazing. The biggest thing I really love about this industry is the passion that the doctors have and then the people that are supporting the doctors like you and other partners that we have that help the doctors, whether it's financial or, you know.
07:26
whatever it is, you know, just the passion that the doctor is, it starts with them and makes me more passionate. I'm a passionate person anyways, but it brings me more passion when someone else is passionate and it just grows and grows and grows and grows. My team has been together. The team that we have now in the dental side is approaching 17 years together and they all started when they were super young. So, they're still very young. We've got group of amazing people.
07:52
And we've been doing this together for a long time. We've learned a lot of things together from our doctors and of course, from all the analytics and things that we do. But we just, love what we do and we love helping our clients take their vision, their dreams and make them into reality. When I stop and think about what we do, that's really what we do is we try to, help, we don't try, we do, we help our clients. We help our doctors take their dreams and make them reality. Yeah. Well said. I don't think I've
08:21
heard a marketing company say that out loud. And I think that that's spot on. Everybody thinks about growth and new patients and money and ROI, but you kind of broke it down in a real way that touches the vision that someone has or should have and then how to create that artistically and practically. okay, so back to the question. Thank you for that. That's good stuff. And your right passion is
08:51
our language, so the Mike and Mike show today. Passion is gonna be a part of it, we apologize. So as a buyer approaches closing day, and even into the day of closing, let's talk about some things that you're thinking about as a marketing guy. So I'm gonna go before closing. perfect.
09:17
Um, cause what I don't want to have happen is we approach closing or at closing or that we're, we're, we're open and we find out we don't have a password username and passwords to the, to the Facebook, to the Google, my Google business profile. Um, now that's what's important also is Apple has, has an equivalent to the Google, my business profile, Apple maps. Now they've just come out with that in the last couple of months. It's basically their version of that.
09:44
And that's extremely important. Now Bing is now starting to come up. So now you got to make sure you have that. There's other directory listings that are critical. So making sure that you have, as part of the contract, part of the agreement, assuming you are taking ownership of the assets, because those are assets to your business, and we actually call them assets. They're marketing assets.
10:06
You have to have all those years in my passwords. As soon as you, you know, as soon as the day that the date that you take ownership, you've got to change those years or change those passwords at least. Um, get those change, make sure that the, that the emails inside of there are going to you instead of the, the owner doctor, uh, go daddy domain names. That's another thing. I don't know how many doctors have bought a practice with a domain name. And then the doctor, the, the selling doctor on their, on their, um, their dream.
10:36
uh, you know, two year African safari. Yes. Cell phones. Yes. The, the, the email's going to their personal Yahoo account or AOL account. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Well now what do you do? So anyways, that's number one. One. And actually, and actually Mike, it's not just for marketing, but it's also credentialing.
11:00
recredentialing you, we will need that email to get all of the insurance companies that email that. Like it's, it is, it's step one and it falls into marketing big time. You gotta get it in the agreement and you gotta make sure that you have ownership in the agreement of the assets of the website. And of that website, you need to make sure that you own the photographs, the imagery, especially if the photographs are made or were,
11:29
whether they're stock photos or whether they are done by another photographer. You want to make sure that you have the ownership of that. You want to make sure the copy is on. Now there's other marketing companies and dental specific marketing companies I will not name today, but that actually sell you a website. I should say, they really don't even sell you a website. They act like they're selling you a website and you don't own anything. So they're really not selling you anything. They're renting you a website. They're renting you content. They're renting you photographs.
11:58
They're even renting your SEO. So that's a whole nother before the fact that you want to find out how are you going to know that? Well, you talk to your consultant, ask them for a marketing company that they trust and we can get into the code and we can usually find out by looking into the code to know if that's one of those sites that you're not going to be able to own. Just go ahead and call Mike directly. He's great. Just call Mike.
12:28
Yeah, yeah, we'll put that below. We'll put that below. But seriously, that's. That's I can't even begin to tell you how terrifying that is to think about and because I've experienced it, my team has experienced that we watched doctors suffer. Yeah, they bought something and they find out that they don't own it and that's just a horrible place to be. It's not fun or they don't have the password and things like that. It's it's a great it's a great tip, Mike, because
12:56
Your legal process, which we cover here with Aliyah Ramshan and Robert Montgomery on the program, legal is so important. There's so many things. But even your attorneys can miss clauses or sentences that don't specifically spell out certain things that Mike just even communicated to. I will say and touch on that. Not that we want to go down this path, but I will say the idea of these membership websites.
13:26
is becoming a popular thing and I'm not a big fan and this is exactly what Mike is talking to. You should own your website. If you get a website from Mike, you own it. If the relationship goes sour for whatever reason, he gives it to you. That's how it should be. That's how it should be. Like I don't get this whole membership. pay you indefinitely. what if the relationship goes sour?
13:55
Mike is as half, I'm gonna say more than half the time, most of the time the doctors don't even know that that's the case. They think that they own it. They think that when, if they're having a bad experience, they wanna find another company or they're referring another company. They think that they own it and come to find out they don't. That's just another horrible place to be. It's just not, it's not, so it's just, it's not, it's not ethical. It's not right. It's, know, even if the doctor signed it and said it in the very, very tiny, tiny print, they're,
14:24
They were sold as if it was their website and SEO. takes so long to get organic results and it depends on the market and how much your competitors are spending. It could take a year, could take a year, two years potentially. Those rankings and you think that you have the rankings and come to find out you don't. that is that is massively important to make sure. Well, just as important as it is to.
14:52
evaluate the equipment and make sure everything's working and that you get the sensors. I always have my clients take pictures of all the little things that cost $10,000, you know, like the in the drawers. I take a picture of that because that is part of the asset sale. Mike's talking about marketing as an asset and that's part of the asset sale. And I love that because I think it gets overlooked. I'll be the first one to tell you, I don't de-
15:20
deep dive into that. So you taught me something today. Now, what if, maybe let's go into a different direction here. What if someone has one of those sites, they don't own it, the seller selling a practice without a website. So let's talk about that, but also let's talk about just the basics of getting things switched over as well. You know what I mean?
15:49
When we look at an acquisition, we kind of look at two, almost two parallel tracks that are driving side by side. The track number one, the most important track, is the existing practice the way that it is. We know as a marketing company, we understand we've been doing this long enough to know that the value of that practice is the existing patient's returning. Yes.
16:16
I'll put it based on experience that at a minimum, you want to have that one year recall. You want them to come in that two times to get to know the doctor, to get to know the team. That's right. That's to be that's that's that's priority one through 10. Like that's the top 10 priorities. Right. That's the value. That's the value. The future the future revenues. Yes. I don't want to do anything just to risk that. So we're going to continue. Even if a doctor says I want a new website, we're going to tell them we're
16:45
we were going to tell them, we're not even given an option. You have to keep this website for the next year at least for that one year recall. Get them through your system, get them to know your team. On this other track that's parallel, that's over here, that's parallel to this track that's going over here. We could start working on your website and your branding and things like that. So let me step back another second as far as track number two. Track two. I've talked about this before as
17:15
Uh, with a startup, we're, we're literally starting from scratch, starting from zero. Right? So as a marketing company, our job, my team's job is to take the vision of that doctor and, and, and figure out what, um, what the market, you know, what, what market inside the neighborhood is going to work for them, segmented out things like that. And basically take their dream and make it a reality into a brand. And that's what my team.
17:43
does is figuring out what their dreams, their goals, their vision and turning that into reality. Well, when we have a blank slate, it's pretty simple, right? When we have a slate that's completely drawn up and there's no room in there, can be impossible to make that. And so that's why I like to look at it. We have this other track going along here. We've got the current branding, the current marketing, and then we've got the secondary marketing. And even if there's a slight change, I'm still looking at it as a
18:12
second track because I don't want these two tracks to cross paths or to connect for that year, maybe longer, depending on the situation. And so while we're continuing the existing branding and the look, we may want to increase some marketing with the existing brand. Who knows what we're going to do? It's case by case and situational. With the new marketing, we're going to keep that
18:39
We're going to build that and we're going to start building new patients coming in with a new marketing separate from the existing marketing. So the current patients, they're just familiar with the existing marketing. We're not going to stir up the waters. And then the new patients come in under that brand. And then in a year or so, we can kind of merge them together. In essence, this is kind of how we look at that. So we look at the doctor that's buying a practice that most of them
19:08
when they buy them, the vision is not even close to what the reality of the existing branding is, what the existing communication level is and things like that. So that's what, where my team's job is to figure out how to make that happen within the existing structure and the existing framework that we have, again, separately from the other track there. So that's how we approach that.
19:37
I think that's genius. question is, so actually let me back up because I, we're both assuming in this moment that the seller has some goods to sell in this department. I'm not talking about assets. mean, they've done a decent job. We're trying to carry on and continue to create stability. It's a good practice. Lots of patients. Guys, there's, there's a huge continuum or a huge like,
20:07
variance between someone that has a great practice, lots of patients, uh, decent marketing, decent foundation. And then there's the other practices that frankly could be considered as startups, even though they've owned a practice, their websites garbage, nobody even goes to their website. have no reviews. You might as well just, you might as well just start right away, right? Like, there's, think what we're talking about is like,
20:36
a good practice that you're trying to buy and throws off a great, you don't want to disrupt too much. That's a great business. The number one role is don't screw up a good business. Just plug in and you can make, you can make some changes, but you can't be extreme about those changes. just go in, plug and play. I will say now being in this acquisition world for as long as I have, those are actually few and far between.
21:02
There's a lot of practices that are underperforming, terrible practices that you're buying because they're fixer uppers or a great lease or great location, but you could do better with it. And so I wanna make sure that we're defining what we're talking about because I think you might have a different strategy for those fixer uppers. True, and so I'm glad you brought that up. It's hard to talk generally about something that's so- I know. Everything is so different, right? So yeah, everything, there is always something.
21:32
You know the fixer-up or something like that. We would still Want to treat the existing case so we still understand you we got to get those recalls So I'm not gonna I'll let's use this example You know the doctors Brian another practice that has the doc the name of the practice is the doc the original doctor's name and they're still out there or not, right and The doctor's new name is nothing close to that doctor's name
21:59
We're not gonna mess with that because they recognize the name. We're still gonna go through whatever internal marketing that you have for those patients. We would still like you to utilize that if you've been given permission to and you have the rights to do that for that first year because we don't want, again, we don't wanna stir things up. We have to get those existing patients to come in and see you and your team. So whatever we create marketing-wise, we're gonna try to do is little,
22:29
as possible. If anything, it's just going to be enhanced, maybe brighten something up, make something more clear, maybe have changed the messaging up a little bit, but we want to, we want to make the recognition to the existing patients that we're not coming here and changing crazy things. Right? Gotcha. Yeah. You, you don't want to disrupt. You don't want to scare them that I'm going to say that's going to be no matter fixer upper existing. Yeah. We got to get them to come back.
22:58
meet the doctor. So, okay, we're gonna treat that that way. Now, maybe we might need to accelerate track number two. The difference is probably what we would do is we have an accelerated model. Sometimes I feel like also almost more times than not recently in the last year. Yeah, treat an acquisition like a startup. Yes. These fixer uppers are so bad. Bad. Yeah, no. A foundation, barely a foundation to build off of from a marketing perspective.
23:28
So we are literally looking at it and we're treating it like it's brand new. So we're still marketing to the existing, you're still marketing and communicating to the existing patients as the original brand, as the original, but the new patients, we're gonna work and build that new brand quicker. We're gonna get that new foundation, the website up, the look, the brand up quicker, and we're gonna start marketing for new patients much quicker than we would, you know, maybe something that you're not.
23:57
That's not the fixer upper. That's the... And let me say why that's so important. Because in any acquisition, fixer upper or well oiled machine, you're going to lose patience. Everybody knows that. There's attrition. There's, I've been going to him for years. Now's the time to change. Sorry, new doc. Just is what it is. That's, you know, I would say that it's going to happen less than you think.
24:26
Um, there's tons of podcasts and literature on percentages, like 10 to 15%. I actually have not experienced that personally. I've experienced less attrition than 10%. Maybe it's because of our coaching or methodology. I'd like to think so our messaging, but I don't, I don't know. Yeah. It is the way that you handle the transition. It's that's everything. The way that the transition has handled, that's everything for keeping those keeping those. That's right.
24:57
But you are going to lose some with next level or not, you know, whatever that that percentage is, let's call it 10%. So, so if I'm going to lose 10 % and oddly enough in California, another major risk is the whole Delta dental drop in fees. So again, the threats of things changing and dropping my revenue down need to be offset by something.
25:24
And today's call is about offsetting that in marketing, right, Mike? Absolutely. And here's the thing. You're not going to know it's 10 percent until for a year. That's right. You don't know while it's happening. And by the time it's 10 percent and then you learn and you're hurting really bad. Then it could take a year, depending on the marketplace you're in. If it's a highly competitive market, it could take a year to really it could to get that business going. And so with an acquisition,
25:54
You're exactly right. Even the best of offices that you're walking in, it's a well-oiled machine you're walking in, you are correct. You don't know what's going to happen. so no matter what, we want to come in with that second track, start working on that marketing plan to line up with a vision of the new doctor and have that ready. Because even the best of the practices, even if they're not selling, there's an attrition rate. That's right. Some areas it might be 1 % and some areas it might be...
26:23
10 % even in a good area because people are moving out so fast. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's right. So those are things we have to consider. And again, you don't know until it's too late. So you just have to know that that's part of the business. That's right. Have a plan in place to continue to get those new patients in. That's 100%. So assuming that we have to offset 10%, and Mike, you're 1000 % right, because you don't know until the end. you got to be proactive. You got to be a good business person right out of the gate.
26:53
Sorry, I know you didn't take any business courses, but that's a business, that's a great business tip from a business owner of 27, almost 30 years. You gotta get ahead of your threats because by the time you acknowledge a threat, it's too late, right? And so Mike, what are some things, if you're trying not to disrupt the Apple cart too much, what are some things we can do for a quick?
27:21
a burst of new patients or, I mean, you're inheriting sometimes these awful websites. As you were talking, I was thinking like, buyers aren't gonna inherit good websites for another 20 years. And in 20 years, it's gonna be in a day, like it's not gonna be a good website anymore. I say that because all these older docs that are selling didn't have to do this SEO shit we're talking about, right? So you're naturally inheriting
27:51
something that a seller has not cared about, has not needed, and it's just not a good site. And so we're kind of recreating from scratch in a lot of cases. Yeah, in most cases, I would say so. So how can we make a pop? What can we do? What can we do? So marketing there, it's not magic. There's no magic. There's no silver bullet. Feels like it's a magic. There to be something that we can get a pop and a quick pop.
28:21
I I would suggest the same thing I would suggest to a startup. A startup perspective for the acquisitions that need that quick pop is meet your neighbors. We do a little bit of, we call it guerrilla or ground based marketing. Go knock on the doors of your neighbors, introduce yourself. Your neighbors being the other businesses in the location. Assuming you're in a retail space, it could be the hair cutters, it could be the gym.
28:50
You know, those places, restaurant workers, all those, you know, have your, have some business cards at a minimum, have some kind of handout, some kind of, if you, if you're in office and you do have a membership plan, you know, that's a great thing to bring in and offer members to them, you know, let the, the, the businesses know that you have membership plans for their, for their employees and things like that. So that'd be the first thing that you can do. You're in office space. You can still go outside your office building and hopefully there's some.
29:21
those types of businesses around. If you're in an office building and it's like a healthcare driven, you're going to have, you have natural referral partners that you're going to want to meet. So you're still going to want to do those things as if it was a startup. No matter what you're going to want to do those things. I will say that that's such great, great advice, Mike. I want all my clients.
29:49
to do that and do it aggressively, fiercely. It's the right answer. I'm gonna say this very, as a matter of fact, as possible. People that buy practices, they won't do it. I want them to, you're right, but they won't do it because they're buying a practice that's already got a schedule. The team's punching them right in the face. They've never managed a team. They're punched right in the face. They're dealing with,
30:18
All the problems, buying a practice is not easy folks. Everybody thinks it's easier. Oh, the cashflow is easier, but the problems are harder than a startup, quite frankly, it is. And so the last thing they're thinking is I'm going to start network. My startups do that because they got all the time in the world. An acquisition person has no time. They don't. They're just drinking from a freaking firehouse. So they oftentimes pay for marketing.
30:46
Right. They pay for it because they have no time, no time at all. So what do you think? So, so I would say that the next thing is to look at your, uh, your internal marketing, to make sure that you are actually making sure those recalls are happening, that you have the system, that the system is what you.
31:09
what you were sold, what you were told, not that you can really get in. Maybe you got the peak under the hood, but now you get to get in there and tinker and see if, you know, if it's, if that's just a, a, an old battery or a new battery inside the car or you need to buy a new battery for it, what have you. So now you can make, would say you first, first things first, make sure that those recalls are going to come in, make sure that we secure if it's, if we're going to lose 10%, make sure we get a hundred percent of the 90%. Let's start there. Let's, try to mitigate the loss. So I would say that.
31:38
That would be the first thing. The second thing, and simultaneously I would say, make sure that you have your plan in place for referrals, asking for referrals from your existing patients, because we don't know what the previous doctor did and how well they did that. They may have done great and they may not have done anything at all. So either way, you could walk right into a patient base that's used to giving referrals. You could also walk into a patient base that's never given a referral.
32:08
which is a potential goldmine for you. So I would look at those things. Those are the quickest things that you're gonna do from a new patient marketing perspective. What we're gonna do is we're gonna look at the website. We're gonna make sure that Google My Business is optimized. Now that Apple Maps is there, they're optimized. Now that Bing is starting to become play. Those are probably the top three things that we would look at right away. Get those things running, to the existing.
32:38
website. Another plan that we would look at depending on what the website was, if it was really, really bad, we would create what's called a temporary website, something we can get up fairly quickly, that it has a better representation of what the new doctor is like, even though it's not 100%, but a much better representation. We would have the traffic directed there, at least try to be able to collect the traffic that is coming. If there is any, we're going to analyze that and look at it and
33:05
Maybe there isn't traffic. Maybe you thought there was and there isn't any. Could be one of those sites where we talked about that. Hey, the flow is cut. And so we're like, okay, let's get the temporary website up. Let's start getting some traffic there. We could do some pay-per-click type marketing, online advertising, Google AdWords, Facebook advertising and things like that. We could do that. Maybe it's not going to be exactly a hundred percent what we want it to be, but it's going to be something that's going to start driving revenues. And we even do that with some startups.
33:35
where a situation where a doctor jumped into the practice full time, maybe they didn't do their full plan right, their full business plan right, and they quit their day job and jumped right into it. And we're like, oh boy, let's, know, so maybe, we call it phase one, basically, let's get phase one up and running and we can start getting some patients and then we'll build, you know, the actual true marketing campaign.
34:05
So there's different things in ways that there's different things that we can do to get that going for these practices. The other, the most important part is answer your phones. Make sure that someone's actually answering the phones that they've been trained, that they understand, that they, and that, know, if it's a next level client, they're gonna go through that and they're gonna be able to make sure, you guys are gonna make sure that those people know how to answer the phones correctly.
34:33
turn them into a new patient to get them to come in for this. So that's the other critical part. And the other piece of that, now in today's world, it's not just answering the phones, it's being able to call out when, because we're seeing more and more people go online and type in, yes, I want an appointment, please call me. So when you get those needs and they show up in the email, you need to have a system where someone from your team is able to call those people immediately. It's so true.
35:02
buy is an out, you know, is more likelihood they're going to find another, another dentist that's going to. Yeah. When people are looking, they're looking like that's just the day and age we're in. Right. Like the younger, the younger Jen, I'm part of it once results now convenience. That's what it's all about today. Right. And there's no patients in the world. I'm a very impatient person. I get it. Like,
35:28
If it's something's on my mind, I need to I'm checking it off my list. I'm moving on. If I can't check this off, well, then I feel out of control and I want to I want to move on and check it off because if it has to go on tomorrow's checklist, what a waste. I'm getting it done now. Right. So it's it's become that society. And Mike, I'm so glad you brought that up because. We all we have these conversations, I always think about
35:57
the funnel, right? The funnel. You spend thousands of dollars on marketing efforts that you and your team manage thoughtfully, strategically. You're spending thousands of dollars, right? And then that's it. Nobody does anything else with that. They're just, here's $2,000 this month, make it happen. And if a new patient doesn't show up on my schedule,
36:26
Or if I don't diagnose that person, it's on you, Mike, it's on you. And that's not fair. What's fair and what should happen. And in the business world, the real world, the real business world outside of dentistry is you spend money, you get calls. That's, that's the win that that that's doing a good job. You get the calls or the emails or the texts, whatever you're getting flow. Then it's on me again.
36:54
not in dentistry, but in the business road. It's on me to pick up the phone, get back to them and say the right things. And then it's on me to follow up, send a proposal, get them scheduled, right? I don't feel like doctors take enough accountability. What I know, it's not a feeling. We both know doctors as business owners don't take enough accountability from the flow to the schedule, to the schedule. So you just said it, business owners.
37:24
So there's the practice side of their business, the clinical aspect of their practice. And then there's the business side of the practice. They, you in general, most doctors focus on the, on the clinical and the business side is not even close to that. So the business side of that is the marketing piece that you're talking about the flow. What a job of a marketing company is to generate opportunities. We call those opportunities. A person calling you, a person sending you a contact form to call back. That's an opportunity now.
37:54
That's right. another part of the business and I hate to use the word doctors, but it's called sales. There's a sales department in every business. There's a marketing department and there's a sales department. And so the sales department's job is to take the opportunity that the marketing department created and have a system in place and turn that into a client or patient. That's right.
38:19
And then there's a whole flow there that turns, you know, that comes into the place and turns that into a cash flow, a cash flow. That's right. So there's another part of the business that needs to be worked on that. Again, most doctors are not, are not working on that part of their business to maximize the opportunities that a marketing company brings. And one of the things we look at when a doctor comes to us and we're doing $2,000 a month or $3,000, whatever the number is, and the doctor says, I want to do more marketing with you. We're always looking at.
38:50
at the opportunity conversion rate. So we put telephone tracking numbers on the marketing, we have analytics. So we're looking at how many opportunities and how many are they turning into new patients. And if we see that number not at a realistic level, we'd like to see 80%, 70%, but if you're talking 50 % or less, we're gonna say you're not ready for more marketing.
39:19
whatever money that you were going to spend in marketing and put it into training, or maybe you need to hire somebody, another person perhaps, maybe your office is, you have too much going on and the person who's answering the phone is trying to collect, is your bill collector, what have you, billing, what have you, maybe you need to hire somebody to be able to answer those, because there's a potential of thousands of dollars, tens of thousands of dollars sometimes. Marketing that they're already paying for, that they're not converting.
39:48
looking at as a company because again, we've been here for 27 years like we're gonna be here for another 27 years. So we want to make sure that they're maximizing their opportunities with what we're seeing. You're not gonna hear too many marketing companies say that folks and I just want to take a moment. I this is a this is a reason of many and one of many that I that I like affordable and and and endorse them because
40:18
You, I can't over emphasize that, that it's not about spending more and getting more from the client for Mike and affordable. It's about results. And if we're not getting the results, whether it's his team's quote unquote air quotes fault, or if it's your teams, the dent, the doctor owners fault, whatever it is, we got to figure it out.
40:48
Yeah, it's not throw more money at a problem. And I find and actually I partner with a call service, a company who I interviewed on the program on startup unscripted side, Golden Goose. It was shocking. The statistics he threw out, folks, listen to that episode because it was about calls. He said a third, a third of new patient calls.
41:17
get missed a third. Ouch. And then on to layer on top of that of the calls that get picked up. So now we're working with two thirds of the actual calls. Follow the math. A third of those don't get scheduled. I mean, ouch. Right. And so here's Mike at Affordable Image trying to figure out how to get more flow.
41:44
and your team's either not picking up the call or doesn't have the skills to quote unquote sell somebody to get them on the schedule. And then us as dental consultants sit back and look at your doctor, your closing or not closing, I'm talking in business terms, your case acceptance and seeing some of you guys being crazy conservative. And I'm not saying that we want you to be, say it like,
42:13
aggressive diagnoses, there's industry averages for a reason. So of all your peers, 10,000 dental offices that use the software we use, I have an average. And if you're dramatically lower than the average, that means you're conservative. And I can look at that. the flow to conversion to treatment planning and then it's treatment acceptance. as your front office
42:42
presenting the right treatment plan. So this is this huge funnel, but Mike and marketing companies alike get blamed for ROI deficiencies. So ROI, I love that. We always get asked, what's the ROI on the marketing budget going to be? Well, I can't tell you because we control this much of that, like such a tiny part of that ROI equation.
43:09
There's an infinite number of things that Mike just talked about that could happen that can affect that number. So imagine if you're, if you're answering and that golden goose talked about, so that, that third that you're missing, that's thousands, thousands. Then there's another thousands and the other level of things that you're, that you're not, then you're not diagnosing. Cause if you're not, if you're not an industry standards or above, that also affects that ROI number, right?
43:39
So there's so many parts and pieces to this. you're not, here's the other level of that, that we try to educate our clients is, love the new, I love new patient marketing because it brings in new, I call it a new referral tree, a new referral tree. So every time a new patient comes in, they have, generally they're gonna have a new sphere of influence of people that are in their world that they can refer to you. So at some point you're gonna maximize that, right?
44:08
So every new one, and if you have that referral system in place and you're good at that, can turn 10 new patients into 20, into 30, into 50. And so the ROI question, I love that question because you know what, doctor? The ROI question at all really depends on you and what you're going to do and what your systems are going to do and what the people you've hired are going to do and the trainings and things that you guys are doing. It really is dependent on.
44:36
And that's the biggest part of the equation.
44:43
That's right. That's right. not to take, by the way, not to take some responsibility off the marketing companies, the way. Right. And I love that because we track our, we track our, there's marketing companies, there's marketing companies that will tell you don't put tracking numbers on it. Don't, we don't track anything because we, because we don't, we don't know where it's going to come from. And anyways, there's marketing companies that tell you not to track. We track our, we don't tell, we are doing it because we need to know.
45:11
We're holding ourselves accountable. want to know so we can actually make changes because marketing is going to change on a regular basis. Life changes, cultures change, demographics change, incomes change, things like that change. So we need to be able to change with that. So we have to know what's working and what's not working so that we can, again, there's a reason we've been doing this for a long time is because we care and that we want it. We want success for our clients and our doctors.
45:39
and we plan on doing this for a lot longer. And so we're gonna continue to do all the things that we've been doing and making our clients successful. For another hour, we could probably do that at least an hour long conversation. least, maybe two. All the parts and pieces that are. Breaking down the whole funnel. Mike, I gotta end this, because I promised people we're done with 30 to 40 minutes and we're right there.
46:07
it by this conversation, folks, you should be able to interview potential marketing companies better. We've covered a lot of things. And to me, to sum up that last final point is the questions for these marketing companies should be, how are you tracking the flow? How are you tracking that? How do I know? That's a great question to ask them. And
46:37
you know, how can we increase the flow? How do you hold me responsible? How do I hold you responsible? Set the expectations of the partnership. And again, if the relationship goes sour for whatever reason, because that that's business, that's life, you should be able to walk away with a freaking website. So that that circles it all the way back to the beginning of this conversation. So I would.
47:03
Absolutely challenge you to at least give Mike and affordable a shot to earn your business. I endorse them. We're going to have all of his information down below. And if it's just an analysis, they do a great analysis. Reach out, ask them, what are you buying? What are the assets? What's this look like to you? Make it part of your due diligence. I learned something today, some things I need to ask some questions about.
47:32
I think the attorneys that listen to the show need to listen to what you talked about in the beginning. think for you folks, I'm thinking about valuation and catastrophes that could be happening in a deal. Sometimes is this website an asset or not slips through the cracks. And I think that would go for all your advisors, CPAs, other buyer reps, bankers. People weren't looking at this little stuff. We're looking at catastrophes for you, major things.
48:03
You could pick something up from this episode. Take this on, learn from it, figure it out, see what you're getting and what you're not getting. I think it's a great episode. Thanks so much for being on Mike. I appreciate you. I appreciate it. Thank you too, Mike. Didn't see you. Didn't see you. All right. With that being said, talk to you all soon. Continue to subscribe and follow. We've got a lot of a lot more stuff heading down the pipe here. And as always, check us out at Next Level. We'd love to help.
48:33
get you into practice and make you guys amazing business owners once you get the keys. So without further ado, peace out, Mike. Talk to you soon. Appreciate you. Bye. Bye now.
48:54
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