Professionals in All Sectors Must Utilize Recession-Era Business and Dental Marketing Principles
August 8th, 2011When the real estate and financial markets collapsed in 2008, it created a trickle-down effect that resulted in heavy job losses across all business sectors as well as financial declines in day-to-day commerce for businesses, such as dry cleaners, caterers, and retail stores. Professionals who have felt the outcome of the recession more than many have been providers in the medical and dental fields. Unlike most businesses that rely on consistent marketing to attract new customers and retain existing ones, doctors and dentists lack effective marketing experience and that, combined with thousands of people losing their health coverage and unable to afford medical or dental care, has caused many to delay or indefinitely postpone planned retirements. Some physicians and dentists have even had to shuttheir practices completely because they were unable to maintain basic operating costs. The medical and dental providers who have managed to survive thus far are still struggling, especially with the threat of another crash, and are looking for sustainable dental internet marketing ideas to keep their practices open for business.
“Dentists and doctors are more focused on the clinical skills they are proficient with, such as spleen surgery or double root canals, and when they are not performing these procedures, they are reading up on the newest methods for them,” says Mr. Helmut Flasch, a dental practice management consultant and CEO for Doctor Relations, Inc., a business and dental consulting organization based in the San Fernando Valley region in Southern California. , “However, many of these providers know nothing about marketing and don’t realize that a medical or dental practice needs the sort of attention that any business applies to get new clients.” Mr. Flash continues by advising that dentists and doctors, in addition to reading up on cutting-edge technology for healthcare procedures, also need to read up on what they can do to market their practices, especially during an economic downturn. Whether someone is a dentist or a book seller, if he creates enough demand for the product or service he is supplying to the market, then the desperation to sell to everyone just to make ends meet no longer applies, nor is there any need for drastic price cutting.
“You’ve got to generate a demand for your product or service no matter how similar it is to your competitors. This goes for anyone regardless of your occupation and it’s not about the price,” Flasch states. He explains further by saying that patients can’t tell one dentist apart from another by skill level or modern equipment because all dentists say the same things and that a dentist has to differentiate himself from the competition by looking into non-expensive marketing alternatives such as dental internet marketing. Flasch concludes that when used with the appropriate knowledge and action, a dentist can outshine his competitors and take the market share even in the midst of a harsh economic climate.
See more information on dental marketing ideas in Helmut G. Flasch’s business manual “Double Your Business but Not Your Troubles”.
