Louis Malcmacher DDS MAGD Printer Friendly Version

Psst… Want To Make A Million Dollars? Read This!

Every day when I get to the office, I find on my desk a pile of mail, as do you. For some reason, I always feel that going through the pile of mail is the first thing that I need to do before I can do anything else. Even in this day of instant messaging and email, in which anything really important will be sent to me immediately, the good old snail mail still holds some kind of magical attraction despite the fact it has probably taken two days to a week to actually get to my desk.

So let me share what my dental office mail looks like; I’m sure that it is a lot like yours. Here is a piece of mail that looks attractive. The outside says, “If you ignore this opportunity, you’ll be losing money!” I open this letter to find that some new “marketing genius” is going to help me (and many other dentists like me) get new patients with his “secrets.” Oh, look, those secrets are going to cost me $1,500 down and then $40,000 over the next year. I’ll pass. Well, let’s open the next envelope. Look at this! It’s another “marketing genius” who is actually a dentist. Well, after reading the information inside the envelope, I learn he used to be a dentist. He started practicing at age 25 and he says he made so much money in dentistry that he retired at age 29. You can buy his secrets for $1,995 and then pay him another $2,500 each month for the rest of his natural life to get some monthly reports about how to make gobs of money. I’m not as upset by the price as much as I am upset by the fact that I am 20 years past his retirement age.

You know, I really have to go see patients, but I can’t help but open up another envelope that is screaming at me with a line on the outside that says, “This one trick will increase your production by $90,000 each month.” I better read this before I see today’s patients because I am always looking for ways to increase production. This one has to be good. I opened up the letter to find that a dentist once sent a mug filled with flowers to a patient, after which—the letter claims—the patient then did $30,000 worth of dentistry. If you do this three times, that will be $90,000. For other tricks of the trade, I can get this special report on other ways to woo my patients into more dentistry.

These examples of come-ons are becoming very commonplace in dentistry and, believe it or not, dentists are falling for them. As I lecture to hundreds of dentists each month, they tell me how they wasted their time and money trying to find the silver bullet inside some of these ridiculous offers and outrageous claims. Every dentist wants to know what the one thing is they can say, do or give away that will attract new patients and make them go for big treatment plans.

Here is my advice. STOP WASTING YOUR MONEY! Live by the old adage, “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.” The time and money that you waste in some of these silly schemes is money that can be invested into a soft-tissue and hard-tissue Waterlase laser. If you want to make more money in dentistry, then offer your patients what they want—like learning how to do minimally invasive Lumineers. Do you use Arestin, Captek by Trident Labs and CareCredit to get patients to pay for it all? These are just some of the technologies that will let you do faster, easier and better dentistry.

Do you offer oral cancer screenings like Vizilite Plus in addition to your oral cancer examinations? Speaking of oral cancer, do you teach your patients how to do self-examinations for oral cancer? (Go to www.oralcancerselfexam.com to learn how and to be listed!) Patients will look at you differently because now they know you care about them as people. Now they perceive you as a real healthcare provider who cares about their total health.

Here’s the secret you’ve all been waiting for: There is no fast-track, get-rich-quick way to make money in dentistry. You will not find the secrets of success in dentistry in an envelope sitting on your desk or in an email. Like any business, dentistry requires hard work, putting the time into your practice and learning the business.

I have a confession to make. Because I speak so often to so many dental professionals, people assume that I know it all. I will be the first to tell you that I am always learning things, especially about business. How can you learn the business of dentistry? Going to courses helps but there is a much better way— get yourself a great consultant for your practice. You don’t know what you don’t know. I find so many dentists trapped in their own little world with no idea that the opportunity is much larger than the way they are looking at their practices. I have a business consultant to help guide me. A good consultant will pay for him- or herself many times over.

Sally McKenzie, CEO of McKenzie Management and a The Dentist’s Network member, heads an outstanding consulting group that can break you out of your slumber and kick you up to the next level. They will teach you what you don’t know and help guide your practice to new heights as they have done for so many other dental practices for 30 years.

You will be successful by refining your clinical skills, learning what patients want and giving it to them, adding new line extensions and services to your office, and being an excellent communicator so that you can talk to your staff and to your patients. The secret to your success is not found in outrageous claims that come in the mail; rather, your success depends on you! Work hard, get great guidance and consulting, and enjoy life!

Dr. Louis Malcmacher is a practicing general dentist in Bay Village, Ohio, an internationally known lecturer, dental consultant and author, and consultant to the Council on Dental Practice of the ADA. Interested in knowing more about how to truly enjoy dentistry? Click here.

Interested in having Dr. Malcmacher speak to your dental society or study club? Click here.

To reach Dr. Malcmacher, email him at DrMalcmacher@thedentistsnetwork.net or call 1.800.952.0521.