It is often said that, “Your patients are your best source of new patients.” Not only is that still very valid, it is an understatement of your current patients’ marketing potential. If that is true, why do so many doctors begin their initial inquiries to Curtis Marketing Group with, “I don’t get the patient referrals like I used to get. New patient count is really down.”? Do their patients just not like them anymore? Have they lost confidence in the doctor? Of course not.

If you have experienced this phenomenon, I can assure you that your current patients are still recommending you to their friends, fellow workers and family. However, what exactly are they telling them? Are they still saying, “You should see my dentist. He’s nice.”? Or, “She’s gentle.” That is not enough anymore. In this age of hyper-information sources, people are more evaluative when making decisions. You need to turn your patients into powerful marketing tools for you and your practice.

In the banking industry there is a quotient of marketing called, “rate resistance”. It measures the difference in rates of return that are required to motivate a banking customer to move their account (savings and investments on the positive side, and loans and checking fees on the negative side) to another banking institution. In a purely economic sense, a customer should move their account immediately upon discovering a more financially rewarding (or less punishing) opportunity. However, they don’t! Rate resistance quotients of 2:1 are not uncommon. That means that if you are earning 2% on your passbook savings account, you will not move it until another institution offers 4%. Or, conversely, if you are being charged $1 per check you write from your business you will not change until someone charges only 50¢. Why? Because people evaluate another 50 variables in the equation that have no financial basis whatsoever.

So, let’s review, only from your practice’s point of view. You are a highly skilled dentist who charges about 125% more than the median local rate. You don’t accept insurance and you want half of your fees up front before you’ll begin a procedure. You know that the dentist-patient bond (rate resistance) has traditionally been very high. You want your current patients to bring in new patients at the same rate as always, yet you do little or no outside marketing and your inside marketing to patients consists of some hygiene posters and ADA pamphlets coupled with your incredibly dynamic personality. Okay, maybe that was a cheap shot about your personality.

The point is, patients will be much more effective at recruiting new and quality patients if they have a clear understanding of exactly what makes you different from all the other dentists. They must have some ammunition when you send them out to win the battle for you. You want them to pre-prep your prospective patients with information that will raise that new patient’s perception of your skills and quality, and justify the fees that are worthy of your services. Do this exercise with your staff. Call a huddle and brainstorm all of the factors that fall on the plus or minus side of your practice’s rate resistance quotient.

I’ll get you started:

Now, here are some subtle, yet just as influential, attributes:

Keep going, don’t stop now.

Once you have your list, decide how you are going to help your patients convey these concepts to potential new patients.

I’ll get you started:

Your patients will become walking/talking 90-second commercials for you. They’ll be spouting out benefits and statistics at record rates. And, they’ll more easily convince other people to overcome their rate resistance and choose you as their new dentist - firmly entrenched with higher rate resistance to other dentists’ messages.

In addition, your current patients can become your new patients?! Why? Because communicating your main marketing messages to them will raise their own perceptions of your skills, quality and worth. They will be more receptive to suggestions of high-quality, elective treatment options. They will begin to see you in a whole new light. And, then, that dynamic personality will really begin to work for you.

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