This Episode is Sponsored by: Dandy | The Fully Digital, US-based Dental Lab
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For a completely FREE 3Shape Trios 3 scanner & $250 in lab credit click here: https://www.meetdandy.com/affiliate/tdm !

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Guest: Stephanie NivinskusBusiness Name: SizzleForce MarketingCheck out Stephanie's Media:‍

Website: https://SizzleForce.com

Schedule an Appointment: https://www.SizzleForce.com/schedule

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanienivinskus

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Other Mentions and Links:

Starbucks

Quicksilver

National Football League

Cox Communications

Forbes

Entrepreneur Magazine

Absolutely Unforgettable: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Creating a Heart-Centered Brand and Standing out in a Noisy World

CPAP Machine - Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Machine

Nierman Practice Management

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Host: Michael Arias‍Website: The Dental Marketer

Join my newsletter: https://thedentalmarketer.lpages.co/newsletter/‍

Join this podcast's Facebook Group: The Dental Marketer Society

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My Key Takeaways:

• Your offline interactions AND online followup with patients should both make them feel heard and appreciated.
• It's great to have a sterile office, but having a sterile vibe isn't always inviting. Try adding a sense of warmth to your practice feel!
• Always think from the perspective of the expert, rather than the salesperson when educating patients.
• People are not excited about giving up their email or phone number! Provide a valuable incentive for offering their information.
• You cannot optimize something that isn't well documented.

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Please don't forget to share with us on Instagram when you are listening to the podcast AND if you are really wanting to show us love, then please leave a 5 star review on iTunes! [Click here to leave a review on iTunes]

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p.s. Some links are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. Please understand that we have experience with these products/ company, and I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions we make if you decide to buy something. Please do not spend any money unless you feel you need them or that they will help you with your goals.

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Our Sponsors & Their Exclusive Deals:

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Dandy | The Fully Digital, US-based Dental Lab
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For a completely FREE 3Shape Trios 3 scanner & $250 in lab credit click here: meetdandy.com/affiliate/tdm !

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Thank you for supporting the podcast by checking out our sponsors!

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Episode Transcript (Auto-Generated - Please Excuse Errors)

Michael: Stephanie, how's it going? Going

Stephanie: great. Thanks for having me,

Michael: Michael. No, thank you for being on. If you don't mind me asking, where are you located?

Stephanie: I am in San Diego, California.

Michael: Oh, man.

Stephanie: Did you guys get any snow? No, but we got a lot of hail and we had hail ball fights, hail ball in my front yard.

Cause we were so excited. Like literally we packed together. Hail. Yeah. And maybe hail balls, . And my kids and the neighbor kids, we had hail ball fights. It was amazing.

Michael: Is that, does that hurt more or,

Stephanie: well, I don't, I wouldn't say we had enough to do damage. We just had enough to have a lot of fun. .

Michael: Gotcha, gotcha.

I like that hill ball fight. Yeah. Interesting. All right. So Stephanie, can you tell us a little bit about your past, your present? How'd you get to where you

Stephanie: are? . Yeah. So I have been in marketing going on three decades, which is crazy. Mm-hmm. . I started, my career in 1995 and, started working, free.com, and working in the newspaper industry and, and then.com became a thing, and then wireless became a thing and my career path kept unfolding in different versions of market.

For for those different types of media. And then in 2009, I went out on my own and I started my company Sizzle Force Marketing, and now I run a fractional C M O service, which basically means a part-time chief marketing officer and a full implementation team for all of your day-to-day marketing needs.

Michael: Gotcha. Okay. What are some things that you. because you said you did pre.com, right? Yeah. Can you, and I'm

Stephanie: still alive, .

Michael: And I'm still alive. So what are some things where you're like, sting haven't changed since the pre.com, till today?

Stephanie: You know what? The way the human mind works has not changed. , right? Mm-hmm.

humans still wanna be cared about. They still wanna feel like they're understood. They still wanna feel like they have hope for a solution for whatever pains ail them. You know, all of those things, humans at their core haven't changed just the way that we communicate with them has, right? Mm-hmm.

meaning the tools that we use to communicate with them, but at, at our essence, we all still want the same. ,

Michael: which is co what? Communication or

Stephanie: Yeah, just empathy. Mm-hmm. , right? We wanna feel heard, we wanna feel understood, we wanna feel valued, we wanna feel like we matter, like we're appreciated. All of those things.

And, and those are things that are super relevant in a dental practice, right? Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . If, if I go to the dentist and, you know, it's a, it's a kind of a rougher on the edges, experie. Right. And I don't feel appreciated. Like, here, let me give you an example. Yesterday. Mm-hmm. . Yesterday I had a phone, a telehealth appointment with my doctor.

Okay? Now, mind you, I pay out the nose for my insurance, right? Just every month. It's painful. It hurts my, it hurts my heart, right? Well, last week I had something going on, and so I requested an appointment. I had to wait six. to get a telephone appointment, not even a face-to-face appointment, okay? Mm-hmm.

six days rolls around. That's yesterday. I finally get the call from the doctor and I ask her my question and she gives me an answer. Then I said, oh, can I ask you another question about something else? And she goes, I don't have time. I only have 10 minutes for this call. And I'm like, I had to wait six days for a 10 minute slot with my doctor.

that was a rough around the edges experience. Okay. Mm-hmm. , and very disappointing. And I did not feel appreciated at all as a customer, despite the fact that I give them like 2,500 bucks a month for my insurance. Mm-hmm. , right? Like, oh my gosh. Well, thank you. How much do you make an hour if ? Yeah. You know?

Right. And I think any, whether, whether you're a a doctor, like for, you know, a general practitioner kind of doctor, or you're a doctor of dentistry, right? Or you're literally any other type of professional people want to feel cared about, heard and appreciated. Mm-hmm. . And yesterday that doctor was a big fat fail.

Michael: Yeah. Yeah. No d So then, , are you gonna continue with that doctor,

Stephanie: or Well, well, the problem is, well, yeah, but that's a whole other issue. with the healthcare system. .

Michael: Gotcha. No, that, but it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, you're right. We do want, so today you said that doesn't change, right? Humans still want to be cared about.

They want to have that empathy. How can we utilize that today with the technology that we have to, I guess, grow our patient's? Yeah,

Stephanie: numbers. . Yeah. I, I think I think that what we have to remember is while technology is incredible, automations are, you know, really powerful behind everything. It still goes back to h to H, right?

Human to human. Mm-hmm. , right? We need to utilize these tools to communicate compassion and empathy. So, you know, how can we do that? Lots of, there's lots of different ways. everything from. Well, let me give you an example of my dentist. I think he's a marketing master. Okay? So how many dentists have I been to over the years where I literally felt like a number and it was like, oh my gosh, just get me in, clean my teeth and get me out.

I don't wanna be here. I don't like you, I don't like what you're doing in my mouth, and I would like to leave now. Okay? Mm-hmm. , pretty much every dentist I've ever had until, until I met this guy. All right. , he actually makes going to the dentist fun. And I, I'm not even kidding you, my kids, my husband, myself, we're all like, we like almost get excited to go to the dentist now, which is the weirdest thing for us, right?

Mm-hmm. , the way that he does that in the office is he creates a really just kind of happy, uplifting experience, okay? When you walk into his office, first of all, , his decor is bright and colorful. He, he doesn't have these muted colored old chairs from 1983. You know, he's got bright and colorful paintings on the wall.

And he actually, the name of the company is Scripps Rock Dental, and he has like this life size statue of. and he has a choke box and he's like really into music. That's his thing, right? So you go in, he's playing super cool music, like music that you, you wanna bop to. Yeah. Okay. Right. And yeah, he just makes that experience fun.

The second thing that he does is his front office staff is more like a front office concierge. . Okay. I feel like when I go into that dentist, a, they know my name even though they have a bajillion patients. Right. It, it's not that they necessarily remember my name, but they've looked three minutes before I walk in the door at who's coming in and then they say, hi, Stephanie.

Good to see you again. . You know? Yeah. They just make me feel seen. Then. , you know, it's everything from, oh, please have a seat. Would you like some water while you're waiting? Dentist will be with you in just a couple of minutes. I feel very cared for. I get escorted back to my chair.

When I go back into the office and you know, they ask me, are you comfortable? You know, would you like to watch something on tv? Would you like the headphones? Would you like to wear these special glasses? . Right? It's, it literally, I feel like they're, they are a concierge. Okay. So it, it starts kind of with the offline experience, right?

But then if you want to turn around and figure out, well, how can you leverage technology to make people feel cared about and seen and whatnot? It's more of what happens after the appointment, okay? Mm-hmm. , it's the message that comes. The evening after you've had your appointment, the email or the text that you get from the dentist saying, Hey Stephanie, how are you feeling tonight?

I just wanted to make sure you're not in any pain, wanted to make sure that you know, your teeth feel good, or whatever it is. Mm-hmm. , shoot me back a quick text to let me know you're doing well, right? All of a sudden, I feel so cared about. I'm like, oh my gosh. How many people did he see? and he's just asking how I'm doing.

Maybe it's a couple days after if it was a more substantial procedure that I had done and it wasn't just a cleaning or whatever, right? Mm-hmm. , maybe you get a root canal and it's a few days later and it's like, Oh, hey Stephanie. If you're feeling any sensitivity in your teeth tonight, I recommend just having some soup for dinner.

Don't try and chew anything that's gonna hurt your teeth, blah, blah, blah. This can be delivered through text. It can be delivered through emails. It can be delivered in a ton of different automated ways where you're leveraging the technology. But you are practicing human to human. . Yeah,

Michael: I like that. I like that.

You're right. You're caring, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Awesome, awesome. That's really, really interesting. I love seeing your input and your point of view, you know what I mean, when it comes to someone who's not so totally involved in the clinical side of dentistry. Not at

Stephanie: all. Yeah, no, I, I speak as a, I speak on behalf of the people,

Michael: I, so let, let me ask you then just two, two questions, and then after that we'll go into, The, the workshop. Right? But I wanted to ask you right now, what do you hate about dentistry or dislike?

Stephanie: What do I dislike about dentistry? Well, I dislike the experiences I had until I met the Marketing Master of Dentistry, right?

Mm-hmm. that I go to now, I disliked the very clinical. Feel of the dental experience, you know, walking into this sterile, not in a way. Obviously the dentist needs to be a sterile environment, but I I'm saying a sterile environment in terms of there's no warmth to it, there's no care, there's no there's no empathy really.

And that's how most dental experiences that I. have been, right? Mm-hmm. . So, yeah, I, I never like that, you know, I mean, just, I don't know. I don't, I don't think people put, maybe they, they put so much effort into, becoming really good at the work that they do, that they forget about the customer experience.

Mm-hmm. . And it's a huge reason. Why there's such, you know, churn in the dental industry, right? While, you know, if, if, if it's just a transaction, if I just come there to get my cleaning every six months and I don't feel cared about, well, why on earth would I ever remain loyal to you? I have lots of choices.

Every other day I get, you know, Big postcard in the mail with some new dentist offering me a cleaning, come in and you can only pay $29. Well, if I don't feel like I've had an experience with you that's worthy of returning to, why would I not just shop on price, right? Mm-hmm. , I would, I, I mean that's, see that's the thing is like if you don't differentiate your practice, people will make decisions based on price alone because you're just like everybody else.

Michael: Yeah, yeah. That's true. Yeah, you're right. You're absolutely right. And then what do you love about dentistry? ? What do

Stephanie: I love about dentistry? On behalf of the people, I will say I love the fact that, when I have been in pain, you get me out of.

Michael: Got you. Wait, actually y yeah, that's true. But you're, your dentist. Your dentist. What do you love about the, what they do? I know you told, you told me that they make you feel warm empathy. Right, right. Anything else on that? There's

Stephanie: a very neighborly feel to the dentist that I go to now, and let me tell you this, we have dental insurance.

He's not covered in our. We pay for dental insurance that we don't even use. We pay out of pocket for him, and he is not cheap. And we do it because the experience is that good. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, there's a very neighborly feel To his place, you know, I mean, we all live in our own neighborhoods, right?

Mm-hmm. and you know, I know he sponsors the little league group and the little soccer players. And you know, here I am, I'm a soccer mom, and so I'm like, oh, I like that. He is like supporting the kids, you know, . Yeah. Yeah. , he does things around Halloween, like, bring in all your candy that you collected and I'll trade it for prizes.

You know, so he gets kids not eating so much candy and, but they get cool prizes instead, you know. Hmm. Okay. You know,

Michael: just things like that. Yeah. Someone who's involved in the community neighborly, right? Like you said. Yeah. Gotcha. Okay. Interesting. So, , Stephanie, what can a dentist do today to improve their marketing and business?

Stephanie: So I am a huge believer in something that is called the customer value journey. Mm-hmm. , and I think there are about 0.001% of dentists who even know what that is. So let me explain it. Yeah. It is a seven step journey. identifies every step a customer takes from the moment they learn you exist to the moment they become a raving fan.

Like whoever thought I'd be sitting here talking about my dentist because he's that cool. I, if you had sold me, I would be doing that today. If you had said that to me five years ago, I would've been like, you're, what are you on, you know, . Well, I would never do that. Okay, well, okay. I do it because he has his journey figured out.

Okay, so there you want me to talk to you about the seven steps? Yeah, let's dive into that. Okay. So, the first step is awareness and engagement, right? So you need to figure out, you need to document this stuff. How are you going to. The marketplace, meaning your target market in wherever location you are, how are you going to make them aware that you exist?

And then what are you going to do to foster engagement with them? Okay. The second step is what are you gonna do to get them on your list and get permission from them to email them or text them or whatnot? And this is. only after they come in and they're a patient of yours? Mm-hmm. . Okay. What can you do before that?

Step three is the convert phase. It's. , what is the offer that you are going to make to them to create a, a, a first level transaction? That's where a lot of people will do that. You know, $29 cleaning offer. Mm-hmm. , that's a good conversion offer because it's a, a very low priced entry point to expose somebody to your brand and your experience, and then you move them up from there, right?

Mm-hmm. into being a profitable patient. . The fourth step is the excite phase, right? What are you going to do to create a memorable experience like my dentist has, right? Mm-hmm. and, and transform the experience from a nice to have to a must have, right? Transforming somebody like me who will pay out of pocket more than I ever thought I would pay to go to the dentist.

because I like to be there, . Yeah. And he fixes my teeth. Right. All right. Step five is the ascend stage. And this is where you're really maximizing every opportunity you have to make a profit, right? So what does it look like? You know, maybe somebody starts by, they come in and, and they get that one time cleaning, right?

But, , what does the rest of the journey look like? Okay, well, they're gonna actually need a cleaning twice a year. So maybe the next thing that you sell to them is some sort of membership. Mm-hmm. , right? Where they can come in and if they're a member, they get their appointments prescheduled, then they get some sort of little discount on it.

Okay. What's the next level? Well, maybe it's the membership with A teeth whitening, right? Or the membership with the teeth whitening and something else, right? And then it goes up and up from there, right? You wanna think about what you can sell them in increasingly profitable segments. Okay? So at the very top of this, you wanna think about like, what is my very, very best patient?

the patients I make the most money off of. What are they buying, right? And so you create offers at all these different levels so that it, it's upsells and cross cells are pre-planned as opposed to haphazardly thrown out when you remember, okay? Mm-hmm. . The next stage is called the advocate stage.

And it's what are you gonna do to get social proof? We all know we live in a social proof world. We all know that people are gonna check out reviews and whatnot. Mm-hmm. , you can let the marketplace control that or you can control that. It's very dangerous to let the marketplace control that because if they have anything that makes them unhappy or maybe their experience with you that day was perfectly fine.

but they got in a fight with their husband after their appointment. So now they're just in a bad mood. Mm-hmm. . And they're gonna go on some review site and leave a skating review just cuz they're in a bad mood. Right? So you have to figure out what are you gonna do to make sure that you're controlling positive social proof, getting out there.

And then finally the last stage is what are you gonna do to incentivize your patients to become your raving? And to send you a bunch of referrals. Okay, so there's seven steps, awareness and engagement. Subscribe, convert, excite, ascend, advocate, and promote. And each of these steps needs to be very carefully flushed out into a document because you cannot optimize something that you have not document.

Michael: I like that. Okay. If we can rewind on some of these Yeah. Yep. And dive a little bit deeper. so for example, and I'm sure you might hear this sometimes, like number four, right? The excite phase, like you wanna create a memorable experience. Mm-hmm. how. , I guess. Was the doctor you have now different from other ones?

What was the experience where you in the chair or in the moment you were this is, this is, he's doing number four.

Stephanie: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it, it didn't just start in the chair, that's the thing. Mm-hmm. started long before I got in the chair. It started from the moment I made the appointment and how pleasant they were, and you know, Conversational and friendly and neighborly, right to the moment.

I walked into the to the dental office and I was greeted by name. I was escorted back to the chair. You know, it's, it's like the four seasons of dentistry, right? Mm-hmm. I think this is like, it's funny. To the moment, you know, I'm in the chair and they're, you know, offering me the special classes and they're offering me headphones and they're offering me to watch a show and, you know, whatever.

Frequently checking on me, are you comfortable? Does anything hurt? Blah, blah, blah. To the moment I was done. Stephanie, how can we make this easy for you? Would you just like us to bill your account, or would you like to go ahead and take care of your payment today? , to after the appointment, the aftercare emails.

Right. The memorable experience does not start in the chair. Mm-hmm. starts long before you get in the chair, and it continues to long after you're out of the chair. Gotcha.

Michael: Okay. So from contact 0.1, right? Like Yeah. Or even before that, even the, I guess number one, awareness and engagement. , what could a dentist do for number one to create great awareness and engagement?

Is that just like, okay, let's just send out Facebook ads mailers or,

Stephanie: yeah. I mean, those are both things that can happen, right? Mm-hmm. , and there's a lot of different ways. You've got organic marketing and then you've got paid marketing, right? So, organic meaning, you know, , you can grow a lot of awareness if you have, if you're young, in your practice especially, you can grow tremendous awareness by being on TikTok.

Mm-hmm. , right? Being super active on TikTok, that doesn't cost you anything. It costs you time, it costs you creativity, right? Mm-hmm. . But it doesn't literally cost you any money to create, tos, and it can totally grow awareness for. . You could do Facebook ads, you could, you know, you could do ads on any of the social platforms.

You could do direct mail, you could do oh goodness. So there's so many different things. You could partner up with an orthodontist. . Right. And, you know, assuming that your offices are somewhat close together, you know mm-hmm. , maybe the orthodontist has been in, in practice a little bit longer than you, and you create some sort of referral campaign with them, right?

where they will send out an email blast to everybody on their list saying, Hey, we wanna introduce you to our new neighbor. , you know, Dr. So-and-so, we're really excited to be in the same plaza with them. Be, you know, because they have these skills, right? Mm-hmm. and they endorse for you. Okay. So yeah, there's, there's so many different ways to do that, but there's a few ideas.

Okay.

Michael: Yeah. So those are the, like the, the platforms and the marketing mediums we can use. And then when it comes to option two or number two in this I guess like value, like this workshop basically, right? This whole. Yeah, get them on your list and get permission to email and text them. How do we do that?

How do we, I mean, I guess in the sense of like, do we offer an incentive in these ads and then that's how they click in? Is that

Stephanie: what you're talking about? Yeah. Yeah. So, you wanna think about, People are not usually super excited about giving away their personal information. Mm-hmm. . So you have to give them an incentive to do it, right?

No, nobody woke up this morning and said, I wanna get on all the email and text lists so I can be bombarded with offers all day. Mm-hmm. . Right? So you need to think about, well, what valuable contents can you give in exchange for getting that information and permission to follow up with? So this is where it could be something, it, it could be a discount on something.

It could be you could create some little package like you know, I don't, I don't know what your margins are in dentistry on the fancy toothpaste that y'all sell, right? But like, you know, maybe if you have an awesome margin on that. , maybe you can give away little little fancy toothpaste for sensitive teeth.

Right. I think I paid $40 for toothpaste.

Michael: Really? Okay. Cuz I was gonna ask you, like, let me ask you, Stephanie, what would, what would make you, like you or your family be like, here's my email, here's my, here's my number. You know, like what incentive would. ,

Stephanie: Well for me it would have something to do with teeth whitening.

Okay. Yeah. Because that's something that's just on my mind. I'm like, I need to get my teeth whitened, you know? Yeah. So if, if there was something, you know, and I don't even know how the process works, but maybe if there was an opportunity to come in and. Let's say it's a multi-step process, right? And they said, you know what?

Come in. We're gonna do step one of the teeth whitening process for you at no cost. We just wanna offer this to you. Mm-hmm. , I'd be like, yeah. Oh, okay. Here you go. Here's my info. Yeah. Right. I would do that. Now, here's the thing is that sometimes people will be like, well, that's something I sell. I'm not gonna give that away for free.

Are you nuts? and I'm like, well, this is what we call in the old days, a loss leader. Okay? This is where you are giving away something that you could sell. But if it's valuable enough to somebody like me, I will give you something that's really valuable to you, meaning my contact information, okay? Mm-hmm.

So you're asking for something that's really valuable to me. My privacy. . Mm-hmm. , give me something that's valuable to me in return. Right. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And if you're not willing to do that, if, if you're just like, Nope, I just wanna get your info, well, you know, good luck getting any legitimate info.

People might write something down, but it's not gonna be valid. They're not ever gonna look at it. Right.

Michael: Yeah, no, I I I love that. I love how you. , I'll put that out there because it's true. Like we, it's um, it's also the first transaction, right. That you're ever like kind of seeing with them. But I agree.

And when it comes to the phase five here, or step number five, ascend. Mm-hmm. maximize every opportunity you have to make a profit pre-plan plan. So can you break this down to us? Let's just say, cuz this happens in dentistry, right? I'm not gonna lie. Like, sometimes we're like, okay, we gotta, let's see if we can like you.

have them, let's push teeth whitening on them. Right? Or let's, let's push, uh, maybe they need instead of, um, I don't know, a crown where we can get implants or something. Right. Like just upsell. Mm-hmm. , how does this work when it comes to pre-planning? So do we pre-plan this? Like, let's just say this month of March we want to do upsell our teeth.

Widenings, right? um, and they can be trays, like bleach trays. Mm-hmm. , how would. recommend we draw this out.

Stephanie: So you, you could change it every month but you certainly don't have to. Mm-hmm. , I would think about, I, I would think about what your core flagship offer is to begin with, and then what logically makes sense as the next step.

So it's not as much, I think, when. , quote unquote pushing things. Mm-hmm. , you're not really serving your patients, right? Mm-hmm. Instead, think of it like the expert that you are. I am a doctor of dentistry and I know to get optimal dental health or , however you guys say it, , right? This is what really needs to happen, you know, to have a smile.

you see a reflection of in the mirror and you feel good about right, and to, you know, have teeth that last through your lifetime and and whatnot. This is really what needs to happen. So think about it from an expert perspective as opposed to from a sales perspective. and the sales will naturally follow.

Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. .

Michael: Yeah, I get you. So then you mentioned core flagship offers. Should we all have like a specific

Stephanie: offer always, or, yeah. I mean, but everybody does just inherently. Mm-hmm. , it's, it's probably a teeth cleaning, so

Michael: like 50 or like free or like a 50% off teeth cleaning kind of thing.

Or like, new, new patient examined x-rays and teeth cleaning a bundle, like something like that is what you. ,

Stephanie: you could do that. Yeah. The, as you wanna think of the ascension phase as like a ladder with different rungs on it. Okay, so the bottom of the ladder is that core flagship offer, right? It's the, the teeth cleaning everybody needs.

Well, what's the next step up from that? That would be a really good idea for people to also, , right? Maybe it's okay, we'll come in and get a teeth cleaning. But then really for optimal dental health, you should be using this electric toothbrush at home and this special whitening toothpaste. Mm-hmm.

So, so we're gonna have an upsell for that. Okay. Not because you're just trying to get all the money out of me, but because you're serving. . Okay. You're serving me and, and you're telling me things I don't know. I will tell you again, going back to my master market or dentist. Okay. I used a good old fashioned $2 toothbrush for 45 years of my life.

Mm-hmm. . Okay. Never thought twice about it. Then one day I went in and he goes, you know, you brush your teeth too. And I was like, how's that even possible? He goes, I don't know. I think you're taking your aggression out on your teeth . And I'm like, really? You know? And he goes, yeah, well, and it's actually causing this problem because that's why you're having this issue and that issue.

And the other thing that I, which was part of my complaint when I got in the chair, right? Like, okay, I need you to look at this cuz it's really sensitive, it's kind of bothering me, blah, blah, blah. And so in. Act of service to me. He said, yeah, you know that problem you brought up, well, it would be helped if you used this electric toothbrush and this toothpaste.

Now, for all I know, he is blowing smoke at me and he is just selling to me, but he's real good at it. , if that's the case. . I don't think that is the case though, because I got sucked into it. I bought the really expensive special toothbrush, then I bought one for my husband, then I bought one for each of my kids, okay?

Mm-hmm. , whatever, however many hundreds of dollars later, you know, with our fancy toothbrushes. I can tell you, we go into the dentist now and the hygienist will be like, oh, your teeth look fantastic, Stephanie. You know, and I'm. . Well, that's because I have my fancy toothbrush.

Michael: Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting.

Okay, so it's about serving, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so that's the part where we have to pre-plan, right? Not so much like, I guess horizontal, where it's like, all right, this month we're gonna do teeth whining. This month we're gonna do toothbrushes. This month we're gonna do fluoride. Right? It's not that. It's more like the ladder, like you mentioned.

Yep. Yeah.

Stephanie: Okay. Yeah, and always, always, always be service minded because if you're just out there, I mean, I, you know, when you asked me earlier, what do you hate about dentists? Okay. I will tell you, I had many, many experiences in the past where I would go to a dentist that was on my plan with my insurance and.

it, it really did, it did not feel like they were really looking out for my best interest. It did feel like they were just selling me on stuff, right? Hmm. Oh, well, you know, you need to do this and you need to do this. And like, I can tell you, the guy that I go to now there has been more than one occasion where he said, well, you know, I see something starting here, but you don't need to address it yet.

Just you. We don't need to, you know, fill this cavity or, or whatever, whatever it is. We just need to keep an eye on it. Okay. That makes me feel like I can trust him. He's not just like, oh, I see something, let's get a root canal started,

Michael: you know? Yeah. Makes sense. Okay. Interesting. And then number seven, incentivize patients to become a raving fans.

Mm-hmm. . Break this down for us if you can, because I know sometimes we can't, we can't say like, here's a hundred bucks if you leave as a review. Right. So how can we incentivize patients to become raving fans?

Stephanie: Yeah. You. it. This is different from getting reviews. This is the, the promotion stage is about getting people basically to spread the word about you more directly to a friend or family member as opposed to the general public leaving a Yelp review, okay?

Mm-hmm. . So, you know, I, there there are lots of different things that you can do e everything from, you know what, if you send us three new patients, , we'll give you a free teeth whitening experience. Okay? Or if you send us a new patient, you know, we'll send you out to dinner at such and such a restaurant, right?

It, it doesn't have to be, you know, you wanna think about, okay, how much, what is the lifetime value of a new patient to me in my. . Okay. The lifetime value is far beyond that initial cleaning cost. Mm-hmm. , right? Let's say it's, you know, well twice a year at whatever, 80 bucks to get a cleaning, well, let's say a hundred cause I can't do math.

Okay? So $200 a year. And that's just for cleanings. That's not for all the other things, right? Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . So, you know, I'm sure. . I would think a lifetime value would be at least five figures of a customer. Mm-hmm. . So if you're gonna make $10,000 plus off of one patient in their lifetime, would you be able to spare a $50 gift card to a restaurant?

I think so. That's like stupid math. Yeah. . So we, we need to be thinking more long-term than short-term. And if you provide that memorable experience, people will come back. They will come back, they will want to come back. They will get on podcasts and talk about their great dentist .

Michael: Yeah. That's interesting.

I like that. When it comes to you, Stephanie, what incentive would you. Like you and your family, what are you thinking when you're like that? What if he sent me that right now? Mm-hmm. I'd find I'd make uh, I'd go get three people right now.

Stephanie: Well, for me it would be a spa day, . Ah, okay. Okay. But that might be a little weird coming from the dentist.

So why would that be weird? Why? Oh, I don't know. I don't know. Why would that be weird? That would be weird. I don't know. Maybe cuz he's a dude. I don't know. There's something weird about it to me. It just doesn't sit right. So other things that would incentivize me, you know, just things that I might not otherwise treat myself to, right?

Mm-hmm. , and again, kind of going back to what I said before, that teeth whitening thing. Now that wouldn't always incentivize me, but it's on my mind right now. Mm-hmm. , I'm like, I wanna get my teeth white. And if they said, Hey, you send us three new patients, I would call all my neighbor. I'd be like, Hey Susan, you need to go to the dentist.

Yeah, , and you need to go see him and tell him I sent you. And then she'd be like, why is he so great? Okay. Well, I would tell her why he's so great, because he really is, I wouldn't just do it to get whatever, right? Mm-hmm. , I would do it because I believe it, and then she would go and I would get three people, and then I would walk away and have my teeth whiten for free.

And I would be thrilled to do that. So if any of you guys that are listening would like to whiten my teeth for free, making an offer,

Michael: making an offer, she's in San Diego. . Okay. That's interesting. But what, let me ask you this. Would you prefer more something clinical like that, a teeth whining, or would you prefer something more?

a spa day, but it can say like, Hey, it's coming from the team, or it's coming from all of us, thank you. Or something like that. Or, or something not clinical.

Stephanie: Hmm.

Well, it feels like more of a treat if it's not clinical. Okay. Okay. So it feels it's, it's a little more exciting and fun to me. Mm-hmm. . , you know, just, you know, here you work hard, you should go get a massage on us. That's a treat that not everybody affords into their daily budget. Right? Yeah. But most people really enjoy that.

Just getting a timeout. Mm-hmm. and, you know, we live in this crazy world where we all work too much and, you know, run around like crazy people. Having an excuse to take a time out and somebody else foot the bill is pretty

Michael: nice. Yeah, interesting. That's really, really good insight. Awesome, Stephanie.

So any other piece of advice you like to give our listeners or our doctors listening,

Stephanie: I just wanna go back to fleshing out your journey. Flush this out on paper. Do not keep this information in your head. Flush it out on paper with your staff. Right. And. , watch what happens when you logically walk people through this journey, okay?

If you don't, if you don't ever document this, there are a lot of people who will get lost along the way, and every lost patience is a lost opportunity. It's lost revenue, okay? This is how you don't just get customers in the door, but this is how you keep customers for life. , and that's what you want, right?

Yeah.

Michael: Awesome. So thank you so much for being with us, Stephanie. It's been a pleasure. But before we say goodbye, can you tell our listeners where they can find you?

Stephanie: Sure. Yeah. Our company is sizzle force.com. Sizzle like Bacon force like me, the force be with you. Sizzle force.com. And if any of you would like to talk about digital marketing um, you can schedule an appointment by going to sizzle force.com/schedule.

Love to talk

Michael: to you. Awesome. So guys, that's all gonna be in the show notes below, so definitely reach out to Stephanie, especially if you wanna pick your brain a little bit more about the, the journey that we've been talking about and also the digital marketing that she does for you guys. So go to Shawn's below for that.

And Stephanie, thank you so much for being with us. It's been a pleasure and we'll hear from you. Thank you.

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