Latest chrisad Dental Marketing News

7-12-10 | Join Us at No Limits VII in Beautiful San Francisco! Hundreds of Exciting New, Practice-Propelling Ideas for ‘10 & Beyond!

Like the vast majority of our 1,200 client offices across the U.S., Canada & the UK, you’ve chosen to proactively make the nasty recession a non-event in your practice! While conditions have eased a bit, now is not a time to experiment, cut corners...or take chances! Now more than ever, no chrisad client can afford to miss the proven new ideas, open & honest sharing taking place at our No Limits conferences. Together, we’ve been adapting, reengineering & conquering economic slides for 3 decades! At No Limits VII, you’ll see how!

7-6-10 | Here’s Your Summer ‘10 Reading List:

Learn to secure & manage your own future! The best investment that a practice owner/manager can make is in becoming a more competent manager/businessperson. Where else are you going to invest your time & money? Only own stock in the one business that you control & own! The information found in a $20 book can be worth millions & provide the underpinnings for vast empires! Now more than ever, practice managerial excellence is the foundation that allows clinical excellence & marketing-related prosperity to occur! Unimagined practice prosperity & security are the byproducts! Here’s a list of practice- & life-changing books you should consider for your summer reading! There really are no limits!

6-28-10 | Fish More Aggressively When the Biggest Fish Are Biting!

As you understand by now, the few weeks just prior to your local schools going back in session have proven to offer our clients the most productive marketing opportunity of the year! Wealthier & working patients have been long documented to essentially put their family’s dental “house in order”...just before returning to work or school. August (along with January) has historically provided our aggressively marketing clients with their highest production month of the year! And this summer, with fewer jobs & a fragile economy, local folks probably won’t travel quite as much as before. It’s time to aggressively & efficiently invite them in...& back!

6-15-10 | “How I Grew Our Hygiene Department to $12 Million”

The following is a 6-12-10 interview between yours truly & Doris Folineo, R.D.H., B.S., regarding how she grew her practice’s outstanding hygiene department from virtually nothing to $12 million a year & continues to rapidly grow! She is Chief Hygiene Officer at Neibauer Dental Care, a great practice that we have grown from $40,000/mo. to currently $1 million a week. Beyond this interview, she welcomes any & all questions. Also, Doris will be at chrisad’s No Limits VII in San Francisco October 15 & 16! See you there!

6-8-10 | The Upcoming August ‘10 “Back-to-School” Period Is the Most Fertile & Lucrative of the Year!

As most of you have experienced, the late-July-thru-early-August period...a few weeks just prior to your local schools going back in session...has historically offered us the most lucrative marketing opportunities of the year! Even in this tenuous economy, wealthier & working families tend to rush to put their “house in order” just before returning to normal scheduling confines...once they return to school or work. Now, with improving “Consumer Confidence” & a cautiously better economy, patients may address the nagging major care they had been postponing over the past year or so. Also, while on vacation, before-&-after-work hygiene “backups” are less of an issue, so you’ll fill your usually spotty midday hygiene with restorative & cosmetic potential!

6-1-10 | The Secret of Why “Out-of-Network” Offices Grow Faster Than Those “In Network”:

The issue of being contracted with insurance companies...or not...is far less important than the WAY critical money & insurance issues are being handled in the office or over the phone! Please note that we are regularly documenting U.S. practices that have dozens of PPO contracts that are declining...while simultaneously, nearby or contiguous practices...that have no PPO contracts...are rapidly growing! In addition to convenient hours, the difference is simply the communication protocol & the way money/insurance is handled (or bungled!) in the minds of patients!

5-26-10 | Why Mailed Marketing & Site Signs Will Likely Always Be More Impactful Than Internet Marketing...& Why They Should Be Used Together in Your Marketing System!

If you make it easy on the consumer, they will make it easier on you! Media that forces the consumer to spend time in order to be exposed to information about your practice will always be inferior to media that immediately & effortlessly jumps out & reaches them! In order to reach the consumer on the Internet, our target new & existing patient-consumer must first make a major effort to get to you! They must type a large number of keystrokes into Google...& after a few minutes of false clicking...they might arrive at your website. We are not saying you shouldn’t aggressively be on the web...we simply want you to be aware of its strengths & weaknesses compared to other media we suggest for your chrisad practice marketing system!

5-19-10 | Please Ensure the Following Financial Error Is Not Occurring in Your Practice:

A key covenant in our marketing world is that we must “strike while the iron is hot.” Moreover, if a patient is ready to purchase, we do not want anything to delay or interrupt the purchase process! We recently uncovered a related flaw in a few practices’ insurance/financial protocol. We want to proactively ensure that it is not happening in your practice. Because there are usually more than 200 dental insurance “brands” doing business in most states & provinces...& their rules are regularly changing...we inherently must be very general in our comments. However, we recently found that a number of practices were waiting for written “pre-determinations” from insurance companies before presenting the patient with their financial responsibilities, thus delaying...& therefore reducing the likelihood...of treatment acceptance!

5-12-10 | How Providing chrisad With Your New Monthly Patient & Production Growth Statistics Allows Us to Better Help You:

At chrisad, we only do well...as you do well! However, to best help you grow & prosper, we need to closely monitor your marketing-related progression. Providing chrisad with your gross monthly production & total new-patient numbers allows chrisad to be an even better partner in your success. Your numbers allow us to focus on your outstanding growth opportunities...while enabling us to proactively alert you to dangerous practice trends! Many practices are justifiably sensitive about these statistics. As a result, unless you specifically allow us, we will not divulge the identity of your statistics to other practices. Your monthly new-patient & production statistics are entered into chrisad’s main client database. While your statistics are kept strictly confidential, we can compare your growth with other similar or local practices...& offer suggestions as to how you might be able to improve...as well as monitor current trends.

4-28-10 | Why to Not Assist Hygienists is Unethical:

In our most recent nationwide dental consumer marketplace research, the fastest rising attribute of a dental office...versus our 2008 study...was the practice’s availability of more convenient appointments before & after work...or on weekends. However, in our marketing world, we document what patients do...& rely far less on what they say. Over the past couple of decades, we have been documenting an increasing propensity for the wealthy working to not take off work for what they view as discretionary “cleaning” or “exams.” Over the years...starting about 15 years ago...this trend has become increasingly pronounced...for both new-patient visits...and as a predictor of the likelihood of the patient returning 6 months later. The only exception was during the “dot-com” period of around a decade ago...when there were more job openings than there were employees.

4-20-10 | New & Vital...Practice- & Life-Changing Information Not Otherwise Available: Plan Ahead for No Limits VII in San Francisco, October 15-16!

Here are only a few of hundreds of comments from clients who benefited from past No Limits conferences:

“I have been working with chrisad for 5 years. We are in Michigan, the worst economy in the country, yet we are experiencing tremendous growth. The results speak for themselves. Just do it. The sky is the limit.”
- Robert Hyland, D.D.S., Howell, MI

“I’ve never seen so many forward-thinking dentists in one place! It was an epiphany! The best dental think-tank experience with the most meaningful exchange of useful, practical ideas!”
- Harvey Passes, D.D.S., Long Island, NY

4-6-10 | Prepare for This Summer of Powerful Pent-Up Prosperity

Practices that have been marketing more aggressively during summers over the past decade or so have enjoyed increasing levels of prosperity. Local wealthier & still-working patients...who are unable to conveniently visit the dentist during normal work & school periods...typically put off preventive or restorative care until summer vacation, when they have more schedule flexibility. However, this summer is better: consumers have put off their visit longer...& will act urgently (& will spend more) as the economy upticks...& that nagging toothache worsens!

3-30-10 | Your chrisad Marketing Brochures Are Being Significantly Upgraded on the Basis of Our New 2010 Research Findings:

In marketing, we must give the patient-consumer what they want. Not what we would want...or guess that they want...only what they objectively, in fact, want! In order to do so, we must scientifically determine which "triggering points" are hierarchically more important to the consumer...versus those that are unimportant...or even damaging...if communicated to your potential new & existing patients! The world is always changing! What worked yesterday...may not work today or tomorrow! We must fluidly & regularly upgrade our approaches to more optimally trigger the rapidly evolving patient-consumer market! Based on the information uncovered in our newly completed 2010 Nationwide Dental Consumer Research...combined with client database trends...& our daily in-office experiences with our 1,200 client offices in the U.S. & Canada, we have begun the process of integrating powerful new & optimally efficient "triggering" communication points into your marketing brochure & other ads.

3-23-10 | A No-Cost Way to More Than Double Your Diagnosed Wealthier New & Returning Patients:

During these past couple of years of economic decline, practices that maintained a large, fluidly expanding hygiene departments were far more likely to have enjoyed stable & predictable growth...than those practices that managed small or contracting hygiene departments. An optimally managed hygiene department essentially acts as a stabilizing gyroscope for a practice...without regard to the economic condition of the local marketplace. Rather than apply yesterday's managerial approaches, today's optimally managed practice must evolve & leverage their existing practice assets to provide the increasingly finicky wealthier working consumer more of the new & returning hygiene appointments that don't require them to take time off work! We must do whatever it takes to ensure that this valuable asset stays in your practice!

3-15-10 | Learn How a chrisad Client Enjoyably Grew From $10,000 a Week...to $1,000,000 a Week in Just a Decade! They Want You to Understand the Secrets & Details of How They Did it...So You Can Do It Too!

You may not want to grow quite as big or fast...but regardless of your practice size...the principles that stimulated this level of growth can be similarly applied to your practice to cause a more predictable level of enjoyable growth & prosperity that suits your situation...& stomach lining! This once-in-a-lifetime, uniquely valuable two-day meeting is being offered by the doctors, managers & key staff of chrisad client Neibauer Dental Care...now with 23 full-fee offices in the Washington DC area. They are dedicated to answering any & all of your specific practice questions in detail...while mentoring & guiding you along to a higher level of prosperity. I'll be there as well to explain how marketing drives this success!

3-8-10 | Understanding the Omnipotent Importance of Marketing Repetition:

If your practice is not pushing ahead, you are likely falling behind! Chrisad's dental practice marketing goal is to create a very subtle, subconscious...yet omnipresent & omnipotent...positive "brand" awareness in the minds of the local potential new & existing patients. We are subtly cementing your practice in the minds of locals as being the local "first practice of choice" should a dental need arise...or cyclical preventive care become due. The importance of optimal, consistent & repetitive marketing cannot be overstated. It causes a subtle but constant pressure & consumer demand on a practice. But what would happen if Coke, Nike, Abbott Labs or McDonald's suddenly stopped marketing? That's right, their competition would overtake them! The same principal holds true for your practice!

3-3-10 | A Convenient University Degree in Dental Practice Administration:

Here's a chance to learn what they failed to teach you in dental school! Don Clay & his Thrive Management University has expanded their extraordinary "School of Management" practice administration courses. Don is now offering new customizable classes for practice owners, administrators & managers. To avoid travel expenses...& time out of office...these courses are offered exclusively online. Your staff won't need to travel for classes! I want to make sure that you were aware of this opportunity. Now focus only on the areas of the practice where you need improvement! These courses are designed to elevate the newer, less accomplished manager...as well as experienced Practice Owner or Administrator...to significantly higher levels of competence, excellence & efficiency. Whatever the current level of managerial ability, these courses can be customized to teach the skills to optimally guide any practice...from a small one-doctor office...to an advanced, rapidly growing multi-location practice...to a far more enjoyable level of growth, security & prosperity.

2-24-10 | Announcing Our Newly Updated Associate "Growth Management Paper"

Every so often, we encounter a 50- to 70-year-old practitioner who still looks forward to going to the office every morning. However, the general rule is that dentists tend to "burn out" earlier...rather than later. It isn't easy work. And sadly, there is a great deal of stress related to the fact that dentists are not appreciated at the level that we believe they should be! With a rapidly growing chrisad practice, the point at which you reach your individual production limits will also come sooner...rather than later! There is only so much you can do per day, week or month. Why stunt your proven growth opportunity potential? Why risk burning yourself out?

2-17-10 | Dentistry in Great Britain:

As you may be aware, with your best interests at heart, each year chrisad turns away over a thousand non-chrisad dental practices that have asked to be clients in your area...in favor of safeguarding your territory & security. Frankly, as a business...just like your practice...we must always grow. If we are not growing, we are in effect falling behind! So with 90+ straight quarters of growth behind us...chrisad must expand into other markets where we can enjoyably care for more practices. A number of years ago we very successfully & enjoyably established our Canadian business. With a good sense of the former British Empire's legal system & a reasonably good understanding of their language...the next logical step is to expand chrisad's presence into the UK.

2-8-10 | How to Attract More Higher Quality Patients:

It is important to once again remind you that the demographic profile of your practice is a result of the type of locals that you have subtly allowed in...versus those you are pushing away! It's easy to misdiagnose the nature & potential of your local community based on the current demographic profile in your practice. However, once you make it easier on the wealthier segment of the local marketplace...they will make it easier on you! If you want more wealthier to flood your practice...open up the flow to allow the still working in...& back...before or after work! The wealthy working simply can't take off work...especially for "discretionary" hygiene! The quickest way to flood your practice with more lower income folks is to let your "before & after work" appointments fill up...allowing a higher percentage of retired & unemployed in midday!

2-1-10 | How Soft Tissue Management Can Kill Your Hygiene Department:

We have no more business telling you how to perform a proper crown prep than you do telling us to how to optimally market your practice. However, a number of periodontal disease diagnosis & treatment methodologies may be negatively affecting the documented behavior of your patient-consumer & thus the marketing-related viability of your practice. Soft tissue management case presentation root planing & scaling if perceived by patients as being too aggressive has increasingly been associated with dismal recall rates, low restorative acceptance levels, weak referral levels, & negative internet chat! It can spill over to cause horrible overall practice reputation levels & slow if not negative practice growth!

1-27-10 | Why I Have No Desk!

For 30 years now, very little has been more important to me than the growth, welfare & prosperity of our valued clients. Along with everybody at chrisad, we consider it to be a unique, distinct honor...& pleasure...to be in a position to serve you & the rest of the U.S. & Canadian dental industry. As with everybody in our company, I will do whatever it takes to help you experience enjoyable & predictable marketing-related growth. Marketing is impossible to properly execute in the absence of a "firsthand" understanding of local conditions & trends. But it would be foolish to rely on these subjective impressions alone! We must bring life to our 3 decades of chrisad patient-consumer research, volumes of academic data, real-time chrisad client database trends & other studies...by looking directly into the "whites of the eyes" of your local patient-consumer...as well as examining current regional economic conditions.

1-18-10 | Powerful Managerial Words From Mahatma Gandhi...

We forwarded the following quotation to our clients three years ago this week. Since then, it has been posted on countless practice walls. To the extent that it helps our clients understand where their true focus should be, if it isn't yet on your walls, we hope to see it there soon!

1-12-10 | Avoid the February '10 Collapse:

While your current "New Year's" production & new-patient levels should be exceedingly strong...chrisad has long documented that practices experience predictable sharp declines in months immediately following big production periods unless they take proactive & aggressive countermeasures! Strengths in January will lead to a natural byproduct of weaknesses in February & beyond unless we take counteractive steps! Current January production exuberance is largely artificially tied to the new insurance year. With the economy in its current fragile ascent, this Feb. & beyond will be tough!

1-4-10 | 7 New Year's Resolutions to Ensure Enjoyable Practice Prosperity in '10:

Happy new year! By working together, 2010 will be great! But we must continue to fluidly & agilely adapt! It's a new world! This is still a volatile "shakeout" period! Those who invest more in the management of their practices...& less in excessive clinical perfection...will be rewarded with infinite levels of prosperity. The old rules no longer apply...& the liberties of the past will not return. Doctor-owners & managers must re-dedicate themselves to continually applying the newest, world-proven principles of objective/statistical business management to their practices! Become a great manager! Being a great clinician is not enough.

12-22-09 | Unlock the Priceless Secrets of Practice Prosperity! Here's Your chrisad 2010 Reading List:

For many years, we have suggested the best investment that a practice owner/manager can make is in becoming a more competent manager/businessperson. Where else are you going to invest your time & money? Learn to secure & manage your own future! The information found in a $20 book can be worth millions & provide the underpinnings for vast empires! Now more than ever, practice managerial excellence is the foundation that allows clinical excellence & practice marketing-related prosperity to occur! Unimagined practice prosperity & security are the byproduct! Only own stock in the one business that you control & own! Here's a list of practice- & life-changing books to consider for holiday & 2010 reading...

12-16-09 | Free! New chrisad Client's Staff-Training Video! Train New Staff...& Refresh Existing Staff! Optimize Vital New & Returning Patient Communication "Touchpoints"!

A decades-proven & optimal, marketing intensive, research- & experienced-based foundation must pervade EVERY point where the patient-consumer comes into contact with your office...from the first moment of the new patient's first phone call...to calls 6 months later confirming their return hygiene visit! Your staff must understand the reasoning & experience behind these recommendations...& adopt these approaches on a culture-wide, day-by-day basis! Obviously, the world is very rapidly changing & we must adapt to the most optimal new current patient-consumer-perceived communication & managerial protocol. If we were to apply many internal or external communication approaches that were viable just a few years ago, we'd all be dead!

12-8-09 | Accounting for Your chrisad Marketing's Impact in This Tentative Recovery:

For all the miracles taught at most dental schools, a basic understanding of business or consumer behavior is not one of them! Newer clients innocently & instinctively ask what specific ad stimulated the new patient to come in. At first they believe that unless the patient mentions an exact marketing element, their marketing had no value! However, the level of focus & awareness that the patient may have in the chair...cannot be mistaken as being the same as a consumer who is exposed to 5,000+ ads a day!

11-30-09 | Regarding Insurance & Money, a Few Key Words Make a Massive Difference:

We have suggested for more than a decade that when it comes to insurance & money, the topic is extraordinarily fragile: It is like walking around with a bottle of nitroglycerin! One wrong word, negative suggestion, or questionable tone of voice...& an explosion will occur! However, unlike the patient in the chair who will exactingly tell you where it hurts, most consumers are usually embarrassed & reluctant to admit their financial sensitivities. They will smile & tell you: "That was the best exam I ever had" or "That crown sounds like a great solution; see you next Tuesday". But you will never see them again...or their family, friends or co-workers!

11-24-09 | Optimal Practice Media Choices for 2010:

Happy Thanksgiving! In media decision-making, we scientifically calculate our purchases in order to spend the absolute smallest amount of money...for the greatest possible impact. We strive to reach as many potential new & existing patients as possible with the intent of pre-selling & inviting new ones in...while efficiently re-stimulating existing patients to return, accept & refer!Three decades of our unprecedented dental media research & in-market experience...combined with a backbone of over a century of world marketing industry media studies & experience...suggest that certain dental marketing media will reach local target patients cost-efficiently...& others not! Years ago, a few suggested that we had a pre-set agenda to steer practices into direct mail. On the contrary, while traditional media was sexier, easier, more profitable & fun...we based our recommendations on what was most likely to efficiently build & secure our clients thru the decades!

11-17-09 | The Number of Patients in Hygiene Should Be Increasing Every Month

It is becoming increasingly clear that without hygiene growth, it is difficult (if not impossible) to grow a practice! The number of hygiene patients seen in a practice should be increasing each & every month. A practice can churn thru new patients...but substantive growth usually cannot occur unless the practice "grows" this hygiene patient asset. New-patient inflows...combined with exponentially increasing recall patients at 6-month intervals...should cause the number of patients in hygiene to always grow!

11-11-09 | How to Enjoy Staff Incentive Propelled Growth & Prosperity

How many huge corporations do not have some form of an incentive system? In fact, most got as big as they are BECAUSE of their incentive system! Stock options, sales & year-end bonuses...they are all the same thing! But how do you properly & optimally apply the powerful principles of incentives & bonuses to your dental practice? The great incentive compensation system that we are suggesting in this newly upgraded chrisad Growth Management Paper is the product of 3 decades of fine-tuning & perfecting in thousands of practices located in every state & most provinces. Versions of it have been used at chrisad during 83 straight quarters of no-debt growth

11-3-09 | Don't Miss "New Year's" Marketing...the Most Fertile Time of the Year! Fish When the Biggest Fish Are Biting!

This year...much more than in past years...we're strongly recommending that you aggressively counteract lingering economic uncertainties...while capturing larger-case "pent-up" demand...by reaching your marketplace during the uniquely fertile early January 2010 marketing period! It pays to fish when the biggest & best fish are biting! With our significantly upgraded & even more powerful new 2010 brochures, you will be using the most potent "bait"! Proactively counteract the propensity for patient-consumers to put off dentistry when "consumer confidence" is still low & money is tight. Just after the New Year is the most fertile time to invite them in & back!

10-27-09 | A New Understanding of the Dental Patient-Consumer's Recently Evolved Purchase Decision "Triggering Points":

Unfortunately, the criterion by which you & I would select a dentist is largely irrelevant to the 2009-2010 patient-consumer! The "Golden Rule" of marketing is to "do unto others as they would want to have done unto them!" We must objectively & scientifically listen to the patient marketplace...& exactingly understand what they want, are aware of, & are concerned about, so we may more optimally market & guide our growing roster of nearly 1,200 dental practices! Using guesswork or intuition can be fatal! Much has changed over the past year or so!

10-20-09 | Consultants' Recommendations That Patients View as a "Rat in the Operatory"!:

While there are many outstanding consultants around the U.S. & Canada, some consultants have no formal business education. Others may have enjoyed limited & isolated practice success in uniquely advantaged marketplaces...but many years ago! Most neither understand...nor have visited...your local area! A few are new to dentistry & have simply copied chrisad's 30-year scientifically evolved managerial growth & phone suggestions. Because they don't understand the objective foundation of these guidelines, they intuitively...but fatally...modify them! Typically someone will hear a speaker or "expert" at a dental convention who suggests how well their "Instant Institute's" recommendations work. Increasingly desperate to attract business, they usually will seductively begin to tell you what you want to hear...versus what you need to hear!

10-12-09 | Understanding the Secret & Omnipotent Power of chrisad's Integrated Marketing Communications:

In marketing, as you know, we must scientifically & objectively uncover exactly what the consumer wants & simply give it to them. But as marketplaces evolve, economies slide & competition arises, the more sensitive & fragile the market situation, the more we must control & consistently optimize each & every one of the consumer's "triggering" touchpoint exposures before they make it in your office, while they are in your office...& after they leave!

10-6-09 | Give Patients What They Want! Guesswork & Wishful Thinking Will Lead to Practice Declines!

In marketing, the customer is king! We must understand what they want...& give it to them! It is difficult to put a square peg...into a round hole! Are you assuming that your amazing cosmetic procedure...or that new clinical gadget...is going to dazzle patients just because it excites you? In fact, patients cannot discern relative clinical superiority! Like a river, it is next to impossible to stimulate consumers to change "course" in their attitudes & opinions! We must objectively & scientifically understand patients for what they are, work within that...& give them what they want!

9-29-09 | Plan Ahead to "Fish" When the Biggest Fish Will Soon Be Biting!

While just after New Year's is one of the two best times of the year (along with the "Back-to-School" period) to invite potential new patients in...& existing patients back...clients have recently enjoyed outstanding end-of-the-year December marketing results! In this economy, we must dedicate ourselves to either pushing ahead...or risk being left far, far behind! Now...with far more unemployed...we must strategically attract a bigger piece of a much smaller, still-employed "pie"!

9-22-09 | How to Receive a Fortune in Local TV & Radio Publicity...at No Cost!

The heart & soul of today's most scientifically efficient marketing is to spend the least amount of money...to receive the largest possible impact! Sending press releases for events or other newsworthy items related to your practice will cost the practice nothing in media expense...& can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of free publicity! Local newspapers, magazines, radio stations & TV stations are always looking for popular local “human interest” stories. Make it easy for the local understaffed & underpaid journalists by doing their work for them! If you provide them with a well-written & formatted news story, they will print or broadcast your story as newsworthy, informational & beneficial to the community!

9-15-09 | Why Your More-Aggressive December Marketing Will Generate Bigger Cases...Even in This Unstable Economy:

Aggressive marketing in early December has proven to capture more of the wealthy & still-working during their end-of-year holiday vacation...when they have time off & can stretch their insurance over two years for twice the insurance coverage! If you aren't pushing ahead, you'll be left far behind! The more volatile this "rollercoaster" economy is, the more that insurance & various money issues are elevated in importance! It's the money: Holiday patients can have their restorative or cosmetic payment portion shrunk or eliminated...without slicing their paycheck to see you! Patients are rushing to enjoy slashed "out-of-pocket" costs; they in effect have twice as much coverage at the end of the year.

9-9-09 | Why Shouldn't Every Month Be Your Best Month Ever?

At chrisad, for three decades, we have been passionately dedicated to your personal & practice welfare...even at the risk of perhaps distressing you a bit. With your best interests at heart, we will never gratuitously tell you what you may want to hear...but we will tell you what has been scientifically documented to be THE TRUTH...& what you need to hear! As we passionately care for you...our valued clients...I believe that we are doing you a grave disservice if we fail to make you aware of the new opportunities that are well within your grasps. The truth is that there are absolutely no limits to practice growth...& the senior doctor/owner doesn't need to be in the office or chair every day...or every week...or even once a month! The practice will do fine without the owner-doctor in the chair...but only if the owner-doctor evolves into an always progressing & improving practice manager.

9-1-09 | Ensure Continued Prosperity During This Uncertain Economic Period: New Secrets Engineered: Fill Your Empty Hygiene Slots...at No Cost!

At chrisad, the value of a patient does not end after our new patient visits your office for the first time. It lasts a lifetime! During this very tough "roller-coaster" economic period...particularly during the traditionally weak September-November months...it will require new, aggressive & proactive marketing ingenuity to keep your practice prospering. The following systematic & organized hygiene reactivation phone campaign will fill your schedule with restorative/cosmetic potential...& help you enjoy the true long-term value of your new patients!

8-25-09 | See How We're Growing Our Detroit Practices 10%+...While Cutting the Insurance Industry Out of Their Own Game!

Offering a dental plan directly thru your office allows you to capture the now much larger group of nearby unemployed & uninsured potential new & existing patients...while eliminating the insurance company's manipulative, profitable & inflationary "administrative" role! Rather than sent to the insurance company, the patient's "premium" is forwarded directly to you & offsets any procedures where you have agreed to accept a reduced or no fee. Chrisad's "Dental Coverage" is designed to look & work for the patient essentially the same as dental insurance. However, this is a simple reduced fee agreement between the practice & the patient.

8-17-09 | Continuing to Not Participate in the Recession Existing Patient-Targeted Letters & Cards to Boost Production for the Rest of '09:

Even in the best of times, we must always do whatever it takes to make the absolute most of your practice opportunities. As you know, at chrisad, we're certainly not in love with the concept of insurance. However, the tighter money is...the more important insurance becomes! As we suggest every year, here's upgraded verbiage for a letter to proactively send out to all existing patients to stimulate their end-of-the-year insurance maximization...and to more securely fill your schedule over the next few months. Your letter is far more effective if you add a personalized first sentence that relates to the specific patient...wherever possible. Ideally, someone at your office should handwrite or type the address on the envelope...again this helps and is more personalized. Please feel free to slightly modify the following letter as your practice philosophy & comfort zone dictate.

8-11-09 | While You Should Be Experiencing a Great August...Plan to Counteract a Historically Nasty September, October & November:

By now, most chrisad clients who have been aggressively marketing & exactingly following our new-patient inflow & returning patient "reflow" suggestions are beginning to experience the extraordinary growth & productive power of this current "Back-to-School" marketing period. Even in this economy, most chrisad practices will enjoy their best month ever as they welcome in & back patients who had been postponing dental care until weeks before they return to work or school!

8-4-09 | The Secrets of Practice Prosperity: Immediately Accessible Only for chrisad Clients

At chrisad, for the past 3 decades, we have done whatever it takes to help our clients enjoyably grow & prosper. If we ever encountered a situation where our marketing was not causing a client to predictably grow, we dove in, got our hands dirty & uncovered the source of the problem...corrected it...& never let the problem occur...for you or anybody...ever again! As we uncovered these enhanced approaches that resulted in our clients enjoying marketing-related growth at a more enjoyable & prosperous level, we formally documented what we found & made it available for our clients to benefit from...far into the future.

7-29-09 | How to Enjoy More “A” Patients in Your Practice:

Beginning in the early 1980s...& occurring less frequently today...we’ve encountered a stream of dangerously flawed dental practice managerial & marketing logic that suggests that a practice should strive to primarily attract a limited quantity of local “Gold Nugget” patients...& in effect expel the remaining local patients. Our early clients would suggest: ”I don’t want to waste my time with the patients who don’t appreciate my unique & extraordinary level of clinical excellence...”

7-21-09 | At What Point Will Your chrisad Marketing “Saturate” Your Marketplace?

From our earliest studies into the need & behavior structure of the dental consumer in the early 1980s, we had envisioned that there was a point where we would “saturate” a given local marketplace & our marketing efforts would reach a point of diminishing returns. However, nearly 30 years later, we have yet to document a practice marketing situation where this has in fact occurred!

7-7-09 |A More Scientific Approach Toward Optimally Selecting Doctors, Hygienists & Staff:

Did you ever think that your practice would have anything in common with one of those online dating services you see on TV? If you look at most of chrisad's fastest-growing & most prosperous practices...you'll find that there is a lot that they do in fact have in common...but hopefully only in terms of state-of-the art personality & compatibility testing! They are leaving as little as possible to chance...& using the most scientific approach possible toward selecting hygienists, doctors, assistants, office managers & other staff.

7-1-09 | Biggest Impact! Lowest Cost

For the past 3 decades, the goal of chrisad marketing has been to provide our valued clients with the greatest possible exposure & impact...for the lowest possible cost. For years we have suggested that outdoor advertising (especially site signs!)...placed near or at the practice office...is the most cost-effective marketing known. Ads on other media, such as Yellow Pages, Internet, Newspapers, Magazines, Radio or TV, are all rarely seen!

6-22-09 | This Nasty Recession: Do You Choose to Participate? Yes or No

The ball is in your court! You can either choose to blame the recession & fade into obscurity...or proactively & aggressively upgrade your systems...while adapting & evolving such as to not allow it to have an effect on your practice. Like the shark, if we stop moving, we will die! The U.S. economy is struggling to pull itself out of this horrible recession...& is making progress on some fronts...while sliding further down on others. All of this affects discretionary dental purchases! While the U.S. Stock Markets have stabilized & are up (or roughly even) since the first of the year...consumer confidence & housing sales are up...as are home prices. However, on the other hand, unemployment has plunged into double digits in the western states. Overall U.S. unemployment jumped 4% in the past year to 9.4%! This is not a time to relax!

When Is It Economically Optimal to Add an Additional Office?

When I first began working with dentists in 1980, my earliest clients were frequently bragging about the number of offices that they had...the same way a teenage girl might boast about the number of “trinkets” on a charm bracelet! Only 27 years old...& just out of advertising/marketing graduate school...I was very impressed! However, back then I had no idea what a horrible mistake many of them were making! I’d like to take this opportunity to hopefully save you the heartache of making the same costly & stressful blunder! In essence, the 1st physical office must be on a certain statistical pathway of being at its capacity within a year or two before planning to incur the added overhead of an additional office.

The Upcoming August ‘09 “Back to School” Period Is the Most Fertile & Lucrative of the Year!

The late July thru early August period...a few weeks just prior to when your local schools go back in session...have historically offered our clients the most powerful marketing opportunity of the year! Even in this economy, vacationing wealthier & working potential new & existing patients rush to put their family’s “house in order”...just before returning to school or work. Now, with improving “Consumer Confidence” & a generally better economy, patients may be looking to attend to the nagging major care they had been postponing over the past year or so.

Why We Engineered Our chrisad Client's Websites to Be Optimally Efficient...at a Super Low Cost:

While our current optimal suggested media configuration of scientifically targeted & synergistic mailed brochures, site signs & stationery elements has fortunately been serving our clients very well during this extremely scary recession, we'd be fools if we were not regularly looking for a “better way”! And trust me, if it is out there, we will either develop it...or find it...first!

It Pays to Monitor What Patients Want, Are Aware of, Sensitive to...& How They Behave:

In today's economy, companies like Apple Computer, Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Google & others...that scientifically & objectively understand their target market, what they are thinking...& adapt/evolve to give them what they want...are still growing & prospering! Those that fail to listen to their marketplaces will perish: Did you ever buy a Pontiac Aztec? Even the U.S. & Canada's most accomplished dental managers can be dangerously misled as to the preferences, attitudes & awarenesses of patients by spending too much time in the office subjectively & anecdotally interacting with them!

It is Difficult to Push a Rope Uphill! A Simple & Proven Compensation System Everybody Loves!

In business, the larger you get, the more difficult it will be for you to micromanage every aspect of your staff's behavior. However if everybody in your office fails to “row the boat” in the same direction, it is unlikely that you will grow larger! You'll just row your boat around in circles! A great incentive compensation system is an ethically correct way of stimulating & rewarding positive staff behavior...when managers or the owner-doctor is away!

Is a New “Golden Age of Dentistry” Upon Us as This Recession Melts Away?

It is easy for many to consider sitting back & doing the same old things...& wait for the recession to “blow over”. But this recession cuts deep into the American psyche... especially this past October thru February. The changes are certain to be permanent. So should yours! For a sense of what we have ahead, please consider how your parents or grandparents reacted after the great depression. Storing canned foods. Watching every penny. The upcoming months & next few years will not be far off. American's savings rate has already started to skyrocket.

A New Trend? More Insurance Co.’s Sending Checks to “Out-of-Network” Patients?

I want you to be aware of what may be an important new trend that we've been expecting for quite awhile. As you know, for many years only Delta Dental has sent insurance payment checks directly to the patient when the practitioner providing care was “out of network.” But last week in Salt Lake City we heard reports that more insurance companies...such as Blue Cross...have begun sending checks directly to the patient when the doctor is an “out-of-network”, non-contracted office...

A 2009 “Cookbook” Recipe for Practice Growth & Prosperity

Some of our outstanding clients who attended No Limits VI asked for a simple “Cookbook” recipe for dental practice success in 2009 & beyond. I'll attempt to present the key, quintessential elements as succinctly as possible on the one page below. As it looks like there is going to be at least a short-term turnaround in the economy, we want to be poised to capture the benefits of long-ignored “pent-up” dental demand. The following is a long proven recipe for you to follow...but remember: If one ingredient is missing, the cake will fall flat!

What Are Your Local Patients Thinking About Dentistry? What Are They Aware Of?

One really cannot hope to effectively market to a local marketplace in the absence of decades of research into the patient-consumer's always-evolving need, want, sensitivity & awareness structure. As a recent addition to our three decades of continual dental patient-consumer market research, last week we asked hundreds of your local patients what they knew...& what they didn't know...about dentists & dentistry. Their thinking...& what they had to say...will likely surprise you!

Your Marketing Postage Will Be Lower Before This Wednesday

In this undulating economy, fluidly adapting while capturing opportunities afforded by our rapidly evolving market will be the “name of the game” for quite a while. As one example, you can benefit from lower USPS postage costs...but only until mid-week. As we have mentioned, it is shaping up to be a great time to invite potential new patients in...while reminding existing patients of needed preventive visits...& your excellence.

Opening the Flow to the Wealthier & Working:

One of the first rules that a beginning marketing student learns is that “if you make it easy on the customer...they will make it easy on you”. Now, even a hint of a “yellow flag” will kill you! Another key covenant is that “in order to grow, we must open the flow”: So in addition to targeting or advertising a marketing message to the wealthier in your community, in order to enjoy a more optimal level of prosperity, you must correspondingly, continually & regularly open the hygiene avenues thru which the wealthier choose to first come in...& return for decades of recall...

New & Vital...Practice- & Life-Changing Information Not Otherwise Available:

- Dr. Corey Mazer: A chrisad scratch practice a number of years ago, this outstanding Atlanta-area practitioner is now producing up to $300,000/mo. while attracting up to 100 new patients per month! Hear how he optimally manages his extraordinarily productive six-hygienist hygiene department...Plus many more chrisad clients who are eager to share all that they have learned...with you!

No Limits VI: A 2-Day Dental MBA! Many Clients Bring Their Children in College! Bring Staff! Call (800) 505-4150! No Limits VI, Fri. & Sat., May 1 & 2 • Firesky Resort & Spa, Scottsdale!

No Limits VI: Prepare for the Recovery...While Bypassing the Recession!

A few comments from clients who benefited from past No Limits conferences:
“Awesome conference! The speakers are a great wealth of knowledge and inspiration. If this conference doesn’t get you fired up - you must be dead!”
“The speakers were great. Regular dentists doing amazing things.”
Super Low-Cost Airfare, Rooms & Lower-Cost Staff Admission!
No Limits VI • Scottsdale, Fri. & Sat., May 1 & 2 • 800-505-4150

Making the Most of Your No Limits VI-Scottsdale Visit:

FireSky Resort & Spa • Friday & Saturday • May 1 & 2, 2009
The Best Route From Phoenix Airport to the Resort...
Phoenix Airport Transportation & Rates...
Highly Rated Restaurants in the Area...
A Sample of Low Airfares to Phoenix From Selected Cities...

No Limits VI ~ Fri. & Sat., May 1 & 2: Bypassing the Recession & Preparing to Explode Thru the Recovery

• Hear 7 Vital New “Lifeline” Marketing Ideas to Counteract a Worsening Recession.
• Learn How Dr/Owners Move Away From the Chair...& Make More $!
• See How to Attract More of the Wealthier & Working...in Your Area!
• Stop Losing Patients! Optimize Your Hygiene Recall & Retention Systems
• Overcome the Powerful...But Invisible...“Insurance Wall”
• Learn How to More Effectively Schedule Hygiene & How to Assist for More Patients & Profit!
• Learn How to Expand Hours & Split Shifts...While Working Less!

Back to Basics: The Proven Fundamentals of American Persuasion & Management:

When respected American managerial pioneer Dale Carnegie first published “How to Win Friends & Influence People” during the depression, it was a bestseller for 10 years! Reading it will be one more “stepping stone” toward your elevated level of managerial excellence. It is no time for guesswork...or to experiment! Here are a few broadly applicable, fundamental & time-proven Carnegie principles...

Learn How to Upgrade Your Practice & Laugh at the Recession! & Enjoyably Prosper at Even Higher Levels During the Recovery!

Here are only a few comments from chrisad regarding No Limits conferences:

“Awesome conference! The speakers are a great wealth of knowledge and inspiration. If this conference doesn't get you fired up - you must be dead!”

“I have been working with chrisad for 4 years. We are in Michigan, the worst economy in the country, yet we are experiencing tremendous growth. The results speak for themselves. Just do it. The sky is the limit.”

Super Low-Cost Airfare, Rooms & Lower-Cost Staff Admission! No Limits VI, Scottsdale, Fri & Sat, May 1 & 2 ~ (800) 505-4150

As the Economy Slides, Attract & Keep a Bigger Slice of the Dwindling Segment of Wealthier Working Patients!

In this economy, chrisad’s fastest-growing practices are utilizing upgraded managerial approaches that fill their practice with a larger percentage of wealthier, working locals who will accept more. Today, even this diminishing segment of prosperous locals is worried...& now they will not take off work unless it is absolutely necessary! But with “green lights’ they’ll return forever...& bring family & co-workers! Is it the bad economy...or your failure to adapt to it? Hear recession-busting ideas at No Limits VI, Scottsdale, Friday & Saturday, May 1 & 2. Call (415) 924-8575 for more information.

Counteracting the Recession...& Ensuring Marketplace Domination After Recovery!

There is only so much that even chrisad advertising alone can do! No amount or quality of marketing will overcome an improperly configured or mismanaged practice...any more than $50 million of GM advertising can sell Chevrolet Suburbans when gas is $5.00 a gallon! Now more than ever, practices must view their internal communication as an integral & vital part of their chrisad marketing system. It can make...or break...your growth opportunities! It’s a new world...with new rules!

Why I Don’t Have a Desk...& How This Uniquely Benefits Your Practice

A long time ago, a friend gave me a tie clasp with the initials “YCDBSOYA”, standing for “You Can't Do Business Sitting on Your A**”. Marketing is impossible to properly execute in the absence of a “first-hand” subjective understanding...combined with essential scientific & objective insight. Rather than look in the “rearview mirror”, we have the unique advantage of uncovering new opportunities...& dangerous areas...first, so we can proactively make you aware. Also, as we experimentally alter a potentially powerful new in-office or advertising communication variable in a test market, as this approach is documented to stimulate increases in new/returning patient flows, acceptance or referral, we’ll make you aware of this advantage sooner, rather than later!

The Proactive “Antidote” for This Potentially Deepening Recession

Hundreds of exciting new practice-propelling ideas for 2009 will be available at No Limits VI, at the great Kimpton FireSky Resort (www.fireskyresort.com) in Scottsdale, Arizona. Topics include: 7 New “Lifeline” Marketing Ideas to Counteract a Worsening Recession; How to Attract More of the Wealthier & Working...in Your Area; Optimal Case Presentation With Economically Challenged Patients; and many, many more! You can’t miss this low-cost, non-profit, new idea & sharing event! We’ve lowered staff entry fees to as low as $347, which includes most food! Please call chrisad at (415) 924-8575 to reserve...& grab your super-low price $199 FireSky rooms while they are still available!

You Are What You Eat

Practitioners frequently misdiagnose the nature & potential of their local community based on conclusions drawn from the current demographic profile of their practice. But as vital patient-perceived (vs. what is important to you & me) “touchpoint” inflow & reflow variables are optimally altered, more desirable patients will pour in & back to your practice! We must adapt & grab for a bigger...& better...piece of a now smaller & far more discerning “pie”! Is your glass half empty or half full? If local unemployment hits 20%...that means 80% are still working!

New Opportunities Arising From This “Shakeout” Recession

At chrisad, we’ve been plowing right through these recessions since 1980. There is always a solution...there is always a way! As the months & years pass, by taking an optimal approach, you will have the opportunity to scoop up lost & disenfranchised patients like ripe apples fallen from a tree! But you must give them “green lights” versus the “red” or “yellow” lights that filtered them away from their previous practice & into a state of inaction! Rather than allow the recession to happen in your practice, you have the opportunity to proactively, agilely & aggressively push ahead!

If You Are Not Pushing Ahead...You Will Soon Be Falling Behind!

Like the vast majority of our nearly 1,100 client offices across the continent, you should be choosing to proactively make this very nasty recession a non-event in your practice! However, now is not a time to experiment, cut corners...or take chances! Now more than ever, no chrisad client can afford to miss the proven new ideas, & open & honest sharing that takes place at our No Limits conferences. Working together, we’ve been adapting, re-engineering & conquering economic slides for 3 decades! At No Limits, you’ll see how!

Is Your Local Marketplace to Blame...or How You Adapt to It?

Hats off to our courageous Detroit-area clients! These courageous practitioners have no choice but to push ahead...or they will be dead. The Detroit area is at the leading edge of the current economic “shake-out period”. We all must manage our practices like agile & adaptive acrobats...but in Detroit, they must be double-jointed as well! They must agilely adapt...or be left behind. Nowhere in the U.S. or Canada is this truer than in Detroit. There is no margin for wishful thinking...or yesterday’s approaches. Is this a “crystal ball” predictor of the future of your region? At chrisad, for three decades we have prayed for the best...but have prepared you for the worst!

How to Enjoy More New Patients & Production By Marketing Less!

Over the past 3 decades of caring for America’s & Canada’s dentists, it has become increasingly clear to us that the true value of a new patient is not merely confined to production that occurs during their first appointment...but is in fact more related to the new patient’s behavior over the next decade of retention, acceptance & referral of friends, co-workers & family! Hygiene is the backbone of your practice! Build an always expanding “orbit” of increasingly dedicated hygiene “missionaries” who will reward the practice by referring & accepting more! This is a valuable “annuity” that if managed optimally, will...as a byproduct...increase new patient flows!

Avoid the February ’09 Flop

Chrisad has long documented that practices will experience predictable sharp declines in the months immediately following big production periods...such as we are now experiencing...unless they take proactive & aggressive countermeasures! Current January production exuberance is largely artificially tied to the new insurance year. Unless we take counteractive steps, with the economy in its current particularly steep slump, this Feb. & beyond will be the toughest in decades! With massive early ‘09 layoffs, bankruptcies & foreclosures, dentistry will be the last thing on consumers’ minds!

Your Best Investment Is in Your Practice & You! Here’s Your chrisad 2009 Reading List:

We have long held the best investment that a practice owner/manager can make is in striving to become a more competent & accomplished manager/businessperson. Where else are you going to invest your time & money...the stock market? Secure & manage your future! The information found in a $20 book can be worth millions & provide the underpinnings for vast empires! Now more than ever, practice managerial excellence is the foundation that allows clinical excellence & practice marketing-related prosperity to occur!

7 Critical New Year’s Resolutions to Ensure Practice Prosperity in 2009

Happy New Year! It’s a new world! In 2009, we must regularly, fluidly & agilely adapt! The old rules no longer apply. What used to “work” will no longer. This will continue to be a “shake-out” period! Those who invest more in the management of their practices...& less in excessive clinical perfection...will be rewarded with indefinite levels of prosperity. Working together, ’09 will be great!

Save Up to 15% on “No Limits” VI in Scottsdale Admission if Reserved by December 31! NEW: Special Low Staff Admission This Year!

As you know, we hold our No Limits conferences each year with the intent of sharing the newest & best marketing & growth managerial approaches that have propelled our clients to the highest levels...in the toughest markets. It is a 100%-non-profit event designed for the benefit of chrisad clients only. It is an open & honest forum of explicit, detailed new ideas specifically intended to help you grow & secure your practice. As you prosper...so do we! However, if your staff are not “Rowing the Boat” in the same direction as their managers, it is likely that the practice will go nowhere.

Even in This Dismal Economy... Most Chrisad Clients Will Enjoy a Best-Ever January ’09! But What About February & Beyond?

Dental patient-consumers must be suffering from whiplash! Over the past few months, we have boomeranged from one of the highest inflationary periods on record...to one of the most significant deflationary periods ever! But in either case, when it comes to the shell-shocked potential new or existing patient, money is the issue...& there is little margin for error! It’s a new world: The old rules don’t apply anymore! If you are not agile, adaptive...& aggressively pushing ahead during this dismal decline...you will be left behind.

Accounting for the Impact of Your chrisad Marketing During a Recession:

We have long complained that awarding dental degrees without adequate business training is like giving a 5-year-old the keys to a new Ferrari! For all the miracles taught at most dental schools, a basic understanding of business or consumer behavior is not one of them! As a result, newly minted dentists enter into practice & intuitively mis-apply many of the methodologies taught in dental school to the vastly different worlds of business & marketing!

Holiday Ideas to Make 2009 Even Better...

Here are a number of products, services & opportunities that we’d like you to consider toward enhancing your practice for 2009...& beyond. We invite you to thoroughly explore & investigate these options. Obviously, none of these are any good if they don’t offer a good fit for you...or your practice environment. And you might find that some of these might suggest slightly outdated concepts or approaches that are inconsistent with what chrisad is finding currently optimal in this rapidly evolving economic environment. If this is the case, we ask that you please default to chrisad’s newest recommendations. And as most are aware, chrisad will never pay nor accept any commissions or kickbacks for any recommendation or suggestion. We simply want what we believe is best for you: Over the past three decades, we have only done well as a byproduct of your prosperity, growth & security!

We All Have Much to Be Thankful For...

With the average of our client offices growing 19.98% in 2008 versus the same period in 2007...many growing by over a million dollars...we all in fact have a great deal to be grateful for. I can guarantee you that the 50-100 potential new clients that chrisad turns away each month...many practices among them your neighbors...are absolutely not fairing as well!