The biggest pain at the front desk of any dental practice is easy to notice, but hard to solve: The phone system.

When you think about it, having a reliable method for your customers to call in to is essential – and the difference between having business and being booked solid.

Jared Rodman is one of the people pioneering a solution to this problem as a whole.

Jared has been working on Weave, aimed at being a "better phone system for your practice, since he was a student at the University of Utah, where he graduated with degrees in Philosophy and Japanese in 2011.

He and his team are focused on relieving the phone-system-pain-point, and I knew I had to bring him on to share his ideals with those starting a new practice or wanting to create a better system in an existing practice.

I see services and products like Weave as a necessary part of creating an amazing user experience in every practice.

For today's bonus, I've collected a handful of additional resources you NEED to check out. Click here to get that now.

Here are a few things you'll discover in today's episode:

• The number one reason why patients rebook with your office
• The interesting thing about human nature that makes the quality of your dental practice services less important than your connection with patient
• What the golden rule of sales is and why it's so important to your dental practice
• The first thing you need to do if you want to strengthen your customers experience
• Why you’re probably hiring and handling employees the wrong way, and how to make it right so that it doesn’t affect your bottom line in a negative way
• How to get a 30% increase in rescheduling overdue patients

There's been a rising trend over the last few years of big corporate entities gobbling up almost every practice in town...

Leaving the few remaining dental practices to dry up without a big ad spend budget, awareness, and marketing strategies.

How can the "little man" survive??

I've always been a fan of the little guy, and honestly, I don't really like the fact that these corporations come in and push everyone around.

That's why I brought on today's guest, Trevor Maurer from Smile Source, to share his efforts to take on corporate dentistry.

• The surprising statistics that are changing are pushing the retirement age back and making dentistry competitive
• The HUGE financial and marketing benefits that come with group practices
• The legal dangers of oversharing with other local dentists (and the smart thing that Smile Source does to avoid repercussions)
• Why you should be saying “no” to certain patients
• What “cooperative advertise” is and the benefits of taking advantage of it
• Why mistakes are a part of business, and your responsibility as a business owner to handle them

To take advantage of his offer, click here or the image below.

I notice some trends when it comes to marketing practices out in the wild.

And to be honest, I can immediately tell how well a practice is, or will be doing right when I see how they handle this one thing:

Marketing.

Some are doing an amazing job...

And many have an opportunity.

A lot of newer dentists are "all in" on social media, while others completely shy away from it.

Some practice owners don't do a drop of marketing, while others hop at every opportunity.

When it comes to marketing your practice in the modern world, newer dentists have an advantage because they're typically more familiar with modern marketing practices...

Or willing to figure them out.

I brought on Nina Hershberger for today's interview to share what's working for dental practices internationally to attract massive amount of new, high quality patients.

[ Go here to get access to today's bonus, the EXACT piece of mail one of Nina's clients sent to a small list that returned $18K in revenue. ] 

Megabucks Marketing founder Nina Hershberger has been in marketing throughout her three decade professional career—even when her job description said otherwise.

After earning a marketing degree from Indiana University, she worked in positions as diverse as Director of Output Services for a very large financial company and in Procurement for the University Notre Dame.

A born marketer, Hershberger added value to her organizations by initiating ideas that increased sales by hundreds of thousands of dollars (and in some cases, millions), added profitable new business services, and raised the companies’ profiles.

In 2006, Hershberger launched Megabucks Marketing to leverage her innovative ideas into concrete results for clients. Her specialty?

Leading companies away from the popular but ineffective “cold call, hope, and wait” approach.

Thanks to years of experience in direct response marketing, Hershberger has developed a unique method for dentists to stand out from their competition and become the local celebrity expert – even if they just started their dental practice.

Here are a few things you'll discover in today's episode:

• How Nina got involved in direct marketing… And how that lead her to bringing business to many dentists worldwide
• The number 1 mistake Nina sees every practice owner make when they start mailing directly (and what you need to do to fix or avoid it)
• The thing about lists that make them imperfect (unless they are this kind of list)
• The direct mail piece that brought in Nina over $18,000 (you get this as a part of today’s bonus)
• Advice I give practices over and over (and what I recommend to them when they want to pay me monthly)
• Why the 5 senses play a MAJOR role in every dental practice (and the insanely smart thing one of Nina’s clients bakes behind the front desk that doesn’t make sense at first)
• The game and reward system you NEED to have in place (and the items to bring it to life)
• Why reactivation is the most important factor if you’re new and just bought a practice (and what you can learn from the auto-repair industry when it comes to getting return patients)
• Nina’s easy (but not often implemented) tip to “cleanse” the mailing list that came with the practice you’ve taken over
• Why social media is tough for practice owners (and one easy thing one of Nina’s practice owners does with YouTube to make their patients feel special)
• The credibility-building secret that the youngest practice owner in North America did (and how you can produce the same warm, fuzzy feeling for your patients if you’ve acquired an existing practice)
• The single most effective way to get your patients to know, like, and trust you (even if you’re a new or young practice owner)
• The simplest, easiest, and cheapest thing that most practice owners WON’T do that brings in highly-targeted ideal patients in your area
• Why the National Inquirer should play a role in your practice’s marketing message (even if you disagree with the direction of the content)
• How to overcome being a young in the dental industry (and why it’s actually your biggest advantage when it comes to marketing)
• Avoiding the trash can when mailing direct mail pieces
• What happens when you send the wrong piece of direct mail to potential patients
• How to make your marketing truly unique (and the impact that setting yourself apart can make to your patients)
• What to do if you want to own your local area, work 20 hours a week, and earn a 6-figure income as a dentist
• The $180 million dollar lesson you can take away from the ‘funeral trust’ business
• The first marketing thing Nina would do if she was to start up a new practice (and a free resource she’s giving away completely free)

As you heard, Nina has a genius mind and an incredible amount of experience when it comes to marketing in the dental industry...

Nina mentioned a simple yellow postcard one of her dental clients mailed to a list of just 3,000 people that brought in an additional $18,000 in revenue. To get free access to that exact piece of mail, simply click below.

Download Nina's "Yellow Dental Postcard."

Quotes - Click To Share On Twitter:

• "All five senses need to be involved in each practice." Nina Hershberger
• Advice to new dental practice owners: "If you're new, you've got to use personality!" - Nina Hershberger
• "Consistency over a period of time is the secret." - Nina Hershberger

Resources:

• Whistia
• Vimeo
• B&H List
• Nina's Dental Licensing Book Program
• Dr. Moffet's Interview on the "trust" factor
• Dr. Maloley's Interview on his direct mail experience
• Jerry Jones
• Dan Kennedy
• Contact Nina Directly here

If you enjoyed today’s episode, please go here to give me an honest rating and review in iTunes. This allows me to evolve that show as it goes on, and also helps spread the word to other podcast listeners since iTunes promotes shows with active engagement.

... but one thing I've noticed is that it's hard to find people and companies that will tell you what you DON'T need.

Enter Jeff Gladnick.

When it comes to websites in the dental field, he's the go-to guy.

As you know, the mission of Start Your Dental Practice is to give you - the Ambitious Dentist - the tools necessary to start, and run, a successful dental practice.

There are many aspects that go into a website that actually attracts your ideal patients, and today, Jeff gives us the rundown on EXACTLY what that looks like.

Click here to get today's episode bonus: A step-by-step walkthrough for how to content market with your website

Here are a few things you'll discover in today's episode:

• The weird way Jeff initially got started making websites, and how he started automating the process to help more dentists
• The referral conversation your ideal patients inevitably have, and how your website can negatively or positively affect how many of those ideal patients show up to your practice
• Why your social media channels should match your website (and the psychological trigger that fires when they do)
• Which should come first... your practice? Or your website? (and what timeframe you should follow)
• How Google will treat your site in the first 90 days (and why this is important to launching your site and new practice)
• How to get your site ranked #1 in Google (without “hacking” the search engine”)
• How to avoid having your practice mislisted in the wrong city or state
• Why you shouldn’t rely on a one-person operation (and what could happen to your site if you do)
• What happens when you don’t use the terms your ideal patient uses to describe your services
• What you need to know to avoid losing your site and content forever
• The red flags you need to look for when trying to find a website development firm
• The cons to having contracts involved in your website
• How to handle a website when you’re acquiring a previously established practice
• How to avoid losing “seo juice” when transferring a website from one owner to another
• The ONE vital thing every acquired practice website needs to have so that your visitors don’t experience site errors
• How to avoid looking like every other website in your market
• What “duplicate content” is and why you want to avoid posting it
• The right (and wrong) way to make sure your site appears properly on mobile devices

Free Episode Bonus:

Jeff and his team went above and beyond for you guys.

For today's bonus, you can get access to a step-by-step video series for how to use content marketing with your website to attract your target market.

Get that video series for free by clicking here.

Quotes - Share On Twitter:

• "You have to budget your time according to yourself and the guidance you get from your marketing company." - Jeff Gladnick
• "You may not want to work with a company that's huge unless they have a good value proposition that meets your needs." - Jeff Gladnick
• "You should never call bleaching "bleaching" on your website, you should call it "whitening" because that's what consumers believe." - Jeff Gladnick
• "If a company is uncomfortable giving you references, that's a red flag." - Jeff Gladnick
• "Any company who claims they have any kind of special relationship with Google – You should probably get away." - Jeff Gladnick
• "Google wants everything to be responsive and everything to be on the same domain." - Jeff Gladnick

Resources:

• DentalTown
• Email Jeff