Dentaltown October 2013 - (Page 16)

howard speaks column Plans, » Treatment and theSocial Media Life Marketing Meaning of by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine People don’t buy on facts or information. You see it every day in dental practices everywhere. The dentist will explain a treatment plan to a patient, telling her what percentage of a certain type of restoration typically fails or the chances she’ll get paresthesia or what her insurance will cover, producing nothing more than a blank stare or a remark like, “Well, I’ll think about it and I’ll call you.” But when someone presents the treatment plan with enthusiasm, excitement and emotion, people buy into it. I learned this the hard way 25 years ago when I would present a treatment plan to patients and maybe half of them would schedule treatment. I asked my assistant, Jan – who is high energy, on top of her game and radiates enthusiasm – to review and answer questions about diagnosed treatments with our patients to be sure they understood everything. When she started talking to our patients about treatment, people just got excited! Then when it came time to schedule treatment, our Treatment Coordinator, Dawn, would continue the positive, uplifting discussion. Instead of merely getting a necessary filling done, Dawn would even talk them into getting their teeth cleaned first, then she would sell them into whitening their teeth because then we could do a tooth-colored filling so everything would match properly. Then she would say, “Another way you could make those teeth brighter is to contrast your teeth with darker lipstick. Oh my goodness, you’re going to have a million-dollar smile and it’s only going to cost you a few hundred dollars!” Any questions patients had about financing, Dawn would answer and provide great payment options such as CareCredit. The way Jan and Dawn reviewed and presented these treatment plans really spoke to our patients’ needs and desires. Patients got excited about it because Jan and Dawn were excited about it and because of this patients would agree to come in for treatment. There’s a funny cartoon that depicts evolution and the meaning of life (see page 18), where all of the animals leading up to the evolved human have three things on their mind: eat, survive, reproduce. Then when you get to the human, he’s wondering what it’s all about. Well, if you talk to any evolutionary biologist, it’s still all about eating, surviving and reproducing! When Jan and Dawn review treatment plans, they enthusiastically appeal to our patients’ base needs: eating, surviving and reproducing. You can’t eat very well without teeth; you need to eat to survive, of course; and if you want to reproduce, you want to look as attractive as possible. Functional, aesthetically pleasing teeth hits on all three of those needs. I can present all of the facts about a case to a patient, but the difference in case acceptance is because Jan and Dawn elicit a deeper response from the patient, which boosts their dopamine and serotonin levels because Jan and Dawn excitedly appeal to the patient’s base needs. The way you present an effective message applies to social media, too. I really got into Facebook about three years ago. In fact the main reason I got into it was because I read an article about Facebook reaching 400 million users. It was exploding and I wanted to see what it was all about. Since then I’ve branched out onto Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest. I’ve really enjoyed learning about and measuring this marketing medium, and it’s interesting to see the correlation between an effectively presented treatment plan and an effectively marketed message. I see so many Facebook pages with posts that read, “Did you know that one in three people have this disease or that disease?” It’s all facts, figures and information. There’s never any excitement. Nobody clicks “Like” or shares those posts because they’re just white noise. There’s no reason to interact with a message like that. Mothers make a major percent of all health-care appointments. Of all of the users on Facebook, more than 60 percent are women (according to a July 2012 article from the Huffington Post); but Pinterest is truly the social media site for women; in fact I’ve read that of the 70 million users on Pinterest, 80 percent of them are female. I have a Pinterest account and I find it amazing that almost all of the 1,500+ people who follow me on Pinterest are women. When women post on Pinterest and Facebook I see a lot of meal plans, diets, healthy snacks, etc. But it’s the continued on page 18 16 OCTOBER 2013 » dentaltown.com http://www.dentaltown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown October 2013

Dentaltown.com Highlights
Howard Speaks: Treatment Plans, Social Media Marketing and the Meaning of Life
Professional Courtesy: 10 Things that Annoy Me
Continuing Education Update
Parent Wants to Video Appointments for Child’s Protection
Ribbond Splinted Bridge for Tooth #8
New Products
Corporate Profile: Scientific Metals
Rental Investments: Sane or a Pain?
Product Profile: 3M ESPE RelyX Luting Plus Cement
Product Profile: U.S. Bank
Product Profile: Demandforce
You Should Know: Shatkin F.I.R.S.T.
The Pity Prison
You Should Know: DC Dental
What’s Your Practice’s Online Reputation?
The Changing World of Pediatric Dentistry
Quality Face Time at Dental Home Day
You Should Know: Healthy Smiles Healthy Children
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way
You Should Know: EZ-Pedo
The Mini Implant-supported Long-term Temporary Crowns for Missing Lateral Incisors
My Son, the Slippery Octopus
Continuing Education: Fundamental Space Maintenance
In This Issue: Oral Cancer
Perio Reports
Ad Index
Profile in Oral Health: A Hygienist’s Personal Experience with Oral Cancer
Dentally Incorrect

Dentaltown October 2013