The DriveSales™ | Here are the top 7 effective sales strategies for dental clinics and centres!

All dental practices acknowledge the importance of dental patient sales strategies. From reaching out to new patients and strengthening ties with existing ones, such strategies are essential for any practice to survive and thrive.

There is no right answer when it comes to dental sales strategies, and there are multiple strategies available at any dental clinic’s disposal. For most practical purposes, using a combination of the different dental sales methodologies is expected to yield the best results.

Let us take a look at the following 7 most effective sales strategies to promote and improve sales of any dental practice.

1) Getting Involved with the Community: Dental practices are local businesses, by their very nature, relying predominantly on the local community to provide for patients. Thus, getting involved with the local community pays out hefty dividends in spreading word-of-mouth locally. This encompasses anything from sponsoring a local event, teaching a dental hygiene class at the local elementary school, or sharing knowledge at the local college or university, all of which generate the opportunity to build stronger relationships in person.

2) Focus on Local SEO: In continuation to the first strategy, having a strong local search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is also critical to play competitively. Local SEO is a search engine optimization strategy that enhances the visibility of any business in local search results on Google. Any business having a physical location or serving only a particular geographic area, can be significantly benefitted from local SEO. This can be achieved by using local keywords throughout all local citations and website content. (A local citation refers to any online mention of basic information relating to a local business such as name, address, location, and phone number.)

3) Diligently tracking and organizing new callers/customer data: A printed new caller/customer sheet gives a foolproof way to collect all the necessary data points required from a prospective customer, including their name, phone number, email address, and medium of discovery. This data can be further used as a CRM tool for tracking the results with a simple spreadsheet. This information needs to be organized in such a way that it records the number of leads and new callers received throughout the week, their marketing sources, total appointments booked, and most importantly the revenue per week. This should be updated regularly and analyzed for understanding underlying trends and effectiveness.

4) Local business listing and Aggregator listing: Healthcare aggregators and local business listing websites have become the primary source of discovery especially for the healthcare space. These listings have enhanced the access of critical information relating to any healthcare facilities, including dental clinics, almost instantly. Driving traffic to your store by partnering with established healthcare aggregators such as Practo, Lybrate, 1mg, etc. has yielded positive results for the industry as a whole. Local business listing websites such as JustDial and Google My Business listing act as the primary drivers for directing new customers to dental clinics.

5) Appointment Reminders: Growing a dental clinic’s patient base isn’t only about attracting new patients. It is also about maintaining relationships with existing patients. Sending them appointment reminders, or reminders for scheduling their next appointment, is an effective and efficient re-engagement tool. Appointment reminders may be sent in the form of emails, text messages, or even a phone call.

6) Newsletters & Special Offers: Content is king in today’s world order. Newsletters work as an effective tool for content marketing being delivered straight into patients’ inboxes. It fosters engagement by reaching out proactively and consistently. Newsletters should contain snippets of valuable information such as tips on preventive dentistry which focuses on daily dental care to maintain good oral health and hygiene along with special offers for regular dental check-ups. A dental clinic may also benefit from disseminating business information through pamphlets and flyers as well since the target market is primarily the people within a set radius of the dental care centre. In addition to these, a few additional strategies include sending brochures about upscale cosmetic procedures to high-income neighbourhoods, where they are more likely to be able to afford such procedures and targeting kids as well, with a family promotional package to make it a family affair with the common goal of maintaining good oral health.

7) Tapping into rising Tele-dentistry and Video Consultation trends: Opening up an all-new class of customers who do not necessarily need a visit to a dentist and/or who are just looking for information on preventive care or some minor ailments can be easily catered to via paid consultations on phone calls or video calls from the plethora of no-frills options available in today’s market such as Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp, etc. This will prove beneficial in bolstering the perception of the dentist and the dental clinic, driving in new customers in addition to those from the local community who are satisfied with the interactions. The necessary information related to payments, consultation timings, and consulting mediums can be put up on own website, online aggregators, or business listing websites.

There are innumerable ways of attracting dental patients and these are some of the most effective ones which may be used in any combination that works best depending on the demographics and management bandwidth. The best bet will always be to keep a track of the competition from both new and old and to try and create a unique value proposition that differentiates you from the competition.

Now, as an effective SALESPERSON! We can do three things from here.

1. Not ignoring the opportunity and blaming the situation for revenue loss.

2. Taking necessary notes and revisiting your sales strategy with a growth mindset.

3. Reach out to The DriveSales™ in case you need any specialized help.

To conclude, what you believe also provides some idea of your development as a consultative salesperson. For more, please be connected to team The DriveSales™ as these are the foundations for our culture and ways of working!

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