Tyson Steele Associates - Advanced Dental Marketing Concepts
As of 8 a.m. this morning, I had two hours scheduled the rest of this week. After those mailers went out, this week is now fully booked! It is seriously amazing what those do for your schedule—unbelievable.
– Scott Studerus, DDS
I would not be in business today if I had not hired you to grow my practice. The majority of all my new patients are calling because of you.
– Scott Studerus, DDS
Latest News
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2009 Client Results Exceed Expectations
Tyson Steele Associates is pleased to announce client results for 2009.
Despite the ongoing major recession, the vast majority of Tyson Steele Associates dentists continued to maintain or grow their production last year. A year end analysis of clients who actively marketed their practices from January thru December 2009 determined that 94% of Tyson Steele Dentists either maintained or increased their revenues during the year.
Although dental industry results data may not be available for several more months, we anticipate that our clients benefited greatly from their concentrated marketing efforts, substantially beating the greater benchmark declines of the U.S. dental industry.
The approximately 6% of Tyson Steele Associates dentists who saw declines in revenue were generally located in extremely difficult markets, including some areas of Michigan, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada. However, even those practices managed to minimize their revenue declines in the face of great economic adversity, declining only about 8% on average as opposed to their neighbors who were likely down more than 15% on average.
As the nation's leading marketing firm for fee-for-service dentistry, our goal is to partner with our clients in any economic environment, helping them to drive in the new patient flow needed to maintain a competitive advantage. Congratulations to the hundreds of Tyson Steele dentists who made 2009 a banner year despite the Great Recession.
Bubble Gum Soda, Uniqueness, and Dentistry
In the early 2000's, cult soda maker Jones Soda seemed to have it made. Their unique flavors of soda, including "Jelly Doughnut", "Bubble Gum", and weird flavors like "Brussels Sprout" had carved a niche throughout the prior decade. One of the keys to their success: distributing through small independent stores, skateboard shops, and other alternatives to the big chain stores. Bottles of the soda sported photos submitted by customers and the lids had "fortunes" printed on the inside.
In 2006, the company earned $4.6 million on $39 million in sales. However, in 2007 the wheels came off, and Jones lost $11.6 million. Last night (March 8, 2010 if you're reading this in the future) the final nail was hammered into the company coffin as Jones was "taken under" -- a wall street term meaning "sold at less than market value" -- in a deal with soda maker, Reed's. Shareholders in the company effectively lost their shirts in the deal, which placed a value of $9.8 million on the company, less than half it's value yesterday.
So what happened? How did this once exciting company lose all its fizz?
I think the culprit is one of the most common marketing pitfalls of all -- a failure to stick to "the plan." You see, Jones Soda made a name for itself by being different, edgy, and a bit hard to get. (Remember those skateboard shops that sold it?) However, in 2007 the company made a futile attempt to expand into bigger chain stores, which meant packaging the soda in not-so-unique cans and focusing on boring flavors like "Cola."
Ultimately they went from cool and edgy to just another Coke knock off. In an effort to grow faster, they lost their uniqueness.
The moral: stick to your plan. You've got to understand "why" people like you and your dentistry and take the time to keep building your unique brand. Often, dentists get a taste of success and then immediately set out grow into the latest mega-clinic, adding associates and lots of new gizmos. Unfortunately, in an effort to grow bigger, they lose their uniqueness. And that's the reason patients were coming in the first place.