Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

February 27-March 4, 201216 United Kingdom EditionPractice Management L.I.F.E. Light Induced Fluorescence Evaluator, for the diagnosis and treatment of tooth decay For a limited time only, get the USB Dock Station (shown right) absolutely FREE when you purchase the SoproLife. SoproLife W e t o c r e a t e For further information: 01480 477307 info@acteongroup.co.uk | sales@acteongroup.co.uk | www.acteongroup.com A patented new fluorescence technology which allows you to ‘see the invisible’ – detection of occlusal or interproximal decay, even in its earliest stages, which is often missed by X-rays. The fluorescence images produced in treatment mode show a differentiation between healthy and diseased tissue, while images can be compared under white light in daylight mode. All images can be evaluated with magnification of 30x to 100x and work seamlessly with Sopro Imaging software. SOPROLIFE DIAGNOSIS & TREATMENT 2012 Sopro Life Ad (Dental Tribune)_2012 Sopro Life Ad (Dental Tribune) 30/01/2012 17:15 Page 1 T here’s more to success in dentistry than a flat screen TV, a leather sofa and a treatment co-ordinator - as good and desirable as those things are. Of the Seven Pillars of Dental Practice Management(c) it’s a sale that has most of the Demen- tor about it. During seminars, delegates will happily spend an hour talking about marketing or the problems with their team but then skirt around the “sell- ing” bit. Perhaps it’s because they feel that if they aren’t sell- ing loads of treatment they are somehow “not good enough”. Perhaps there is still a feeling that “selling” is somehow not a professional activity. Without doubt there is still a reluctance to embrace a “sales” process. I once had a conversation with a client who threatened to throw me out if of his practice if I even mentioned sales during a team training session. So I set myself a challenge. How to do a half-day presenta- tion on “sales” without once us- ing the “s” word itself? Why do it? Well as with eve- rything else - in response to my clients and audiences. I sense boredom and even alienation with the overwhelm of clever, “sophisticated” marketing tech- niques that mean you will soon have a guaranteed 10/100/1000 patients beating a path to your door by doing x or y with Google ad-words, and whatever social media is top of the pops this week. Not that I’m knocking 21st century marketing tech- niques. All these patients are, of course, going to demand “sexy, funky” dentistry for which they will pay tens of thousands of pounds. And if they have prob- lems affording it, we’ll send you on a course so that you can sell finance. Now I’m not sure from which particular planet some of the people who suggest these techniques come from, but it’s not the same one that I and the majority of people who are privileged to have BDS af- ter their names hail. The con- stant pursuit of new patients on which to inflict someone else’s misplaced ideas of what is good dentistry can only lead to the ef- fect described by Colin Dexter who related an overheard con- versation between two dentists complaining that their district was “worked out” as if it were some sort of mine and they were having to move on. A recent exchange of emails with a young friend saddened me; this dentist had been in a position of an intern in a pri- vate practice. It was made clear to him that he should be look- ing to gross over £2,000 on each and every new patient. Even- tually he opted to return to the NHS because as he said “I know what my targets are there and I understand the limitations of the system”. What individuals who would have you believe that dentist- ry is the same as every other business overlook is that teeth aren’t widgets, teeth were not put into mouths for the benefit of the dental profession and that people are not mouths on legs. Of course you must count the “sales” made and the in- fluence of new marketing Selling without the “S” word Alun Rees discusses how to get the most out dental “sales”