Read time: 5 minutes.

At a glance:

• Quote:

• Picture

• What I’ve Learned

• Business Idea

How to Strike Gold:

A friend of mine covers an orthodontic territory in a large east coast metro city. It’s a place I’m positive most of us have visited—and just as often muttered, “ …. this house is worth how much?!..”

Our conversation revolved around a particular orthodontist.

We were optimistic he hit every possible golden orthodontic opportunity over the past twenty years by walking a perfect Yellow Brick Road to prosperity:

1. He achieved the single best pathway to becoming a debt-free practice owner within five years of graduation in the 21st century—joining a parent.

2. Then, he had the foresight to brand his practice with a famous aligner brand in an area where orthodontists still argued over “..if plastic works” before said brand skyrocketed. (…And did work.)

3. He bet by going all-in on scanners and smartly advertising “scanning-as-an-experience” for differentiation before every scanner sales rep and their mother caught on to the potential windfall.

4. …And if the stars didn’t align enough, his practice location became one of America’s gentrified sweethearts, with double-digit family growth. Using cheap debt, he bought three other practices and soon ran a monopoly over the west side of his city.

5. … And right when he was stretched thin from the burden of running four locations, he entertained a phone call from one of the large OSOs—where they were throwing him 10-12x EBDITA because private equity’s dry powder cash wanted the post-pandemic lightning-in-bottle 25% orthodontic market growth rate.

Of course, he sold.

All before his 45th birthday.

While you can chalk it up to luck—at his core, he knew his marketing.

He obsessed over new patient acquisition costs.

He knew a new patient was worth $244.21 in marketing spend. He held weekly meetings with his team to discuss what was working and what wasn’t: direct spending, SEO, traditional, and social.

He knew how to grow his business to make the most of the opportunities given to him—and he was always the first to share it with others:

• He obsessed with scanning every patient and offering scans to their mother/parent/grandparent while waiting.

• He made personal visits to his top referring GPs

• His landing page always featured the latest photos of him and his team upon landing —never using stock photos.

• The front desk phone call was only allowed to ring twice.

• Someone personally answered every call into the practice——even on weekends.

• The front desk bragged about their doctor, priming the patient to be excited to start with him …and him alone.

• Social media was driven by patient stories—not just before and after, but their personal stories: what they did with their new smile, where they went, who they fell in love with, how they kissed, what intimate... you get the point.

• Every new patient was shown and surrounded by visuals—their before and after scan, their simulation, a similar patient’s before and after,

• The treatment coordinators were weaponized in Robert Cialdini’s Influence tactics. If you showed up —you couldn’t not start:

This week, I encourage my practices to do 1 of 2 things to bag a future windfall:

1. Move to a large city and purchase a debt-free practice from a parent, incorporate new digital technology before anyone else, build in a neighborhood that will soon be overflowing with new families, wait for a pandemic, and sell to an OSO when interest rates dip below 3%.

2. …Or start a weekly or monthly marketing meeting. Dedicate just one hour a week to new patient acquisition. Steal an item from this list. Purchase a copy of Influence for your treatment coordinators.

   Start small, but stay consistent …and golden opportunities will find you.

Business Whiteboard:

The New Orthodontic Funnel to Start Tx.