Sakaduski Marketing Blog

According to a study published in Harvard Management Update, most employees are very enthusiastic when they start a new job, but in about 85% of companies, that enthusiasm sharply declines within 6 months and continues to drop for years afterward.  The study surveyed 1.2 million employees at 52 mainly Fortune 1000 companies.  Companies demotivated employees by treating them as disposable; not giving them adequate recognition and reward; and making it difficult for them to do their jobs due to multiple levels of required approvals, excessive paperwork, insufficient training, poor communication, infrequent delegation of authority, and lack of a credible vision.  Read more here: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5289&t=organizations

If your company uses email as a marketing tool (and if it doesn’t, it should), check out a study of 40 million emails sent through MailChimp.  Attention-getting, marketing-driven subject lines had the WORST open rates.  The most successful email blasts had boring headlines such as “[Company Name] Newsletter.”   Their conclusion?  The most successful email subject lines simply described the contents of the email without sounding like an advertisement.  Read the details here:  http://www.mailchimp.com/resources/subject-line-comparison.phtml

The impression dental professionals have of your company and the perceptions they have of your products are key to their purchasing behavior.  One of the strongest influences is peer recommendation.  Word-of-mouth marketing happens whether you want it to or not:  through the DentalTown message boards, dentists conferring with colleagues, or staff discussing what they have seen or heard about.  Encouraging positive word-of-mouth by enlisting opinion leaders, placing articles that showcase your products, participating in online message boards, and through other means can be a very effective part of your marketing program.

According to Suvison:  There are 3,500,000-4,000,000 dental professionals worldwide. Of these, there are an estimated 1,600,000 practicing dentists worldwide and 163,500 practicing dentists in the U.S. 

According to the ADA (all numbers are for US only): 

Average yearly income of general practitioner is: $174,350
Average yearly income of dental specialist is: $291,250
General Practitioners spend an average per year of $32,790 on Dental Supplies
Specialists spend an average per year of $51,650 on Dental Supplies

Proactive price cuts don’t make you different, nor do they make you better off, according to Manage for Profit, Not for Market Share: A Guide to Greater Profits in Highly Contested Markets, published by Harvard Business School Press.  According to the book, price reductions make you poorer, unless you have the evidence, the data, and the math to prove otherwise.  The authors recommend asking the question of whether price changes will contaminate future dealings with distributors and customers and considering how someone could use your price cut as a weapon against you.  Price cuts make sense only when they earn you higher profits.  For more details, visit http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5314&t=strategy&iss=y

Looking for a sample employee manual?   Due diligence checklist?  Cash Flow Budget Analysis Worksheet?  Plan for closing a facility?  Example of a job description for a Director of Sales and Marketing?  Myworktools.com offers a wide array of sample plans, worksheets, checklists, spreadsheets, and the like, that can be downloaded and used for very modest prices (in some cases free).  These can save time “recreating the wheel” as they cover many common needs in the areas of finance, marketing, human resources, administration, manufacturing, engineering, technical support, sales, business development, and other categories.  For more information, go to: www.myworktools.com