It’s difficult for small companies to compete for visibility in the dental market, given the deep pockets of the likes of Discus, Biolase, and Sirona. However, there are some new marketing vehicles that have helped level the playing field.
While a single ad can easily get lost in the large trade magazines, online and email vehicles offer a way for a company to stand out at a very reasonable cost. For the price of a single print ad, dentalcompare.com, offers a package of promotional opportunities that includes online lead generation, online ads, e-newsletter sponsorships, and even a video clip that they film for you. DPR offers email blasts (as do some other trade magazines), allowing you to get your message (all by itself) into the email boxes of potential customers. DPR will even create the email for you from your text and photo, making it look professional. Dimensions of Dental Hygiene offers inexpensive ways to distribute product samples and a variety of non-traditional ways to reach hygienists. There are even some print bargains: for a couple of thousand dollars you can have a corporate profile piece run in Proofs magazine, to showcase your company and its products.
These are some of the ways a small company can stand tall in the dental marketplace. When you are planning your 2007 marketing expenditures, think beyond traditional print advertising and look for ways to make that money go farther. Give us a call if we can help.
As consultants in the dental industry, we have clients increasingly coming to us for advice on whether or not to sell their companies. There is no one-size-fits-all answer, of course. However, if you are in a part of the dental market that is consolidating (and who isn’t?), your company is small, and you have less-than-spectacular dealer support, the writing may be on the wall. Your ability to compete will be eaten away as competitors get bigger (and better funded), dealers cozy up to those bigger companies, and it gets harder and more expensive to get your message to end users. Not to get political (although it IS that time of year), sometimes blindly “staying the course” is not the smartest strategy. As the market changes, so must your thinking. Forming strategic alliances, obtaining additional funding, acquiring smaller companies, or selling your company, are some of the many options open to you. Let us know if we can help.
The ADA meeting in Las Vegas last week looked like a rousing success. Both the sessions and the convention floor looked crowded every day, and many of the vendors stated that they had the best show in years. The great weather did not hurt, either.
Next year, the ADA will abandon the Marketplace format, and return to the old system of giving vendors locations based upon points accumulated over the yaeas. Most vendors have already picked out locations for 2007.The meeting will be held in San Francisco next October, which means there will be no Norhern Cal meeting, saving eveyone one convention to attend.
Have you ever wondered how customers view your company? Wanted to know what they think of your products? Been curious about use of products in a particular market segment?
Why not just ask the customer?
We have recently been involved with several online surveys, in which companies were able to get information on these and other issues. The technology for online surveys has advanced to the point where they are virtually turnkey–the key is asking the right questions in the right way. Results can be viewed in real time, as respondents submit their surveys. Filters allow you to analyze responses from, say, only the people who have used your products. This can be powerful information in determining where to make marketing investments and can even help you estimate market size and trends.
As the American Dental Association meeting approaches (assuming you already have your Barry Manilow reservations and your quarters for the slot machines), here are some things to make sure are on your to-do list:
1. Make sure your booth has been streamlined and has a focused message. The Turkish Bazaar approach (we sold one of these two years ago, so let’s put it on display and see if anyone bites) confuses potential customers and makes it more difficult for passersby to understand what your company does.
2. Train your sales people how to sell in a convention environment. Unlike a sales call, the rep must quickly engage someone walking by (”Are you using ___? “Have you seen our new ____?”) rather than acting like a shoe clerk (”May I help you?”)
3. Have sales reps document potential buyers. If your sales reps are handing out literature, making selling presentations, giving away freebies, or conducting contests and failing to record actual potential buyers, you might as well stay home. You should make sure every prospect is documented for follow-up.
4. Make sure your reps actually follow up on the leads (see #3) and close the sales.
5. Use the meeting as an opportunity to see what other companies are doing. Take time to walk through the hall and look at new technology, new products, new companies, and new selling approaches.
6. Make sure anyone in the booth is projecting a professional, welcoming, and competent image. People talking amongst themselves (i.e. complaining about booth traffic), eating or drinking, fiddling with equipment, or otherwise preoccupied make it easy for a prospect to keep walking.
7. Make sure your sales reps and dealer reps have specifically invited customers to stop by your booth.
8. Create signage that makes it easy for people to find your booth.
9. Have people in the booth smile. Look successful and you will be successful.
10. Las Vegas has some great restaurants. Use them as an opportunity to gain some face time with opinion leaders, colleagues, key customers, top sales reps, hey, even consultants! Time away from the floor in a relaxed setting is a terrific way to obtain information and make connections.
See you in Vegas!
In prior blogs, I have talked about Cone Beam Technology and its effects on the market. At the ADA meeting in a few weeks, expect to see more exhibits featuring this exciting new development. Sirona, Dent-X, Sulliuvan-Schein and others will be touting in-office CT scanning to potential customers. Retail prices are in the $200,000 range (yes, that’s right!), but the amount of information it provides to the clinician is amazing. It is especially important to those practices who are doing a high volume of implants since it allows the practioner to seat the implants with a higher degree of accuracy thus lowering the chance for error when the case reaches the restorative phase. Cone beam will ripple through the entire industry. It is the most exciting techmnology that has come along in years.