The Science of Sustainable Success

A Simple Formula for Synchronizing Healthcare Vision with Dramatic Results

By Robert H. Maccario, MBA

Your patients are tired of being sold to. Your team is burning out. And you have years of unscheduled treatment sitting in your charts.

Sound familiar? You're not alone. Traditional dental sales tactics are creating patient resistance rather than engagement. A relationship-based approach to growth is replacing the transactional model of dental sales, and practices that adapt will thrive while others struggle to survive.

Stop Selling Dentistry

Today's consumers are more knowledgeable and sophisticated. They don't want to be "sold to." They have little tolerance for overused verbal gymnastics designed to manipulate them into saying "yes"—using these tactics can actually insult them.

Discounting fees to increase treatment acceptance may work in the short term, but it can severely erode your practice's brand. Don't market as the best dental practice in town and then emphasize your in-house discount plan.

The bottom line isn't about your fees or even your skill as a dentist. It's about the consumer's perception of value.

Healthcare has become consumerized, and patients want to feel engaged, not pressured. The goal is creating a ‘buying environment’—a natural, pressure-free atmosphere where patients feel empowered to make healthcare decisions based on clear value and trust. Instead of being "sold to," they're guided through information that enables informed choices aligned with their wellness goals.

"There are more variables than simply quality of care and cost. The 'Experience' remains the overriding priority for healthcare marketers."— Adobe Experience Cloud

Time to Get Off the New Patient Treadmill

Historically, dental marketing has focused on acquiring new patients, assuming they are the lifeblood of practice success. In a "selling" environment, that may be true—but it's an expensive approach.

It's costly to get new patients through the door, but it's even more expensive (and painful) to watch them leave out the back door because they feel pressured. It's time to close the back door.

Stop doing "aerobic" dentistry, squeezing in as many new patients to fill up your schedule. Running between treatment rooms all day is a great way to burn out both yourself and your team. This doesn't mean new patients aren't needed—it involves striking a balance between acquiring new patients and retaining them long-term.

This balance is referred to as Lifetime Value (LTV). Emphasizing a buying environment dramatically increases retention, leading to more complete treatment acceptance, lower costs, and, most importantly, healthier patients.

Patient Loyalty: The Real Game Changer

When patients feel sold to, the result is transactional loyalty—they are loyal to the price, not the practice. When patients purchase based on value, it fosters emotional loyalty, making them more faithful to the practice.

What do we know about loyal consumers? Compliance is higher when they "buy." Over time, they purchase, repurchase, and refer others. In a value-based model, a loyal patient mindset is critical.

The goal is straightforward: guide patients toward adopting wellness as a lifestyle choice. This mindset helps foster unbreakable multi-generational patient loyalty and trust.

These principles apply equally to practice and vendor relationships.

Aligning Vendors and Practices

Here's the caveat: your practice cannot compete alone. Vendors and practices must align all resources in a value-based ecosystem—a single system that generates maximum value for the consumer.

Selecting the right vendors is critical. They must establish and support the buying process. Vendors who understand and commit to this environment earn lifetime practice clients.

How Do We Get There?

Healthcare involves three visions: patients, practices, and dental vendors.

1. Patient Vision

The best value in healthcare is staying healthy. Wellness is now a lifestyle choice. Consumers are in control and want more than the absence of disease.

Overall health encompasses physical, mental, emotional, social, and aesthetic well-being. Today's consumers expect their healthcare experience to match the same high standards they've come to expect from other consumer-centered services.

This creates an excellent opportunity for practices to guide and support patients in achieving their desired outcomes.

2. Provider Vision

Providers want a fair return on their effort and expertise. Clinical skills and guest services are now just table stakes—they're no longer differentiators.

The new battleground is converting patient experience into long-term engagement. Delayed care or impersonal service no longer meets consumer expectations.

3. Vendor Vision

Vendors want to increase sales and services profitably, but it's not enough to "do better." Vendors and practices must operate as parts of a single system.

Collaboration is essential to meet the patient's vision—it's time to use your expertise and resources to support your clients and practices in better serving patient needs.

"Once we have that trusted relationship … our market share or that of the customer typically goes up."— Frans Van Houten, former CEO of Philips

Protocols for Sustainable Success

First, both practices and vendors must move beyond traditional cost accounting, which focuses solely on the origin and nature of costs while missing opportunities to enhance consumer value.

Instead, adopt ‘Throughput Economics’, a system designed to maximize the rate at which money is generated through increased consumer value.

Next, replace the outdated "silo" mentality where vendors and practices focus only on their costs and profits of individual items or services. Replace it with a value-based ecosystem—a network of interdependent elements working together to optimize patient value.

To radically improve performance, all players must focus on one leverage point: create a buying environment that drives treatment acceptance. This focus becomes the guardrail for decision-making.

Any effort that doesn't support this wastes time and resources. It's a fundamental concept: "No one sells anything until the patient decides to buy."

Synchronizing the Three Visions

How do you synchronize the three visions to create a value-based ecosystem? The protocol is a collaborative process based on a proven economic model.

Setting priorities is simple: Whoever is writing the check has priority.

Patient Vision: The patient writes the check to the practice first. Their vision has priority. The practice and vendor must subordinate to the patient's vision.

This is more important than ever, given the rise of healthcare consumerization. Without the patient writing the check, none of the dominoes fall. If practices don't produce, they have neither the need nor the resources to buy from vendors.

Provider Vision: The practice is next in line to buy from vendors. Vendors must subordinate to the practice's vision—but it's not just subordination, it's collaboration.

Since no single player has all the resources, vendors must collaborate with practices to ensure that all improvement efforts are value-driven, preventing the suboptimal use of time and resources that occurs when partners aren't aligned.

Vendor Vision: Let's get real. The days of dropping off brochures and hoping for a call back are over. If you're a dental vendor still operating like an outside salesperson, you're behind.

Top-performing vendors no longer think in terms of procedure-based transactions. They offer process-based transformations focused on treatment acceptance. This isn't about becoming a better closer—it's about becoming a trusted contributor to a patient-first, practice-aligned business model that rewards everyone involved.

A Simple Formula with Dramatic Results

When you synchronize these visions with the right priorities, magic happens. A single system focused on patient value creates a value-based ecosystem—a win/win/win scenario.

Patients get healthy. Practices significantly increase productivity while reducing costs. Selected vendors experience increased sales and reduced costs from lifetime practice clients.

It's a simple formula with dramatic results. This is the science of sustainable success.

Ready to Transform Your Business?

The dental industry is changing rapidly. Vendors and practices that adapt to this value-based ecosystem will thrive. Those who don't will struggle to survive.

Here's the reality: Every month you delay implementing these principles, your competitors are capturing market share, building stronger patient relationships, and creating sustainable competitive advantages. The question isn't whether this shift will happen—it's whether you'll lead it or be left behind.

The Dental MBA™ and the AKRI Lens™ provide proven expertise in helping vendors and dental practices navigate this transformation successfully. We help you match your resources to stay ahead of the curve on industry innovation.

Don't wait for the market to force your hand. Contact us today to discover how the science of sustainable success can transform your business:

• Email: maccario@dental-mba.com

• Website: www.dental-mba.com

  
  

The practices and vendors implementing these strategies today will be the market leaders tomorrow. Where will you be?