Re-Engagement Unlocks Revenue (E.297)

WHAT THIS EPISODE REVEALS

“Doctors, you’re likely sitting on $500,000 to $1 million in unscheduled treatment and your team doesn’t have to lift a finger to bring it back.”- Sara Hansen

In this episode, Sara Hansen dismantles the myth that growth depends on new patients. She shares how re-engagement campaigns recover lost revenue, free your team from tedious follow-ups, and deliver measurable results in 30 days or less.

This is Part 3 in our Internal Marketing Series:
1. Episode 290: Strengthening Your Marketing Core Muscles
2. Episode 291: Earning the Right to Get New Patients
3. Episode 297: Re-Engagement Unlocks Revenue

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

✔ The fastest way to grow revenue without chasing new patients
✔ How re-engagement systems align teams and drive case acceptance
✔ Why internal marketing outperforms external campaigns in ROI
✔ The patient messaging that converts silence into action

IF THIS SOUNDS FAMILIAR

• You’re chasing new patients while ignoring the ones you’ve already earned
• Your team struggles to follow up on unscheduled treatment
• You’ve “tried everything” but your schedule still leaks revenue

This episode gives you the framework to stop the revenue bleed and scale from the inside out.

SCALE FROM THE INSIDE OUT

✔ Recover hidden revenue without overloading your team
✔ Build durable systems that work, no matter who’s in the chair
✔ Grow your practice with precision

📍 The future of your practice isn’t outside, it’s already in your system.
Learn more at the Clinical Calibration Institute.

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:04] Regan Robertson: Doctor, how would you feel if you had me sitting in your chair and if you see me on video right now, you can see me smiling and you’re telling me that, uh, I have a certain treatment plan option and I’m nodding, and I’m smiling and I say, “Yeah, this sounds really good.” I ask a couple of questions and then I leave in your mind seeing this. Right. Smiling, happy, onboard woman who says yes to your treatment plan. What do you think the chances are that I’m going to say no. Would it surprise you to know that that’s happened? And I have actually said no, even though I’m smiling and even though to the clinician space, it looks like it’s a done deal. This is one of those secret, invisible, um, hidden moments that actually means so much and marketing gets it wrong. Traditional marketing gets it wrong, um, traditional internal training gets it completely wrong. There is this massive disconnect that actually can equal hundreds of thousands, if not a million of untapped revenue, um, through these treatment plans that just do not get accepted, and what we do with the follow-up and what we do with that process is exactly why we are here today. So I have not set up a bunch of questions for this. We’re going to have a conversation because there is gold that you deserve to hear, and there are actionables that you can take today because the reality is, doctor, when you diagnose it and you put together a treatment plan that is with intent, that is with your heart. That is with your soul saying you wanna get that patient to optimal health, and we are here today on this podcast to help you make that a reality because you deserve to do the dentistry that you diagnose, um, our guest today on Everyday Practice Dental Podcast is Sara Hansen. Sara, welcome to the show. 

[00:01:47] Sara Hansen: Hello, I’m back. 

[00:01:49] Regan Robertson: You are a repeat offender on the podcast, and really quickly give us your elevator pitch. Who are you? What’s your, what’s your fancy job title and, and why, why are you here? Why are, why do you deserve to talk to the doctors today about this?

[00:02:06] Sara Hansen: Oh man. Well, so I am Phoenix Dental Agency‘s Senior Marketing Advisor, um, so I say I have the fun job here at PDA. I get to work with clients. I also get to talk to clients and potential clients about all the amazing things that we do here, uh, with our marketing program to get to support them along the journey and really tell their stories about who they are, how they show up for patients, um, and why they’re different.

[00:02:37] Regan Robertson: You are, um, I would call you a champion and a bulldog at the exact same time. I mean, the professional way to put it is you’re a really amazing advocate and, and you’re a wonderful guide that I’ve seen you take, you know, so many practices at this point, uh, you know, and, and thousands of, of attendees who’ve heard you speak and really through a process that helps them stay authentic. So practices can really, again do the dentistry that they diagnose, and we had you on just a few weeks ago to talk about the internal marketing and the power of internal marketing is unsexy. You guys, as internal marketing might sound, it saves you thousands of dollars every single year because it is really, when you are putting out external marketing, it is valuable and it is needed, but you will spend so much more than you have to if your internal marketing systems is, are not aligned and clear. Yeah, and so we talked about two elements of it, uh, you guys can go back and check to the previous episode. We’ll put it in the show notes but we talked about referrals and reviews, so before you roll your eyes listener and say, I’ve done referrals and I’ve done reviews, there is a third really critical component that we are seeing amazing traction with, and that is re-engagement. So, Sara, give us, throw us some, throw us some stats and, uh, and define what, what re-engagement even means. What does it look like?

[00:03:57] Sara Hansen: Doctors, would you be shocked to know that you most likely are sitting on potentially at least $500,000, even up to a million dollars of unscheduled treatment plans? Um, I would also encourage you to possibly pull up a data point in your practice software of active, unscheduled patients, um, we’ve seen numbers anywhere from a thousand to even 5,000 active unscheduled patients. That data point just by itself is, I mean, like talk about low hanging fruit that is untapped money and patients that are begging you to just reach out to them and to contact them. So that is money that is waiting to be tapped into, and all we need is a simple system, um, and a plan to, to guide you through that process. It’s simple.

[00:04:56] Regan Robertson: One thing that I love about you, Sara, is you’re, you are actually like boots on the ground in the practices and walking some of these, you know, doctors and teams through this process. I wonder, do you have a, or can you think about a story, um, you know, of one of the practices that, that has taken advantage of what re-engagement looks like and like, be my eyes and ears and walk me through what that, what that process has been?

[00:05:23] Sara Hansen: Yeah. Yeah. Well. You know, I think the last podcast I shared that I come from the dental practice, and as being a member of the dental practice, I had the lucky slash really boring job of picking up the phone and making the phone calls of that list of patients, doctors, and team. You know what I’m talking about? That are unscheduled patients that are past due for continuing care. You’re picking up the phone, you’re leaving the messages, and guess what? Those phone calls go unanswered, and oftentimes they do not call you back, do they? They don’t. 

[00:05:58] Regan Robertson: Is that, is it really that boring? 

[00:06:00] Sara Hansen: Yes. It,

[00:06:01] Regan Robertson: when I, when I was a kid, when I was a kid, one of my very first jobs was, uh, for a chiropractic office. Yeah, and my job was to call to remind people, and, um, and I remember though, I mean, maybe it was because I was a kid, I loved doing it so much because I felt like I was being helpful. Of course, now we get text messages today. Right, right, right, um, yeah. But I could see, you know, day in, day out, and especially not getting calls and not getting callbacks, just having it, it could be a little draining and a little demotivating.

[00:06:30] Sara Hansen: Well, and the reality is, I mean, how many of us these days hit go to voicemail on every single phone call? Right? We heard we ever, right, right, right. So that’s just the reality but so, you know, not only is that not productive for the practice and your team, I mean, it just isn’t like there are so many other things that your team could be doing that makes the office flow much better. So to take that out of the office and put it actually in a campaign that is proven to get money back on the books in 30 days, makes sense but let me put that back into the practice for you. ’cause you asked for a story. So we have a client and his favorite. Phone calls to me are always, yeah, I need more new patients. He tends to get panicked at times when they get a little bit slower, and I have to remind him all the time, “Hey, guess what? It’s not about your new patients,” and I think that when we think about marketing, we always think it’s about new patients. Mm-hmm. However, while external marketing is great, it really is. We cannot always focus on external marketing because it is expensive, and the other thing is it takes time to build an audience. It takes time to really implement campaigns. When we talk about executing internal marketing with a campaign that actually works, that is low hanging fruit. The patients already know you, they’ve been in your practice. You have presented a treatment plan to you. There is a level of trust there. The problem with assigning a team member to pick up the phone and make a phone call is it’s not a well executed campaign. The thought process. Is great. You’re right, we do need to be reaching out to those patients to contact them. So yes, you are right in that regard. However, that’s not how people really communicate anymore. So what we have found here at Phoenix Dental Agency is that when we can create a a, a campaign that actually has a strategy behind it. So let’s say doctor, you really want to focus on implants, right? All doctors love implants. Then we would formulate a strategy, all doctors, but

[00:08:37] Regan Robertson: I assume doctors that do them love them, right?

[00:08:38] Sara Hansen: Yeah.

[00:08:39] Regan Robertson: Right,

[00:08:40] Sara Hansen: right. They’re all like all the rage. Right. We could even use Invisalign for example. So let’s say, you know, we, a bunch of patients that came in for inval delay treatment plans, they didn’t accept treatment for whatever reason. Again, we formulate a strategy to communicate to those patients. So one is it’s through custom language. We don’t send out language that says something like, “Hey, patient, it’s time for your treatment. Give us a call,” right, ut it is formulated to be an extension of your practice. So what are your core values? How do you normally talk to patients, right? Mm-hmm. How do we talk to the patient in. The terminology that sounds like, “Hey, we care about you. Your dental health is important. You know, we have financial solutions to help you.” Right? Those are the types of things that make it important that the patient hears. We have, you know, flexibility and appointments. We’re here evenings, we’re here on Fridays, right? Whatever your practice has. We customize that language to fit your practice, um, so that the patients understand and then we actually reach out to them in ways that they are going to respond to. So by reaching out to them through text messages, emails, things like that, it has made a huge difference, um, and so when I said to that doctor, I said, let me try something with you instead of your teen, you know, making those phone calls. I want us to take this piece over for you and month one, he generated $60,000 back in his schedule in 30 days, and he just about fell on the floor, and so I said to him, I said, “Okay, are you now as worried about new patients as you were?” And he’s like, “No, no.” You know, it like blew his mind that we could generate that type of revenue with stuff that he had already done, you know? And the kicker is he spent. A fraction of the price with that campaign that he did with external, and so it was like such a mind shift for him because we’re taught that it’s all about external marketing and Google ads and all that sort of stuff, when really it was such a minimal effort put in, yet it produced such a huge benefit for him and his team, and his team didn’t have to do anything because we took that piece over for them, and so the team was like, yes, please keep doing this. Yeah, and it provided them the time to be able to do what they’re really good at, which is take great pair, great care of their patients, and that’s what matters.

[00:11:08] Regan Robertson: I want to take a deeper note here, and something that I heard you say that I think is really critical, something that keeps business owners in lack, uh, in an a scarcity mindset, and if you’re listening and thinking, you’re not scarcity. I get into this mindset too, and I, and you’ve touched on something, Sara, that’s really important to underline here. When we focus on the more. When we focus on new and, um, I need, so saying I need is a very, very, like, that is a critical word, need, uh, need to survive, need it to, to do what? Exactly, but it’s, it’s very, um, it’s not panicky, but it is a serious tone, and when you look at that and say, I need new patients. Your energy goes where you focus, and by focusing on that, you run a dangerous risk of ignoring the relationships that you should be building that actually puts you into abundance, and that’s what I hear you saying. So much time, so much effort is spent on getting the new that we forget to take care of what we already have, and that is what I’m hearing you say is if we treated, um, our existing patients base with as much love and care and, um, and towards the mission of, of what we’re all here to do, which is make people healthier. We would be in a better place but that’s actually a scary place to be as far as the goes because we have to put ourselves out there. This sits for anybody, anybody is that, that owns a business or does sales of any kind, is really going to know you’re being brave by making a diagnosis and you’re being brave by putting together treatment plans. I, um, I’ve been presented multiple treatment plans over the years for different things and you know, outside of dentistry, inside of dentistry and there is ownership to that. It’s a lot like when I’m designing a logo or a brand or you know, think of all my years of graphic design, that’s a piece of you and there is this bit of vulnerability that exists, and I wonder, I wonder if we are a little bit afraid to face that vulnerability and, and not get rejection. It’s easier to say, I’m just gonna focus on getting the new than it is to say, yeah, are we really aligned here and are you gonna be able to say yes to treatment? And if not, we make a lot of excuses, right? Because we don’t wanna be rejected and we don’t wanna feel like we’re not doing what we’re supposed to do as far as our jobs, and so we could say, oh, they just didn’t, you know, they just don’t like the financing or, uh, you know, we’re just not open in the right hours, and so, you know, we, we pitched it and we sent a follow up text. It was data-driven, right? There’s no emotion infused in it. It’s just, you know, hey, your ground treatment plan is outstanding. You wanna schedule today? Exclamation point, right? Um, and then, you know, but we did the work and just walk away from it. I think there’s a lot of bravery in, in looking internal and saying, how can we hold this person with as much care and effort as we do, focusing on external.

[00:14:10] Sara Hansen: Yeah, and that’s exactly what it’s about. I mean, let’s even look at the full marketing cycle. So let’s say that yes, you do have a great robust external marketing campaign where we are paying, you know, to get those leads to come in. You are offering a great patient experience, and yes, maybe there was something that didn’t quite connect with them and it may not even be anything with your practice, right? That happens all the time. We don’t always know what’s happening in a patient’s life, and it could be that maybe there is uncertainty in their life, and so they’re holding off simply because they’re not sure of their own personal finances or things like that, right? So it may not even be you. However, what we’re seeing in practices right now is that we’re paying so much for to get these patients in through the front door, and then they’re quietly leaving out the back and so we see like this revolving door of patients coming in and out of the practice, and so what we’re telling doctors is, “Listen, we’ve gotta close the back door. Let’s like lift up what we already have.” So it’s exactly what you’re saying is we’re holding the patients that you already have and caring for them. You know, they already have a relationship with you in a certain way. Let’s remind them that they’ve chosen the right place, that we are here to help them, you know, get to better health, um, and hey, we’re the place that, you know, we can do this for you. Like, you don’t need to go anywhere else. So it’s just that constant reminder of, you know, and, and again, when I love what you said about, um. The way that we word this, right? This isn’t really about treatment, and so again, when you can craft the language to match the office, again, that is really a super tool that we use within this campaign is, it’s not about the treatment, right? It really is about the patient getting healthier, and when we can use that language that really speaks to the patient in that way. ’cause that really is what it’s about, right? We’re in dentistry to help people, um, that speaks to the patient of, they do care about me, they do care about my oral health. You know, they do care about me coming to a place where I can now get to a place that I do just have continuing care visits. You know, we often hear patients say, “Every time I go in, I need something.” You know, we do have a goal that our patients come in and they are just their regular continuing care, but they have to get to that place. So again, it’s about reminding them how important that is.

[00:16:31] Regan Robertson: Man, I, you know, when you say it’s not about the dentistry and it’s not about the specific procedure, but it’s about their life, it tells me that you’re really seeing that individual, and I think one of the most powerful things we can do in humanity is help each other feel seen, uh, I just recently saw this video with, uh, John Cena, so if, if you’re listening, if you know who John Cena is, great. I don’t know if you know who he is, he’s an actor and he’s like big in WWE wrestling, he is like, you know, if you’re a little boy, I think you know you’ll love him, but he was on some red carpet. Right? And this, uh, this interviewer said to him, “If you could interview anyone on the red carpet alive or um, passed away, what would you ask them and who would it be?” And John Cena turned it around and he said, he said to him, “You know, um, uh, how, how long did you fly just to get here to this premier?” And he said, “Oh, you know, like 10 and a half hours. I’m from India,” and he’s like, “And why did you do that?” And, and the guy just erupts, and he said, “I feel like this is in my blood. I love movies so much. I feel like I was born to do this, and to just be able to learn about you and share your message with the world.”. Like the guy just erupted, right? And John, you know, asked him a few more things and then said, “Thank you so much. You were the person I would ask.” Wow. Right. When you make someone feel seen, that is what make sure that the dentistry gets done, that is what actually makes them healthier and happier, and it’s really interesting to me. We can look at the transactional level of, of how we deliver the message and that changes over the decades, uh, Google Ads being one of them. Google ads as a vehicle, is a vehicle. It is a black and white data driven distribution channel. Your text messages are the distribution channel, and if I’m hearing you well, what I’m hearing you say is it’s what, it’s what you actually say that matters and being able to reach them at their desired time. For, for example, uh, I didn’t even think about this before, but you’re right. I let almost all of my calls go to voicemail. I’m working during, you know, during the day and late, and when I’m not, I am so busy, I could, if I put my phone on do not disturb for a couple of hours, I could have 80 or more messages. So my time is at a premium, and I think all of us, especially if we’re parents, if we, and if we’re not parents, we have parents, right? If we’re not parents that have family members, like we are all so busy in today’s world, uh, that, that calls will get, will get ignored but what are in those calls, because our phones translate those calls into transcribed messages. Tell me more, Sara, about the messaging component and, and dive deeper so that our listeners really understand how you’re helping people feel seen in these interactions that’s getting that crazy re-engagement, um, traction that you’re talking about.

[00:19:26] Sara Hansen: Yeah. Yeah. So it really is about one, understanding the goal of the practice. Okay. So if we know the goal of the practice is, let’s say we really want to bring more patients back in for same-day crowns, right? Then we reach out to the patients that need crowns. So, you know, the customized verbiage that we would use, we would pull up our clients, um, mission statement, their goals, you know, things that are important to them, how do they show up for patients? Um, what are their key characteristics? And we bring all of those things in to customize verbiage and we translate that into messages that would be sent out. So for example, you know, I would say something to you like, “Hey Reagan, you know, we understand how hard it could be on the 4th of July not to be able to eat corn on the cob with friends and family. Right? We also know what it’s like to stand up proudly and have a smile that you’re proud of. We know in this treatment plan, we talked about the steps that you would need to take to get your crown done. We’re here to help. We would love to see you have a beautiful smile that you’re proud of. You know when you’re ready. We’d love to be able to help you talk through the steps it would take, you know, here are some financial solutions that we talked about. We wanna make this dream come true for you. Right?” Something like that. What that does is it now takes the patient out of a transaction that doesn’t feel transactional to a patient. That feels like we are your advocate, right? Because really, that’s what you are, you’re transforming lives. I mean, I say it from the stage all the time of, you know, dentists and teams. You transform patients’ likes every day, and so now you get to tell patients that you know, “Hey, we’re here to help you smile.” I mean. Regan, you know, part of my job is I get to interview doctors a lot, um, as we craft, you know, website language and ad language and all sorts of stuff, and I ask them, I mean, one of the questions I ask them is, “What do you love about your job?” You know, and they say all the time, I get to be part of the change. I get to see a patient come in, not confident, you know, they’re in pain, they’re broken, and then I get to see them walk away smiling, like. Almost every single doctor says that. That is huge. So now that we get to use that language to tell the patient, “Hey, this is, this is why we want you to succeed,” like that’s powerful to a patient, you know? Because at the end of the day, I mean, yes, you are running a business and yes, we want to see that treatment come in, but really the patient just needs to know that they’re taken care of and that’s what you’re doing, and so that’s why, you know. Setting aside the time to have this reengagement campaign in your practice really is some of the most powerful marketing that you can do, and again, because we own that piece for you, it’s not costing you really anything other than, you know, for us to run the campaign, but yet it is putting so much of that treatment back into your schedule and growing your practice, it’s, it’s been phenomenal, um, Regan, I, it’s interesting, I was talking to, um, a potential client yesterday and she said to me, she’s like, “Sara, she’s like, I’ve been talking to some other marketing companies, and she goes, all they talk about is Google ads and websites and this and that, and she’s like. Well, I totally agree that, you know, internal marketing is important. She’s like, do you not believe in Google Ads?” I’m like, I’m like, no. I said, “We run Google Ads all day long. I said, I’m a huge advocate of external marketing, but I said, doctor, I said, “You said to me that your goal was you need new patients today because you have big goals that you’re trying to meet this year, and I said, while external marketing is great, and we definitely feed that into every single, you know, marketing strategy that we do. We look at each individual doctor, and when we talk about how do we grow your practice fast, external campaigns can take months to build and months to build an audience, and so you actually start getting a return. Like we’re talking four months where internal marketing, we get results in 30 days,” and so she’s like, “Oh my gosh, that makes sense.” You know? And so it like blew her mind that, you know, every single marketing company really talks about only external campaigns, which again, it’s not a bad thing. It, we do this all day long. I think what people are missing is they’re missing, we are leaving untapped revenues and treatment just lying in your practice, and really that is what’s growing practices so substantially because the cost to these campaigns is so minimal that yet they’re getting such huge revenues back onto the books with patients that they’ve already treatment planned. So it has been hugely successful.

[00:24:20] Regan Robertson: So any practice can go in and run a report to see how much unscheduled treatment they have. Right. Yeah. So it could be something that you do today and then you know what your potential is right out of the gate. 

[00:24:31] Sara Hansen: Yeah, uhhuh. Yeah. 

[00:24:32] Regan Robertson: Can, can you share with us what the experience has been for some of those, uh, clients that, that were maybe especially in like, I like the scarcity mindset, you know, or the really, they, I need patients now, but what is, what has the feedback been and and what objections did you have to help them get through before they ended up doing it? So kind of give me a before and after. So what objections did they have now they’ve done the program and what are they saying?

[00:24:59] Sara Hansen: I think the biggest objection was like, okay, yeah, we’ve already tried that. It didn’t really work, you know, and I’m like, I get it, um, but here’s the thing is when it’s really done with a lot of intentional effort and a strategy in place, again. I’ve worked in the practice, you possibly cannot give the time and effort. We also utilize your own platforms, um, you know, the patient communication platform that’s already in your practice, but really it’s a strategy behind it. It’s the messaging that’s set out. It’s the way that we layer the campaign and then tracking the results, um, no marketing campaign. You should, you should never have a marketing campaign unless you’re tracking the results. That’s really important to us that we know exactly what’s happening with that campaign. So for us, we track everything, um, the doctors who were the biggest skeptics that they’re like, yeah, we’ve done that. You know, it didn’t really do what we thought. I said, “Okay, let’s just try it for 30 days.” I think that their minds were blown with 30 days of tens of thousands of dollars coming back, um, especially that one doctor, I think on month two or three, he had like, you know, potential of 175,000 back on the books. I mean, insane amounts of treatment plans coming back into the book but again, it’s because that’s, that’s, that’s your easy money. That’s your low-hanging fruit. Those patients already have a relationship with you. They just have to be reminded why, you know, treatment is important. So we know that not everybody will come in, but even, I mean, let’s say you have $500,000 of unscheduled treatment, 10% of that comes in a month, 5% of that comes in a month, you’re still growing your practice without doing anything, right? I mean, I would take that. So again, it’s like. It, there’s no, there’s no wrong way to do this, um, and again, you know, I love it because again, the team isn’t, you’re not spending any time, the team’s time investing in this, we’re owning the entire thing for you, and so it just makes sense, right, to why not grow your practice really from the inside out and that, that’s our big core philosophy. The other thing that’s great about that is you really can control, um, what, what that patient looks like. A lot of times when you do external marketing, um, you know, it, it is that whole new patient, right? They take more time. There’s more effort that goes into it. When you have a patient that’s already existing, you put ’em back in the books and you go, right. You don’t have to do a comp exam. You don’t have to do comp x-ray. I mean, there’s just all these things that it does become more efficient and you can focus solely on production. So again, there are a lot of benefits to just tapping into what you already have, so

[00:27:50] Regan Robertson: I like that you say it’s easy and I think it’s easy, but not simple or simple, but not easy from what, from what you say, because you can do it, and I, that is one of my favorite things. I’ve done things in my own life, you know, where I’m like, well, tried it didn’t work, move on, and I don’t know that all of us take the time to slow down and think about why it didn’t work, and what I’m hearing you say, which is really interesting, is, uh, part of that strategy is understanding your mission and your values, and I’m curious, how do you take the. The mission part makes sense to me because you explained, like from a clinical standpoint, you, you know, you, you really are passionate about same-day dentistry or a particular procedure like that makes sense, and it’s, it’s something that’s a data point, right? It is something that can be tied to an economic objective. So that, but then there’s the heart of it. So that’s the data part, and then there’s the heart, which is the core values. How do you weave in or in, or use core values as part of this strategy?

[00:28:51] Sara Hansen: So let’s say a core value for a practice is, you know, um, I think one of,  like Dr. Anthony Baird, for example, one of theirs is integrity. Well, if we know that we have integrity for every patient, then that means every patient deserves, right? If we, if we stand in integrity, then is it cool that we have patients walking around with decay in their mouth? Like if we, you know, hold ourselves that right, we’ve now diagnosed on them that they have dental treatment that needs to be done, or they have perio disease, like we can’t, if we’re gonna stand in integrity, we can’t just let them wander around with perio disease. Right? Like, it’s just like if you go to a doctor and you know, “Hey, by the way, you have heart disease, but keep on wandering around, right?” Because don’t get heart disease treatment. Like, it’s just, it’s like mind blowing when you think about, you know, medical doctors and we never treat our bodies that way, but yet somehow our patients think it’s okay to treat our oral health that way. So again, when you stand in integrity like that as as an office and use your core values for that way, and then you communicate that in the languish to the patient of, hey, you know, all of us here, you know, at this office, believe our patients should get the, the treatment that they deserve by X, Y, and Z, you know, because of this. Now the patients can feel that, right? They know that it’s not just about, again, the bottom line. It’s not about the dollar amount, um, you know, and I do believe that patients will fill that, um, I think that’s why. It is really good for all the team members to know what their core values are as a team. How do they show up to change patients’ lives every day? Um, even, you know, when we talk about referrals and stuff, right? I think we talked about that LA last podcast is why do you show up to work every day? If you’re truly in the business of changing patients’ lives, then asking for a referral, this should not be a big deal because you want to change patients’ lives more and more. It’s not about having more patients to come in to grow the business. It’s about changing more patient’s lives around you. So, you know, again, I think as we continue to grow dentistry in the way that it deserves to be recognized in the healthcare industry, like oral systemic health now is a big, um, talking point, which I think it should be. You know, I do think it deserves to be treated as such. You know, those conversations should be happening with your patients and they should be recognizing the importance of decay, you know, oral disease, all of that stuff, and so if we show up as the healthcare providers that we are, we’re not gonna allow you to walk around with disease, right. So, and it sounds a little kind of blunt, I think, in certain ways because we don’t think of oral health that way, but it’s the truth, you know? So of course, we can like massage that a little more to make it sound prettier, but you know what I’m saying.

[00:32:02] Regan Robertson: Core values are massively underutilized in the practices, and I think that that’s because we don’t know what to do with core values, and so you’ve just demonstrated really beautifully a tangible way to incorporate the core values, and the reason that I’m particularly passionate about the core values is it points to the emotional why. So there is the clinical why and there’s the emotional why, and bridging those two together, I think is the secret for success, and when we go all the way back to thinking about having to make those patient phone calls and how boring and tedious of a job it is, uh, one there is the, so the clinical reason, right, the data-driven reason, people won’t pick up, you know, you’re just gonna be leaving voicemails over and over again. It just feels a little fruitless in, in that regard. Then there’s the, then there’s the emotional why that sits behind it, and that is using the core values. So if I’m imagining you, Sara, um, going into practice, I guess this leads up to my to my final question is, is. You, you’ve mentioned a few times doing this, like doing this for the practice, and when the team understands that, they act out of integrity, and this is how we define integrity, all of a sudden, that act, that act of re-engagement or that act of asking for a referral, it. Takes on meaning that’s deeper than the clinical solution and all of a sudden I have a purpose and a mission myself that I am driving towards. So it, it is the secret to motivate. What type of support do you give practices since you are taking on this portion of it so that the team doesn’t have to worry about it and they can feel great ’cause teams are exhausted these days, they don’t just wanna do something new without a reason behind it. What, how do you walk the teams through this process so that you can, you know, get them on that re-engagement train?

[00:33:45] Sara Hansen: Yeah. Yeah. So that’s what’s great about, you know, what we do. So our team actually owns that re-engagement piece. We actually run the campaign for the team. So we take that off their plates. Again, we understand the chaos of a dental practice. You know, we don’t, we’re not gonna ask you to do one more thing. We get it. However, what we do is of course, train them, give them the tools that they need, um, we have online modules, um, for online training because we believe that’s important to, yes, we do big in-person training, um, you know, where we spend time with them, give them the tools, set up the system. We’re big believers in performing durable systems in the practice, so no matter what team member is sitting in that seat, that system remains the same. We often hear practices say, oh yeah, we used to do a thing. Right, and now we don’t do that anymore. Well, that’s because there was not a durable system within the practice.  You, yes had a system, but oftentimes it sat with a person and when that person left it simply, you know, fell through the cracks, or that person decided not to continue doing that thing anymore. So when we can set up a system within the practice that everybody’s aware of, they’re on board with it, how it flows, how people show up within what you do, um, then that remains. So no matter who is sitting in that seat or who is coming in, that that system remains. We then offer the online training modules as well, so that those refresher courses come in for that team. So there’s always something happening because again, we want those systems, statistic. We believe internal marketing is a solid foundation. It should always be something that’s happening, whether you’re a startup practice or a practice that has been open for 20 years, you should always be having internal marketing happening constantly. Like that should never be something that ever goes away, um, oftentimes we have practices who don’t even do external marketing at all because they have such great internal marketing systems that they don’t need external marketing, and so they’re floating an entire multimillion-dollar practice on internal marketing only, and it’s phenomenal. So again the power of internal marketing really is very successful, um, but it really is about getting the team on board, and then again with, you know, us being very involved with the team, most of us have been past team members, so we get it, but relating to them, making sure that we’re big about not giving scripts. Um, the team has to have buy-in or it won’t be successful. So we come to the team, we say, all right, team, what’s going to work for your practice? Right? Not every practice is built the same. So we let you and your team create the system that works for you, and then we provide supporting content and collateral to back up your system, and then we provide the supporting pieces from that. So it’s like a win-win for everyone, and then you always have, you know, a consultant that’s, you know, cheering you on, tracking the metrics, um, because again, it’s gotta be trackable. We wanna prove the value of what we’re doing, but then really it’s just about us being cheerleaders for you, continuing, you know, to support the team, to support you, um, and then marketing’s always changing. So, you know, as you hit your goals within the practice, how can we support you in other ways? You know, how, what does the team need at this time? So really, we show up in a lot of different ways to support the doctor and the team.

[00:37:12] Regan Robertson: I’m putting a stake in the ground next episode that you and I do together we are going to discuss why throwing away scripted templates is the best thing you can do for your practice, okay? How to empower your team to, uh, work with authentic messaging frameworks and the big difference. I love it. Okay, Sara, it’s been a joy. Thank you so much. You’re being on Everyday practices and uh oh, people wanna get, uh, a hold of you. Will you be, are you speaking anywhere Coming up? What are what, what are your plans right now?

[00:37:46] Sara Hansen: Yes. Oh my gosh. I feel like I have a lot of things. I will be in Kansas City. We have a cool event coming up, um, I’ll also be at eight om so for all you office managers, we’ll be there, and then of course, in Salt Lake City at, in Telecon, I’ll be speaking there, um, and then of course you guys can always reach out to me here, uh, sara@productivedentist.com or sara@phoenixdentalagency.com. I got two, um, you can always Phoenix. Phoenix Dental.

[00:38:16] Regan Robertson: Yeah. Phoenix Dental Agency is powered by PDA, so that is the marketing agency. I, I hear you well there. Yep. Kansas City. The event, is it called Principles of Influence?

[00:38:26] Sara Hansen: Yep. Principles of Influence, uh, it’s gonna be an awesome event. I know that. We like, if you go to Productive Dentist Academy, social media, we have got posts about that. It’s gonna be a really, really awesome event. So if you’re in the Midwest at all, um, that’s gonna be a great event to go to, um, but yeah, that will be my next event in August.

[00:38:45] Regan Robertson: Well, thank you, Sarah, uh, I know you’ll, you’ll be a road warrior and really excited for the impact you are making so that dentists can treat the dentistry that they diagnose. Thank you, Sara. It’s been wonderful.

[00:38:55] Sara Hansen: Thank you, Regan. Bye everyone.