Why Many Dental Practices Struggle to Grow (and How to Break Through the 2–5 Patient Barrier)

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Narrator: You are now listening to another episode of the Insurance Untangled podcast, where we explore the various challenges faced by dental practices due to their reliance on insurance. Join us in this podcast as we dive deep into the issues surrounding dental insurance dependence and offer practical solutions and strategies to help you take control of your practice’s financial future.

Ben Tuinei: Welcome to another exciting episode of the Insurance Untangled podcast. My name is Ben, and I’m one of the co-hosts on this podcast. And you all know we created this for you. This is dedicated to you to help you sort of untangle yourselves from a mess of insurance that we all deal with on a day-to-day basis. Today, I have my good friend and co-host with me, who I will be interviewing — Naren. How are you, my friend? Naren?

Naren Arulrajah: I’m doing great. I’m really doing great, Ben.

Ben Tuinei: Wonderful, wonderful. So everybody knows who Naren is. If you’re new to the podcast and you’re unfamiliar with Naren, Naren is a genius marketing expert. And every other episode we talk about marketing concepts, ’cause, you know, in this day and age, marketing is important. I get calls on a daily basis. In fact, I’ve had four today from doctors who are concerned about the slowness of the economy. This is September — as many of us like to call it, "Slump-tember," right?

So the interesting thing is that you see these differences — some practices that are always slow, and then others that are too busy, right? They’re busting at the seams. And Naren is a perfect person to talk about marketing concepts with.

And so today I want to interview Naren to ask, sort of ask him these — at least, this is the main question I want to ask Naren: Why is this so hard for some practices to grow from two to five patients per month to 10 to 20+ patients per month? Like, what is that struggle there? So that’s exactly what we’re gonna talk about today.

So, Naren, first question I have for you — why? Why is it such a challenge for some practices to go from that two to five new patient level per month to 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 100? Like, why is that? Why is it so hard?

Naren Arulrajah: Thank you so much for, you know, doing this podcast. I think it’s a wonderful, wonderful topic. Now, I assume you are talking about patients who are coming from outside of PPO. In other words, they’re choosing to come to you because you are good. They’re choosing to come to you because you can do the things they are specifically looking for — perhaps Invisalign, perhaps.

So, from that perspective, I have seen the problem you’re describing. There are many, many practices — I don’t know if it’s 10%, 20%, 30% — but a large number of them, they are struggling, and they never get past that two to five new patients from outside of PPO. And because of that, they’re stuck. So either they’re like in this PPO mill where they get paid 50 cents on the dollar because that’s the only way they can get patients, or they still drop PPO even though they never solved this problem, and they’re shrinking — and they’re in real big trouble, right?

Naren Arulrajah: Meaning the number of active patients are going down, and they’re in trouble. So I think uncovering the secrets to how do you go from two to five to, you know, 10 to 20 or more is a wonderful topic.

Now I’ll kind of give you a glimpse of this. Think about this, right? You can’t take a gun and put it on somebody’s head and say, "You must go to Dr. Smith. If you don’t go to Dr. Smith, I’m going to pull that trigger." You can’t do that, right? We don’t live in Russia or one of those communist countries. We live in the United States. And I am, by the way, in Canada — where you really, really can’t do that. You cannot take a gun and put it on somebody’s head and say, "You must go to Dr. Smith or Dr. Jenny," right?

Naren Arulrajah: You can’t do that. So it’s their free will. And they have so many choices. That’s the beauty of a capitalistic society. Especially if they are choosing you — if they are willing to, you know, perhaps pay out of pocket — and they really are choosing you because they really think highly of you, it’s up to them.

So there are components of this. I think starting by understanding how people who are willing to pay money out of pocket — how people who are willing to choose you — are choosing you is really important.

So typically, what they do is they start researching what they’re looking for. For example, if I’m new to the town and I’m looking for a general dentist for me and my family, I might type in keywords like, you know, "dentist near me," and, you know, "family dentist," "the best family dentist," you know, surname or zip code or whatever, right?

Naren Arulrajah: So step one is they need to start seeing you, right? Because how can they even consider choosing you if they don’t even know that you exist and you can solve their problem, right? So that’s number one. And many, many, many practices are not showing up when these people are looking for these things.

So, of course, you could be the best practice in the world, but you are a secret. I mean, I know secrets sometimes are a good thing, but this is not a good thing in marketing. You don’t want to be a secret.

Second is they still have to like you, right? So let’s say you rank organically and you’re not an ad — because ad people don’t trust — and now they go to your landing page. They have to like you. What I mean is, like, you know, they kind of maybe watch a video, and they feel like you are down to earth and you explain things in layman’s terms, and they can kind of see themselves being able to talk to you, being able to have a conversation, and you listen to them and those kinds of things.

Naren Arulrajah: Now they’re more likely to choose you. Why? Because what do most people think about doctors? You know, doctors are all making so much money, and they’re smarter than me — and all these fears they have about interacting with doctors. So if you can kind of get rid of those fears by having these videos on those landing pages that they come to when they do a Google search, that’s wonderful, right?

Short video clips, short ways to connect with them using simple language, being just normal — not producing it with a professional cameraman.

And finally, they have to trust you. And that’s really, you know, maybe if I’m looking for Invisalign, perhaps cases would help me trust you, ’cause I’ve seen you’ve done many, many, many cases and you’ve helped people just like me create a beautiful smile. Or Google reviews, right?

Naren Arulrajah: Today, nobody — like 90% of the people — will not come to you unless you have very good Google reviews and recent Google reviews, right?

So these are some of the reasons why people are at two to five. And then they say, "It’s my marketing company’s fault," right? If you are not getting Google reviews, your marketing company can’t do much, right?

It could be either because you suck, or you are good but you don’t have a process in place to get those Google reviews.

So one of the common mistakes people make is, you know, they don’t work on these things. If you’re not ranking on Google, one of the common mistakes is: why am I not ranking? What can I do to rank? What are the underlying reasons I’m not ranking and showing up for many, many, many, many, many keywords and phrases, right?

Naren Arulrajah: Another common mistake is, you know, like I said, you are ranking, but your landing pages suck. They don’t have cases. They don’t have these simple, easy-to-understand videos. So you have to understand how people buy, and then you have to be the best at every step of that buying journey, right?

First, people find you — you are the best, you show up again and again. Then they like the landing pages that they end up on because of those videos and cases. Again, you are the best.

Remember, you don’t have to be better than everybody else. You just have to be better than the few people who are competing with you for those things, right?

And finally, the Google reviews — those are the things that make it a challenge. And the last piece is the call itself. The average dental practice only converts one out of three new patient calls.

Naren Arulrajah: Again, nobody trained them. Nobody told them what their conversion rate is. I mean, you can’t blame a child who’s getting very low marks if he never gets an exam paper back. If he never gets a grade back, how does he know how well he’s doing, right?

And why is your team any different? So 90% of you don’t have call tracking and call reviews where you know what your conversion rate is. So that’s the last piece.

Just because you fixed the top three pieces doesn’t mean you’re going to go from two to five to 10 to 20. You have to also fix the last piece. And, yeah, you can throw more money at it, you can buy more ads, you can do all the things — but if you have a leaky funnel, like think of it like a leaky pipe, you are wasting a lot of your money.

So I wouldn’t put any additional money on anything till I start fixing these things.

Ben Tuinei: Right? No, I love that. You had mentioned common mistakes that practices make when they’re trying to scale their membership plan. And from my perspective — you know, I’m not a marketing expert like you — but I’m thinking about insurance mistakes that people make.

And the common theme these days, Naren, is I’m getting calls from a lot of people saying, "Should I join Medicaid?" Right? "Should I take lower fee schedule plans to help supplement, or at least help add new patients into the practice?"

And I often think that’s — for most practices, when you look at common mistakes — that’s one of them, right? Where we’re giving away a large percentage of our fees, not collecting them, in an effort to go in-network, in an effort to fill our busy chair time.

But what we fail to realize is we’re paying for that patient to be in that chair, right?

So when you look at common mistakes — if you don’t mind me sort of asking you to expound on that a little bit more — what other common mistakes are you seeing practices making when it comes to scaling new patient numbers?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, I mean, the way I like to think about it is the story that somebody told me, and it really made a vivid impression on me. Like, you know, the middle of the night, somebody’s looking for something, and you just walk up to that person and say, "Oh…" — this older gentleman walked up to that person and said, "What are you looking for?"

"Oh, I was gonna propose to my wife. I had a diamond ring. I lost it."

And he’s like, "Oh man, you know, you probably spent three months’ worth of salary, and I totally feel for you. Let me help you search for it."

And then he’s like, "Where did you drop it?"

And the guy goes, "Oh, I don’t really know. I really think it’s not where I’m searching, but it’s on the other side… but I don’t want to go there because there are snakes there," right?

Naren Arulrajah: So it doesn’t matter why you don’t want to go there. If you don’t search in the right place, if you don’t fix the right problem, you will not get your diamond ring. Like, if I’m searching for the diamond ring not where I need to search, but where it’s easy, I’ll never get the diamond ring.

And we as humans — and this is true for dental practice owners and pretty much every other business owner on the planet — we do the things we are comfortable with.

I mean, I’ll tell you a real story. I have a client who recently discovered 5% of her callers are booking appointments — meaning she’s getting 20 people calling to book appointments, and only 5% are booking appointments.

I don’t want to get into the specifics of what kind of dental practice she runs and stuff, but just at a high level, there’s a lot of issues. People don’t want to pay for the service, maybe it’s overpriced, or there are some nuances of what she does that they’re not comfortable with.

Naren Arulrajah: My point being — and then she’s putting three times the money on Google ads on top of working with us — and I’m like, why are you wasting your money? Like, we need to fix this. Because if you’re spending a thousand bucks, $950 spent on marketing out of the thousand is being wasted, right?

So I really think the number one common mistake — the common theme of that mistake — is solving the wrong problem. So she’s like, "Do more ads." I’m like…

Ben Tuinei: It doesn’t make sense, right? 

Naren Arulrajah: Like, if you can’t convince organic patients to trust you — meaning they’re coming to you organically and they’re seeing you without an ad — how are you gonna get people who see you on an ad to trust you?

Ben Tuinei: Mm-hmm.

Naren Arulrajah: You know, and part of it is like, people are afraid to change, and they don’t want to deal with it. "Oh, I know this front desk person for 20 years, and I don’t think she’s coachable," and stuff.

So instead of dealing with that issue — because that is the issue, that is why you lost the diamond — right? I know the diamond story is pretty obvious, and people are like, "Am I stupid? I would of course go and search where the diamond is," right? But in business, we don’t do that for whatever reason. We do what we have been doing yesterday that never worked.

I mean, I was getting two to five new patients yesterday, and last month, and last year. But unless you figure out why you’re getting two to five patients — what is the root cause, what is the root problem — and you keep solving for the wrong problem, you’ll never get to 10 to 20.

So step one is to know what that real issue is. And sometimes it’s not just one issue — it’s two or three issues — and just working on it, working on it, and getting it sorted.

Ben Tuinei: Right? Yeah. Yeah. And I agree with you.

Naren Arulrajah:  I’ll give you the good news, right? Even a crappy practice with solid SEO can overcome this. So if you are doing two to five because your phone conversion sucks, and your Google reviews suck, and everything else — still, Google SEO can really make it work for you, because it’s a numbers game. Like, if thousands of people are seeing you, and out of those, at least a few dozen people now are coming to you, even if you only convert 30%, you might still end up with, you know, 10 patients or whatever, right?

So Google SEO can — how do I put it? It’s kind of like, you know, I am overweight, and instead of doing what I need to do to lose weight and eat healthy, I just — I don’t know — maybe try to, you know, do something so that I look skinny without really becoming skinny. You know what I mean?

So it doesn’t really solve the problem, but it hides the problem. So SEO can help reduce the pain and suffering, but you’ll get three times the results if you can find out the root cause and solve for the root cause.

Ben Tuinei: Yeah. It reminds me of when I was in high school trying to get my body bigger for college football. Yeah. You know, my number one supplement, Naren, was a weight-loss shake — I can’t remember the name of it — back then…

Naren Arulrajah: SlimFast.

Ben Tuinei: SlimFast! And my mother-in-law bought SlimFast. But you know, I actually drank three SlimFasts a day, and I gained 40 pounds my senior year — of muscle. And people were like, "How did you do that on SlimFast? That’s designed to help you lose weight."

You know, it’s like, well, I bought it for a different reason, right? If I bought it for weight loss, I should have followed that program.

But too many times — I agree with what you’re saying — we want to spend more on marketing, but we fail to look at the mistakes we’re making to convert the amount of phone calls that are already coming in, right?

And so you want to spend more money just so that people will continue to say "no" to you? Or more money for more phone calls to come in that you’re not getting to? You know?

So yeah, you have to evaluate those things to maximize your current dollar spend on marketing before you do more.

You know what, I like that. So I’m thinking, Naren, about successful practices. You know, what do they do to break through the two to five patients per month? ‘Cause they all go through that, right?

Like, how do they break through that plateau and start seeing the 50, 80, 100 new patients a month? How do they do that?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, I mean, I love Stephen Covey. He changed my life. Of course, the late Stephen Covey — I read his book when I was 18. And his habit number one is be proactive, right? In other words, don’t keep doing the same old thing just because it’s easy. Don’t keep doing the same old thing just because everybody else is doing it. Really, really start figuring out where you want to go — which is the second habit: start with the end in mind.

So once you know where you want to go, you start figuring out — by exercising your proactive muscle — what is the problem? Where is the problem? What is step number one? What is step number two? And have the patience and the determination to do that.

Now, everyone listening is a doctor, right? So of course you have it. There’s no way — no way on Earth — you would’ve become a doctor if you didn’t have that clear goal of becoming a doctor.

Naren Arulrajah: If you didn’t proactively do the things you needed to do — the entrance exam, the interview, the college GPA — all the steps, right? If you didn’t do those things well, you wouldn’t be a doctor.

The thing is, I think we get so caught up in the day-to-day of business and life, we kind of forget what made us successful. Like, the things we knew that made us doctors — we just forget about it, right?

So I think the successful people — you asked me a great question: what do successful practices do — they know the 7–10 things that are keys to success.

Right? Under marketing — Google reviews. Am I getting 10 or more reviews? Really simple, right? Yeah, we have 300 excuses why it’s hard and blah blah blah blah blah, but then the successful people find a way.

Naren Arulrajah: Of course, there are techniques and methods that I’ve been teaching to a lot of my clients, and many of them — when they follow it — they crush it. You know, knock it out of the ballpark.

Another one that’s part of the keys to success in marketing is: Are you ranking 400 keywords? Again, you don’t have to do it. Find the right company to partner with. Hold them accountable.

Am I ranking 400 or more keywords?

Am I getting more than 100 phone calls?

Because typically only 20% are new patient calls. So usually if you’re getting 100 or more phone calls, that means at least 20 new patients are calling your office.

What is my conversion? Is it 30%? Is it 40%? You need to know the answer to that. Not what your front desk person is telling you — but what it is really. And then you go ahead and improve on it. You solve for it.

Am I making sense?

Naren Arulrajah: So the people who are successful know what’s important. It’s kind of like when you’re in university — you have, let’s say, seven subjects. You need to get an A on those things, or at least do well on them. You can’t say, “Kind of, sort of, I’ll do well on some and not on the others.” If you don’t, you’re not becoming a dentist.

Ben Tuinei: Yeah, yeah. No, I agree. Yeah, it’s — I mean, dentists are smart, you know, to kind of figure out and understand these concepts.

And I always — it always boggles my mind as to why — not just dentistry — but you look at smart industries where business owners are their own operators, right? And these are highly educated people. But you often see a lot of businesses in general kind of reach a point of stagnation, right? New business is not coming in at a rate that they want it to.

And I often wonder, what role does a good marketing strategy play into helping businesses — especially dental practices, which you and I serve — how does a great marketing strategy play into the whole concept of business where we don’t see those ebbs and flows, right? Where we’re seeing consistent new patient growth over time?

Can you speak to that for a few, Naren, in terms of how or why a good marketing strategy should be put in place to do that successfully?

Naren Arulrajah: Absolutely. So, of course, you need to know where you’re going, right? That “start with the end in mind.” So you need to have some clarity — but it can’t be wishful thinking. If you’re getting two, then don’t say, "I want 200," right? It’s just not gonna happen.

You need to kind of think through:

• Where are you today?
• Where do you want to get to?
• Where would I be happy getting to next year?
• Where would I be happy getting to the year after?

And have a reasonable plan that you believe is doable, right? That’s step number one. And if you’re wrong, you know, listen to your advisors and adjust your plan — because this is where advice comes in. Somebody else who’s been there, done that, can tell you what is reasonable, and what’s possible, and what’s not — and in what timeframe.

Naren Arulrajah: So that’s where you start.

Second is: you have problems that are stopping you, right? The reason you are at two to five is because you have fundamental issues, right? We talked about call reviews. We talked about Google reviews. We talked about not showing up, so people don’t even know you — you’re the best-kept secret. The only thing you can do is ads, and nobody trusts ads.

So, find out the two or three things — usually it’s two or three things — that are really hurting you. Fix them. Once you fix them, all of a sudden — magic. Of course, it’ll take a bit of time for everything to start working.

Remember, buying decisions — and marketing — are psychological. It’s happening in our subconscious mind. When you go and spend $2,000 on a particular healthcare service, you don’t sit with a pen and paper and go through proper research and talk to 17 people and write down the pros and cons of everyone and then make a rational decision.

Naren Arulrajah: It’s a gut decision. It’s a, “Oh, I feel good about this person, and I’m pretty sure they’ll be able to do a good job. Therefore, I’m going to take a chance,” right? That’s the decision they’re making.

So, the marketing plan that helps you zoom in on the two or three things you need to fix — and the marketing plan that’s aligned to your end game — not just “I want to go from two to a hundred,” which is a huge jump — but your intermediate step. Okay, next step: “I want to get to ten.” I think I can get there in X months or whatever.

Then I’m gonna go to the next one. That way you get to re-evaluate, right?

I love that quote from Mike Tyson — he said, “We all have a plan until we get punched in the face.”

Ben Tuinei: My favorite quote ever.

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah! So expect to get punched in the face, right? A lot of times, only after you start doing this, you’ll realize what works, what doesn’t, and what you need to change.

And smart people — when they get punched in the face — they don’t run away. They don’t fall down. They just duck the punch and give another punch back, you know what I mean? Right?

I’m just thinking of Muhammad Ali, right? He was famous for that. He was famous for taking the punches — and ducking, ducking, ducking — and wearing out the opponent, where the opponent just has no energy because he just took away all the energy from them.

So he had a strategy. He had a game plan. And he executed.

Naren Arulrajah: This is fun though. I mean, the good news is: when you were studying to be a dentist, you had to study. You couldn’t let somebody else do the studying for you.

I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Oh yeah, I got somebody to do some of the studying for me,” but 99% of the time, you did all the work.

Now — here, you can delegate. You can have a great marketing partner to help you with this. Of course, vet them. Make sure that you really know them, and make sure you really understand how they’re thinking, and that what they’re saying makes sense.

You can do all kinds of interesting things.

Anyways, I hope I’m giving you some ideas, Ben — and of course, to our listeners.

Ben Tuinei: Yeah, no, no, that’s amazing. In the end, I agree with what you’re saying — it’s about having the right partners. Partners that really understand this concept of marketing so that you’re building a steady business of steady growth, right?

Because in this day and age, it’s either you’re doing very well, or you’re not — or you’re doing very well for a couple of months, and then you’re not.

So how do you make that steady?

Next question I have for you, Naren, is — I’m kind of thinking about what you’re saying, and I guess this is sort of the money question…

What specific marketing tools or systems are out there that can help a practice attract and sustain a higher level of new patient flow?

Like, what strategies are out there that doctors should consider?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, I mean, there’s no button to press to become a dentist. I wish there was, right? Unfortunately, there is not.

Same way, there’s no button to press where patients are standing outside of your practice, wanting to see you and become your patient, right? There’s no button like that. But the word system is not just a button — it’s also a methodology, right?

So one of the systems could be a system to get 10 or more Google reviews. We offer that to our clients as part of our service. You know, it works. 80% of the customers who follow it get outstanding results. They get 10 or more love letter Google reviews. Remember, it’s not just Google reviews — it’s love letter reviews. It shows. Paragraph reviews.

Another system is: how do I become the top 5% when it comes to SEO, right?

Naren Arulrajah: Google makes $400 billion. $250 billion of that came from ads. So if Google Ads were a country, it’s bigger than 150 other countries in terms of GDP. It’s a massive amount of money. So Google has every incentive not to let you rank for a hundred or more keywords — not to let you get the free traffic.

So what they do is, they restrict you. They kind of say, “Okay, 95% of you get peanuts, so you’ll give me money for ads,” right? But the 3% or 5%, I still need — because if those 3% or 5% aren’t ranking for free, nobody will use Google.

Why? Nobody goes to Google to see the ads. They go to Google to see the organic results.

So Google makes it really, really hard. You need a system to consistently rank for a hundred or more keywords on page one, to continue to get 100+ phone calls from organic marketing — out of which, at least 20 will be new patients.

So those are two systems:

1. Google review system
2. SEO system

Naren Arulrajah: The third system is a call conversion system. Again, we help with the SEO system and the call conversion system. So if you need to increase your call conversion rate, get some experts to help you solve that problem.

Ben Tuinei: Yeah, I love that. I love that. You know, I love everything that you’re saying. And to me, you know, I’m thinking about my early years as a business owner. And you know, when you start to discover — or even when you’re paired with a really great marketing genius — what I learned as an early entrepreneur is that as a business owner, you have to adjust your mindset.

You have to adjust what your focus is in a big way — a lot of times — to be able to make sure that you’re in alignment with what you’re trying to do from a growth perspective, right?

So I know that you work with many practices, Naren. What do you think is the biggest mindset shift practice owners need to make when it comes to achieving phenomenal growth?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, so — can you repeat that question again?

Ben Tuinei: Yeah, yeah. So I’m thinking about mindset, right? You’re talking about strategies and things that can be done to help break through the plateau aspect of new patient growth in the practice, right?

So what’s the biggest mindset shift that a practice owner needs to make to achieve that kind of big growth that you’re talking about?

Naren Arulrajah: Yeah, I think that story I shared with you — about look for where you lost the diamond — look where you lost the diamond to find the diamond, right? In other words, solve the right problem you need to solve. Don’t waste your time doing the things that you’re comfortable with.

Like, you know, this example — a client I told you about — she’s converting 5%, but she’s busy. She was thinking of doing three times as much in Google Ads. Of course, once we talked to her and explained it, she changed her mind.

We do things we are comfortable with, even though we know it’s totally a waste of time. And to me, that’s like a dead man walking — or a dead horse.

So really, really find out what the real problem is that’s stopping you from getting where you want to — and fix it.

Naren Arulrajah: And even talking beyond practice management — maybe you have a toxic employee, and she drives all the good ones away. You know what? You need to take a stand. You need to make a tough call.

And we think a lot of these so-called “tough calls” are tough. They’re not. It just feels tough because of fear, right? “Oh, what if? What if? What if?”

99% of the what-ifs are all made up in our head. It’s not real. Just do it.

Plan for the worst case. OK — worst case, she might file this case. Talk to a lawyer first. The lawyer will say, “Yeah, if she files it, you’re already ready.” Have that lawyer help you plan and do this properly.

So if she files it — no big deal. You already know what the worst case is. Maybe you have to pay three months’ worth of salary. And the lawyer has already worked with you to solve for it — so it’s no big deal, right?

Naren Arulrajah: In the grand scheme of things — you suffering with that person for five years, and your business is getting killed those five years, and you’re living like a pauper in those five years — it’s not worth it compared to maybe three months of pay.

Again, you can solve for the worst case.

Right? I mean, regardless of what political spectrum you believe in — President Trump gets sued day in and day out. He used to get sued even before he became president. He just doesn’t let it affect him. He just keeps doing what he wants to do.

Ben Tuinei: You know, just lets it roll off his shoulder.

Naren Arulrajah: Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. That’s the thing, right? You need to kind of understand — and he knows, “Okay, it’s going to cost me money in lawyers. Okay, I have money budgeted for that.” So no big deal. You do what you want to do.

Ben Tuinei: Yeah.

Naren Arulrajah: Anyway, so — I mean, I’m just saying — it doesn’t matter your political spectrum, but I’m just saying there are always things we can learn from different people. And don’t overthink this.

Just look at the worst case. Figure out what the solution is. And just get it done, so you don’t have to worry about it — it doesn’t keep you up at night anymore.

Ben Tuinei: Yeah, no, I agree with that. And we learn from those that have failed. We learn from those that are successful. Right?

So no, I love this, Naren.

You know, as we kind of wrap up today’s episode, there’s so much — so much packed information in this episode, which is really great.

So, if I’m a dentist, and I’m thinking, “Well, what are my next steps? I’m ready for this. I want to grow. We’re in a really slow month or a slow year” — whatever it may be…

What do you recommend in terms of where a doctor can start in building a plan that’s best for them, marketing-wise?

Closing Thoughts

Naren Arulrajah: Exactly. I think, you know, we would love to do what we call a marketing strategy meeting. It’s no cost. We spend six hours before the meeting — we look at you, we look at your competition, we’ll tell you what your obstacles are, all the reasons you are not doing well. We’ll tell you how your competition is doing, and we’ll give you a plan on overcoming those obstacles.

Have that meeting. I think before you can make a change, you need to know where you stand. So this is a great meeting for you to know where you stand — where am I, and what’s stopping me from getting to where I want to get to.

And because it’s a conversation, we know also where you want to get to. And so we can say, “Okay, for you to get to where you want to get to, here is the plan that’s going to work.”

It’s all complimentary — a gift to you. Go to insuranceuntangled.com/msm and just crush it. And I think you will do really, really, really, really well.

Ben Tuinei: Absolutely. And I can be a testimonial to that particular marketing strategy meeting. Everybody I know that does it always walks away with a great sense of appreciation and hope.

And then those that actually execute it — a year or two later — they’re loving life. They’ve kind of broken through that stagnation. Especially that breakthrough on what a lot of people perceive as a “slow economy.”

It’s slow for some, but it’s not slow for everybody. I mean, there are some practices that can’t accept new patients these days. So the question is: how do you get there?

Well — do that marketing strategy meeting.

So Naren, thank you so much for your thoughts today. This has been an amazing episode — so much great information. I just want to take a minute to thank you for your wisdom and your knowledge.

And as we wrap up today’s episode, I want to thank our listeners for joining us today on another amazing episode of the Insurance Untangled Podcast.

Share some love, give us some love, give us some reviews — some feedback — on any podcast platform that you use. That’ll help others who are interested in this type of content find us.

And don’t forget to check out our website: insuranceuntangled.com. We do hold quarterly webinars. We have one coming up here very soon, and every quarter we will have one into the future.

Folks, thank you for joining us again today.

Until we meet next time, we wish all of you the best of success.

Take care now.