Issue 06 · Opening
Start With One Patient
Close to twenty years in direct mail, a good many of them with dental practices, have left me with one habit. Every growth conversation I have starts with a single figure: what one new patient is worth to the practice.
One patient, counted across every visit they book for as long as they stay with you.
That figure changes how growth looks. A new patient stops being a single appointment and becomes a relationship whose value builds year after year. And once you see a patient that way, you start to see something else. The growth that brings them to you builds the same way.
This issue is about that idea, and about the free calculator that puts your own number on it.
The Idea
What Does It Mean for Growth to Compound Twice?
Two things build on themselves when a practice grows steadily. One happens in the neighbourhood. The other happens in the appointment book.
The first is recognition. When your practice shows up in the same households every month, the calls start with the first mailing. Then they compound month over month, because each drop lands on a neighbourhood that recognises your name a little more than it did the month before.
The second is the relationship. A patient who books this month comes back for their recall, and for the one after that. Their value to the practice grows with every visit and every year they stay.
Recognition compounds month over month. Each patient relationship compounds year over year.
Put the two together and the picture changes. The patients who arrive this month are still adding value when next month's patients arrive, and the month after that. Each month of steady growth stacks on top of the one before it.
The Arithmetic
What Is One Extra New Patient a Month Worth?
Twelve relationships, each one counted across every year it lasts.
We built a free calculator that runs this for you, with no form in front of it. It asks for three figures from your own records: average revenue per visit, visits per year, and the years a patient typically stays. From those it works out what one patient is worth, and what one extra new patient a month for a year adds up to.
On the example figures the page loads with, $220 a visit, two visits a year and seven years, one patient comes to $3,080 over the years they stay, and twelve come to $36,960. Those are placeholders, not benchmarks and not a recommendation. Your own figures are the only ones that describe your practice, and they take about a minute to enter.
What matters is the shape of the answer. A year of steady growth is measured in relationships that keep adding value long after the year ends.
What It Changes
What Changes When You Plan in Patient Relationships?
Three decisions get clearer the moment the figure is on paper.
- How much to invest to win a patient. The first year figure is your guardrail. Whatever you spend to win one new patient should sit well under it, so the decision holds up on the money that arrives soonest.
- How long to stay visible. Recognition builds over months and a relationship builds over years. An always on, monthly presence in the same households is the plan that matches how both of them build.
- Where the next patients live. The figure tells you what a relationship is worth. The households around your practice tell you where the next ones will come from.
Each of those becomes a comparison against a number that belongs to you, instead of a judgement call made in a busy week.
Quick Answers
What Owners Are Asking
- How do you calculate a dental patient's lifetime value? Multiply average revenue per visit by visits per year to get the first year figure, then multiply that by the number of years a patient typically stays with you. The free calculator at smilemailmarketing.ca/tools/patient-value does it on your own figures in about a minute.
- What does it mean that dental practice growth compounds twice? Two things build on themselves. Recognition in the neighbourhood builds month over month when a practice stays in front of the same households, and each patient's value builds year over year as they keep booking. Steady growth stacks both.
- Should a practice use the first year figure or the lifetime figure? Both, for different jobs. The first year figure is the guardrail on what you spend to win one patient. The lifetime figure shows what a steady flow of new patients adds up to over the years they stay.
- Does the patient value calculator ask for an email address? No. The answer appears on the screen as soon as you enter your figures, and nothing is sent anywhere.
Boss's Perspective
Plan in relationships.
The most useful thing a practice owner can know about growth is what one patient is worth to them.
The calculator has no form on it, on purpose. The figure it gives you belongs to you, whether or not we ever speak.
What I care about is what happens once you have it. Growth becomes a long view: steady visibility in the households around you, and patients who stay for years. Both compound. Plan for both, and each month of growth builds on the last.
Run your figure this week. When you are ready, let us look at who lives around you.
If something in this issue is useful, the highest compliment is to apply it this week. If something is wrong, write back.
Boss Antwi
Smile Mail Marketing