Finding a Dental Practice for Sale:
Targeted Mailers

How can targeted mailers help you find a dental practice for sale.

To recap the last few weeks, we have been focusing on how to approach a seller directly. If you remember, 80% of your search should be contacting sellers instead of scanning broker websites.

Instead of reaching out to broker after broker and frequently following up with them but only occasionally scrolling idly through dental offices while listening to a podcast, reverse those. You should idly scroll broker websites and focus on connecting with doctors. There are plenty of ways to fill that 80% pursuing dentists.

So far we’ve talked about how to approach a seller and tips for sending out mass mailers but you still have much to learn, young Padowan. Let me be your Yoda.

Say you are a Texan at heart. Maybe you’ve been wrapping up school or residency in California and you’re ready to put down some roots back home and stretch out a little. Although you can choose to send mailers to practically every dentist living in Texas, there is a second approach.

The targeted mailer method focuses on sending fewer mailers that are much more personalized. This is the most time- and cost-effective strategy to find a good practice.

Last week we used the metaphor of credit card mailers. While effective for 1-2% of their recipients, what if Capital One instead sent your whole neighborhood a box of deluxe candy and a gift card to the movie theater (I know there’s streaming, but you just can’t beat the theater experience). Would you consider it more? Do you think more of your neighbors would take the bait? I don’t see my neighbors throwing a (full) box of chocolate in the trash.

Targeted mailers are a great option if you are more selective about your search area. We’ve seen a lot of success for dentists who use this approach when they know exactly where they want to be for the rest of their career.

Maybe you’re not interested in the whole state of Texas. Maybe you’re just interested in the Waco area. Maybe you’re more interested in a specific part of Waco that’s maybe near a very heavily trafficked, well-known business centered around famous Silos and a bakery. Great for office visibility and your lunch hour…potentially problematic for your waistline.

In the targeted mailer approach, you can start with a small list, be more personable and get a higher response rate. As opposed to mass mailers where we encourage sending to over 100 dentists, when going the targeted mailer route, cap it at 100. I’ve seen success sending as few as 12!

Start by gathering potential names of dentists from publicly available sources and filter the list based on perceived age, location, visibility or other criteria important to you.

Once you’ve gathered potential dentists, filtering for criteria that matters most to you, write each of them a personalized letter. Tell them what drew you to their practice. Note something unique and specific about each doctor.

Since targeted mailers focus on quality over quantity, make sure you are handwriting the address and putting a real stamp on the envelope.

I’ll share another secret, though you won’t be surprised once you hear it…follow up. Are you catching the theme? You should follow up twice after you first reach out but try a different method; call or email them instead of sending another letter.

Since this approach is, by nature, personalized, there are many different ways you can put together your mailer. We had a client who decided to take this route when searching and she blew it out of the water! Next week, I’ll tell you more about her approach and give you tips to really knock the socks off a seller.