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During yesterday's marketing workshop with the mentees in Dr Manrina Rhode's mentorship programme, I made reference to promoting one's services through local business to business groups (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) meetings.
Before I go any further, I know that very few people listening to me speak or reading this post will ever get around to doing anything about it. I find that quite sad as from my own personal experience it's a really smart way of marketing and promotion. And it's low cost!
My opinion is based on experience because back in my days as an independent financial advisor one of the productive marketing exercises I took place in was to research local B2B/B2C meetings and societies and contact them to offer my services as a voluntary public speaker at their meetings.
I'm referring here to the early 1990s and back in those days. I had to laboriously work my way through print media trade directories in order to our identify my target market.
A word processed letter was sent "to whom it may concern", with a menu of topics that I could cover and an offer to speak for free.
One timeless fact is that any B2B or B2C group are always looking for good speakers and so I had a steady flow of positive responses that had me standing in front of audiences of various sizes and talking about personal financial planning.
My call to action at the end of any such presentation would be to offer a complimentary initial meeting and, like any other sales funnel, it was simply a numbers game. Audience – initial meeting – financial planning report – client.
Over the years in Dentistry I have promoted a similar approach and a handful of people have taken me up on the idea. This time, contacting those same B2B and B2C groups and offering to speak voluntarily on subjects which primarily revolve around "how to improve your confidence by improving your smile".
A 30 minute slideshow would primarily be made up of real life case studies with the appropriate consents, followed by a brief explanation of the treatment modality on which you were focused and then plenty of time for Q&A.
Audience – complementary first assessment – clinical consult – treatment plan presentation – new patient.
The same numbers game played out on a different landscape.
As a matter of interest, before composing this post, I asked my ChatGPT to give me a list of B2b and B2C Events in Cheshire.
My information was provided in seconds, as opposed to my wading through trade directories and Yellow Pages all of those years ago.
I am happily far too busy to need to do this nowadays but the 15 or so aspiring Dentists in my room yesterday are all building their careers and can pursue exactly this activity within their own postcodes.
In the modern era, it is so much easier to identify that target market, and to use technology not only to reach out to them but also to put together the appropriate slide deck and a simple but sophisticated follow-up process at the end of the presentation. For example, scan this QR code for further the details or to book an initial assessment.
There is a simple beauty in offering your services as a speaker to B2B and B2C groups – the fact that nobody else will be doing it!
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