I read this week that over 100,000 new songs are uploaded to streaming music services every single day. Meanwhile, Taylor Swift’s new album set a record for a billion streams in one week on Spotify.

Music is an example of a star industry where, out of hundreds of thousands of hopefuls, only a limited number rise above everyone else, shine brighter and have incredible success. It might seem like fickle fortune or just plain luck to end up as an artist who is famous and popular.

However, the “big 3” record labels (Universal, Sony and Warner) account for almost 70% of worldwide music revenues and most of the top stars in the world are aligned with them. Being signed to one of these labels dramatically increases the chances that an artist will become popular. That’s because the labels have robust systems in place for promoting and publicizing music.

Star dynamics in referrals

In endodontics, there are similar star dynamics at play but on a much smaller scale in your own community. You are one of a handful of aspiring root canal “artists” that the general dentist “public” can make more popular and successful through their referrals.

If you think about your current referral base, you are already a star to probably a dozen or so GPs who refer to you practically every root canal case they identify, and they refer exclusively to you. A sizable chunk of your revenues comes from those dedicated “fans”.

The rest of your referring doctors are less devoted. They refer out less often, and when they do their referrals are often spread out among several endodontists. And then beyond that in your community, there might be a hundred or more other GPs who don’t refer to you at all.

So how do you create more dedicated “fans” who refer frequently and exclusively to you? Just 10 doctors sending 2 more cases per month could add over $250,000 to your bottom line. Is it only fickle fortune to achieve that level of growth and success? No, just like the music industry, the difference is having a marketing system!

Marketing systems

When it comes to referrals, your “record label” is your marketing coordinator. Their job is to make you a star among GPs in your community by systematically publicizing and promoting your practice. How do they do that?

• They visit all current referrers regularly to continue to build and nurture the relationship between your practice and the referring doctor’s practice.
• They annually visit non-referring doctors in your community to share information about you and your practice and create name recognition.
• They employ pop-by gifts and surprises (like those often featured in these newsletters) to create delight and goodwill with GPs and their teams.
• They identify and focus on new GPs in the community and create opportunities for doctor-to-doctor communication and team-to-team cooperation.
• They check and track referral patterns from each GP and selectively identify doctors who need attention in the relationship to build referrals to the next level.
• They act as the front-line visible face and ambassador for your practice at dental community events.

In short, just like a record label, marketing coordinators provide an essential element of growth and practice success: promoting you through visibility and likeability. These efforts, consistently and systematically applied, make an enormous difference in referrals … especially when coordinated with your own efforts to establish great doctor-to-doctor interdisciplinary clinical relationships.