Be Wary of the Bean Counters…

There’s always been a riff between the bean counters and the marketers in business.

Marketing and sales bring in the money and the bean counters count it.

Without money coming in (sales), there’re no beans to count.

Without accurate information from the bean counters, there’s no information on whether the business is profitable or not, ergo, there’s no way to gauge if marketing is doing its job. Right?

However…the problem often stems from not accurately gauging where exactly, money should be invested.

Take this recent email from a Member (former) of mine, and, my reply. It’s instructive to my point. Please don’t misconstrue this as me not “liking” the guy; he’s actually very cool and someone I’d enjoy hanging out with – so this is absolutely not personal:

Jerry,

I wanted to wait until I met with my accountant before I got back to you.  He has gone through the practice numbers and states that the current situation is not sustainable.

I know money must be spent on advertising to grow, but he points out that the monthly consulting fee to ClearPath needs to be re-directed to actual advertisements.

…thanks and maybe in the future…

Here’s my reply:

Thanks for your email – I understand your position, but respectfully disagree with the bean counter’s rather short-sided advice since I could make the same argument for a CPA since Quickbooks would quickly make him/her irrelevant and the only time I use one is at tax time – even with an almost dozen different companies to manage just for me, my $15/hour bookkeeper does the trick – especially since CPAs are an expense and not a service that will inspire, provide ideas, ads, and more. So there’s no opportunity for an ongoing, forever, potentially unlimited ROI.

Also…your front office gal chased off a potential Invisalign consult because the gal said she wanted traditional ortho rather than asking her to come in and just talk to you — at no charge. Because, we all know that many times, patients have no clue what they need or why.

Another call – Spanish, which no one spoke. Another call (called 2x) said your mailbox was full so person didn’t leave msg.

Just one of those Invisalign starts would have covered all your expenses and then some.

See the difference? See the issues are more far reaching than the doc realizes. There’s the phone problem. There’s a mindset problem. There’s “be careful who’s advice you buy into,” problem. And, the doc glosses over the fact that any ad copywriter and designer worth their salt that gets dental direct response advertising won’t work for a fraction of what ClearPath Society Membership dues are. Ugh…

Nor is the doc’s closing rate on “sales” considered. Maybe he needs help there?

And yes, I AM right. Without a constant flow of new patients, the CPA is out of a job. So’s the dentist. Who would YOU pick? Leave your thoughts below.