Are You Really Ready for Growth?

By: Sarah Beth Herman, CEO of Dentistry Support®

Before you spend another dollar on ads or chase another marketing trend, I want to ask you a hard but necessary question: Is your dental practice actually ready to scale?

Stop Asking, “What Should I Do Next?” Start Asking, “What’s Working Right Now?”

In the dental industry, we’re constantly fed the message that we need to do more. More social posts, more specials, more ad spend, more tech. But growth doesn’t start with “more.” It starts with clarity. One of the biggest mistakes I see offices make is assuming their next phase of growth will be solved by hiring a marketing agency or running a flashy funnel. The real question is — do you even know what’s currently working?

Ask yourself:

• Do I know where my last 10 patients came from?

• Have I tested my own booking link or online form?

• Can my team articulate what makes us different in 30 seconds or less?

If those questions gave you pause, you're in the right place.

Growth Isn’t a Feeling. It’s a Prepared System.

Feeling ready to grow and being ready to grow are two very different things.

Growth without systems is chaos. Growth with systems is sustainability.

Before you invest in anything that increases patient flow, you must take full ownership of the business systems and team alignment that hold it together. That includes:

• Having an organized, consistent intake process

• Making sure your follow-ups actually happen

• Ensuring your messaging online matches your in-office experience

Most importantly — it’s about leading with intention, not desperation.

---

Trust Before Traffic: The Hidden Metric That Matters Most

We hear a lot about new patient numbers, but not nearly enough about trust. Yet trust is what fuels reviews, referrals, and retention — the trifecta of a healthy practice. A marketing agency can get you traffic. But only a well-led, well-run practice keeps those patients coming back. If your practice doesn’t feel trustworthy to you, it won’t feel trustworthy to a patient.

A Harvard study revealed that 95% of buying decisions happen in the subconscious, emotional brain (Zaltman, 2003). In dentistry, this means everything from your tone on the phone to the smell in your waiting room to your payment plan explanation matters.

Ads can’t buy trust. Your systems and your people build it.

Clarity Comes First: What Are You Really Building?

Marketing should be an amplifier, not a cover-up. Too many practices try to mask unclear messaging and poor patient journeys with ads — and that only brings bigger problems faster.

To fix that, we need three core types of clarity:

1. Clarity in Purpose

Why do you want to grow? Is it a revenue goal, an exit plan, or better work-life balance? Know your “why” before you pick your strategy.

2. Clarity in Process

Can you track a new patient from first click to final payment? If not, it’s time to slow down and document every step.

3. Clarity in People

Is your team trained and aligned with your mission? Are they empowered or just executing?

Your business is a reflection of how well you’ve answered these three questions.

You Don’t Need a Bigger Funnel — You Need a Better Foundation

Imagine this: I hand you 100 new patients tomorrow.

• Would your team know exactly how to handle it?

• Would the experience be consistent?

• Would they return? Refer? Reappoint?

If not, marketing is not your next step. Operations is.

Growth before readiness always leads to burnout — for you, your team, and your patients.

Great dental practices don’t grow because of flashy offers. 00000000000000They grow because they’re built to deliver — consistently, clearly, and confidently.

What to Focus on Before You Market

Before you spend on a campaign, ask yourself:

✅ Have I audited my current patient journey?

• Go through your intake form

• Test your contact form

• Mystery call your own office

✅ Is my online message aligned with my patient experience?

• Do your website and social media feel like you?

• Are your core services actually highlighted?

• Can a visitor tell what makes you different?

✅ Is my team equipped?

• Are they confident in phone scripts?

• Do they understand what “success” looks like daily?

• Are they being trained beyond clinical duties?

✅ Do I have a system that captures and nurtures leads?

• Email follow-up sequences

• Text confirmations

• Post-appointment reactivation flows

These may not be the flashiest areas of your business, but they’re the backbone of everything.

---

The Leadership Layer: What Are You Building Toward?

It’s not just about systems. It’s about vision.

Every decision you make — from hiring to service offerings to patient experience — builds the kind of practice you’ll either love to run or feel trapped by.

Ask yourself:

• Is my practice currently scalable?

• Am I making decisions for survival or sustainability?

• What kind of reputation am I building in my community?

And here’s a powerful one:

“Would I proudly work for me?”

💬 What’s Coming Next on No Silver Spoons...

In my next No Silver Spoons podcast episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on what happens when practices jump to marketing too soon. We’ll look at real case studies — from a high-tech implant office to a wellness spa and a sedation specialist — and what we did to rebuild their systems so growth could actually stick.

But before you hear those stories, I want you to think about your own.

If your business doubled this year — would it crumble or would it rise?

🎧 Catch the next episode of No Silver Spoons to find out what happened when others jumped too fast — and how you can avoid it.(Find it wherever you listen to podcasts or at www.sarahbethherman.com)

📞 Need Real Support for Your Dental Office? We’ve Got You.

Whether you’re a practice owner looking to reduce overhead or a dental professional searching for remote work — we specialize in exactly that.

At Dentistry Support®, we provide HIPAA-compliant virtual dental support for offices across the nation. Our team handles what most practices struggle to keep consistent:

• ✅ Remote dental billing and insurance claim processing

• ✅ Dental insurance verification and eligibility

• ✅ Inbound and outbound phone support that sounds like it’s in-house

• ✅ Accounts receivable and aging report cleanup

• ✅ Full front-office support — virtually and professionally trained

Our systems are built for real-time communication, same-day turnaround, and seamless integration with your PMS. We support Dentrix, Open Dental, Eaglesoft, and more.

📌 Searching for remote dental jobs? We hire experienced dental professionals worldwide. If you’re passionate, detail-oriented, and thrive working from home — check out our careers page.

👉 Learn more at www.dentistrysupport.com Or visit our blog for free training for dental offices, digital downloads, and onboarding resources.

Join Our Community: The Dental Collaborative

We created The Dental Collaborative Facebook group for practices that want to grow smarter, not louder. Join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thedentalcollaborative

References:

• Zaltman, G. (2003). How Customers Think: Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market. Harvard Business School Press.

• Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1988). SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12–40.

• Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. Jossey-Bass.

• Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing Management (15th ed.). Pearson.

---

Disclaimer:

To learn more about Sarah Beth Herman, the author of all free training content you can read her bio here. These materials are intended to provide helpful information to dentists and dental team members. They are in no way a substitute for actual professional advice based on your unique facts and circumstances. This content is not intended or offered, nor should it be taken, as legal or other professional advice. You should always consult with your own professional advisors (e.g. attorney, accountant, or insurance carrier). To the extent, Dentistry Support ®has included links to any third-party website (s), Dentistry Support ® intends no endorsement of their content and implies no affiliation with the organizations that provide their content. Further, Dentistry Support ® makes no representations or warranties about the information provided on those sites. You can view our privacy policy and terms and conditions by clicking those pages in the footer of our website.