Ask a patient why they picked their dentist, and you'll hear the usual answers. Google, the website, was a friend's recommendation. A few days ago, we ran a survey and left a blank box for answers. The most common write-in wasn't any of those. It was chairside manner. The catch? There's no way a patient could have known your chairside manner before their first visit.

That's the thread running through this second conversation with Andy Acton. Most independent practices are trying to out-corporate the corporates. Andy's argument is that it's a losing game. You'll only ever be a poorer version of them. The move is to get exceptional at the things they're structurally bad at.

This conversation about why the introverted clinician is the product, why niching down feels terrifying and works anyway, and why great marketing on top of broken o ...