Storytime: I’ll be the first person to tell you how effective ground marketing is at growing your practice. As someone who teaches the strategies and best practices, I’ve seen many of my students and members grow their practices exponentially through ground marketing alone.
But at The Dental Marketer, we believe that keeping things real and honest is part of the learning and growth process. So in this article, I am exposing the one corporation that rejected my ground marketing efforts…
…and how I eventually made it work.
One Corporation that Rejected My Ground Marketing Efforts (and How I Eventually Made it Work)
I know what the biggest question you have on your mind right now…
“What is the corporation that rejected your ground marketing efforts?”
The answer: Walmart.
More specifically, I was attempting to ground market to the Walmart Warehouse in the hopes of reaching and providing value to their employees.
How I Ground Marketed to Walmart’s Warehouse
As with most of my ground marketing efforts, I started with the basics.
I started with my community research before making a phone call to their HR department in the hopes of getting my foot in the door.
Unfortunately, my attempt to provide freebies and value to their employees on the first call did not work. However, I kept persistent and continued to call their HR department over the span of a few weeks.
And this is where I learned the first important lesson in ground marketing: do not give up and keep on trying.
Because throughout all my efforts, I spoke to multiple HR representatives. So it’s important to remember that there are many trials and errors when it comes to ground marketing and speaking to the right person.
For example, I received a harsh “no” from the first HR representative I spoke to. The second HR representative was a little more friendly.
However, the third HR representative I spoke to was so much more helpful, even though I still wasn’t able to get my foot in the door at that time.
How I Eventually Got My Foot in the Door at Walmart’s Warehouse
As you can tell by now, calling the warehouse and asking to speak to the “HR department” did not seem like the most effective method. But it so happened that I came across a booth that Walmart had set up at an event I was attending months later after initially trying to call Walmart’s Warehouse.
So I took that opportunity to speak to the representatives at the booth and that was when all my ground marketing efforts finally paid off.
I found out from the representatives at Walmart’s booth that I wanted to reach someone at Walmart’s “Logistics center”! Best of all, this representative gave me the direct number and name of the exact person I needed to contact in order to set up a booth and ground market to Walmart’s Warehouse employees.
From that point on, everything worked out smoothly and easily. After calling and speaking to the person I was referred to, I managed to get my foot in the door at Walmart’s Warehouse and ground market to over 900 of their warehouse employees!
3 Lessons About Ground Marketing to Learn From My Rejection (and Eventual Success)
I’m happy to share that my story had a happy ending. However, there are 3 very important lessons about ground marketing that you can learn from my rejection and eventual success.
First and most important is one that I already mentioned previously - do not give up and stay persistent.
Just like networking, ground marketing largely depends on speaking to the right people at the right time. This means getting a “no” is not an end-all-be-all. Reframe your mindset and don’t look at a failed attempt as a “failure”. Instead, this is just an indication to keep on trying as you might not have reached the right person.
This brings me to the second lesson - find the right person to speak to.
Sometimes, you speak to the right person on your very first attempt. But more often than not, you’ll need to speak to a few people before you’re pointed in the right direction.
Let’s take a look at the process of ground marketing to a fitness facility, for example. In this post, I share a typical list of titles according to hierarchy. In the case of a fitness facility, you can expect that list to look a little like this:
- Operational manager
- General manager
- Personal trainers
- Group fitness instructors
- Service technicians
- Cleaning crew
Typically, if you’re calling your local fitness facility for the first time, you can expect to speak to a receptionist. It’s not likely that you’ll get the operational manager. However, knowing exactly who you need to speak with is key to getting a “yes”.
In the case of my rejection, I was speaking to HR instead of the direct contact of the person I needed to speak with at the Logistics Center.
It wasn’t until I spoke to the right person that I was able to get the contact information I needed.
If I would’ve given up on the first call and the first “no” from the wrong person… then I would’ve never been able to market to 900 employees (all insured by the way).
With that being said, the third and final lesson to learn from this is to be an active participant in your community.
Ground marketing, at the end of the day, is interacting with and building valuable relationships with your community. This is why ground marketing is such an effective way to grow your dental practice. If you’re interacting with your community and properly demonstrating the value you bring to them, you’ll be able to attract new patients to your practice easily when they are in need of dental services.
Had I not been an active participant in my community, I would not have attended the event in which I encountered the Walmart booth. This means I would not have met the person who eventually gave me the right contact, and I would not have been able to provide value to over 900 Walmart employees.
Finding Success in Your Ground Marketing Efforts
Ground marketing is one of the most effective ways to grow your dental practice exponentially. But as with most things in life that are worth pursuing, it takes patience and persistence.
If your ground marketing efforts are rejected, that isn’t a sign to give up. Instead, stay focused, reevaluate your strategy, and keep on trying.
And if you need some support in the strategy and script department, The Dental Marketer blog and podcast have a long list of resources to help you get your foot in the doors of many of your local businesses and facilities.
If you feel like you need hands on accountability to ensure your ground marketing efforts and success, then I recommend you checkout our ground marketing course.
