Picture this.

A retired dentist in his 70s likes to go to Florida in a large motor home.

When he arrives, the first thing he does is find the name and addresses of all the local dentists. Then, he sits down and writes a letter to each of them.

The letter says something like this:

“Here’s the deal. I am going to be in town for three weeks. Let me look at your patient files and I will conduct a marketing campaign to all your patients who haven’t been to see you in two years or more. I will pay for everything. You don’t do anything. And we can split the first-visit revenue.”

And guess what?

By doing this, he generates himself a tidy $250,000 a year…

… from just four campaigns.

That means each dental practice makes, on average, an extra $125,000 in revenue from the reactivated patients. And that’s just from the first visits.

This is a real story I heard Dan Kennedy share at an AWAI event.

And there’s a marketing lesson in there.

Now, why was the dentist turned marketer so successful?

Because the practices had enormous stored value in their patient files, and they were doing a poor job of extracting it. Left to their own devices, they would send inactive patients a postcard with a big tooth on to tell them to come in for a checkup. If that didn’t work, they gave the list of patients to their reception staff and asked them to follow up. Which, of course, they didn’t.

All the marketer did was create a five-step campaign to reactivate these patients. And, I’m guessing he could take 90% of his platform and replicate it with other dentists.

So, where are you storing, or where are your clients storing, their untapped value?