Episode #395: Brand Over Benefits: From Covered to Chosen with Lex Orzalli

Lester De Alwis: Welcome to the Less Insurance Dependent podcast. I’m your host, Leslie Ali. This podcast is dedicated to helping dental professionals build stronger, more profitable practices with less reliance on insurance. Today I’m thrilled to welcome Lex Ali — Director of Marketing at Vision Dental Partners, a doctor-owned dental group known for turning dentists into local legends in their communities. What’s interesting about Lex is she came up through operations before marketing. So she sees a brand as patient experience and trust and not just billboards. In today’s episode, we’ve titled it as In-Network to In-Demand: Building a Brand Patients Choose. We’ll explore how the "do you take my insurance?" question gets baked into the patient journey, how brand and experience can outweigh being in-network, and what brand readiness looks like for a practice preparing to lean less on PPOs. Lex, welcome to the show. We’re so glad to have you here.

Lex Orzalli: Thank you so much. I’m excited to be here.

Lester De Alwis: From the beginning, you didn’t start in marketing, right? You came through operations at Real Life Dental before leading marketing at VDP. How has seeing a practice from the inside out shape the way you think about brand, patient experience, and insurance?

Lex Orzalli: Yep. So it’s a little unconventional how I came into marketing. I kind of just fell into it, like I fell into dentistry. No agency experience, but my superpower is that I’ve seen the patient experience from start to finish. I know what it should be like when a patient comes in and I know what a good experience is and I know what a bad experience is. So having that knowledge has helped me to shape my marketing campaigns around what patients actually want. I see marketing as making a promise, and I see the patient experience as the team keeping that promise. When those two things are not aligned, it’s absolute chaos. So if marketing is running a campaign and the team has no idea about it, it’s gonna be really icky for the patient on the phone when they make that first phone call.

Lex Orzalli: Just knowing what the experience in the office is has helped me to create better marketing campaigns. And something I think is interesting that marketing doesn’t always do — a lot of marketing is about promotions, not the actual brand of the practice. The brand of the practice is keeping up the promise I mentioned. It’s how the patient feels when they walk into the office. And that’s what I prefer to market over promotions and services. Not all patients care about a whitening promotion or an Invisalign promotion. Sure, some do. But really they wanna know: is the doctor a good human and are they great at dentistry? That is what people want to know. And so that’s what I focus my marketing on — the people, not the procedures.

Lester De Alwis: The first thing many patients ask is "Do you take my insurance?" — a very common question. How did the industry train patients to lead with that, and what does it cost a practice trying to grow on its own terms?

Lex Orzalli: So the industry training patients to think about insurance first — it’s kind of turned us into this gas station model. Like you are trying to go to the place that’s closest and cheapest. And patients aren’t always just interested in those things. There are certain patients who are just interested in that. But there are patients who actually care about the person that they’re gonna be seeing. And I think the biggest challenge we have not overcome is the training on the phones when it comes to that question. Most front teams who are asked that question are gonna dive into the intricacies of that specific individual’s insurance. And the phone is not the place to be having that conversation.

Lex Orzalli: So we train all of our teams — I have done this throughout my whole career — to answer the insurance question as quickly and efficiently as you can, and then move on to scheduling. Keep control of the conversation and move to scheduling. So instead of saying, "oh, we are or are not in network," just say: "Yeah, we work with most insurances. We’re gonna do a complimentary benefits check for you and let you know anything before your appointment. Let’s go ahead and get you scheduled. Would you prefer a morning or an afternoon?" Just moving into scheduling and not getting stuck on insurance is where offices often have a hard time growing. If you are not training your front teams on correct verbiage when it comes to insurance conversations, then they are blocking your growth. That is the very first patient interaction — and if you can’t get new patients scheduled, it’s gonna be really hard for you to grow as a business.

Lester De Alwis: At VDP, you turn dentists into local legends. What does that look like on the ground, and how does that brand and patient experience start to outweigh being in-network?

Lex Orzalli: Yep. So most dentists see their brand as the colors on the website, their logo, what their Instagram feed looks like. But what I see as brand is the personality of the dentist and the team around them. That is the office brand. When we have a doctor and we’re trying to make them into a local legend, I am literally going and reviewing this provider and the team and pulling out: these are the 10 things that make this team really special. And then that’s what I’m gonna market. I’m marketing people, not procedures.

Lex Orzalli: And this takes a really dedicated doctor — which is why I love working with our doctors — because not every doctor wants to get on camera, and that’s okay. We find ways to make it work. But ours absolutely do. They are willing and able to get out into the community. Because you can’t be a local legend if you hide behind your mask. You have to get out there. Community events are a big one for us. Getting on all the socials — that’s a big one. And creating a category-of-one experience. Understanding and amplifying what sets us apart from the other providers in the area. Because anyone can do a filling, anyone can do a crown. All the dentists in the area can do the procedures just like we can. But it’s finding those couple of things that make us really special — and then scaling that across our 12 locations.

Lex Orzalli: Yes. And then it becomes less about insurance and more about: my friend told me you’re amazing. I wanna come see you because of this. So then you have a referral-based business. You’re spending less on marketing, getting more new patients, and those referred patients are amazing patients. So the more we can build the brand of our doctors, the better new patients we’re getting.

Lester De Alwis: Yeah. And I think they become lifelong patients.

Lex Orzalli: Exactly. Yes. They want to find a dental home. I totally believe that patients want to find a dental home. They don’t wanna be changing provider to provider. And I’ve gone through some transitions where we go out of network with an insurance, or a patient’s insurance changes — and our patients have stuck with us through those transitions. One: good communication. You have to have good communication about what it’s going to look like when you’re out of network with their insurance. But two: because we’ve built such strong relationships, it’s not just the doctors building strong relationships. It is every single team member. From the front desk, assistant, hygienist, dentist — everybody is 100% committed to: how can we connect with this person? There’s nothing worse than going into a dental office and feeling like a number. And that is what insurance can sometimes do. Even in practices where we did take Medicaid, relationship came first — regardless of the patient’s insurance.

Lester De Alwis: Most practices split marketing and patient experience into separate departments. Why is that costly, and what does brand readiness look like before a practice drops a PPO?

Lex Orzalli: So I think it’s really silly to not have marketing very involved in the patient experience. Because marketing is the one out there with a megaphone — like, "come see my dentist, this is why they’re amazing!" And then if they have no idea what the patient experience is actually like and they have no influence on that patient experience, they’re just out there lying. You want to be telling the truth — 100% across the board — in your marketing, in your patient experience. You want those to be intertwined.

Lex Orzalli: And so most offices go with an agency. Some are really amazing — there are some amazing dental marketing agencies out there. But a lot of them don’t have that experience in the office. They’re worried about click-to-call-to-lead. I’m worried about click, call, lead conversion, how the patient was greeted, how the patient is taken through our office — everything from start to finish until that patient leaves their first appointment. That is my baby, and I’m responsible for all of it. That is a smarter way to run your marketing. Because then you know the promises you’re making are being fulfilled in the office. You actually have eyes on that.

Lex Orzalli: For brand readiness before dropping a PPO — I mean, I’ve been through it. And what really helped us was we called every single patient on that insurance and explained what it would look like for them. And what I heard over and over was: "Okay, I’m still gonna come see the doctor. I love him. I would never go anywhere else." Why were we able to do that? Because he had spent the last 10 years being an incredible part of the community. He had been on social media, went to all the events, had kids in the area. He had done the work to make himself a local legend. So when we went out of network, patients were like: "All right, I might have to pay 20 bucks extra. I don’t care. I would never go see anyone else."

Lester De Alwis: For a dentist who knows branding is their missing piece — what’s the first move they should make this week?

Lex Orzalli: The very, very first thing — and I love what Ekwa Marketing is doing, I think that is a great first step — an audit of what you look like to a new patient is incredibly important. And I would go one step further and audit your patient experience. I would watch my team answer the phone for a new patient. I would watch my team welcome a new patient. I would watch my team get to know a new patient. Because as much as the digital side is so important, the feeling that the patient feels while they’re in the practice — that is the brand. It’s not your logo, it’s not your color palette. The feeling is the brand. And marketing is just the outward expression of that feeling.

Lex Orzalli: So I would audit your patient experience and ask: is this what I want my brand to feel like? And if it is, I would start marketing that way. And if it’s not, I would fix that first. Literally call your office as a new patient — star-67 it. Call your office and see how they handle a new patient. Is that up to your standard? All of these little touch points for a new patient are incredibly important when it comes to your brand.

Lester De Alwis: Most practice owners have no idea where their brand stands right now, or what patients see when they search for them. That’s the gap. And honestly, that’s the whole point of the practice audit — the Marketing Strategy Meeting that Ekwa Marketing, who is sponsoring this episode, is offering for listeners of the Less Insurance Dependence podcast. They look at your online presence and show you where the real opportunities are before you make any big moves on insurance. If you’re looking to have a practice audit and understand where your online visibility stands, you can visit lessinsurancedependence.com/msm and grab that opportunity.

Lester De Alwis: Lex, if anyone listening wants to understand what you’ve been doing with VDP or your experience with marketing and getting better at branding — what is the best way to reach out to you?

Lex Orzalli: I would say the best way to reach me is through my Instagram: lex.vdp.marketing — DM me on Instagram and I’m happy to chat anytime.

Lester De Alwis: So the takeaway here is one of the most practical reframes we’ve had on the show: when you build a brand and patient experience strong enough that patients choose you — not your network — the insurance question stops being the gatekeeper. If you’re ready to take action and schedule a complimentary practice audit, you can do that at lessinsurancedependence.com/msm. And if you’re looking for help or mentorship with your practice on the business side of dentistry, you can book a complimentary Coaching Strategy Meeting with Gary at lessinsurancedependence.com/csm. Remember: being in demand is a position you build, not one you apply for. Every story you tell, every experience you sharpen, and every piece of content you put into your community is one more reason a patient chooses you over a list on the back of an insurance card. Build a brand. Build a legend. The independence follows. Thank you for listening to the Less Insurance Dependence Podcast. I’m Lester De Alwis, and I look forward to seeing you on the next episode.