A dentist picks a lab one case at a time. Every crown, bridge and denture goes out to whichever lab she trusts that week, and the choice changes the day a case comes back wrong. That makes a dental lab easier to win than most B2B suppliers, because you do not need a contract. You need one good case.
So the method is a one-case trial: you do a single case for a practice at no charge, deliver it when you said you would, and make it easy to send the next. The checklist below is the working version. It is written for a lab selling to local practices, not for dentists looking for a lab.
The one-case trial checklist
- List every general dental practice within your delivery or pickup range, noting solo owner-dentists versus group-owned offices.
- For each solo practice, record the owner-dentist's name and the office manager's name.
- Decide the exact case you will do free: one crown or one single-unit restoration, standard material, with a stated turnaround.
- Set a cap: 12 free cases a month, so the offer is real and your bench is not buried.
- Write a note that offers the case, names the turnaround and names the pickup.
- Ask the office manager how cases are sent, because she controls the shipping and the Rx slips.
- Return the case on the day you promised and include a note with the lab tech's name who made it.
- Call or write two days after delivery to ask how it seated, and what you'd change.
Group-owned offices are a different list
Corporate-owned and dental-support-organization offices often buy through a central contract, so a free case at the office level goes nowhere. Put them on a separate list and aim at a regional manager later. The solo owner-dentist is your starting point, because the person who prepares the tooth is also the person who decides where it goes. In a solo practice, the office manager handles supplies, shipping and the lab bill, and often has a strong opinion about who is easy to deal with. Write to both.
Why one free case instead of a price list
A price list invites a comparison against the lab the dentist already uses, and you will lose on price to a large lab with scale or on familiarity to the rep who has been visiting for ten years. A free case changes the question to fit and turnaround on a real patient, which is what the dentist cares about. It also moves the decision to a moment when something has gone wrong with the current lab: a remake, a late case, a price increase letter. Practices that are happy with their lab won't try yours. The ones that are not will say yes on the first email.
A remake-rate talking point that makes no quality claims
Remakes are the pain point, and you can't promise perfect fit. Don't try. Instead, offer a policy and a number you can prove. Something like: "Last quarter we made 640 units and remade 21. If a case needs a remake, we turn it around in 48 hours and don't charge for it." Those numbers are made up for the example. Use only your own real count, and show it, not a percentage buried in a brochure. A dentist's cost of a remake is mostly her time. If the chair hour produces, say, $400 and a remake takes a second 45-minute appointment, that is about $300 of lost production plus an unhappy patient, whatever the lab credits her for the crown. You do not need to say that out loud. Printing it on a one-page sheet lets the dentist do the math herself.
The note to an owner-dentist
Subject: One crown on us, back in 5 days
Dr. Whitfield, I'm Soledad Vega at Cedar Point Dental Studio, a lab about 15 minutes from your office. I'd like to make one single-unit crown for you at no charge, back at your office in 5 working days with our pickup. It lets you compare fit and turnaround on a real case. Our remake count last quarter was 21 out of 640 units, and any remake is 48 hours and no charge. If you want to try it, reply with a good day for pickup, or I can talk to your office manager about how you send cases.
Cedar Point Dental Studio, 66 Orchard Way
Include your address and an opt-out, as CAN-SPAM requires. Don't put patient information in any email. The case details travel on the Rx slip.
What to watch during the case
Give the case to your best technician and ask for a second look at the margin and the contacts before it ships. Track the date it arrived, the date it went out, and whether the dentist adjusted it. Send it with a note that names the technician. Dentists remember names, and a lab that feels like people is harder to leave. If the case needs an adjustment at seating, ask for the details without defending the work. What the dentist tells you is the most useful sales information you will get.
After the first case, and after the tenth
Two days after delivery, ask how it seated. If it went well, ask for the next case and make it simple: "Send the next one with the same Rx form, and I'll have a courier at your door Tuesday." If it didn't, fix it fast and ask once more. A rep visit every few weeks keeps the relationship up. Our guide on following up after a meeting helps with the wording. For an office manager contact, the piece on finding office managers is a useful companion, and how dental practices get patients shows what your customer is worried about from her side. Missed calls at the front desk are part of that, covered in this look at dental front desk calls.
Lab owners are usually at the bench, not at the keyboard. Rocketship can build the practice list by name, send the one-case offer from your own Gmail and follow up, so a day at the bench is not a day without outreach. See how the AI workers do it. A neighboring checklist, how to get safety consulting clients, is also trigger-based, if you want to compare approaches.
Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required.