Success Stories

Kevyn DeMartino
Managing Director
Transition Capital Partners

“The ultimate catalyst for writing Bullet Points came out of an incident with my dentist brother – a low-end, high-volume clinic had unexpectedly opened up across the street from his office and he was in a full blown panic. In an effort to calm him down and help deal with the situation, knowing that he had an in depth knowledge of military tactics, I sketched out a plan using the familiar military framework, a shared interest we had both had growing up.

Looking back, the results were pretty astounding - as I put his situation into military terms, his emotions went away and his logic took over. We spoke of the clinic as his “enemy”. And given that, we needed to learn EXACTLY what their strategy was (chapter 29 – Know Where the Enemy Is (Or Where It’s Going) and You Win the Fight). Of how we all knew his business was going to take a hit and that we might as well just get used to the fact (chapter 34 – Taking Hostile Fire - “Incoming”). Of how it made logical sense to team up in a marketing fashion with other competing dentists in the area to promote the quality of their work vis-à-vis the cookie cutter dentistry of the clinic (chapter 25 – Your Enemy’s Enemy Is Your Friend).

The long and short of it is that I believe in the power of analogy. Give people something they inherently understand and they will fall back on it unemotionally to solve their current problem. As for my brother, he cut their supply lines (by getting an exclusive, much sought after distribution agreement with a major lab), spread propaganda (telling the market none of their dentists were Board certified) and gave his employees the best “weapons” that money could buy (or in this case digital equipment).

The Bullet Points correlation allowed him to take a step back, consider where he was vulnerable and where he was superior. Like all analogies, it provided a framework from which he could build his thought process around. In a clear, concise, detached manner. Fear went out the window, taking with it the competitive threat of the clinic. My book got written and his business thrived.”