In a lot of practices, the marketing is the owner. Your name is on the door, your face is in every video, and the reviews say you by name. Patients are loyal, which is a good thing, right up until a buyer asks a fair question: will they stay if you are not the one they see?
This article is about that marketing risk. It is not a valuation, and it is not legal, tax, or financial advice.
Why buyers discount a practice built around one person
A buyer is trying to purchase a practice that still works after you leave. If every new patient arrives because of you, the buyer is purchasing your relationships, and those relationships can walk out with you.
Duran Advisors describes this as the owner-dependence discount, using Value Builder research. In that write-up, businesses that could run without the owner were valued at about 4.49 times pre-tax profit. Businesses where the owner knew every customer personally were valued at about 2.93 times pre-tax profit. Duran Advisors also says the work of moving off that hub-and-spoke pattern often takes 12 to 36 months.
Read those numbers as research about the businesses in that source. They are not an offer for your practice. They do not say what a dental office, a chiropractic office, or a therapy practice will sell for. A CPA, a valuator, or a broker is who prices a practice. A marketing partner can only work on whether the public face of the practice is one person or a team.
The same idea shows up when you look at who patients mention. If the website, the Google listing, and the reviews all point at you, that is key person risk sitting in public. Marketing for healthcare practices is the ongoing work of making the practice findable. The sale question is whether that findability still makes sense when you step back.
Personal goodwill vs practice goodwill, in plain English
Goodwill is the part of a practice's value that is not the chairs, the computers, or the lease. It is reputation and the reason patients come back.
Personal goodwill is attached to you. Patients book because they want your hands, your judgment, or your name. A referrer sends people to you, not to the practice.
Practice goodwill is attached to the business. Patients know the name, they trust the team, and a new patient can picture the visit without needing you in particular.
Those are plain-language descriptions for owners, not tax categories. How goodwill is allocated in a sale, and what that means for taxes, is a conversation with your CPA and your attorney.
Dental practices have published averages that show why the distinction matters, and also why a single percentage is the wrong thing to hang a plan on. CBIZ, citing the Health Care Group Goodwill Registry Database, says the average goodwill for general dentistry sale transactions is about 52% of annual gross revenue. The same article lists other dental averages: oral and maxillofacial surgery about 44% of annual gross revenue, prosthodontics about 41%, periodontia about 39%, and orthodontia about 50%. CBIZ's point is about transfer: general dentistry goodwill is often easier to hand to a buyer because location and hygiene services carry weight alongside any one dentist's reputation, while many specialty practices lean more on one dentist's name. Orthodontia is called out as more transferable than some other specialties because location matters to those patients.
Those are averages from that database, as CBIZ reported them in July 2024. They are not a prediction, a formula, or a value for your office. CBIZ also says owners should talk with valuation and tax advisors. So should you.
Five signs your marketing depends on you
You do not need a broker to see this. Open your own site and your Google listing and look for these five.
Your name is the brand
The practice is "Dr. Patel's office" in every headline, and there is no other way to say who you are. A name patients love is an asset. It becomes a problem when there is no second way to recognize the practice. Branding and a brand and logo style guide are how a name, a mark, and a voice get written down so someone else can use them.
Reviews name only you
"Dr. Patel is wonderful" is a kind review. Fifty reviews that never mention another person tell a buyer the loyalty is personal. A guide to getting more Google reviews is about asking at the right moment. For a sale, the extra question is who the request names. Ask patients to mention the person who saw them, including associates and staff, when that is who they saw.
You are in every video
If every clip is you explaining the care, the practice has one public voice. A short video of another provider, or of the team describing a first visit, gives a buyer someone else to point to. You can still be in some of them. You just should not be the only face.
Logins live in your inbox
The domain, the ads, the Google Business Profile, and the social pages all reset to your personal email. When you leave, the passwords leave a puzzle. The account inventory in what happens to your practice website when you sell is the practical fix. Egmer's Google Business Profile service is one of those accounts, and it should not depend on a single personal login.
One person writes everything
If every page sounds like you, and only you know how to publish, the content stops when you stop. Staff-bylined pages, or pages in the practice voice with a named reviewer, let the site keep going. Web design for healthcare practices is the build side of that: provider pages, clear services, and a site the team can actually update.
Moving marketing to the team
This is ordinary marketing work, done with the sale in mind. None of it promises a higher price.
Provider pages and schema
Give every provider who will stay after you leave a real page: name, role, what they treat, and a photo with a written description. Structured data on the page tells search tools who works there. A site that lists only the owner tells the public that only the owner works there.
Reviews that name the team
Ask for reviews the way you do now, and include the name of the person who provided the visit when the patient is willing. Respond as the practice. The Google reviews guide covers asking without incentives. Google does not allow discounts in exchange for reviews, and that rule does not relax because you are selling.
Staff-bylined content
A short article with a staff byline, reviewed by you if you want, shows that knowledge lives in the practice. One page a month is enough to start. The point is a second voice, not a content mill.
A brand and logo separate from your name
You may keep your name on the door. Also give the practice a mark and a short description that still make sense if your name moves to "founder" instead of "the only doctor." That is branding work, written down in a style guide the next owner can follow.
Written marketing playbooks
Write the repeating jobs in plain language. Who asks for reviews, who posts the hours change, who checks the Google listing, and where the logins are stored. A playbook is a document a buyer can read. It is not a guarantee they will run it.
A 12-month timeline before you list
Duran Advisors' 12-to-36-month range is a reason to start early. Here is a marketing sequence you can actually do. It is a plan, not a promise that the practice will be worth more on a given day.
Months 1 to 3. Inventory every login. Add a second owner on the Google Business Profile, the domain, and the ad accounts. List the providers who would still be there if you stepped back.
Months 4 to 6. Publish a page for each of those providers. Start review requests that name the person who saw the patient. Put the logo and the words you use into a short style guide.
Months 7 to 9. Let someone else publish. A staff byline, an associate video, a front-desk answer on the site. Fix the pages patients struggle to use. A free accessibility scanner is a limited first look at one page. A high score does not mean the site is fully accessible or compliant. An automated scan or a widget is a good starting point. Fixing the issues at the foundation, in the code, is the gold standard.
Months 10 to 12. Read the site as a buyer would. If your name disappeared from the homepage tomorrow, would a new patient still know who treats them and how to book? Write down what is still only you, and either move it or tell your broker and your CPA that it is still you. Hiding it does not help.
A fuller checklist across practice types is in the practice sale marketing checklist.
When you want a written look at how much of the marketing still sits with you, see Egmer's Sell-Ready Marketing Snapshot.
No legal, tax, or financial advice. No promised rankings, AI recommendations, compliance, or valuation outcomes.