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This Clearwater firm projected to earn $70M

Veronica Brezina

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Progressive Dental's corporate office in Clearwater, previously occupied by IT provider Vology. Photo by Veronica Brezina.

Bart Knellinger isn’t following suit in the family line of dentistry; however, his knowledge of innovative medical tech and marketing abilities have significantly boosted his family’s business and has led to the formation of a new company. 

Knellinger, a Palm Harbor native, is the founder of Clearwater-based Progressive Dental, which specializes in helping dental clinicians increase acceptance rates for significant procedures through customized marketing campaigns. 

Progressive Dental, which was founded in 2009 and has a staff of 59 employees, earned $11.5 million in revenue in 2020 to over $41 million in 2022, and is now projected to reach $70 million this year. 

Bart Knellinger, founder and CEO of Progressive Dental. Photos provided.

“This company kind of started by accident. My dad bought a surgical laser he invested a lot into and was trying to advertise for it, but didn’t know how and asked me as a favor to look into how it could be advertised,” Knellinger said inside Progressive Dental’s 22,000-square-foot office, which formerly was leased by IT provider Vology. 

“I didn’t know at the time how dental advertising, as a whole, was a disaster. Everybody just advertised new patient specials and cleanings to attract general volume, but there weren’t specific ads for procedures. I learned there wasn’t a strategy to grow outside of the patient volume, making dentists work harder and longer. That was the first strategic change we made – get away from the volume goal and target people who need a lot of dental work and that coincides with the laser,” Knellinger said.

Knellinger explained the marketing focus for his father’s practice shifted to advertising the surgeries the laser, and costly procedures, he could perform.

“Although his volume of patients went down, his revenue and profitability went up,” Knellinger said. 

Knellinger’s self-taught education on the laser caught the attention of the California-based product manufacturer, Millennium Dental Technologies, which hired him as a consultant. 

“Every time I sold a laser, I got a client and that led to the inception of my company,” he said. 

In 2014, Progressive Dental’s rapid expansion earned the firm a spot on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America, and it remained on that list for five consecutive years.

Knellinger attributes a great deal of the firm’s growth to the learning lessons he gained through his humble beginnings, prior to working with his father on advertising.

While many of his family members followed in the same footsteps as his father, Knellinger said he always wanted to become an entrepreneur, although unsure at the time of what that looked like.

At age 19 with $478 in his pocket, he moved to Chicago and took a job selling oil changes and pizza coupons door to door, according to his biography. 

Fast forward 18 months, a friend told Knellinger that Idearc Media was hiring consultants to sell advertising. In landing a job with the Fortune 500 company, Knellinger was able to put his communication skills to the test and thrive at the firm, which also granted him the opportunity to move back to Florida. 

Another major factor he credits to Progressive Dental’s success is The Closing Institute, which is a step-by-step sales and mentorship training process that reels in hundreds of attendees inside the Clearwater office with classroom seating. Knellinger is the keynote speaker at the monthly event that brings in doctors, office managers and treatment coordinators from across the U.S. 

One of Progressive Dental’s courses that draws over 100 attendees.  

“By the time doctors are out of college, their views have been molded. I’ve never had any influence from that perspective. For me, I look at a problem and solve it with all options on the table. It’s interesting because they are in a box and have been taught to think that way rather than outside of it,” Knellinger explained.

“With the course, they are able to think differently. If you look at any other marketing companies, they have someone with a core focus on building websites, and then they graduate to digital marketing, and that’s their profession on the tactical side – they are fixated on that. I never had any core competency in any of that, but I was always obsessed with the goal – grow the practice with as few patients as possible – and I backed into everything else.”

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1 Comment

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    SteveS

    January 17, 2023at9:04 pm

    So dentistry continues to grow more unaffordable. Only the rich are entitled to having teeth.

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