As practice owners, we often want a quick and easy fix. We just want to send a few postcards, get a new implant kit, buy CAD/CAM technology, get Invisalign certified, etc. to make our practices better. All of these good things in the right situation, but alone, they are NOT strategies to grow your practice. They are tools to be used with the right growth strategy.
I’ve learned the hard way, but now I follow the easier way. I’ve learned that you must be improving multiple areas at the same time to really make things work quickly, efficiently, and profitably. If you tell a few of your patients that you are now offering implants, I promise droves of people won’t’ come running to your office. Dental treatment just isn’t that exciting to most people. But I can promise that if you send out a consistent message, month after month, being persistent but not pushy, then you will gain some great new referrals and great complex and restorative cases over and over again throughout your time as a practice owner. A one time boost just won’t pay the bills in today’s environment. Your systems need to be repeatable. This is the practice environment we are living in today.
I’ll be candid, if you aren’t willing to do these things, you must accept mediocrity, and the increasing costs of doing business with more downward pressure from outside forces. An uphill battle. Of course, no one is forcing you to do these things, but my job is to tell you what has worked for me and what hasn’t to benefit your future. If I’m not straight with you, then this book is nothing more than just a “quick read.” Instead, I want you to prosper from it both financially and in your relationships with your team and community.
None of this is your fault or a result of your decisions. This is how we are programmed. This is how we were taught in dental school. But it’s time to change from the old school to the new school.
If you change the experience in your practice to a place people want to go to, rather than have to go to, then you can create a very valuable asset to you, your team, and your community. You can grow and thrive better than ever by putting together your RMAP – Relationship Marketing Action Plan, and then executing it on a monthly basis.
Classic author Napoleon Hill, who wrote as an advisor to President Roosevelt, studied billionaires, and wrote Think and Grow Rich, among other great titles, once stated:
“Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with
it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”
Implement one small but powerful thing each month for the next year, and all of a sudden, you’ll have 12 new things working for you, to boost your practice. Do 3 new things per month for a year, and you’ll end up with 36 new and profitable changes working to your advantage, while simultaneously providing an enhanced experience for your patients and team members.
Only you have the power to put your practice on track to reach your life goals and help your team reach theirs. Regardless of your situation, there’s no time like the present to make this happen. In my upcoming book, The Owner’s Guide to a Productive Dental Practice: 7 Pillars Every Dentist Needs to Grow in the New Economy (coming soon to Amazon.com and Kindle), I share proven strategies based on over a decade of the real-world practice ownership experience. I invite you to use it as a reference over and over again as you implement or restore new and better systems in your practices.
Psychologists have taught us that we only retain about 50% of what we learn for 48 hours. This is why I dog-ear, highlight, and mark up the best books I own to reread them and use them as a textbook for success.
After a couple weeks, you will have forgotten almost everything you’ve learned on this blog, at seminars, and in books, unless you reread or refresh yourself on the information or notes. Life gets busy and it’s easy to find excuses. You may not even remember reading this blog in a month or two.
Like the old saying goes, it can go “in one ear and out the other.” Essentially, you have three options:
One, go on your own with this information and do the best with what you have in your toolbelt right now. Use these principles and strategies to make the best of your practice and maintain the good things you already have working for you.
Two, make a few small changes with the help of your practice team members. Meet regularly and break each one down by week. After a while, you’ll be able to look back and notice some significant improvements in the experience, profitability, and culture in your practice.
Three, put my team to work for you, which means you can give my office a call or contact us online for a complimentary 30-minute growth consultation and a free copy of my new book, to see if you are a candidate for the practice growth options we offer today.
I wish you well in your endeavors. I really enjoyed putting this blog post together with practice owners, like you, in mind. I’d love your feedback on how the blog has helped you (good or bad).
Don’t miss episode 2 of The Practice X-Factor. He’ll learn how to save on dental supplies, a very timely topic in a time of economic turmoil.
