Tuesday

An Open Letter To Dentists Who Want More From Their Vocation, Business, Life, Expertise...

  • Based On An Actual Client Correspondence
Dear Dentists,

I came up with eight general goals/categories to improve and enhance your hourly, daily, monthly, yearly and lifelong success quotient. Each one is derived from issues, concerns, or logjams - you, your spouse, your team and/or I saw and discovered in our recent interviews.

Rather than identify where someone is doing or not doing something, it makes sense at this early stage to take an overall, goal-focused approach. Then as we have the team consults - we can address specific processes and areas of concern as they relate to these goals.

Plus I need time to review the team interviews, and produce a report on them, which will be included in my monthly fees. In a couple of days – we will schedule the first team session as soon as you are available.

By using the ‘goals format’, we can proceed without disrupting dental team cohesiveness. No one is put on the spot to defend their role, responsibilities, and job critique. We will directly address specific concerns - just not in a group session. It will depend on how things go--each team member's participation level, etc.

FORMAT of FIRST CONSULT: The goals we develop, together with some examples of how you/team are already making strides, bringing up some specific areas of concern (without naming names) to show the reality of what was discussed and give everyone an ‘assignment’ so it is not mostly about me talking and talking and all of us meeting and meeting.

1. Family First – Success Is Possible Only When Priorities Can Be Honored*

2. Time Management – Higher Production Requires A Targeted Focus

3. Put Money (Fees, Cost, Etc.) in Its Place – HIDDEN BEHIND Value!

4. Think/Find Solutions – Because blame has few positive attributes; the obvious one is that blame rhymes with lame

5. New Idea Success – Prep Everyone First, Let Simmer, Then Delegate Planning, and Finally, Implement with the knowledge that changes will be needed and a new direction will be taken in (possibly in multiple areas).

6. Total Team Cohesion – Consistency, Documentation and Review (Trust & Verify)

7. Facing Reality/Challenges – Even When Some "Thing" Can't Change - Improvements Are Possible

8. Specific Goals – Achieving A $5,000+ Per Month/Per Employee Improvement How to achieve: Rethinking Old Habits (personal, patient, referral, vendors, etc.), Process/Systems Improvements and More Connected Communication

NOTE: the first goal is not just about the discussions we had about your needing to be home more - but also that your team is very family oriented - and anything that conflicts with their family time - drains them of energy you need to be successful. Basically, if we can't improve the priority - day in and day out reality - of this part of their work experience - the other things we do are probably not going to get the level of results we want either.

Dentists who want to achieve a higher level of success need to go beyond the normal make money at the cost of value concepts. Your dental expertise matters more than the money you can make from it. The patient’s oral health has more value than the money you can glean from them.

Show real concern with a consistent level of effective communication. The more they understand about the value you offer, the more likely they will increase their appreciation for the higher level services you offer.

The consumer is wary of “being sold” so dentists must go the extra mile to reach out to them proactively and strategically rather than merely as another service sold at a discount. Expertise has value; presented in a way that lessens its value only leads to more wariness and distrust.

Consumers are not afraid of large fees or high costs – they are distrustful of any slippage in your resolve to justify the recommendations you present. Trust in what you have to offer by being profitably honest about the potential your dentistry can achieve.

Sincerely, Dick Chwalek

I also did some quick searches for various value focused articles to show how common the idea of presenting value is. Dentists need understand how it applies to their services and expertise. While these articles are not dental focused, they provide a perspective on the 'value' of the value presentation.

2 comments:

  1. The general fact is that the most effective way of utilizing human energy is through an organized rivalry, which by specialization and social control is, at the same time, organized co-operation. Lunenburg Cosmetic Dentist

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love to see this discussion! It’s great to see you all working through the issues and also, it’s great to see recommendations for testing. In the end, it’s what your actual users do and prefer that should be your biggest driver in making these decisions.
    Great article and discussion!
    online marketing

    ReplyDelete