What are you planning for 2012?

Will the decisions, choices and actions that you make today, shape your success in 2012? When you think about it, everything that you have done so far in your career and personal life, has brought you to this moment and if you want to make any changes in 2012, then what you are doing in this moment will have an impact on your future.

 

Now is a great time to create a new habit that will bring you what you want in 2012 and it starts not by asking “whats in it for me?” but rather “how may I serve?”. How and why you chose dentistry as a profession is unique to you and you will have unique gifts and talents that will flow effortlessly from you if you choose to let them. You have abundant energy to do the things that you love so make that your intention – help, heal and serve others as best as you can. Do what you love and love what you do! 

 

Wherever I take this principal in my own life and to that of my clients, I see transformations take place that produce improved business results. Some might prefer to put “whats in it for me” first and see this as business leadership for the brave, but is it really that brave to just trust in yourself and allow your unique gifts and talents to effortlessly connect you with your customers, patients and your dental team? 

 

The Insiders Club programme begins in March and there are some places left for dentists that want to make 2012 their most successful yet. We will begin with creating your own unique business leadership and marketing message that will allow you to;

 

• Attract more of the patients that you need and avoid gaps in your patient book.
• Avoid losing patients to either cheaper or larger competitors.
• Increase patient retention with the reassurance of having an abundance of happy patient referrals.
• Reduce the frustration of trying to run a dental business and care for patients at the same time.

You can book your place now by following this link. If you would like to know more about the full training schedule for 2012 then please email me. info@kevinrose.co.uk

 

Dental business leadership in action

An inspirational leadership article reproduced  from Dentistry Scotland, September 2011 – Read more here

Janet Clarke is a member of The Insiders Club – a group of forward thinking dental business leaders.

Find out how you can join – Here

 

What can we do about people that hate going to the dentist?

Well thats the festive period over and once again and the inevitable question gets asked from from friends and family “what are you doing these days?”. Surprise surprise another round of witnessing negative associations with the words “dentist” and “dentistry”! So, as soon as I was back at my desk again for the first time in a few weeks, I felt obliged to ponder the big question…why do some people hate going to the dentist and what can be done about it? This is one of the big challenges that we deal with at The Insiders Club and a new 2012 programme is opening this week.

There are years worth of of prejudices, misinformation, stereotypes, jokes, jibes and ill-mannered comments that undermine a profession that generally seeks only to serve others. There is therefore no single methodology or solution to any of this. Certainly there are ways of overcoming anxiety such as linguistic patterns, hypnosis and sedation but this is really only scratching at the surface and we do have to remember that it can hurt!

The far bigger issue is that there exists an antipathy towards the profession and if we are to follow the lead of James Goolnik and the Heart Your Smile Campaign then the profession has to take some responsibility for this as do any external advisors such as myself.

However, whilst I am not going to attempt to fix all of this in a few short paragraphs, there is a comparison that highlights what can happen when an industry lets its reputation and governance get out of control and surprisingly enough it comes from the banking sector.

The general negativity towards banks and bankers that we have seen over the past few years did of course come to a head once the wholesale divisions of trusted high street names, started gambling with our money (or rather when the gambles didn’t pay) but if we trace back further it is clear that once banks started offering their services for free then the public no longer attached value to the service provided. Not so long ago, to be a bank manager was a role of status (it was even the person that you got to sign your passport photo) but all of that changed when the banks decided to give away their headline product for free and then try and sell the bejesus out of everything else they could get their hands on in order to balance the books.

Perhaps harking back to the “good old days” now we find that the headline product (the current account) is available for a fee once more and the price premium is justified by the additional services that are bolted on (sometimes including being able to speak to somebody who might turn out to be a bit like a bank manager!). This mean that the banks have been back peddling for the last 30 years and banking as an industry is the butt of comparable jokes, jibes and prejudices to dentistry.

Dentistry therefore has its work cut out, just like our beloved bank managers of old who used to sign the passport photos and had the respect of the community. The twist of course is that for a large amount of the population, dentistry was once a free service which has now become “expensive” – well of course it has, it was once free and if it was once free, then there was little value attached to it. Wind the clock forward 15 years and the solution for many is to supply private dentistry at an increasing premium which ironically widens the gap even more but surely can be justified by comfy chairs, quality bathroom fittings, flat screen TV’s and regular newsletters..except on certain days of the week for certain products of course when prices are reduced…confused?

I will caveat this by saying that I have plenty of clients that do some or all of the above; it has its place but it is not the solution.

Clearly the solution is not coming from everything that has been done so far, after all around a quarter of the population don’t even go to the dentist, according to various statistics. The solution therefore will have to come from a different way of thinking. This will involve a reconnection with the common ground between dentist and patient in the same way that the banking industry is jumping on community projects and good causes to bridge a similar gap. Such projects are the PR equivalent of linking hands and singing at 12pm on New Years Eve, a safe bet where friends and strangers are connected for a brief moment.

There is also another angle to this. Whenever I meet with dentists for the first time and I ask them what they want or what they are looking for, invariably they will tell me what they don’t want. This is understandable given that you have perhaps been trained and conditioned to protect yourself from the threat of legislative and administrative bodies. Therefore when I ask the question “what do you want” a typical but not exhaustive list of responses will include;

• Less gaps in my book
• Not to loose patients to cheaper or larger competitors
• To avoid wasting money on marketing that doesn’t work
• A team that doesn’t argue and squabble about ordering stock

You can probably think of more but the point is that by focussing on what you don’t want rather than what you actually want, is it conceivable that all you are doing is attracting more of what you were trying to avoid in the first place? At one level this could of course be just coincidence or at a far deeper level some say that the universal law of attraction is at work. Well that’s probably a debate for another day, but either way most people who appear to be consistently successful in their careers, sporting activities or lives in general will tell you that they have systems, structure and process to create what they want as well as a state of mind that mirrors the same.

When I mentor dental business leaders, one of the things that I ask them to do is reframe the list of things that they don’t want into statements of intent that focus on what they want. For example, “I want less gaps in my book” becomes “I am attracting the patients that I want into my dental business”. Try it, read both statements out loud and notice how you feel with each of them, then go through the same exercise by making a list of your main business challenges and reframing them. As bizarre as it may sound, I have seen this exercise begin a phase of transformational change on numerous occasions with the dental businesses that I work with.

All of this brings us back to the original question “why do some people hate going to the dentist and what can we do about it?”. If we apply the idea of focussing on what we want, then we can start by changing the question into “what do people get from coming to the dentist?” as this will illicit a different state of mind. However you answer this question will be personal to you and your dental business but it is possible that some of the answers, particular the most simple and straight forward ones will be common amongst those that both do and don’t engage with your dental business. After all, a fear of going to the dentist is a learned behaviour created by an exposure to certain messages that in turn have created an irrational belief. Therefore it makes no sense to try and change that belief with anything other than the messages that somebody that does go to the dentist must have accepted as true.  For example, “visiting the dentist might improve the health of my teeth and gums” could be accepted as true by anybody.

As simple as it may sound, it is in communicating these messages that identify the common ground, values and beliefs we all share, that transformation can take place. Comfortable chairs and flats screen TV’s are very welcome but its values and beliefs that shape patient behaviour!

*There are just 10 places available in The Insiders Club for 2012 – find out how if it will help you deal with the issues that you need to address in your dental business by following this link*

 

Is the path to effortless success also the cause?

Earlier this month, David Watson and Karen Sutton of Beacon Dental Care were awarded the title of Best Dental Practice of the Year (Midlands) at The Dentistry Awards. No doubt their award winning application was based upon the amazing dentistry and service that they provide. However, it is probably safe to assume that every other application would have contained numerous references to “amazing dentistry, brilliant team and wonderful patient service” not that there is anything wrong with that but to me the more intriguing question is to consider how their application could have stood out from the rest.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that within 12 months of launching a campaign that was designed to engage their business, their staff and their patients with the larger community by the rather virtuous principles of “doing the right thing” that Beacon Dental Care has become renowned for its interaction with the local community, charities and genuine passion for helping others.

I have been working with Dave and Karen for two years and I know just how much this award and recognition will mean for them. I also know that they made a fundamental shift in their approach to business when we designed the principles that helped them win the award. What is fascinating is that the business made its greatest improvements when they became content with the moment, accepted their business as it was and stopped chasing success. Success in business will have different meanings for different people but either way, look what happens if you accept that success is not a conditioned event that is produced or caused by something else.

You may choose to chase success and to make it happen but for some perhaps there is more effortless option. Effortless success comes from having an awareness that the path that leads you there is also the cause.

Are you being mislead by your profit and loss account?

It may seem counter intuitive to suggest that in a recession, there is an alternative business strategy to just managing costs and growing sales. Ultimately it is cash that pays the bills but because your profit and loss account is not the best way to measure cash movements in your business, too much focus on the headlines in your P&L can be misleading. There are plenty of dentists telling me right now that their sales have increased, some have even managed to cut costs too, but for some reason profitability and  cash in the business has been reduced.

This is because the usual reaction to “gaps in the book” by many dentists is to get more patients through the door. The strategies for this often include spending money upfront and then offering short term price promotions and discounts on certain treatments. As a result, a flattering increase in turnover but at the expense of a reduction in profit margin. Similarly, a reduction in liquidity because of the inevitable allocation of cash to stock up on the required materials and supplies. If this sounds familiar then please don’t feel criticised because if these patients become loyal advocates, then it will have been money well spent. But if the only gain for the patient and dentist is short term, this it is unlikely to be improving patient loyalty or business longevity. In short, in a recession too many businesses chase the wrong kind of sales.

An alternative strategy starts by getting a better understanding of the numbers, firstly by knowing the break even point (where costs meet sales) and then knowing which demographic, patients and treatments offer the best gross margin and enable you to increase the gap between break even point and sales.

So from a business perspective, as tempting as it might be to see all new sales as good sales, if the margins are  poor and you are tying up more cash, then it might be worth having a rethink.

 

Will you Heart Your Smile and do the right thing?

When I made the unlikely transition into dentistry from working in a financial and corporate environment three years ago, I genuinely did not expect that there could ever be parallels between dental healthcare and financing businesses, but there are.

It was perhaps a radical comparison to make at the height of the credit crunch, but I did back then and I continue to do so with increasingly less ridicule than such comparisons may have first attracted.

It has always been apparent that consistently in business, those that fail to put the interests of their customers ahead of other stakeholders, will eventually fail. There are always quick wins to be made don’t get me wrong, but history has a habit of repeating itself when it comes to patterns of human behaviour. The antipathy of the general public towards certain business sectors repeatedly and over time, provides sufficient evidence of this and a warning for those who are prepared to pay attention.  At a time when our high street banks are having to engage with us through such fundamental messages as “to be the most helpful” I think it’s time to take stock.

It was in the lat 80‘s that our high street banks started to be friendly to you and me, introducing such measures as customer service departments, personal bankers, more tills at lunch time and flexible opening hours. As an employee at the height of this transition I experienced rapid change. We were sent on sales courses, targets were imposed and the tills began to ring. “Give the customer what they want” was the direction from the board rooms, but the behaviours by some resulted in a raft of hastily introduced legislation to counter the effects of miss-selling and over generous lending. The intentions of head office were not being matched by behaviours at the front line.

So it would be unfair  to just blame casino banking for the downfall of an industry that we all once knew to trust. The pillars of community, the respect and admiration of a career in banking, the place to go to get your passport photo signed; these are all long since gone but it was a transition which began many years ago. Although it did start out with at least the intention of doing the right thing for the customer, it resulted in a disaster for many.

How does this fit with dentistry? Well, apart from being partly propped up by public funding in some areas, the increasing burden of legislation to protect those it is meant to serve and    an antipathy which is now much deeper than simply the “fear of going to the dentist”, some recent developments suggest that the penny may have dropped just in time.

The Heart Your Smile campaign and it’s founder James Goolnik, suggest that you at least recognise that you have a choice. The campaign promotes many virtuous habits that the profession should adopt, but lets not forget that these habits are no more than good behaviours and dare I say it, they are about doing the right thing for your profession and your patents. “But what of the bottom line, this is all flimsy and pointless, we are in business and we need to make money” I hear you say…well, of course you are, but surely not at the sole expense of other stakeholders? Are there not enough lessons to be learned from other sectors?

The Heart Your Smile campaign has good intentions, it’s about putting patients back at the centre of your profession and changing public perception. It spouts a grand manifesto and lets hope that it makes a difference. To me though the real message is found beneath the surface. From what I can establish, it’s founder has an impeccable track record and many might aspire to replicate his success. The habits that the Heart Your Smile campaign promote are therefore already proven as a successful business strategy in dentistry, a strategy that was built upon doing the right thing.

What I love about the Heart Your Smile campaign is its simple message. Trends will always come and go in any profession but some things, such as doing the right thing remain proven and time honoured. Then again, hasn’t that always been the case?

You can find out more by visiting the Heart Your Smile website www.heartyoursmile.co.uk and if you mention Kevin Rose, then you and your team will be sent some Heart Your Smile badges to wear with pride!

Feedback from the BACD Conference

To me, one of the consistent messages that came across from all of the speakers at last weeks BACD Conference, was the importance of a having a powerful message. Whether you are looking to motivate your patients or your team into engaging with some new behaviours, many dentists and their trusted advisors are noticing that the time honoured ways of doing things are being challenged.

Increasingly, many people are realising that it is has never really been that effective to just open your doors and shout “we are open for business” and neither will you get the best from your team by simply telling them what you want. Engagement, whether that be with a target customer or an employee, is what the best business leaders have always encouraged.

Think about it, however brilliant you are as a dentist, however well intended your call to action or treatment plan may be, if you are simply viewing what is before you purely from your own perspective, then you are “in the wrong head”.  As a client dentist with many years experience said to me recently “I have never really thought about what my patients and team want, not fully from their perspective. Now it all makes sense”

The good news is that you don’t need to be a mind reader to achieve this; and who would want to be? Instead, the starting point is to communicate in passionate and explicit terms, exactly what your vision for the business is. I have seen this action alone, transform teams from reluctant followers to self motivated advocates. From here on in, it is then about structure, planning, measuring and communicating.

With this in mind, what’s the most powerful message that you have?

Do you feel lucky?

A book has just been published which summarises the 10 year research of a psychologist into “luck” and the differences between “lucky and unlucky” people.

The main outcome of the research is that you can teach yourself to “be lucky” in other words, you are going to create your own reality, so you might as well create a good one – why wouldn’t you?

Whether you realise it or not, you get what you focus on in life and in business. We instinctively know this of course, it’s the reason why having decided to buy a particular car for example, in the following week or so whilst you await delivery of your vehicle, the same make and model just seems to crop up everywhere!

It’s the same reason why some people, who happen to have a strong sense of aim and purpose, just seem to get what they focus on. It is of course the same belief that others will try and dismiss by saying “oh that’s just Bill, he is lucky and always gets what he wants, that will never happen with my luck!”The idea to consider (and I know it’s a tough one, particularly with the training and conditioning of a logical, medical and scientific background) for a moment is that we attract into our lives what we focus our attention on. Whether you label the people who share that belief as “lucky” or “wackos” is not the question. The question to consider is how the same concept of creating your own reality could be anything other than universally applied, regardless of your beliefs, education or profession.

For a brief summary of the findings of the book, follow this link - with a bit of luck it might just work for you!

How do you deal with contention?

This is an interesting challenge and is often one of the common denominators in many of the staffing issues that you have to deal with as a dental business leader. It’s difficult sometimes too isn’t it – in between patients, trying to stay focussed and calm and then something rears its head that you could probably do without!

I expect that there are as many possible solutions to dealing with these types of issues as there are tales to unravel in the complications of a “he said, she said” scenario. I do have a theory though which may help you and whilst it might at first sound like fantasy or whimsy, it can have some very practical outcomes.

Whilst some may say that the best form of defense is to attack, what if there is nothing to attack? How easy must it be if you are free of the need to defend your ego, point of view or opinions and how much energy might you save to put to better use elsewhere? You know the situations, the ones when you are so wound up by somebody or something that it seems to take over you, when in fact you should be looking after your patients or relaxing at home with your family.

A far easier path is to avoid contention by carefully using your own contentment. This does not mean that you should just give in or role over if you are wronged, but if your opinions or views are no more or less valid after you have defended them, then why bother? Sometimes, to stay low and be content will acquire you more respect and admiration than creating an unnecessary fight.

An inspirational dental business leader!

We have been working together at Ferryburn Dental Care for a few months and the team have created their own brilliant model that makes sure the best clinical results are delivered, they each invest inn their own personal development, patient service is paramount, they all get on very well and engage with the local community.

Follow this link to read their latest in Dentistry Scotland