Little Changes for Big Results

Welcome to March. We’re in a new year, in a new administration and in a free-fall of economic uncertainty. Not much has changed since January, but our reaction and response to what is happening in the marketplace has evolved over the past few weeks. Don’t get us wrong; our clients and the dental world at large haven’t even begun to feel the impact that widespread job-loss and eroding consumer confidence have had on other industries. By and large, we’re having a good first quarter. However, that’s by design; it will take work, dedication and incremental changes to hang onto what we built when jobs were easy to come by and financing was something we only offered for full-mouth reconstruction cases. Last month, we dropped the gauntlet and challenged you to do the things that matter, right now, in your practice. How are you doing with what we suggested?

We don’t expect you to start delivering dental services differently. Nothing that you’re doing in operative is in need of a major overhaul; you’re still giving the same great care you always have. What must change is the way you react to and plan for your patients’ economic difficulty. And stop thinking that that same economic turmoil isn’t going to affect you; it will. Maybe not be today…but you will feel it. Wouldn’t it feel extraordinary to begin – today – to put the systems in place to help you move ahead in tough times? Surviving this economy requires “turning the diamond by five degrees”, a term that means identifying specifically what’s necessary to drive business and implementing those items – not by changing said business entirely, but by cherry-picking the initiatives that will bring the most economic return. Relationship, consistency and drive win out every time. Are you willing to make the slight changes to the flight plan that will bring your ship home safely? If so, let’s get started.

1. Launch an information assault.
Recently, Michael Dell of Dell Computers suggested in an article that his company’s plan during a downturn economy was to triple their marketing budget. While competitors shrink their marketing expenditure, he’ll advance an assault on America that says: If you’re going to buy a computer, you should buy Dell. Incidentally, as of today, Dell is up a few percentage points over last year when competitors were tanking. You may be asking, “How does this affect me?”, and rightly so. Dentists are the most marketing-averse group in healthcare, so if you’re doing *any* marketing you have our attention. If you’re not doing any, get ready. The battle for the new patient is going to get fierce, and he (or she) who stands out will prevail. Start NOW.

• Connect.
If you’re the best kept secret in your area, how can that possibly help you? Dr. Bill Dorfman went on record several years ago to say he built his practice in Beverly Hills with fliers placed under the windshield wipers of nearby parked cars. We’ll go one better. Have your most influential team member visit nearby businesses at least once a week, taking muffins or bagels and dropping off marketing materials. Do this religiously and target every kind of business near you. Those employees will remember your team when they need help, and *after* you wow them will refer you. If no one knows who you are, or they can’t distinguish between you and the office down the street, how can they choose you? Get out there and create relationships, starting today.

• Differentiate.
If you’re a plan provider, meet with your local human resource leaders to show them how your practice can – and will - take care of their employees. If you’re lucky enough to have a local chapter of SHRM, request an audience (www.shrm.org) . Take fliers and business cards and grease the wheels with an offer to attract employers to your side. If you don’t have a local HR organization, target the companies whose employees you’d like to serve and hit the visit circuit hard. Get ready; HR managers or presidents may ask you to offer expanded hours, pre-set visit times or other perks to their human capital. Be prepared to respond quickly and definitively to their requests to get the business.

• Step out.
Not doing any marketing at all, or very little? Venture out with an inexpensive marketing initiative that gets results. We can recommend Valpak or The Clipper as two venues that cost little and deliver new patients to your door. If you’re spending one dollar on marketing and you begin to spend three, even THAT will help. If you need specific advice, give us a call.

2. Turn up the heat.
Face it, most of our case presentation in dentistry is delivered with an eyes-downcast, modest, call-me-when-you’re-ready sensibility. If you think the “old way” of delivering treatment recommendations is going to drive your patients of record to move forward with treatment, do yourself a favor. Go to your dental software and print off an unscheduled treatment plan report for the past 24 months. Look at the summary page. When you’ve recovered, learn from what you’ve just seen and commit to do something different.

• Show off.
Use your intraoral camera for every proposed treatment plan you possibly can. The word here is “consistency”! Don’t let your patients leave your office without a photo of their own compromised teeth. If they don’t schedule, be sure the photo gets attached to your written treatment plan, and ask them how they would like you to follow up with them. Patients truly do not understand the $4 words we use in dentistry, but they DO understand obviously visible cavities, leaking margins and fractured teeth…especially when those conditions belong to them. If you don’t have an intraoral camera, you should invest in one now. It will pay for itself over and over again in accepted treatment.

• Lose the minimizing language.
We’ll give you several true-life, don’t-let-this-happen-to-you examples of what NOT to say to patients during our March podcast. That being said, if you routinely downplay the sense of urgency to get started with patients, you’re engaging in behavior that must end in this economy. You don’t have to be a doomsday prophet, but you do need to improve your delivery of two facts: your patient needs treatment, and you’d like to fast-track them to health.

• Expand your options.
Get prepared to offer phased treatment options, pre-payment (“lay-away”) plans and a bevy of lending options. Your old verbal skills (i.e.; “How would you like to pay for that today, Mrs. Snodgrass?”) could alienate your patient who is working two part-time jobs. Have payment conversations in advance of treatment, every time. Get everything worked out before the handpiece ever spins, and get a signed financial agreement without fail in advance of treatment.

• Make the switch to Check 21 technology.
If you’ve seen the movie Catch Me If You Can, you’ve heard of Frank Abagnale, Jr. One of the most successful con men ever, Abagnale’s post-prison job was helping the FBI develop systems to reduce check kiting and fraud. The Check Clearing For the 21st Century Act, legislation he helped develop, was signed into law in 2003. It allows your administrative team to use a patient’s paper check to automatically debit the corresponding checking account and then to summarily return the paper check as a receipt. In a tough economy, you may never be able to find the person who wrote you a hot check again. Phone numbers disconnected? Cell phones non-functioning? Address bogus? Stop the problem before it begins by being *sure* you get paid up front with this inexpensive equipment and software upgrade.

Dentistry is still one of the highest paying professions in America today. We have the greatest reputation of any medical specialty for predictable results and pain elimination. The only change is that jobs have disappeared, money has gotten scarce, and patients have become more skittish about spending. You have a diamond in your hand. Now, focus on turning it that simple, deliberate five degrees.

Tough times are the best time to “sharpen the saw”. Are you working with a coach? Is someone training your team and helping you to hold them accountable? Do you have a passionate advocate? If you haven’t considered coaching before, a difficult economy’s impact will be significantly reduced with the systems and processes that coaching provides. Don’t get “stuck” on what you’ve always done; move ahead!