You want to save lives. Your patients don’t even want to save their teeth.
You find yourself playing golf on a football gridiron. No matter how good your swing is, there is no hole in the field of play.
Ouch!
Gaining alignment from the first point of external awareness about your practice - to the point of contact with your practice - to the receptions area greeting - to diagnostic - to your chair; it is vital to have a consistent message and soul in each touchpoint.
We believe that supporting the sole practitioner is vital to not only the future of dentistry but the future of healthcare. This is because they are focused on truly doing the right thing for the patient, not shareholder value. We are against crown mills. We also believe that practitioners should work to live, not live to work.
As you read the last paragraph, you got insight into the tenets that drive our company’s thinking and how we support the practices we have the privilege of serving. You either agreed or disagreed. You cannot change your deep-rooted beliefs and neither can your patients.
Creating a list of “we believe” statements with your team is the exercise that builds this alignment internally in the hearts and minds of your team which then allows you to build an external marketing strategy.
You may find that the marketing that you have done, even just a year ago, is not working like it used to. This is because the consumer abhors promotional, look-at-me-I-am-the-best-and-here-is-why type of messaging.
The shift in consumer listening and response is dramatic. It is vital to move from promotional, push-yourself-on-others male energy to attraction-based, this-is-what-we-believe female energy.
We have found, in using this with our community of Complete Health dentists, that when you speak to the heart of a person, they ask themselves three questions before making any purchase:
- Why should I care about this purchase?
- Can I do what they are asking me to do?
- Is it worth my time, money and energy?
You already know that when your mind battles with the patient’s mind, everyone loses. The patients don’t get the care they need, the practice doesn’t get the patient healthier, and the practice stagnates.
This is how you work smarter and profoundly increase case acceptance, reduce broken cancelled appointments, and go viral with referrals of the right type of patient.
We were recently in one of our dental offices that operates as a learning lab, and we were observing a VIP new patient interview with a treatment coordinator. She asked the patient about her past experiences at her last office and the patient proudly stated, “I loved my last dental office. I’m sad he retired.” When asked why they liked him, the patient responded, “For ten years he didn’t recommend any treatment.”
You are a Complete Health Dentist but the second you recommend that this patient has decay, you become the thief.
A no win situation that happens over and over.
Ready to get off the old-school drill, fill, and bill treadmill?
The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.
Do this first...
- Send out an email to your team asking them to finish this sentence: "At Rosenfinger Dental, we believe..."
- Have a team meeting to read their responses and discuss. During this meeting, you want to get everyone contributing and thus engaging your team to take ownership of what you believe as a group. Now when you implement things (that they previously would have thought as another task to do) they have a new relationship to it as a tool to fulfill on what you believe to be true. This is a stronger emotion then the overwhelm response you would normally get! Make a list of action items to implement. It should be over ten items.
- Film a video with each team member saying their belief contribution and put it on your website home page, above the fold.
- Act as a patient and do a mock run through of your new patient experience from reading your marketing, to going to your website/social media, to calling your office, and going through the in-office, new patient experience.
- Take notes. Bring them to next team meeting to talk about upgrades that will bring alignment to what you believe.
- Rinse, repeat.
If you liked this article join Gary Kadi on his live webinar on Wednesday, January 17th at 7:00 PM CST, where you'll learn to embrace a new way of thinking to attract, communicate to and retain more ideal patients using your existing website and social media. (If you're reading this article after the 17th, follow the link to view the recording!)
