Kevin Weir

I was working with a client recently who was describing all the strategies he was going to use to attract new patients to his clinic.  They were glitzy, flashy, and actually quite expensive.  Once he was finished I asked him “So tell me how much you are going to invest to keep the patients you already have?”  Needless to say all I got was silence.

The fact is that, on average, it costs six times more to attract a new patient to your clinic than it does to retain a current patient.  However, most dentists are pressured by dental marketing companies to spend extraordinary amounts of money on advertising programs to capture new patients.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s still critical to find new patients on an on-going basis.  However if your central focus of all your marketing is towards new patients only, you could be losing patients out the back end and never know it.  So what do you need to do to improve your patient retention?  Let‘s take a look.

1. 1.       Know your retention number:  What percentage of patients stay with you over a 12 month or longer period?  Knowing this figure is critical.  If you are retaining over 90% of your patients, you’re doing great.  If you’re below 70%, you’ve got a lot of work to do.  Remember, you can never improve what you don’t measure.
2. 2.      Doctor-Patient Communication:  How do your patients feel about you when they are in the chair?  Do you make them feel relaxed, or are you in so much of a hurry that you make them feel you can’t wait to move on to the next patient.  Patients stay with Dentists who they like.
3. 3.      Survey Your Patients:  Do you have any idea how your patients feel about doing business with you?  Find a way to capture that data.  The results may be very interesting.
4. 4.      Engage Your Patients Between Appointments:  Do you have any form of ongoing communication with your patients between appointments beyond the usual postcard reminder? Are they friends of your Facebook Fan Page?  Do you send them an e-mail newsletter?
5. 5.      Are You Available When They Are:  Have you developed off-hours times that patients can see you?  Not everybody can break away for a dental appointment during normal business hours.
6. 6.      Does Your Team Know How To Keep Patients:  Is your team trained in patient retention strategies, or do they only focus on doing their jobs?  Your team is the public face of your practice, so train them how to treat patients like they are the most important person in the world.

Look at what you are doing right now and dedicate yourself over the next 90 days to implement at least one new patient retention strategy.  I guarantee you that your profits will soar.

Kevin Weir

Do you remember the old IBM Selectric typewriter?  I remember seeing one for the first time in 1980 in my high school typewriting class.  Since there were only a few of them, most of us had to use the old manual typewriters that were probably used in the Pentagon in World War II.  Once I was able to use it, my typing speed and accuracy went sky high, and I gained an immense measure of confidence in my typing ability.  Yes they were far more expensive than manuals, but the productivity gains more than made up for their expense.

However today, do you see IBM Selectric’s used in the workplace?  Nope.  They sit in an old storage room under a plastic cover, a memory of a distant past that we will never see again.  The fact is technology is moving ever higher and ever more productive and innovates in today’s world.  So let me ask you, are you stuck in an IBM Selectric world when you should be looking at using the latest technologies to make your business more productive?

Let me give you a great example.  I once met a prospective client who was wanting to exit his business and retire, but was trapped working 70+ hour weeks.  When I asked to see his financials he pulled out an old leather-bound bookkeeping system with the classic hand ledger debit and credit entries filled in by hand.  I asked him how many hours a week he worked on his financials and he told me anywhere from 10-15 hours.  I told him about modern computers and how a program like QuickBooks could cut that down to less than two hours a week.  His response was “I’m to old to learn all that new-fangled stuff, and besides, it would take to much time.”  Last time I checked he is still there, still plugging away.

So what technology do you need to incorporate into your business today?  Is it new computers?  New software that will save you and your team time and money?  New devices that improve a customer’s experience?    Always look at your technology expenditures as an investment instead of an expense and make sure you always have that in your budget.  Stop wasting time trying to use yesterday’s technology to succeed in today’s business environment, and instead invest in tomorrow’s technology to ensure your future business success.

Nothing frustrates me more than watching a business owner struggle with their business when I know I can help them.  This is especially true when I have reached out to them and offered to help. Yet for one reason/rationalization or another they decline my assistance.

My approach with business owners is not to try to sell them coaching, it is instead to show them the value in having a coach and let them come to the conclusion that they want to take action. The problem is that most business owners won’t take action and selling them into coaching is not a formula for success. If a business owner has to been pulled (sold) into coaching they most likely will not be successful.  A business owner has to want to change things for the better and be willing to put in the time and effort necessary to achieve success.

As a business coach I can’t force a business owner to accept my help they have to be willing to take the step of retaining me as there coach. Part of my frustration is that in order to help a business owner they first must retain me as their coach.  If they choose not to engage me as their coach, I am left with knowing I could have helped them and yet I won’t be allowed to.

The worst part of all is when I happen to connect with them a year or so later and they are in a worse or at best the same place they were before.  I think to myself if only I could have been able to work them as their coach how much better off they would be now.  I realize that I can’t help everyone, however I do feel the need to at least reach out to business owners I know I can help and give them an opportunity to take action.  It reminds me of a quote from one of the top business coaches in the world named Andrew Johnston, “I’m not telling you this is going to be easy, I am telling you it is going to be worth it”.

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I wish I had a dollar for every business owner who tells me they don’t have enough time to work on their business because they are too busy working in their business. Is this you, does your business run you or do you run your business? How can you grow your business if you are only reactive and never proactive about running your business? Have you ever thought about it?

How much time to you spend with the day-to-day operations versus creating new systems and planning for growth?

When you spend the vast majority of you time working in your business there is no way to efficiently grow your business. You are being reactive instead of proactive.

If you want to grow your business start thinking about how you will grow it and put some systems in place to leverage yourself.  This will give you more time to create a road map to growing your business. You must work from a solid foundation in order to grow your business and part of that is having the systems in place that will allow you to grow the business without creating chaos. Growth without planning and systems often turns into chaos and does more harm than good to your business.

Take some time to figure out the best way to grow your business and then make sure you have the systems in place to handle the growth you seek. The worst thing you can do is grow your business beyond its capabilities.

One last thing… if you want to grow your business efficiently and productively you must find the time to work “on” your business…

 About Coach Ted….
Ted has an extensive background in business growth and development having taken an empty building and transformed it into a Tool and Equipment rental store that produced multi-million dollar revenues and had over 20 employees. 

How long have you been putting off making the change you know is needed and will better your business?  Maybe it is hiring a new employee, letting one of your employees find happiness elsewhere, moving your business, adding a new product or service.

Is there something you need to change about yourself to be a better more productive business owner?  Are you a control freak, do you have trouble delegating, are you spending most of your time working in your business instead of working on it, do you manage your time poorly, do you know everything and your way is the only way, do you have trouble leading your team, do you have trouble making decisions?

At ActionCOACH we use something we call the formula for change:

D x V + F > R

D= Dissatisfaction

V= Vision

F= First Step

R= Resistance

Your level of dissatisfaction with the current situation, times the vision of how much better things could be, plus taking the first step to start making the needed change must be greater than your resistance to making the change.

If you find yourself procrastinating about making needed changes examine where your level of dissatisfaction is at.  Is it that you have simply learned to live with (tolerate) the current situation?  In your mind it may seem easier than taking the first step to making a change, even though you know in your heart that not doing so is hurting your business.  Really focus on the how the current situation is negatively affecting your business. Then think of how much better it could be if you made the needed change. The next thing is to determine the first step you need to take to make the change. It doesn’t matter if it is a change needed in your business or in you.  This may help you to overcome your resistance.

Try applying the “formula for change” the next time you find yourself resistant to making a needed change…

There is nothing more satisfying to me than seeing one of my clients grow their business, hire more employees, work fewer hours and make more money.  This is what happens when your business works for you instead of you working for your business.

Now think about why you do what you do.  Why are you really in business?  What’s in it for you? What are you really getting out of it?  Once you have answered this question, only then will be able to decide if it is worth it or not. If your business is not giving you what you want, ask yourself can it if I make some changes or do I need to turn the page and do something else?

What I have found is that my “why” of enriching other lives and helping them to increase their wealth, in return enriches my life and increases my wealth.  Does your why do that for you…

First is Destination…here we are look at vision, mission and culture.  Your vision is why your business does what it does. Your vision should enroll and inspire people to join in the vision of the business. Next is the mission of the business this is what your business does, the goods and or services it provides and how it provides them. Then there is culture. What is the environment that the business work under is it positive, toxic or somewhere in between. In order to have a productive team that reaches their potential a business must create and maintain a positive culture (work environment).

Second is Time…do you and your team use your time productively?  One of the most common challenges for business owners is the productive use of their time.  If a business owner tells me they never have enough time to get things done, that usually means they do not use their time productively. They are most likely doing many different things that they should be delegating, which would free up time for them to focus on the most productive and important uses of their time to benefit their business.

Third is Delivery…delivery is all about consistency. Does your business consistently deliver your goods and or services at a level that meets or exceeds your customer’s expectations? Where you set the bar for their expectation is vital to having success in this area.  Be careful not to set the bar to high where you will not be able to consistently meet or exceed it.

Lastly is Financial…it’s all about knowing your numbers. Does the business owner know their breakeven, conversion rates, gross margins, ROI’s, lead generation sources and many more?  Your financial statements are your report card for the business and a business owner must not only know what they are telling them, but also why. There are many numbers that are important to a business that are not on a P & L.  Such as conversion rates, ROI’s, lead generation sources and many more however, these numbers are no less important than the ones on a P & L statement.

The four areas a mastery I have just discussed must be mastered by the business owner in order for a business to grow and prosper.  If a business has cracks in its foundation it will become very apparent and quite quickly once the business begins to grow. The signs are different depending on which area of mastery is lacking. For Destination it could be an unmotivated and “going through the motions team”. Poor time mastery is usually very obvious in a chaotic schedule and never having enough time. Unacceptable delivery mastery most often shows up in poor customer service and lost customers. Lastly, lack of financial mastery appears when poor decisions are made based on guessing (seat of the pants) instead of knowing your numbers and what they are telling you.

Are your foundations solid or do you need to work on the four areas of business mastery…

Visit Ted’s website at http://www.actioncoach.com/tedschmidt

One of the symptoms I’ve observed this year, along with being the subject of a spirited discussion between global Coaches the other day, is the tendency of business owners and marketing personnel to down sell their prospective customers / clients to a lesser product or solution due to either the client’s initial cost objection (“we can’t afford your help”) or their own value judgment on what the customer is willing to invest or spend.

A prominent Coach and mentor likened this to having a very ill patient approach a specialist, seeking diagnosis and cure. After a thorough medical history and several tests, the specialist has an excellent idea what the problem is – and that the condition will become permanent – or fatal – if not properly treated.  The proper treatment requires a $5,000 monthly investment over the next 15 months, a sum the patient has indicated – or the specialist assumes – is beyond their current means.  So, the specialist offers an ‘alternative’ treatment – a placebo – at $500 per month for the next 6 months; fully expecting the result to be the permanent disabling – or expiration – of the patient… if spontaneous remission or Divine intervention doesn’t intercede.

In medicine, this would be considered (at best) malpractice – and litigation would likely follow. However, in business, I’ve actually had owners and managers present this scenario as a means of ‘coping with the economic downturn’ or ‘meeting the needs of today’s price-conscientious buyers’. Hmmmm….   I would suggest that you have a moral obligation as a business ‘specialist’ to offer the very best solution you have available to every potential customer or client; the one that you would use were you or one of your loved ones in a similar situation; the one you are most confident will provide the best outcome for – or return on – their investment.  This approach is not only more professional, more compassionate, but more respectful. Only the customer has the right to decide what – or how – they can afford to invest in improving their business results or lifestyle balance.  I’ve seen $300K businesses invest $25K in resolving their issues and increase productivity in excess of 300%; I’ve also seen $2M companies invest $35K for a solution they left sitting on a shelf.

What’s the difference?  One was committed to finding and implementing a solution, the other was invested in the appearance of taking appropriate steps.  If it was your family or friends suffering, which approach would you take? Would you find the means, regardless?

So, make sure you and your customers know both what they need and what the risks are – and offer the cure, not the placebo.

In abundance…