First, I want to say, “Thank you.” I do get a lot of comments, feedback and often weekly success stories but last week really took the cake. If you will use the structure, verbiage, approach and psychology that I give you and make it your own, you would be amazed at how much easier it is to get your patients to HELP YOU help them say yes.
For those of you in America, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Celebration full of gratitude for your family, your life, for who you are and everything else.
Today, let’s turn the corner into the last stretch of the year – the busy blitz of crazy that happens between Thanksgiving and the end of the Year. It is so important to keep your focus, prioritize your efforts and optimize your schedules for your life in and out of the practice.
Most “retail” businesses lose money the majority of the year or just barely get by and then they make their profits (what is used to pay their people, further their mission and grow their business) during the Holiday buying time.
Other businesses (pretty much every other “service” type business), is the opposite. They have the hardest time around these holidays but it doesn’t have to be that way.
In fact, it really can’t. If you were to take a business and cut off 1/12th (or really more like 1/4th if you add up all the Holiday times, breaks in the action and ‘distracted’ seasons), from their revenue you would be losing all of the profit of that business.
No business can sustain with only 75% of their revenue and make it worth staying open and going through all the pains of the year to do it.
My point is simple: you can’t discount, ignore, neglect, take for granted the next 5-6 weeks of time. Especially considering a good chunk of it you are probably already going to be “off” and out of the office.
You must OVER CORRECT and double down to make up for the difficulty of keeping patients’ attention and motivating them to decide, pay and schedule NOW. Do not let anyone use the calendar or the holidays or the busyness of the time of year as an excuse for delay.
The first place to start is in your own head with your own attention and proactive measures of continuing to make things happen, make every visit count, make every patient matter and realize that every conversation you have is one of helping a patient achieve a goal. That goal is one the patient must want; which is your most important and greatest responsibility. The best “gift” you can give anyone you serve is the belief, motivation, encouragement and inspiration that they deserve to move forward and get healthy.
This week, as you turn your attention from Thanksgiving and hone your focus, remember you’ve got an entire month left. As much as you and your patients can use it as an excuse to just go through the motions and get through the month, it is actually and should be the exact opposite of that.
Right now is when you can get ahead, make up for any down months, run up the score and really set yourself up for an amazing finish, great bonuses and position your start to 2019 to be the best one ever.
All of that begins – TODAY.
You can use this discussion to talk about specific actions that need to occur and what can be done to ensure this is your best stretch of the year. Regardless of the number of clinical days left, you should collect as much money on treatment acceptance as possible to drive forward into January with a schedule that looks as tempting as a stack of presents under the tree.
I can’t wait to see what you do with this last stretch of 2018. Go make it happen.
