Ah yes, psychology. The head trip, the mind warp, call it whatever you want, but know this, psychology is in everything we do. The only question is whether or not you know and understand it, or if you are constantly trying to fight against it because you are unaware or oblivious to it’s power.
I said last week there is nothing more prevalent in the success of a dental practice (and especially the success of the dentists/owners themselves), than the understanding and control over the psychology of what’s going on in your own head and in the heads of all the people around you.
Of course, the obvious is your team and your patients. But, it just isn’t that simple. You see, psychology is like the brain waves of humans, always moving, always thinking, pretty much always trying to justify, devalue, talk out of, make sense of, avoid, one up, get away with, protect themselves against what ever is happening to them.
Some people don’t like to talk about ‘selling’ dentistry. And of course those people aren’t right here reading this because they are busy being poor and unsuccessful. They are trying to find as many excuses as possible for their pathetic impact on their patients and for their struggling practice. The rest of the time they are busy talking down about dentists like you who are doing well, making no bones about it, and proud of your accomplishments (as you should be).
Selling is not ‘sales’, selling is influence, encouragement, education, psychology.
Selling is not ‘money’, selling is motivation, ideas, health, prevention, proactive, all things that drive someone to make a great decision.
Selling is not ‘judged’, it is what you are selling that is judged, what your intentions are, what your outcomes are, your methods and how you go about it.
The reason I talk so much about psychology is because it is all that makes up your entire business, let alone your life and every relationship you have.
Last week, we reverse engineered the MATH of your Dental Practice, this is the most significant and fundamental step for you to achieve clarity on exactly how you can obtain, exceed and realize the goals and objectives that you deserve.
Without clarity on the math (your dental practice math formula) you are making decisions on chance, having success on accident, and leaving things up to ‘seeing what happens.’
Psychology now is about making that math formula come to life, it is about influencing those people around you to make the magic happen.
Your team members to be engaged and motivated and perform. Your patients to see the value, deserve the results, and invest their money, time, effort, influence over others and follow-through with their treatments.
The challenge is…most Dentists, their Teams and their Practices have no strategy, method or approach to controlling, managing, and influencing the patients throughout the process. There is no culture or environment to ensure positive psychology is being applied with their patients to get the outcomes we want.
It’s very simple yet extremely profound and it can’t be argued what I’m about to say.
If you are a serious professional, if you are committed both to your patients’ health and your mission, then you would stop at nothing to help your patients make a good decision about their future. To show them the value, the consequences, the benefits, the good and the bad of their decisions depending on which way they are deciding because you are the one who knows best.
You care and you want to win; and if the patient doesn’t win you aren’t going to either. Of course, legal and ethical considerations are never spoken here because I understand you and I to be on the right side of the industry, the super heroes of Dentistry – and not the evil villains.
Think of it this way…
There really is no difference in influence and manipulation other than the intention. One has a positive tone, the other a negative tone. Still they are both the same, manipulation of the patients’ understanding of dentistry if they walk in thinking all dentists are the same, technology doesn’t matter, their teeth will last forever, and you are just here to take their money and sell them something they don’t need.
Are you going to stand for that?
Or are you going to manipulate their thinking into the facts and truth, by showing them pictures, by giving them proof, by doing some experiments, by illustrating vividly the consequences of their skeptical, uneducated mindsets.
You better do something otherwise you are both going to lose, especially the patients. And trust me, they won’t blame themselves – just you, for not standing up for yourself and telling them the truth.
So my point is this – if you wait for the psychology of your patients to be something that they just show up with, then you will have to fight against it. By default, you place yourself in the convincing business. In this position, you are destined for an uphill battle every day that ultimately ends in disappointment. You will run out of time to hit your goals, you will never get the case acceptance that you desire and you will never create enough of the life changing dentistry to ever get over the hump, create momentum, stimulate referrals, and live the good life.
All because we left the reality of human psychology up to chance.
Why would you do this…you wouldn’t if you know the difference and if you choose to take control over your future and theirs.
This is when the magic starts to happen and boy oh boy is it exciting.
Next week I will go into the actual specifics of Patient Psychology and the trigger points of communication and interaction that will allow you to nicely, comfortably, responsibly take control of the patient’s mindset before it’s too late.
This, I have never before shared, especially not here.
Tune in next week.
