The Only Real Competition You Have in Dentistry

In just a few hours during my Whiteboard Strategy Session, I’m going to reveal in great detail how you can take advantage of the power of small numbers and leverage that into increased differentiation to create demand and help you build better patients…

“The Undeniable Power of Private Practice Dentistry”

Now, the best news of the day is twofold. First, a major trend in our industry actually supports the success of private practice. Because the more corporate and DSO practices multiply, the more differentiation you have as an Independent Dentist – as long as employ some key strategies.

If you fully embrace your Private Practice Power, you become a category of one devoid of competition. All the noise and the distractions and the circumstances outside become irrelevant because you have written your own definition of success, chosen your own way of practicing, and are in complete control of your future.

Most practice owners never achieve this as they stay stuck at one step above a commodity but it’s because they try to compete on the same playing field as everyone else. Being a lookalike dental practice clone of everyone else instead of a different-from-all-others extraordinarily unique practice.

That is why you have so much untapped potential and unharnessed power available to you – if you know how to recognize it and use it.

This is also why I say don’t fear competition – be invigorated and motivated by it. Use it as a blueprint of ‘what not to do’ and in fact the more you can do the opposite the more you will attract the right kinds of patients.

Real business success is not getting chosen because you are ‘better’ than the competition, but rather because you are you. Here, there is no comparison – completely and obviously different.

Most doctors simply hesitate to make this leap or are filled with too many limiting beliefs to ever go all-in. That’s why my Whiteboard Session will be your greatest enlightenment and next evolution forward in your life, mindset, practice operations, and financial success…

Get Your Link for the Live “Power of Private Practice” Whiteboard Session

For today, I want to share with you the premise behind differentiation that I have been advocating for more than two decades.

We begin with a very blunt statement… being a good dentist isn’t enough to get new patients nor is it a reliable way to keep patients in your practice. It certainly won’t create a constant flow of referrals that can break your practice through to the next level of value, leverage, and impact.

The most important reason is because if all people see you as is “another” dental practice then you become a commodity. No one knows of your personality, skill, and expertise until they come in and experience it. That leaves a lot of people outside your walls who can only make decisions on price and proximity.

If you asked every Independently Owned Dental Practice in North America, they would tell you they are focused on patient service and quality care. (Really, who would say they are a just ‘mediocre’ dentist). I mean, this seems like an obvious statement but it comes with some very important realities.

If everyone (literally every practice) believes they are providing quality care and patient service, that means YOU CAN’T rely on this as your differentiation or what makes you superior to anyone else. At least you can’t rely on just saying it, because EVERY dentist says the same thing.

You must re-imagine, re-define, re-create what you do in the eyes of your patients and play a completely different game than anyone else. In other words, you have to dig deeper and go beneath the surface to unearth the mission of your practice.

We must design and engineer ‘something’ to attract them – we have to convey and communicate WHY they should choose you.

There are 4 distinctive components of your practice that can actually make you extraordinarily unique and differentiate you from all others (and you can use to stand out and give patients a reason to choose you versus someone else)…

Your Personality and Team Energy

This one should be your favorite. It happens to be the ONE thing no other dentist can replicate. You are the only – YOU. Same for your associates and everyone else in your office.

Besides, it’s a whole lot more fun to be who you are by sharing your likes, interests, accomplishments, personality with your Patients.

Now, here’s where this gets fun: your practice also has a personality. It may not be a great one at the moment, but you’ve got one and the good news is you get to choose exactly what it is.

This is a combination of your personality, leadership style, team member personality and patient communication all put together.

I’d be careful inviting a flood of new patients into your office and especially wouldn’t be investing money on it until you have this very well defined.

The Complete Patient Experience

Now, I’m going to make this very simple because I’ve done entire Weekly Reports on the subject. The most successful and profitable dental practices have a scripted, choreographed, and engineered step-by-step New Patient Experiences. From the 1st point of contact through case acceptance and even to getting of referrals (which is the next topic).

This does take time, of course, usually it’s a 3-6 month refining process, however the blueprint is essential and it will make all the difference.

This is the key factor in conversion to treatment and your follow-through on making sure each of your new patients feel that quality care and service you are talking about.

Your Referral Culture

Okay, I’m going to state the obvious… your practice should be built on referrals. Why? Because these are the best patients, they already know you by recommendation and they trust you for the same reason. They do not come in to “shop” they come in to “buy”.

I do not know a practice who does enough to get a steady stream of referrals because you can never do too much.

This is about relationships but also about a system – that means reliable, predictable, and consistent day-in and day-out.

As you can see, each of these tie together. Every step of your patient experience adds in your personality which increase case acceptance which generate referrals.

If you are doing everything right, track your referrals (the size of their cases and their treatment plan acceptance), and you will be able to tell if you are on the right track with differentiation.

Being Specific about WHO You Are For and WHY

Of course you know every practice is different. There are not cookie cutter independent dentists and there shouldn’t be. Who wants to take the art out of dentistry, the personality out of practice, the authenticity out of patient relationships?

And yet most operate in the exact same manner.

I want you to celebrate the fact that your patients still have to show up, walk into your office, sit in your op, and experience dentistry. You ought to think strategically about WHO you want to invest your time, days, life into.

What types of cases are important? What dentistry makes all of the sacrifice worth it? What clinical philosophy do you want to live by? What mission does your practice serve?

If you really are patient centric and if your belief is all about optimal health, then you have to embrace each of these components and create what I call obvious differentiation.

And when you do, you will automatically place yourself among a select group of dentists that occupy the small percentage that actually achieve a powerful private practice for themselves, their team, and their patients.

I challenge you to settle for nothing less and you do that not by being someone else but knowing exactly who you are in every way.

Here’s the best news of all… when you do this, you break free of limitations, remove obstacles that stunt growth, avoid traps that diminish profitability, and begin to see a shift in momentum with an effortless flow of new patients and steady increase in production month after month.

And that leads me right into today’s live Whiteboard Session: “Undeniable Power of Private Practice Dentistry.” It’s time to stop suppressing it and start accentuating it by being more purposeful than ever before…