Last week, we talked about the fallacy of chasing other people\u2019s dream instead of intentionally pursuing your own. \u00a0While it\u2019s okay to find out what fertilizer or technique a person is using to have greener grass, it\u2019s never good to swap yours for someone else\u2019s because you never really know what lies beneath the surface.<\/p>\n
Certainly, you know the acres of diamonds story and that\u2019s my point about your dental practice too.<\/p>\n
The point is to get clarity about what you really want and be aware of your reasons why. \u00a0This includes the way in which you want to practice and the clinical philosophy for your patients.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no mystery why some practices do better than others even when they both say they want the similar things. \u00a0Why a practice with the same number of ops, team members, patients, and ideals of dentistry both get dramatically different results.<\/p>\n
Even when everything else is the same, you can still get more out of what you\u2019ve already got. \u00a0There is no accident to success and the same goes for plateaus \u2013 there is always a reason why you haven\u2019t been able to breakthrough.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s dive into the fastest ways you can make a difference to achieve your own success and explode past whatever plateaus you are experiencing in your practice right now.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll give you one from each pillar\u2026<\/p>\n
The first plateau is always in thinking, not doing. \u00a0Most \u2018do\u2019 plenty of work and make enough effort. \u00a0So what gives? \u00a0It\u2019s the thinking.<\/p>\n
If you have already achieved goals you once thought not possible or if you are reasonably satisfied and happy with where you are at \u2013 then that is a plateau. \u00a0You get to choose if you want to change it but if you desire something more there is only one way to fix it\u2026<\/p>\n
Set higher goals!<\/p>\n
Yep, it sounds so obvious but it is the very first thing that must happen. \u00a0You must expect more out of yourself, your team, your patients, your practice. \u00a0You have to believe you deserve more and that more is possible.<\/p>\n
It is, I assure you. \u00a0It always is. \u00a0You may not like what is required to get more out of it \u2013 but that\u2019s another story. \u00a0I have yet to meet a doctor that I could not show them exactly how to achieve the goals they want on their own terms and in the style in which they want to do it. \u00a0Often, this is a result of limited belief.<\/p>\n
To accomplish bigger, better, more significant goals\u2026 you\u2019ve got to believe in them, set them and then back them up with action worthy of the goals.<\/p>\n
The next plateau that piggybacks on goals are numbers, actually \u2018quantifications of success.\u2019 \u00a0You must pay attention to the right numbers; and the keyword there is of course \u2018right\u2019 because not all numbers are created equal.<\/p>\n
For example: if you are plateauing in production and collections \u2013 then you can\u2019t possibly break through the plateau by looking at your production and collections.<\/p>\n
Common sense I know. \u00a0At least once it has been read out loud.<\/p>\n
You must go beneath the surface of the numbers that created the production and collections. \u00a0Again, obviously, case acceptance is a contributor and the top line in all of dentistry, diagnosis.<\/p>\n
If we are going to win in your numbers we need to know where the numbers are coming from \u2013 not where they ended up.<\/p>\n
I see practices all the time that have \u201cgood\u201d case acceptance but it\u2019s because they are only presenting the first step, tooth, quadrant of work and getting insurance money. \u00a0Not very tough. \u00a0Or practices that say they want to do x dollars a day but they aren\u2019t even diagnosing enough to get there.<\/p>\n
And there are all kinds of ways to grow diagnosis, but that\u2019s a Weekly Report for another time.<\/p>\n
And then there is the next plateau that I find most often in practices that are stymied for growth, aren\u2019t having fun anymore, have lost their way or have fallen into a volume trap.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s being reactive instead of proactive.<\/p>\n
Yes, the fastest thing to fix \u2018tactically\u2019 that will change the previous two and make any goal possible is to get out ahead of the variables and the root cause (both in dentistry and in business) of your setbacks, holdups and sticking points.<\/p>\n
Be proactive with everything\u2026 \u00a0Your schedule, phone calls, insurance, collections, team member issues, patient complaints, whatever. \u00a0Don\u2019t wait to react, take action before so you don\u2019t have to constantly be playing defense.<\/p>\n
We want to be scoring points all day long, not putting out fires or doing meaningless tasks that have nothing to do with helping patients by creating and delivering dentistry.<\/p>\n
I could go into great detail here because it\u2019s every part of the practice. \u00a0Doctors who watch and wait (which train patients to be emergency-minded). \u00a0Team Members who over emphasize insurance and present it first instead of big picture, health-based dentistry. \u00a0This culture even reaches patients who don\u2019t show up because they don\u2019t value their appointment \u2013 they prefer a reactive solution instead of proactive prevention.<\/p>\n
You get the idea. \u00a0You can play a game with your team and pick out every single area of the practice that you want to go differently. \u00a0Work backwards until you find what you could have done proactively. \u00a0Then make new protocols to fix it and stick to it.<\/p>\n
Finally for today, breaking through your next growth level and preventing any stagnation comes down to what you give your patients a chance to say yes to.<\/p>\n
As you know, my mantra is, \u201cWe only help the people who say yes.\u201d \u00a0When I see practices stall out it always comes down to getting back to your core principles and keeping the main thing the main thing.<\/p>\n
That main thing is helping your patients get healthy based on your philosophy. \u00a0Unfortunately, there are only a handful of doctors I can think of in my lifetime that truly presented everything they could to every patient in order to help them achieve optimal health.<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m not talking about bulldozing over every patient with big case full mouth as-seen-on-TV-you-know-who-I-
I\u2019m simply asking you to stop sabotaging yourself. \u00a0I hear it every day from doctors I meet. \u00a0I ask what kind of dentistry do you want to do? \u00a0Then I say what kind are you doing? \u00a0Then I ask why? \u00a0And 99 out of 100 times there is some blatantly obvious means of sabotage on the phone, in the office, with the materials, spoken by the team\/doctor or simply just in the way the diagnosis is delivered to the patient.<\/p>\n
This is why the average value of every visit is still at best a few teeth and usually one tooth at a time. \u00a0Just take your typical daily performance (back out hygiene) and then divide by the number of patients you see in a day. \u00a0You tell me how that makes you feel and what it says about keeping the main thing the main thing.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not accusing you, of course. \u00a0I\u2019m talking generalities here. \u00a0We can let the numbers speak for themselves. \u00a0None the less, it\u2019s good news because it means there are a whole lot of reasons why you are plateaued, which in turn, means we can explode through it like never before to achieve your next level of growth, profit, fun and dentistry very quickly.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, you have to decide to push the limits if you want more out of your practice. \u00a0I did not say work longer or see more patients or get bigger. \u00a0Nope, I said push the limits \u2013 yours, your teams, your patients \u2013 and that begins right here with these four key factors.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll pick up right there next week as we move into our five key areas of practice success and your daily actions in order to do exactly that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"