Today on the podcast I am chatting with Ayesha Aijaz.
Ayesha has built an incredible business over the past few years and she shares with us today about how she built her business to a success, some of the challenges she has faced and how she has gotten to where she is today.
I loved this interview and I hope you do as well and that it brings you a few ideas and things to implement in your business.
In this episode we discuss:
[ 3.05 ] Ayesha talks about the changes in your career over the past five years.
[ 3.45 ] We discuss the balance between lifestyle and business and how a business manager helped to create the balance.
[ 5.02 ] The initial concerns around hiring a business manager are discussed and how these concerns were overcome.
[ 6.33 ] The benefits of a business manager are discussed and how handling over control is needed.
[ 9.05 ] We talk about the changes that Ayesha has gone through over the last 5 years and how not only operational changes have been made but also personal and mindset shifts that have added to the success of the business.
[ 11.18 ] Mistakes made in business are discussed and how it is important not to make emotional decisions.
[ 12.18 ] We discuss the need for organisation in a business and structure to keep it running smoothly.
[ 13.06] Hindsight is mentioned and how mistakes made in business have stopped Ayesha from being able to run the business and the staff the way she should have.
[ 15.32 ] We discuss challenges that are faced in business and what things that Ayesha would have done differently.
[ 16.20 ] Self care and mindset shifts are discussed and how they are important in order to running a successful business.
[ 19.31 ] We discuss the common misconceptions and mistakes that dentists make in their businesses.
[ 20.17 ] We talk about success being a personal thing and not to compare to other people success.
[ 21.45 ] Ayesha gives her recommendations for others who are trying to build a successful business.
Not sure if your marketing strategies would be able to hold their ground next year? All the marketing gurus got you all confused on the right strategies of successful marketing? Well, know that you are not alone! As dental practice owners, we are trying to juggle one too many roles at the same time! We don’t just have to offer an excellent service, we also need to have the right skills and knowledge to run a business and market it too.
Regardless of whether you hire services of a professional to market your business or do it yourself, you need to get your basics right for the coming so as to make it most effective. Following are some pointers to keep in mind when creating your marketing strategy for the coming year:
Map Out Your Goals
This is extremely essential in order to aptly target your marketing strategies. What are your goals for the coming future? Are you trying to scale your business? Add another chair? Hire an additional DA? Increase the number of patients coming in? Get more referrals?
Marketing isn’t a dart board where you just throw a dart in the right direction and hope for a bull’s eye but take whatever it hits! You are spending way too much to let chance handle your marketing strategy. Having a targeted marketing goals help you achieve more productive and lucrative results.
Learn the Fundamentals of Marketing
Many a time, practice owners just look up a marketing firm online, get in touch with them and tell them to ‘fix your marketing strategy.’ Of course a professional will do a great job of representing your business, but it will require your assistance too. A marketer can only do so much! He may be able to fix up your website and get the traffic to it. But if a visitor is not able to find the right support and assistance through those portals then that is an opportunity missed.
Hence, learning the fundamentals of marketing is essential for the success of a marketing strategy. You need to be responsive to queries and engagement of your potential patients via emails, website and social media portals. At the end of the day, it does come down to providing quality service!
Keep a Check on the Key Marketing Metrics
Marketing strategies may change year after year, but the need to continuously keep a track of them remains the same. You will need to keep a check on key marketing metrics for each type of marketing that you do. This includes your SEO, your organic traffic, social media engagement etc. Don’t just focus on visits to your website or likes or followers on your social media pages, look for conversion rates, engagement and readership for your blog etc.
Objectives and Key Results
OKRs have become increasingly popular. They are extremely helpful in setting up goals and meeting those milestones. The main idea behind this strategy is to set up an objective with a time frame for completion. Then set a number of key results that are required to meet those objectives. For instance, if your objective is to get 20 more referrals, then your key results would be X many number of satisfied patients, increased engagement with current patient base through emails, better customer support for patients walking in the door etc.
Fix Your Website
Does that mean investing in a graphic designer and change the color scheme of your website? Not really! What it means is to make your calls to action more accessible and visible. A website visitor spends a minute on a website on average; and if he can’t find the next step to get in touch with you within that time frame, he is likely to start looking elsewhere! So rather than investing on videos your potential customers are likely to pass on, invest in better user interface and goal-oriented website.
The Power of Organic Content
Contrary to popular predictions, internet advertising has not garnered any increase in popularity in the past. And for the year 2020 too, organic content will lead the game! People don’t want to be told what to buy, they want to have the freedom of choice based on the information that is provided for them. Hence, focus on that blog, podcast, email marketing techniques etc. You want to add value to your potential patient’s time rather than investing in direct marketing techniques they aren’t really buying into!
Be Social on Social Media
Social media today plays multiple roles, but for businesses it has become a marketing hub. There is no denying the power of social media marketing, but it is only effective when done right! You cannot just post an add and expect new patients walking in the door the next day. In order for it to be effective you need to engage more, by being more social. Use it as a platform to connect with your followers, offer suggestions and solutions and heed to their queries and concerns. Let them know that you are the authority for any dental concerns that they may have. Apply rather than imply!
Work With Your Marketing Team
Not to say you should be heading your marketing strategies yourself! Of course it’d help to have a team of experienced and knowledgeable marketers by your side. But they’ll only be able to help meet your goals when you’d work with them. You need to explain your long term and short objectives to them. Let them know what you are trying to achieve with a specific marketing strategy.
Ask them what you can do to generate those results effectively. Perhaps a faster response rate or more engagement or some bonuses or discounts that could further strengthen the marketing strategy in question.
Marketers are not magicians! They cannot just shake their coats and let it rain patients. They need guidance and support from you and your team.
The Final Word!
If there is one key takeaway for marketing tactics for the coming year, it is to focus on organic traffic, engage more with your potential patients and focus on the outcomes and results of your marketing strategies by keeping track of key metrics.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:
Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”
The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here
2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too
It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here
3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event
Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
In this episode of the Savvy Dentist Podcast, Josh Rimmington of the JR Marketing Group gives us pearls of wisdom on how to get our marketing right in 2020.
We talk about all things marketing, how to assess your marketing, making sure your strategy and marketing is aligned with your business strategy and so much more. If you are a business owner, you will definitely want to listen to this as Josh gives tons of information that may take your marketing to the next level.
In this episode we discuss:
[03:00] Josh’s learnings from his recent kickboxing match.
[06:08] How Josh remained analytical, focused and on top of things during the match.
[10:56] Josh’s observations on what has worked and not marketing-wise.
[14:30] Things to look at to assess the effectiveness of your marketing.
[20:11] Complexity in dental practice marketing.
[24:13] Simplifying your marketing.
[31:25] Changes in marketing trends over time.
[35:35] Where email marketing stands in the overall marketing picture.
[39:16] Reasonable open rates for emails.
[43:26] Josh walks us through his Cut the BS Action Planner.
We all feel overwhelmed sometimes. Regardless of the hours and effort we put into our work, we never really have it all together. The team doesn’t get us, the patients don’t appreciate the hard work we put into improving and maintaining their dental health, and the practice, regardless of all the effort, seems to never be smoothly functioning. And to top it all off, this feeling of inability to control matters takes a toll on our personal lives. We feel overworked yet incompetent.
Not just dentists, pretty much every professional, running his own business, or in roles of leadership tends to feel this way at different times. The team members never seem to be onboard and no matter how nicely you request them to do something, it is almost always lost in translation.
How do you fix this? Motivational interviewing is one effective strategy!
What is Motivational Interviewing and Why is It Important?
Motivational interviewing tends to resolve this problem of feeling overwhelm and incompetence by focusing on asking questions rather than answering them!
This process enables the person to attain clarity about their goals and objectives. This process provides coaching rather than mentoring. The difference being that unlike mentoring, the answers or solutions are not provided. Instead, assistance is offered so as to help individuals seek and find answers themselves.
Motivational interviewing is an effective method that you can apply with your team members, patients and even with yourself, so as to be more clear about your goals and objectives.
Ask Don’t Tell
At the core of this strategy is the fundamental rule of asking rather than telling. Instead of telling your team members what they should do, you ask them what, according to them, is the best approach to resolve a problem. It is more like a back and forth banter where ideas and probable solutions are exchanged. This method generates great success as it allows your team members to suggest a solution. Hence, they take more ownership of the process and thus are more eager to follow through.
The Four Steps of Motivational Interviewing
Primarily, there are four steps to finding success with motivational interviewing. You may need to conduct more than one interview in order to get through the entire four step process. We discuss these four steps in detail below:
Engagement
The first step is engagement. In this step, you are mainly focused on making the other person feel comfortable. To let them know that you value their opinion and understand where they are coming from. You establish a relationship of respect and empathy by truly lending your ears to what they have to say.
Select a Pathway
This is another essential component that enables you to remain focused on your ultimate goal. If you have ever had a heart to heart with someone, you’d know that it is quite easy to digress from the matter at hand. In order to successfully implement ideas, you need to remain focused on the problem singularly.
Evoking the Reasons behind Change- Digging Deeper
Next step is to encourage the person to define reasons for completing the task. Say, you would like to increase responsibilities for your dental assistant. What reasons do they believe they have for getting involved with new responsibilities? Do they believe they can efficiently take care of those extra tasks? If not, what could you or other team members do to help them with these new responsibilities? This step will make them more responsible and attach ownership to the new tasks This is where they begin to envisage the change.
Planning
Finally, you move on to the planning phase. This is where most leaders usually digress and they get tempted to provide answers rather than take suggestions on how to successfully complete a job. Instead, use the same evoking skills and questions to help come up with actual actions on how you and your team members are going to make the change happen.
Motivational Interviewing on a Personal Level
Motivational interviewing is just as effective in unlocking potential and solutions at a personal level. You know what they say about the mind being a great place to have ideas but not keep them? You’d be surprised by how much clarity answering your own questions can provide.
Simply jot down a list of questions related to the task at hand. Then start answering them out loud or in writing. This whole process in itself helps the system move towards making the desired change.
Engage With Team Members
All this sounds great on paper, but implementing it could become a real challenge. How do you draw the line between having team members resolve issues on their own and taking control back in your hands and risk losing focus of the team members? It could be a real challenge; and the best way to find balance is engagement.
You need to open pathways for communication with your team members. You cannot simply tell them to do something. You cannot go, ‘here’s the problem, here’s the solution, off you go, do it.’ This does not work!
You need to make conscious efforts not to provide the answers. As leaders, we are hard wired to get things done our own way. This mindset triggers what is known as ‘psychological reactants.’ As soon as someone feels like their freedom is threatened, they push back against it. Even if they agree with the overall idea being discussed, they would push back since they weren’t ‘part of the solution.’
This mindset leads to communication barriers where the team members think that their efforts are not being valued or ‘that the boss just doesn’t get them!’
You need to truly demonstrate empathy and compassion and attention to what they are saying. They need to feel valued and understood to provide the same kind of compassion and attention in return.
The Last Word
The fact is, a happy workplace can be spotted a mile away, and an unhappy, uncomfortable environment is just as easy to detect. You need to make the environment of your practice one of mutual respect and relaxation. Your patients should feel welcomed and comfortable, and this is only possible when they are met with smiling and inviting team members who value their roles and work space.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:
Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”
The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here
2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too
It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here
3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event
Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
In this episode of the Savvy Dentist Podcast, Clare Mullins, a coaching expert with many years of experience joins us to talk about her expertise in motivational interviewing and how dentists can apply this to their own practices.
In this conversation, Claire unpacks how you, the practice owner, can get the best of yourself and your team so that your business can go the next level. She shares absolute pearls of wisdom that you will want to apply to your business to see it grow in the areas of harmony, productivity, and improvement.
In this episode we discuss:
[02:47] The story of how Claire found her way from health care to mentoring and coaching.
[04:46] What fascinates Claire about psychology.
[05:53] General application of coaching skills in business.
[06:46] Fundamental differences of coaching and mentoring.
[07:50] Possible outcomes of coaching teams.
[09:01] Claire tells us about motivational interviewing and what it involves.
[10:22] 4 steps of a motivational interview.
[11:56] Evoking skills a successful motivational interviewer possesses.
[13:46] Motivating yourself to accomplish the things you need to do.
[15:20] Common mistakes dental practice owners are making when trying to guide and build their team and what they can do about it.
[20:14] Claire’s thoughts about dealing with context shifts in roles and maintain productivity at the same time.
[22:19] The things make the biggest difference across business.
[26:46] Being conscious about how we communicate and creating an environment with a specific intention.
[28:39] Important takeaways from the conversation.
We all have rather a rinse, repeat kind of a routine. And it only makes sense! There are only so many hours in a day and days in a week to get things done. It takes all you have, to go to your practice, heed to your patients, troubleshoot the dozen problems that occur through the day of running a dental practice, coming back home, spending time (whatever is left of it) with the family, before finally hitting the bed; only to repeat the same routine the next day!
We hardly have time to invest in the business we already have- the dental practice, to be thinking about anything else. But at the back of our minds, we all know it is crucially essential to have other sources of income. We live in times of uncertainty, and having a diverse investment portfolio adds cushioning to the highs and lows of those economic downturns. But understanding the need for something, and getting it done are two completely different scenarios.
In most cases, dentists right out of school are so immersed in simply paying off the debt and getting from one pay cheque to the next that nothing else matters However, a little knowledge, some effort and slight lifestyle changes can help you create wealth outside of your practice and get you closer to living the life that you WANT to live, rather than the life you HAVE to!
Start That Journey with Realization
The first step towards any journey is to understand that you have to partake one. Most professionals, dentists and otherwise, are so immersed in the idea of just paying off their debts and bills that they don’t really stop to think that perhaps there could be more. Unfortunately, dental school does not prepare you for money management. These are skills that you need to learn on your own. And the first step is to understand that pay cheque to pay cheque will not help you save, invest or create wealth. You need to have a more solid plan.
Build Your Team
You know better than to cutting yourself open to see what is wrong with your tooth, your heart or your brain. Would you just bring down the walls of your house to prepare for renovations right? There are professionals experienced enough to do that. Professionals who know how to manage and invest your money more wisely than you do. If you aren’t too keen on seeking professional help, then look out for family or friends who have been able to successfully invest their money and take help from them. Having a team of people vested in your investments will help you find the support and sound advice that you need.
Traits of Smart Investors
The best way to get where the successful are is to do what the successful do. There are plenty of great resources out there that outline the habits and investment strategies of the rich and successful; and you can learn greatly by investing your time in reading up on them. Though there are some commonalities between the more successful investors. These common traits include the following:
They understand and realize the power of compounding.
They invest early and they invest in themselves.
They know how to balance between spending money on themselves and the importance of investing money for safeguarding their future.
They are clear about their goals.
They have a process that they follow.
And they use debt wisely!
These are just some of the basic traits of smart investors. To know more, make a habit of reading every day. Some notable books include Willpower Doesn’t Work by Benjamin Hardy, Vivid Vision by Cameron Herold and Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey.
The Power of Discipline
One thing you will find consistent in everyone who has managed to reach their milestones and achieve their goals is discipline. Successful people have also gone through the same economic fluctuations as we have. But what they have done differently has been to not let those downturns define their investments. They have built and consistently followed a process. And you need to do the same.
Consistency and discipline are extremely important to stay on the right track. And this is only possible when you get out of the ‘get rich quick’ mindset and to understand your long term goals. Every investment will follow through, if you are willing to ride through the storm. For instance, if you have invested money with the intention for it to pay off during retirement, then remain consistent through the economic turmoil too; because the economy will sail through it, whether or not you are on board. Don’t make hasty decisions and follow your process.
Build a Peer to Peer Learning Environment
You know what they say that there is enough work for everyone. You are not the only dentist in your area; in fact, the chances are, there’d be one too many, and many more in line to getting there. It is up to you to either take them as competition, or take them as team members. Peer to peer learning environment promotes learning and growth, provided you are up for it.
It is a great way to learn by creating a collaborative environment. There are great groups, mentors and communities that lend out information and support to help accelerate each other’s success. So reach out to these groups and mentors and learn as much as possible from them.
Building wealth is an attitude and a lifestyle that demands consistency, principles and discipline. In return, it offers you the opportunity to lead the life that you have always truly wanted to; to go to work because you absolutely love it and not because the looming bills are pushing you out the door. So make that decision to take better control of your life and always keep the end in mind!
P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:
Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”
The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here
2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too
It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here
3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event
Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
In this episode of the Savvy Dentist Podcast, Tim Mcneely joins us to share his wisdom in helping dentists create passive wealth outside of their practice. He knows the industry intimately and his wife is a dentist which puts him in a great position to speak to us about this topic.
In this conversation, we talk about the steps you can take to create wealth outside your practice, why you need to do it, what it takes to do it, and resources you can consider before or while going through the journey.
In this episode we discuss:
[02:16] The story of how he found his way into the work that he does.
[03:19] The rationale behind why dentists need to start thinking about creating wealth outside their practice to develop passive income.
[05:06] The look of a successful retirement.
[07:06] Reasons why people don’t think about creating wealth outside their practice.
[09:15] First step you need to take to start creating the journey of creating wealth outside your practice.
[11:10] Principles of wealth creation that stand the test of time that you can adopt.
[13:04] Discipline as a very common characteristic seen in his most successful clients.
[14:07] The percentage of income that should be allocated to future wealth creation.
[15:00] Things you need to think about to prepare for changes in economic seasons.
[17:10] Advice for people who are thinking twice about taking risks.
[18:50] The challenges that dentists go through and what they should think about.
[20:50] Overview of the book Becoming Seriously Wealthy.
[23:06] His observations about the ultra wealthy.
[24:42] Things that surprised him in his research.
[27:05] Making creation of wealth a priority.
[27:39] Where to get Tim’s book.
[28:27] Resources for people on creating wealth and mindset.
[30:27] The benefits of masterminds and peer-to-peer learning.
[32:45] Big things to consider about creating your journey to wealth.
We live in a world of options. We have multiple options for the smallest of products and services we may require. However, there is one entity that has been able to remain a monopoly in this sea of options. This entity is Google. Based on its constantly evolving algorithms, the Google Search Engine is a major powerful business tool.
You don’t search for products and services, you ‘Google’ them.
Getting on top of Google Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) is not easy. You cannot just pay to be published, you need to meet Google’s criteria in order for people to find you at or close to the top. Let’s unpack how you can make the most of Google.
How Local Search Works
It is important you understand how Google search engine works.
So before we get into how to get seen at the top of the SERPs, let’s see how Google searches work. There are two major types of search results. One where the user is trying to find generic information, and the second where they are asking Google for specific recommendations based on location. Say, the user searches for ‘Best Dog Breeds,’ it doesn’t look like the searcher is looking to buy a dog breed, or finding the best place to buy one. He only seems to be looking for information. These results are generated based on complex and ever-evolving Google algorithms to provide the best informative piece of content online. As a business, you will not really generate much interest from these searches.
It is the second type, the local searches, that will have the greatest impact on your business. This is when an internet user searches for ‘Best Dental Practices in Melbourne.’ This is where the searcher is looking for information to help make purchasing decisions. You want to make sure that you are one of the top options Google suggests to its users.
Why, you ask? Because 88% of Australian adults own smart phones, the number of near-me searches or local searches has grown by 500% in Australia in the last two years and because 76% of the people who will conduct a local search on their smartphones will actually go and visit that place!
The Google search engine has huge potential to grow new patient flow to your practice and remind existing patients why they should be coming back to you.
Explaining Google algorithms for making it to the top of SERPs would perhaps require a dedicated blog or e-book all on its own; however, there is one element that has become exceedingly popular and can greatly help you crawl up the local search engine results – the reviews.
By only focusing on this one element – achieving top rankings so that your practice shows up on top of the SERPs, can grow your business exponentially. Here is the breakdown of everything you need to know about reviews and how to successfully integrate them into your business.
The Importance of Online Reviews
Online reviews have really taken the community by storm, and one of the main reasons is the ease of accessibility. Say you go to a restaurant; you have a great or really bad experience. You want to rant or rave about it. So you take your smartphone out and start talking about it. Give it a 5 or a 1 star and then go on your merry way thinking you have done your bit to provide helpful information to anyone else wishing to visit the place – and you have!
The only problem is that the people leaving the reviews are only those customers that are extremely motivated to do so. The only people talking are the ones who had some sort of a ‘life changing’ experience at the restaurant or a hotel or dental practice. Not many people are going to get online and say ‘So I went for a root canal and it went fine, I don’t have any pain.’
That is highly unlikely; the only patients who are likely to do this are the ones that either had a bad experience, or an extremely satisfying one where the root canal was paired with a very friendly dentist. The good or ‘uneventful’ experiences where the cavity was filled or the teeth were cleaned would hardly get a review. Hence, the reviews – if left simply to those motivated to do them wouldn’t truly be a fair reflection of the service that you provide.
Tips on Getting Reviews from Patients
Make sure they leave a review before they leave the practice Because by the time they hit the road or get home, their minds have wandered to other tasks and the chances of them leaving a review become quite low.
Don’t influence their decision. For instance, don’t ask them to ‘leave a five star review.’ Just request them to be honest and talk about their experience.
Ideally you should have around 100 reviews before you can finally start seeing results on Google SERPs.
Make the process exceedingly easy. The main reason a patient might be reluctant to leave a review would be they wouldn’t really know where to go or how to leave a review. Provide links via SMS or email that would direct them to exactly where the review needs to be left.
Ideally your practice should make it above 3.3 star rating in order to reap results. Research shows that anything below 3.3 would not even be given a second glance by the consumer. However, a good rating, what you should truly be aiming for is an organically generated 4.0 star rating. A rating of above 4 also ensures that Google recommends you when someone looks for ‘the best dental service.’ So where the word ‘best’ comes in, you need to be above 4 to show up. So focus both on quality and quantity of reviews.
These are just some of the tips and tricks to get on top of local searches on Google. Reviews are not just great for attracting new patients but are also effective in team building and team performance. However, know that Google is an evolving machine and in order to keep up, you need to stay updated and evolve with it!
P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:
Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”
The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here
2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too
It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here
3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event
Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
In this episode of the Savvy Dentist Podcast, Taylor Cutler, Director of Marketing in Australia and New Zealand for Podium. Podium is a multi-product platform that gives businesses and their customers the most convenient experience possible – from reviews to messaging and insights.
In this conversation we talk about online marketing trends, general versus local google searches, getting online reviews from clients and practical tips on marketing and reviews that you can apply in your practice today.
In this episode we discuss:
[00:40] The story of how he found his way into the space of online marketing and marketing in general.
[01:54] Latest trends on searches in Google particularly in local search.
[03:16] Difference between general search versus local search.
[05:30] Specific searches versus broad searches by location.
[08:29] The trend of getting online reviews for businesses.
[10:02] Problems on getting reviews from clients.
[11:58] Tips on how to ask for reviews from clients.
[17:32] Views on asking for 5 star reviews or feedback.
[18:49] Number of reviews a practice needs before they become a referral source in their own right
[19:30] Four things google looks at when determining local search rankings.
[22:23] How reviews affect team recruitment or employee applications.
[24:08] The things that are making a difference, adding value, and creating loyalty to customer experience.
Anyone who has thumbed through the shelves looking for a good read on succeeding in business or ever considered enrolment in an entrepreneurial program will recognise Verne Harnish as a giant in the world of business strategy. He is a true empire builder – the true Master of Scale. In this blog I share Verne’s insights on entrepreneurship. His success as Founder of the Entrepreneur’s Organisation and Gazelle’s Growth Institute led him to writing some of the globe’s most well know business books – Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, Scaling Up and The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time.
His wisdom has grown from his many years in the hotseat: building a ground breaking business – losing everything – rebuilding from scratch and then scaling his enterprises to achieve global recognition. He works daily to help thousands of others scale their businesses, manoeuvre through the economic challenges, tackle their competition and win. His strategies will help align your goals with real time execution. Let’s unpack some of Verne’s tips.
Tip 1: Cash is King
Cash is king. Bill Gates had a rule. That was to have a year’s worth of operating expenses available in cash in the bank at any one time. It’s a great way of insulating yourself against any of life’s possible traumas, be they personal illness, mishaps, or downturns in your business.
When you have cash to lean on you are no longer focused on getting through the month. You can invest your energy at a higher level – do the critical thinking that will drive you towards success. You will have a clear head and sleep a whole lot better. Both of these things are good for entrepreneurs.
Tip 2: Pay your Wife First
As business owners we all know the importance of paying ourselves first. But driven business people are focused on achieving a dream and that dream may come at a cost. It can result in a lack of financial management, cost control and or planning, financially, for their retirement. Verne Harnish identifies that the partners and families of entrepreneurs often see money come in and go out quickly, as their partner treads the rough and tumble path of entrepreneurship.
Partners and wives are very good at seeing what the busy tycoon doesn’t. Verne recommends you “pay your wife first”. It is important to make sure you are providing the peace of mind your family needs to reduce the inherent stress that comes with loving those who are working like mad to push the boundaries of business.
Tip 3: Get your People Right
Verne Harnish is spot on when he says …You hire the right people and your life is easy. You hire the wrong people and your life is miserable.
It is important to get your people right. Put your energy into knowing who you need and exactly what you want them to achieve. Give them the tools and resources they need, and just as importantly, make sure they know how to get the maximum results from the resources they have.
Tip 4: Know your three-brand promise – and nail it
Do you know what your three brand promises are? You can’t satisfy all people all of the time so it is critical to know what you can promise and what you can successfully deliver. Take the time to decide on your strategy and nail it. Be willing to surround yourself with people smarter than you – and be willing to listen to them. Get a good handle on what you want your patients to experience – what you can promise and drive your team’s performance to make sure that a fabulous patient experience is executed – and executed very well.
Tip 5: Execute
Execution is everything. Getting the basics right is really important. So you need to ask yourself and your team. “Hey guys…Here is our goal. So how are we going to make this happen. What do we need to do – day in – day out. How will we execute to make sure our phones are answered, our patient’s comeback to us, their experience is pain free…etc etc”. You need to make communication a focal point – communication with your team will improve their communication with patients.
Tip 6: You must have Daily Huddles
A fabulous huddle should be a number one priority in any professional service business. This should be a stand-up meeting with a very tight agenda. Key topics should be Who is coming in today, What can we do to make their experience exceptional, What troubles are we having? As leader your job is to make the life of your team members easier. Give the team the resources and tools to get the job done. The huddle provides a great opportunity for leaders to reinforce strategy – provide support to team – give direction that keeps the team focused on delivering that fabulous patient experience.
Tip 7: Make everyone an educator – a sales agent
No one likes to be sold – but we all like to be educated. It is important to teach everyone in your team to be an educator. They must know how to respond to patient inquiries with honesty, skill and confidence. Everyone – including the receptionist – must know how to educate patients and upsell when it is appropriate.
Tip 8: Have a one-page plan – know where you are going
It is important to have a one-page strategic plan – a one-page business plan and a one-page personal plan. We all know that our business life and our personal lives are intermingled. So it is important to ensure you take into account the impacts of those opportunities and challenges, and what consequences may roll over from one area of your life to the other. These one page plans can be used to guide you when making decisions by acting to reinforce your priorities and goals and to help filter your responses. Hop across to scaling up.com and grab some resources that support Verne’s top tips.
P.S. Whenever you’re ready …. here are 4 ways I can help you grow your dental practice:
Grab a free chapter from my book “Retention – How to Plug the #1 Profit Leak in Your Dental Practice”
The book is the definitive guide to patient retention and how to use internal marketing to grow your practice – Click Here
2. Join the Savvy Dentist community and connect with dentists who are scaling their practice too
It’s our Facebook group where clever dentists learn to become commercially smart so that they have more patients, more profit and less stress. – Click Here
3. Attend a Practice Max Intensive live event
Our 2 day immersive events provide access to the latest entrepreneurial thinking and actionable strategies to drive your practice forward. You’ll leave with a game plan to take your results to the next level. If you’d like to join us, just send me a message with the word “Event and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
4. Work with me and my team privately
If you’d like to work directly with me and my team to take your profit from 6 figures to 7 figures …. just send me a message with the word “Private”… tell me a little about your practice and what you would like to work on together, and I’ll get you all the details! – Click here
