How do you increase your profits so you can start making your dreams of a new facility into reality? The "Z" factor offers you a framework in which to systematically grow your practice. The comprehensive re-evaluation for your patients/guests approach allows you to do so with maximum potential for success with a low degree of risk.
The Z Factor.
When growing any business, you start in the areas with the highest potential for success and the lowest risk to the business. The "Z"factor illustrated below shows that the easiest way to increase your profits is to start with your current patients/guests and offer your current services/products. These people know you and trust you, and they are the ones most likely to buy from you because of this established relationship. Your current services and products are easiest to offer them because you have the confidence in your skills and knowledge-and your existing guests/patients already know it. In other words, they know you, and you know your stuff.
The next step in building a business has a little more risk: offering new services/products to established customers. Your current patients/guests know you and trust you, but because you are offering a new service/product, you might not be as confident in your skills. Isn’t that why you practice most new procedures on your staff or family first? If the procedure isn’t quite as successful as promised, they will understand, and you can make it right without losing a valued patient/guest.
The next highest risk in growing your practice is offering current services/products to new patients/guests. This carries higher risk because, although you are confident in your skills, you haven’t established a relationship with these people, so there may still be a question of trust. You and your team’s ability to quickly establish rapport with new patients can positively impact this transaction.
The last scenario is the riskiest and the least likely to succeed, but unfortunately it’s where most small businesses begin: offering new services/products to new patients/guests. This is such a risky position for obvious reasons: You are not totally confident in your skills, and your customers are strangers coming into your practice.
Comprehensive Re-evaluation. So how do you most easily grow your practice? Because you're focused on maximizing potential for profit and minimizing degree of risk (a smart move for anyone planning a new facility), start with making sure your current guests have had access to your current products, and your new products. This is a simple strategy taught for many years in the Dental Concierge® program with consistent success.
Only after you have begun to offer all of your guests the best should you then consider the implementation of an external marketing program to start working on the final two "zags" of the Z. Don't jump the gun! Since you can anticipate a six- to nine-month lead time in implementing your external marketing program, start developing your marketing plan today. With a new facility in mind, if you develop a new logo/Image or increase fees- do it long before the move, so as not to alienate your long term guests with the changes or have them tie the fee increase to the new facility.
You might be asking how you get your long-term guests to accept the best when they have been with your practice for years-and already thought they were getting the best. First, recognize that they were getting the best you could do at that time. But that was then, and this is now.
Invite them back for the comprehensive re-evaluation, the same kind of exam you'd give a new guest, but this one is for your loyal guests to ensure that they're getting the best you have to offer now
Let's say the patient is in hygiene and you're going to give them a chance to say "yes to the best."Here's one way you'd talk about it:
Joe, you have two fillings in your lower right bicuspids. They are fine. I know they are, because I did them myself. I thought you'd like to know that over the years, the art and science of dentistry has improved. We now have new materials and techniques that weren't available before. I have completed a master's training in aesthetic care. If you wanted the best I could do for you, the best dentistry has to offer, you could replace those fillings with a more natural-looking, state-of-the-art material. You don't need them, but I feel all my guests have the right to know the best I can do for them. I would like to invite you to come back for a comprehensive re-evaluation to lay out a game plan for the best we have to offer you now.
The words work yet the concept is what's most important. It's a simple truth that the art and science of dentistry has improved over the years, and you do have new techniques, materials and training. These long-term guests come to you because they trust your judgment-and you've explained up front that they don't need anything-but they at least have a right to know the best dentistry has to offer. You'd be surprised how many patients will have an interest. In particular, practices developing their focused components will have many existing guests willing to take advantage of the new level of care.
When your practice implements the "Z"factor and the comprehensive re-evaluation, you can enjoy significant growth with low risk. Take those increased profits and apply them to an overall business investment strategy, and be prepared to see your practice soar-and your new facility to be a boon to your business.
| 
