Month: October 2011

Someone asked me recently to describe our most successful private coaching clients. I started rattling off all of the traits of our star clients and it became VERY clear to me that they have some common traits. Our most successful coaching outcomes have been from dentists who are: strong leaders from within, have a deep respect for their hygiene team, are people of action; they take charge with tasks and are incredibly decisive.

Finally, the most successful client outcomes we experience come from dentists who are willing to invest in themselves and their teams in order to provide the best care possible to their patients and are willing to do the work it takes to get to the next level.

Occasionally, we like to share some of these success stories with you. I couldn’t be more proud of Dr. Kimber Holmes and her entire team!

Here’s a short video we did at the end of their private workshop day where we detailed the perio program and looked at how to clear the obstacles that were standing in their way of getting to the next level.

If you keep reading, you’ll see some of their results. They were already doing really good, but Dr. H is committed to doing whatever it takes to get their practice to the next level.

Stay Inspired,
Rachel

Invite Them to be GREAT!

In his book You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader, Mark Sanborn says that so often we’re worried about others (kids, clients, team members) doing a GOOD job that we forget to invite them to be GREAT!

I have to give Dr. Holmes kudos for inviting her to team to step up. And step up they did! Here are some of their results:

• Calibrated a team of 5 hygienists with regard to the hygiene exam process, perio diagnostics and treatment systems
• Implemented a clear, consistent, comprehensive perio program
• Admin team loves the new hygiene handoff and how educated the patients are that they have few questions and the treatment plans coming from hygiene are clear and concise
• Doubled their perio percentage and increased hygiene production by nearly $50/hour in only 2 months!!

Here’s the bottom line…even though Dr. Holmes’ team was already doing a good job, she had so much confidence in them as high-level clinicians, she empowered her team to achieve a level of greatness far exceeding their expectations.

I can’t wait to go back for my 2^nd visit next month for us to work on their next phase of growth…restorative co-diagnosis in hygiene!

So…leader…. how are you going to invite your team to greatness?

I am soooo excited to have Dr. Richard Nagelberg as my guest on this month’s Hygiene Profits Mastermind special topic call.  Dr. Nagelberg is the dental industry’s expert on the perio-systemic link and he’s been a guest speaker on our Profitable Perio Online Workshop series for 3 years in a row.  Together on this call, we’ll give you the nitty gritty of what you need to know about the connection between periodontal disease and cardiovascular diseases based on a consensus between the Journal of Cardiology and the Journal of Periodontology.

We’ll share what you MUST know from this article including:

• The primary reason for the difference in severity of perio disease from one patient to another
• Whether antibiotics really are a necessary adjunct to non-surgical perio treatment
• How to share this information to increase case acceptance of perio therapy

If you’re not a member of the Hygiene Profits Mastermind, click here to learn more and join!

Stay Inspired,

Rachel

If you haven’t figured it by now, Stacy and I share a lot in common both professionally and personally. During a recent business trip, she and I were reflecting about the influence our dads had in our lives.

My dad owned his own business and had a passion for being an entrepreneur. Stacy shared that her dad always worked 2 jobs. To say he was hard working and committed is an understatement. She told me that if he committed to something, he’d do whatever it took to get the job done. So I can clearly see where she gets her strong will and work ethic from (thanks Dad!).

We celebrate the fact that, although both have passed on, their constant encouragement, mentorship, unconditional love, and drive, set us both on a path of being independent, hard working, entrepreneurial women. What an incredible gift a dad can give his little girl, huh?

We’ve both had some very powerful mentors in our lives and we’ll share them with you from time to time. One of those influential mentors is our private business coach, Fabienne Fredrickson. You’ve probably heard me mention Fabienne before here and on Facebook. I feel that if I’m going to encourage YOU to have a coach for your business, I must invest in a coach myself.

One thing Fabienne always says to us is “If you’re interested, you’ll do what’s convenient. If you’re committed, you’ll do whatever it takes.”

It just so happens we were with Fabienne yesterday for our annual planning session for 2012 and she really put our feet to the fire to create some new programs and content to serve you at an even higher level. It’s going to take us really stepping it up and we are committed. So scroll down to read more about doing whatever it takes in the 86 days left before 2012…

Stay Inspired,

Rachel

Setting Goals = Getting Results!

One of the tasks during our annual planning and strategy session is to set goals for next year. But if all you do is set goals, you’ll get part of the way there but if you don’t first know where you’re starting and next, set S.M.A.R.T. goals, you might not get quite as far as you’d like.

Have you and your team made a plan for what you want to achieve in 2012? Are the goals S.M.A.R.T.? Let’s take a look

Specific: A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal.

EXAMPLE:  A general goal would be, “Decrease openings in hygiene schedule.” A specific goal would say, “Based on the recent hygiene analysis showing 17% open time in hygiene, we will immediately implement a new confirmation protocol to reduce defects in the schedule to less than 10% by the beginning of next quarter.”

Measurable – Establish measureable criteria for tracking progress toward the attainment of each goal you set.

When you measure your progress, you stay on track. It’s always powerful when we work with a team that starts at 3% perio and watch them track their progression to 10%, 15%, then 20% perio.

Attainable – Attainable goals should be set so that the doctor and the team have to “stretch” a little bit in order to achieve it. “Stretching” doesn’t mean setting unrealistic goals.

EXAMPLE: A goal such as, “Our practice will have no defects in the schedule EVER!” is counterproductive because it sets the team up for failure. Absolute schedule perfection in our industry is nearly impossible. However, based on your recent hygiene analysis, if open time is now at 20%, an attainable goal could be to cut the open time in half in the next 90 days.

Relevant– To be relevant, a goal must represent an objective that the doctor and team are emotionally committed to.

EXAMPLE: If the fact that 75%-80% of Americans have some form of periodontal disease shocks you, you’ll use the fact that your hygiene analysis report showed only 13% of the procures billed out of hygiene are perio-related as your emotionally-relevant motivator. The implications that untreated periodontal disease can have on systemic health make this piece critical in patient care.

Timely -With out a timeline keeping you committed, a goal easily falls off your radar.

EXAMPLE: A goal phrased like this, is not likely to be attained: “Someday I’d like to implement assisted hygiene in my practice.” A timeline specific goal makes all the difference. “By May of next year, I will have a seamless assisted hygiene program implemented in this practice.”

Having a starting point, a place to then measure your growth on, is key to any practice’s success. Our detailed 5 Point Hygiene Analysis Report and Virtual Chart Audit is THE KEY to unlocking areas of opportunity hidden in your hygiene department.

We feel so strongly about the value this analysis brings to our clients, that we’re offering the Hygiene Analysis Report to all new clients through the end of October at a special rate. For one time only in 2011, we’re offering this report at only $997 (Regularly $1,200). If you’re interested in knowing how you stack up compared to other hygiene departments, if you’d like to find the missing link that’s holding your hygiene department back from growing, then call Margo at 877-237-7230 or email her at Margo@InspiredHygiene.com to see if the Hygiene Analysis may be the first step in planning for major growth in your hygiene department in 2012.

I know what you’re thinking…’Rachel went to some kooky Mindset retreat and now she’s going to try and teach us all this stuff’. And it’s true, I did go to a 3-day Mindset retreat and while it wasn’t the first time I’ve heard all this, it blows me away how these concepts translate into every business, even a dental practice.

Here we are with our business coach and mentor, Fabienne Fredrickson at the retreat earlier this week. Read on to find how what you believe on the inside TOTALLY effects how you communicate with patients.

Stay Inspired,

Rachel

Are You Struggling Inside AND Out??
You’ve heard me talk before about the critical task of ‘Finding Your Why’. In fact, I have an entire course I teach on the concept of finding the deep down reason why you recommend a power brush over a manual brush, just for example. Or why you recommend perio therapy rather than a prophy when you see active infection.

The next step is to clear up any internal struggles you have with the treatment you recommend. One of the concepts we learned at the Mindset Retreat is this:

If there’s a struggle on the inside, there’s always a struggle on the outside.

So how does this translate to you as a dentist, hygienist or office manager? If you have a struggle on the inside with the cost of a procedure or you’re just not sure it’s necessary, there will always be a struggle recommending and enrolling it.

So if you have an internal conflict about the value of a crown, you may know in your head that it’s a valuable procedure but in your heart you may still think ‘why can’t we just do a filling that would last awhile and cost a lot less’. You’re not alone.

My advice is that you MUST find out the answers to those internal questions. You must get the information you need to resolve that internal struggle. Because if you don’t believe in the care you’re recommending, your patients won’t believe in it either.

If it’s an operative procedure, sit down with your doctor and have her explain to you why a crown is a better treatment than a large filling in that situation. If you’re a doctor, be sure you’re taking photos during the prep for all restorations. This will give your team a good, hard look at what’s really going on under that big, old filling. They can then see exactly how much decay is under it and how much tooth structure is gone which will give them the strong evidence needed to see why you recommend a crown.

And this is just one example. The same can be true for perio therapy, use of antibiotics with SRP, etc.

So the bottom line is, if you’re feeling an internal struggle when you are expected to recommend a certain service or procedure, find out what it is you need to resolve that. What do you need to know to totally believe in the value (monetary and health value) in that service! Until you do, your enrollment may be a struggle.