Popcorn is a great snack for referring teams to have in their staff room that everyone can share and enjoy all day long. You can drop off a quick and inexpensive gift of a 3-pack box of microwave popcorn along with a “poppin’ by” tag (link below) or a custom tag you create. Or create a popcorn party with a container of multiple flavors available from many shopping mall kiosks.
DIRECTOR OF COACHING
Success in every endodontic practice is the result of a series of factors: teamwork, systems, scheduling, clinical productivity, marketing, revenues, expenses, etc. How these factors come together ultimately determines whether the practice is effectively responding to opportunities and challenges … or falling short in some way.
There are multiple ways that a practice can under-perform. For example, it can under-perform in terms of daily enjoyment, team unity, or professional satisfaction. However, it’s no surprise that the most common measure of performance is financial. A business is a means to an income for the owner, and income supports the rest of their life and their family.
Defining under-performance
Fundamentally, the financial success of an endodontic practice comes down to how well the doctor’s time (as the only revenue “producer” in the practice) is scheduled. At Endo Mastery, our goal is for doctors to efficiently utilize their team so that they can provide diagnosis and treatment to patients while being neither rushed nor idle during the day.
If you consider how long the typical endodontic procedure takes from bur-to-tooth to obturation, most practices are under-performing. In an 8 or 9-hour day, a doctor properly supported by their team and systems should be able to comfortably and predictably complete at least 6 to 8 cases per day by minimum standards.
By comparison, the average practice is completing 3 to 4 cases per day. So that’s a 50% performance gap. Even though doctors often sense their practice is under-performing, they often don’t realize the full extent because their existing processes, systems and team utilization obscure (or even suppress) their true potential.
Lost opportunity costs
Since expenses are sunk costs, increasing practice performance by just 1 more daily case completion adds as much as $250,000 to the practice’s bottom line, assuming typical fees and days worked per year. 2 cases add half a million dollars to practice profits, which easily more than doubles the income of the doctor.
Over 10 years, improved practice performance can result in a $5 million bonus for the doctor. That’s a very real number that isn’t based on becoming a root canal factory, but simply improving your existing team and systems to be more efficiently aligned to the practice’s potential.
With so much opportunity for income growth, the cost of waiting to act is so much higher than the cost of investing in your team and systems to achieve your potential. Almost any meaningful effort you make to close your performance gap is going to pay off very quickly because endodontics is almost 100% profit beyond your breakeven point on expenses.
Where to begin
For most practices, closing the performance gap is about enhancing the teamwork and systems that you already have. Better marketing, scheduling and delegation are essentials on that path to growth. Because most doctors are already time broke, limits around self-implementation are frequently the biggest barrier preventing growth.
Almost always, the best approach is choosing the right advisers to work with the team. Endo Mastery coaches are experts in guiding practices to evolve to the next level of success. We use a team-driven approach that frees the doctor to focus on great clinical care.
The best place to begin is with a practice analysis, so you have a clear understanding of your practice potential along with the income and lifestyle potential for the doctor. Endo Mastery offers a complimentary practice analysis that you can schedule with me at the link below.
OWNER & CO-FOUNDER
For everyone, including you and your team members, the need to earn a living is a fact of life. You probably spend more time at work than any other single activity in your life, except for sleeping.
If your work environment is one that you are only enduring and not enjoying, it drains your energy. Creating a workplace in which enjoyment thrives alongside patient care and productivity is vital. Here are some ways to evolve your practice and team culture so that you are having fun every day:
Remove key stress factors
Fun in the practice takes its cues from you as the practice owner. If you are sullen and gloomy because of stress, your team culture is going to reflect your negative energy. By far, the top stress factors for many endodontists are persistent financial stress and unbalanced time stress. Both factors are particularly poisonous because they affect more than just your practice; you carry that stress into your family life as well.
Removing financial stress, such as debt and cashflow concerns, and restoring work-life balance are primarily achieved by increasing practice profitability. That often means making a strategic decision to invest in team-driven growth at a time when your “stress brain” is telling you to resist change, pull back, and batten down the hatches. You are usually your own worst counsellor in this situation, and it’s best to rely on an expert coach.
Hire for attitude
Having fun is a lot easier when you are working with team members who have the right attitude, are team focused, and have a personality that contributes to office harmony and enjoyment. When the hiring market is so competitive and in-depth training is a necessity regardless of who you find, hire people with the right attitude. Similarly, sometimes you need to fire for attitude. If someone on your team is consistently creating issues and toxic drama for you and everyone else, it’s time to move them on.
Praise and celebrate
I can tell you without a doubt that every person on your team appreciates recognition and praise. As often as you can, regularly provide genuine praise to each and every team member. It doesn’t have to be showy. In fact, it’s best as a one-on-one personalized moment that enhances your professional relationship and creates an uplifting positive vibe for your team member.
Equally important are celebrations, which should be something the whole team can enjoy. Every day, the team should celebrate something. It can be personal milestones like birthdays or employment anniversaries. It can be special events like holidays. It can be celebrating a new referrer, hitting a productivity goal, or any number of practice-related factors. The point is to create a feel-good moment that unites everyone.
Lead by example
As the doctor, you set the tone for the team. If you are making an effort to enjoy every day, and you try to help your team enjoy every day too, the team will follow your lead. If you’re always smiling, your team members will be smiling. If you share funny stories or good-natured jokes, your team will also. It’s an infectious process and you are the primary carrier.
Your leadership is especially important when things aren’t perfect. “Stuff happens” and you’ve got to separate how you may feel in the moment from how your team needs to be led by you. By all means, if the moment requires corrective action, then take it. But for the little, inconsequential, inadvertent or accidental things, shake it off with a laugh that puts everyone at ease.
Provide vision and motivation
Don’t underestimate the importance of giving your team a vision. Shared effort and achievement around goals enhances team unity and strengthens interpersonal bonds. Teams that know how to work together to conquer goals are teams that can enjoy each other and have fun together. A strong guiding vision also prevents distractions (such as personal issues or gossip) from interfering with teamwork.
Connected with your vision and goals can be motivation tools such as a team bonus system. A bonus system should be a meaningful opportunity for the team to take part in the practice’s growth and success. It “gamifies” the practice’s goals and creates a fun focal point around which team celebrations can occur. A great bonus system creates the opportunity for daily celebrations.
"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success."
Consistent use of your logo helps build brand recognition and keep your practice top-of-mind by referring doctors and their teams. The more people see your logo, they more they will remember you.
Marketing coordinators should have a supply of logo and endo-themed items that can be given to (or included in anything mailed to) a referrer office. Stickers are a great and easy way to customize any pop-by marketing gift and give a touch of professional branding to anything you do. There are lots of options and you can check out the website below to spark your ideas!
DIRECTOR OF COACHING
Referrals account for practically all productivity in an endodontic practice. Referral analysis and keeping track of referring doctor relationships is core business requirement. Here are some tips on what your referral analysis should include, and key factors you should focus on during your monthly referral meeting with your marketing coordinator.
Referral activity and history
For each referrer, list their referral activity. This includes the total number of referrals for the last 2 completed calendar years, the total number of referrals year-to-date for the current calendar year, and the number of referrals each month in the current calendar year.
Sort your list by the number of referrals year-to-date for the current calendar year in descending order. That will give you overview of your top referrers at the top of the list and your least frequent referrers at the bottom of the list.
Referrer category
Assign categories to each referrer based on their year-to-date referral activity:
Referral pattern analysis
Assign categories to each referrer based on their year-to-date referral activity:
Target doctors
The referral pattern analysis finds GPs who require marketing attention with a targeted strategy. Both negative and positive patterns need to be addressed.
Certainly, any doctor who is dropping down in category, falling short in their referrals in the last two months, or behind the trend of their own referrals from last year should be visited by your marketing coordinator. Something is happening and the sooner you know, the sooner you can take steps to correct it. For example:
Likewise, positive patterns need to be reinforced. Doctors who have shifted up in categories, are referring more than they usually do, and new referrers should all be discussed individually, and a strategy chosen. For example:
In addition to the target doctors found each month through positive and negative trending, your marketing coordinator should also select 5 referrers in the B or C category for a 3-month focus campaign. Visit these doctors monthly as if they were A referrers, offering pop-by gifts and other surprises, and then watch if their referral patterns shift.
