Three things Dentist can learn from Politicians

Dentistry is one of the most competitive and rewarding sectors in the health fraternity. Financially, it is going through a blended patch worldwide. In some areas, it is blooming but in some areas, there is no growth. That said, dentistry ranks in the top 5 highest paying careers.

Our first concern in dentistry should be our patients and their well-being. You must always strive to do what is best for them. Over the years, you may have analysed countless dental practices and coached numerous dental clients. Dentists can learn three most common and important attributes (reliable predictors of uncommon success) from politicians:

Earn more and stress less (key to success)

Success in dentistry depends on the ability to manage both clinical and practical management skills. You have to hone your skills to balance both the skills. Enhancing helps in diagnosing and treating patients better. Here are few tips to success in dentistry:

• Count the number of new patients every month.
• Cost of acquiring a new patient.
• Enhance your clinical as well as practice management skills

Dentists spend a significant amount of time and money enhancing and upgrading their clinical skills. But, they come back to their clinics with the same management complications, they left with. They are now able to offer incredible dentistry to patients, but there are no takers. Patients don’t respond only to clinical skills but see lot of aspects.

The most important aspect which you need to know is the number of new patients visit your clinic every month. This is critical because you always want to feed the funnel with new patients. Your patient base is one of your most precious assets and the key to your success. Building a relationship with your patients will increase the steady inflow of new complaints.

The third thing which you need to know is what it costs you to acquire a new patient. This is also called cost of acquisition. Obtaining a patient is usually viewed as an expense, but you need to modify your thinking to see each new patient as an asset. Many people look for the cheapest way to acquire new patients. This is not the profession to be cheap. You need to be happier, stress-free and efficient surrounding for the whole dental team and that is when you really attain success in dentistry. This synthesis is crucial to your success.

• Establish goals with accountability

Dentists learn long-term vision from politicians, but interpreting their vision is important for their goals. Their behaviours are routinely tracked, analyzed and adjusted.

It is all about keeping the tension in the right areas, and keeping team members engaged and accountable. You must establish specific goals and chart the progress of things like:

• Case acceptance rates
• Hourly productivity
• Invitations
• Retention and new patient flow

It’s like having a “dashboard” of signs that ensures that every day is on purpose and that any slippage can be immediately identified and corrected.

• Invest in yourself and your team

The most important revenue-generating asset in dentistry is you and the people around you. So, if you are not growing and educating in an organized way you will become a quickly depreciating asset. The most significant thing is to know from the beginning that equipment and technology upgrades are not the expenses to be endured when the money is there for it. These are the most valuable re-investments that protect and enhance the worth of your practice and keep you at the leading edge of the profession.

There are many paths to success in dentistry but there are few core principles (stated in this article) which are common to the best politicians and one can learn from them.