Peter got lucky.  He just didn’t know it.  He was scheduled for three posterior composite resin fillings.  There was some extra time in my schedule, thanks to the current economic situation, and to take advantage I thought I would attempt to create “the best damn fillings ever.

With no time pressure and Pete’s total cooperation, I entered into a “flow state.”  I stayed focused on the task at hand, but since I am not a Zen master, my mind began to wander.  The name, Honus Wagner entered my brain.

A new TV commercial played in my head.  Maybe you have seen it.  A kid throws a baseball over to two guys standing in a driveway.  One of the men takes the scruffy ball and notices it’s a signed Honus Wagner baseball.  And although it’s not the highly coveted baseball card, Honus Wagner’s signature on a baseball is worth between $5000-$6000.

The other guy takes the ball without realizing the value and tosses it back to his dog.  Then he notices the gorgeous Audi A8 in the background and comments on its beauty.

This TV ad does a wonderful job of describing the difficulty businesses have in educating people on the quality and value of their products and services.  I wondered, just at that moment, how much Pete would appreciate the hard work I was putting into his fillings.  Or would they just be another thing he checked off on his daily to do list.

I really took my time to create beautiful restorations, and I didn’t want my efforts to go unappreciated.  So I asked Pete if he saw the commercial.  He said he did, although he wasn’t a baseball fan.  But he did know who Honus Wagner was.

I was making progress.

I felt better already…my work would be honored.

After spending over an hour with these fillings, I was ready to present my masterpiece.

My assistant handed Pete a mirror.  He looked.  I helped him see.

“Very nice,” he said.

That’s it, “very nice.”  No “Wow?”

I sat him up in the chair.  I knew what I did, these were three great restorations.  I told him that on this morning he received the equivalent of 3 Honus Wagner baseballs.  Maybe now he would know how lucky he was that morning.

Dentists need to make their patients aware of the times that they go out of their way to provide high quality dentistry for them.  Hopefully it is most of the time.  There are forces in our culture these days that try to convince patients that dental work is a commodity.  Our profession must take every opportunity to show them that our work stands out…just like those people at Audi did with their wonderfully create ad.

Great communicators are all around us.  What is it that makes someone really connect with their audience?  In other words what is it that makes someone engaging?

As a blogger, I have consistently tried to find the key to creating compelling content.  That is the “buzzword” that is used by the writing gurus—create compelling content.  Create relevant content.

So I watch TED,  to study great presenters.  When I read other blogs I always look for the factors that keep me glued to the page.  For fun I study great improvisational stars like Wayne Brady and Jerry Seinfeld.

Last week I was watching some YouTube videos of Bill Cosby.  I grew up watching Cosby.  Young people these days don’t appreciate what a great comedian he was…and still is.  He has so many “classic routines.”  The one readers of this blog might be interested in is “The Dentist.”

Take a look:

Click here to view the embedded video.

While watching I realized that Cosby’s skit was a great story.  It contained all of the components of story...exposition (how people generally feel about dentists), rising action (each particular incident or possible turning point), crisis and resolution.  Of course he added much of the laughs…but as dentists we don’t really need to be comedians…just storytellers.

Our patients come to us with their own individual set of circumstances…our story reveals how and why patients come to us.  We expose their struggles with the common obstacles to completing treatment…money, fear, time, trust and sense of urgency.  We explain whta they did to overcome those obstacles, and finally we show our completed cases.  These stories engage.

Cosby didn’t make that story up.  He borrowed it from his own experiences with the dentist…it was very authentic…engaging and compelling.  That is why he has connected with so many people through the years.  He delivers his messages in the form of story, something that business leader Annette Simmons says is the best way to engage an audience.

As dentists we need to become master storytellers.  Tell stories from your own practice.  Engage your patients with great stories…use photography to tell your story.

My favorite Bill Cosby story is The Chicken Heart that Ate New York…enjoy:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What’s your favorite story?

Nothing feels better than doing meaningful dentistry.

Most dental practices run like businesses. Sometimes the dentist must step back and treat people with some common sense.
In my book The Art of the Examination, I told the story about Audrey. She was a patient with whom I connected right away because of a shared love of reading. I restored Audrey more than twenty years ago. Since that time, her health has failed. She is on dialysis, lives in an assisted living facility and has just about used up all of her funds.

But she continued to come in for her cleaning appointments every six months. The one thing in life that she really loved, reading, has now turned to listening to audio books, as her eyesight limited her first love to large print and then to no print.

Her dentistry, after all these years, I am sad to say, began to fail. A long span fixed bridge on the upper left developed caries. I condemned it. Remaking the bridge would be cost prohibitive for her.

What do you do?

Audrey spent her life trying to save her teeth and dreaded wearing anything removable.

So I invoked The Barkley Rule.

Dr. Robert Barkley practiced in the small town of Macomb, Illinois during the sixties. Dr. Bob Frazier, wrote in Lynn Carlisle’s blog (In A Spirit of Caring), in a wonderful 2003 biographical article that had Barkley lived (he died prematurely in a plane crash in 1977), he would have been as popular as any of today’s dental luminaries.

I had the opportunity to hear Barkley speak at my alma mater, The University of Penn Dental School in 1973. I became an immediate fan…and always remembered one story he told about a young high school girl who came to him for help during his early years of practice.

Barkley quoted the girl and her father a fee to save the girl’s teeth that was not affordable.

He lost track of the patient until a few years later when he saw her in a local Dairy Queen. He asked what had happened to her. To his utter shock and surprise, she told him that it was too expensive, so she went and had all her teeth extracted…

She now had full upper and lower dentures…she was barely twenty years old. He was so disheartened that he vowed never to quote a fee that was more than it would cost for dentures…if money was a barrier.

So that’s what I did for Audrey…I replaced the doomed bridge with a fixed bridge…for the cost of a flipper. And she needed installments to pay…

Really it was pro bono.

I have a coaching client who faced a similar situation recently. He too invoked the Barkley Rule. He replaced a twenty-year-old 6-unit bridge with an 8-unit bridge just so he could prevent his patient from going into a partial upper. He told me that his patient cried when he let her know.

Tom Brokaw once said:

“It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference.”

The long-term collateral benefits are too numerous too mention…can you think of any?

Study Clubs can help you develop your ideal practice.

Join up and learn.

Ever since I read Napoleon Hill’s classic book, Think and Grow Rich, I have been captivated by the concept of the “mastermind” group. Hill described the concept as,

“the coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony. No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind [the master mind].”

Every industry has its version of the mastermind group. In dentistry the formal variation has been called the “study club.” Study clubs offer a combination of masterminding, peer brainstorming, education, accountability and support in a group setting to sharpen your business and personal skills. A study club group helps you and your mastermind group members achieve success.

Dental study clubs provide an opportunity for dentists to “meet with” other dentists and their team members and to learn in a friendly, non-threatening environment…what Hill referred to as a spirit of harmony.

Tucker Study Club

According to the RV Tucker Dental Study Club website, “The original dental study club, the G.V. Black Study Club of Minneapolis/St. Paul, formed in 1898. That club was the inspiration and provided the mentors (Searle and Wiedelstadt) for the Odontological Study Club of Seattle formed in 1907. The Seattle Dental Study Club was formed in 1922 from the Odontological Study Club, but decided to restrict their study to direct gold restorations.” Today dental study clubs provide a major opportunity for dentists to meet with other dentists and dental team members and to learn in a friendly, non-threatening environment. They afford members the opportunity to increase their knowledge of and clinical skills in using new concepts, materials, techniques and devices.

Today, dentists have the opportunity to join local study clubs sponsored by groups such as Seattle Study Clubs, Spear Study Clubs and Pankey Study Clubs. This series of posts will discuss the benefits of study clubs, the various models of study clubs and the future of study clubs in our new connected digital world.

Benefits of Study Clubs…their ultimate purpose.

Increase your own experience and confidence – study clubs can act as Toastmasters for dentists.

Jerry Seinfeld said, “According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”

A big problem in dentistry is our inability to present confidently.

1. Sharpen your business and personal skills. Dentistry is more than technical skills. Pankey included behavioral skills when he said, “Know your work.”

2. Increase your clinical knowledge and skills. Some study clubs hold hands-on workshops that really help. Learn about new products and techniques.

3. Work with people who share your values. Engage in sharing practice and business philosophies.

4. Create real progress in your business and your life. Stay on the cutting edge of techniques and materials by being exposed to the very best speakers and ideas.

5. Add an instant and valuable support network. Interact with colleagues who share similar philosophies.

6. Get honest feedback, advice and brainstorming. Share problems and create solutions through brainstorming.

7. Borrow on the experience and skills of the other members. Both other generalists and specialists.

8. Create action plans and have the group hold you accountable for fulfilling your plans and goals. Stop living in a cave…have other study club members hold each other accountable.

9. Receive critical insights into yourself.

10. Seek optimistic peer support in maintaining a positive mental attitude.

11. Motivate yourself through a sense of shared endeavor – there are others out there!

The Future Purpose of Study Clubs

Historically, dentists aligned themselves with study clubs. Today a minimal number of younger dentists belong to study clubs. Dentists get their knowledge about new products and techniques from a variety of sources—some relatively reliable, others questionable. Dentists practice in caves…the study club concept needs to be revitalized. It is so interesting that with the Internet and social media dentists can take the study club concept to new heights.
One of the greatest advantages of study clubs is the potential for dentists to find their voice, individually and collectively.
Since the mission of this blog is to help dentists find their voice…I will be posting about how to create study clubs to help the individual dentist as well as the whole profession.
Please…let’s hear from you about your ideas.

For all the good dental marketing you do…one bad move can hurt your reputation.

Sometimes the sky isn't friendly.

We read about personal and business breakdowns everyday. In our web based world of instant communication…nothing goes unnoticed or unreported.
Take the story about the Southwest Airlines pilot who mistakenly left his mic open to reveal some pretty awful things about the way he thinks.

Not only did he let slip his homophobic feelings but he left his employers with a marketing mess that will take a lot of time and money to clean up. An Internet poll showed that 50% of people thought that the pilot was “just awful.” Southwest only disciplined the pilot, and that led to an outcry for his release.

Anthony Weiner anyone?

At a more local level the same thing can happen in our practices, because everyone in our practice is a marketer.
And I mean everyone…Look, we generally do not interact with the pilots on the planes we fly. We just deal with the ground and flight crews. Yet this employee who rarely deals with the public caused a lot of problems.

Why am I telling you this?

Because we usually focus on our immediate staff and ourselves when we think of marketing, yet anyone who interacts with us or our patients can make us look equally good or bad.

Think laboratory technicians and specialists…hey, even the Fed-ex guy.

I used to take it personally when patients would do something that I didn’t like. Somewhere along the line I realized that people don’t see us as individuals in the business but look at us as a collective. When something goes wrong they usually refer to our practice as “those people at.”

When the case comes back from the lab late…what does the patient say?
When the Fed-ex guy doesn’t deliver on time?
When the endodontist hurts your patient?
Or the staff member at the periodontist’s office that says something inappropriate?

Yes…Everyone on Your Team Markets.

So how do you train your team?

1. Lead by example. You are the CEO…become the change you want to see in the world, as Gandhi told us.

2. Make sure everyone on your staff understands your mission and purpose. The Pankey Institute teaches a principle of giving your specialists a “position paper,” describing your philosophy. The same could hold true of your laboratory. Every staff member should be acutely aware of your mission and purpose.

3. Everyone’s marketing role should be thoroughly explained. People shouldn’t be led to believe that their responsibilities end with completing their job. They need to be cognizant that their job has meaning to every customer…internal and external.

4. They are working with real people. I am lucky to have my own in-office dental lab. Patients are so appreciative that the lab has such a hands-on role in the practice. A good idea is to bring your tech into the practice to meet some of the big cases you are working on.

This lesson really hits home when you are the victim of apathy or poor service…then you, too, might say the same as the 50% of people polled about the Southwest pilot:

YOU’RE FIRED!

Do you remember how the media made fun of George H. W. Bush’s reference to not getting that “vision thing?”

Looking toward the future with vision.

Well call me crazy, but after practicing dentistry for over thirty-six years, I think I’ll join the ex-Prez, and say that I, too, don’t get that vision thing.

Oh, I understand it at an intellectual level. It certainly makes sense. Who am I to argue against Rhonda Byrne, the author of The Secret, or Brian Tracy the author of the classic book, Goals?

It’s just that when I was in dental school I had this vision of retiring by the time I was thirty-five. I saw myself living on the beach and yadda, yadda, yadda.

What do they say? “Man plans, and God laughs.”

Well that’s been my experience. Oh, I certainly have gotten close on a few things like writing my book, The Art of the Examination…not even close to the deadline I set. But I did do it, and the clarity wasn’t quite as focused as as I would have liked.

And really that is my point. We can only get a general idea of what we want, and if we continue to make decisions in that direction, we may just get there. But there are no guarantees.

I recently had a conversation with a good friend who asked me when I was going to retire from dentistry.
I told him I missed that date…January 1st, 1983. So here I am 28 years later trying to accomplish my long-term goal.
Or was it?
Maybe retiring wasn’t really my goal…my vision.
Maybe what I was really trying to create was what my mentor, Yaro Starak  calls a “lifestyle of freedom.”

Looking back now, it seems that I did accomplish THAT goal. I have not worked nights in over twenty years, I haven’t worked weekends in over twenty-five years, and these days I only work three days per week. I can live with that.

My friend pressed me for more information about my retirement.

I told him it would come in stages with the last stage being only working on certain patients, doing certain procedures and only in prime time.

He said that prime time is between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. or nights.

I told him not the patients’ prime time…my prime time.

You see the secret of vision isn’t clarity of dates, numbers and time like the gurus suggest with creating SMART goals. The secret is to be clear on your direction and what lies behind the dates and numbers. Delving into the discovery of a powerful “why” will get you there easier than creating a stringent detailed plan.

Now that’s a vision...and after all these years I just may get there,
God willing.

Here’s a formula to go out of business. 

Good enough to eat? You tell me.

We had a great hamburger restaurant in the neighborhood for years — mouthwatering burgers, an enormously diversified salad bar, cold beer on tap, and all at reasonable prices. They thrived.
Then the owners of the franchise decided to buy out the franchiser.

The first time we went for dinner under the “new ownership,” we hardly noticed anything different…until… the prices were increased by 20% without a change in the quality… and we now had to pay for the same salad bar that we used to get for free.

I told my wife that I was never coming back and would be surprised if they lasted 6 months.

They lasted three…there’s a For Sale sign up now.

What’s the lesson?

There are actually a few lessons. And I know you have similar stories to tell…I see it all the time.
I’m an average Joe…I just walked out without saying anything, never to return. Hopefully that doesn’t happen in your practice…but patients and customers rarely tell us when they are unhappy.
They just leave.

But the big lesson is one of Marketing’s Big Principles — Everything is Marketing.

Do you market your practice?
Of course you do, depending how you define marketing. For me it’s the creation and maintaining of the relationships with your patients…it’s a process by which we make impressions and create perceptions.
Marketing is every communication, every message, every image.

Anything that sends a message has a consequence…positive or negative in the minds of our patients.
Here’s a short list:

• how you look
• how you operate
• how you price
• how you answer the phone
• your website
• your clean operatory, and bathrooms
• your uniforms
• your signage
• your photography
• your language (scripting)
• your mindset (yes…you can’t hide it).

Dentists are being taught to sell.

Selling is transaction based. It is a mindset that is hurting the profession. The marketing mindset is one that understands that we want to create patients for life. Selling dentistry has its place and like advertising it is just a small piece of the larger marketing puzzle. By making continual positive impressions on our patients, we become “their dentist.”

For those of you who are familiar withL.D. Pankey’s Ladder of Competency, he described the dental community as 54% apathetic or indifferent. Indifference really shows up in every communication.

Someone once said, “You cannot not communicate.” Similarly, you cannot not market.

That’s the lesson…everything is marketing.

And the hamburger joint that went out of business? What message did they send to me?

I would like to hear your comments…dig deep, because the answer will reveal just how serious these communications really are.

Look for more Marketing 101 Principles.

In our modern world of social media, face-to-face communication is becoming more ignored. There is no more effective way to get case acceptance than by doing a powerful comprehensive examination, and the most significant component of that examination is the preclinical portion…the time spent before you open the patient’s mouth.

So much is written about strategies and techniques that bring new patients into your dental practice, but without an effective conversion strategy, dentists end up kissing a lot of frogs before they meet the prince.

The preclinical examination technique described below can be the answer to your face-to-face conversion rates.

By breaking down the preclinical examination into its component parts, you can effectively begin to guide your patient toward better dentistry.

Here are 5 rules to follow for every preclinical examination that will lead to a higher level of trust.

1. Use good “improv technique.” Don’t kid yourself, your case presentation begins during the preclinical examination. The effective dentist is continually getting ideas across at all times. One idea that you want to get across is that you are there for the patient…it’s always about them. Remember that. In order to do that, use the rules of improvisational artists like Wayne Brady and Drew Carey, for example, come to the exam without an agenda, never negate your patient, always listen carefully and answer everything with “yes, and.” Future blog posts on this site will include all of the rules of improv and I will apply them specifically to dentistry…for now understand that improv rather than scripting is much more effective.

2. Stay positive. Your preclinical examination should contain positive statements of at least a 3:1 ratio to negative statements. This principle first described by Barbara Frederickson and Mario Losada in the book Positivity is a proven technique in building solid relationships. The “love doctor” John Gottman sites the same studies in his book The Science of Trust.

3. Live in the question. It has been said that that the one who asks the questions controls the conversation. Stay in the “ask” mode. Stop telling and start selling.

4. Be other focused. As written above…it’s always about them and never about you. This comes through very clearly during the preclinical examination…so always focus on your patient.

5. Become a great listener. There is no greater skill to develop than listening. Patients will always tell you what they are looking for in a dentist. Listen carefully.

Follow these five rules and you will build the trust necessary for a great long-term relationship…without that trust your practice will never thrive consistently.

Cavity?

Explaining treatment to a patient can be one of the more difficult tasks for a dentist. Finding the right words at the right time in the right circumstance can be unnerving, and it can mean the difference between your patient saying “yes” or “no” to treatment.

We have witnessed an untold number of methods and technologies that attempt to help doctors and their staff educate and persuade patients to accept treatment. Those of us who have purchased marketing brochures, DVD’s, intra-oral cameras and digital radiographs know that visual illustrations and graphics sometimes fall short.

We must enter the mind through an emotional gateway: through metaphor and storytelling.

There is no greater feeling when you use the right words, at the right time. Your patient goes from having that MEGO expression (Mine Eyes Glaze Over) to a look of understanding and acceptance.

One morning last week I was about to do a crown for a patient when he stopped me mid-injection and said, “Hey Doc, all I see is a little hole in this tooth…it doesn’t look all that bad.”

“Uh oh,” I thought. In an instant I explained to him that the little hole was just the entrance to a much larger hole…like the entrance to a cave. Hence the word “cavity.”

Instantly his eyes focused. He saw a reference in his mind. The cavity now had context. He said, “Okay, I get it. Let’s go.”

And so, words saved the day.

Actually “word pictures” saved the day.

Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” What we dentists seem to forget is that dentistry is advanced technology to most people.

We suffer from the Curse of Knowledge.

In another recent case a patient came in with three hopeless teeth. Way beyond repair. Abscessed and broken down o the gum line. He kept asking me if I could save them. What was obvious to me and my staff had him bewildered. He thought dentists could save anything…that’s what we do, right?

His problem originated when an oral surgeon extracted a few teeth years ago and a dental assistant told him that the teeth could be saved. Nothing like throwing your boss under the bus.

This left doubt and mistrust in the patient’s mind.

I asked him what he did for a living and he said he worked in construction.

I needed a metaphor…quickly.

I painted a picture with words of a wooden fence that came down in a storm. The fence posts were split apart at ground level. I asked how he would fix the fence…he just looked at me and understood that these teeth had to come out.

The power of metaphor.

Dentists, especially the successful ones have been using storytelling and metaphor since way before technology tried to make our lives easier. Stories and metaphor enable us to achieve a deeper emotional connection.

Instant clarification.

Can you think of any great metaphors that have helped you explain treatment to your patients?
Here are three more…
1. The TMJ as a camp trunk…with hinges and locks
2. The TMJ as a door (works well, too)
3. Balancing the tires on your car as a metaphor for equilibration