It’s not what you do, it’s not how you do it, it’s why you do it.
At some point in your journey to principal and practice owner you are probably going to have to convince a financial institution to lend you money to fund some proportion of your dream. Equally you are going to have to attract people to work with you to help create your vision, especially at the start when you have no reputation to fall back on. This is also true for the crucial component of any dental practice, how are you going to differentiate yourself in a competitive market and attract patients. Without patients you haven’t got a practice.
The Power of Why in Dentistry
Crudely, in the publics eyes every dentist does check-ups, scales teeth, fills cavities, makes crowns/caps and false teeth, extracts teeth and is useful if you have an emergency or toothache. This is what you and I do, but at this level the only way someone can differentiate you from another practice is perhaps what you charge or if in an emergency how long they must wait for an appointment. The cheapest is always attractive to someone. There are dentists who market what they do with social media using photos on Instagram and TikTok videos perhaps showing composite bonding or smile makeovers. This is time consuming, expensive and it is difficult to get heard through all the noise. It comes with no guarantee it will work and even if it does you can’t stop for fear that patients who want this service will go elsewhere or you are no longer flavour of the month. This is the issue when you sell your services based on what you do not why do it.
Attracting Patients with Purpose
So, let me ask you why did you become a dentist? You have probably spent many years concentrating on how to be a good dentist, honing your skills and it can be easy to lose sight of why you studied dentistry. For a second imagine you are in a lift, and I’ve just asked you, what do you do? You’ve not got long before you reach your floor so what are you going to say? I’m a dentist and run a private practice in such a such town or I’m a dental health practitioner and my aim to help as many people as possible in my hometown to become architects of their own dental health, so they keep their teeth for life.
Which is more compelling? The dentist describing as asked, what they do (dentistry) and how they do it (private practice) or the dentist who explains their why (teeth for life)? Don’t get me wrong how you do your dentistry, how run your practice is important because it must always reflect and reinforce your why. If it doesn’t then it is like smoke and mirrors, an illusion which will damage your reputation. It is hard to maintain you why as the practice grows and becomes more successful so choosing to build your business based on your why is challenging. Invariably the mistakes I have made in managing my practice have occurred when I have not used my why to guide me, but made a decision based on another factor such as the financial impact.
Let me explain further how what you do follows your why. You may have attended lots of course, have extra qualifications and trained in advanced techniques which will allow you to practice dentistry in a different way, how you do it. For example, when I started my practice all my restorative work was done under rubber dam, so when a patient had restorative work done by me it stood out as being different and I reinforced this by educating them about rubber dam. I helped them understand how it was safer and by controlling moisture helps me do my best work for them. The disadvantage of relying on how you do something to differentiating you from your local peers is that someone must first experience your care to be able to make a judgement.
Building a Team Aligned with Your Vision
Your why, your purpose should form the foundation stone for all that you do. Let’s look at attracting team members to help you build your dream practice. Recruitment has become a major issue in dentistry for various reasons, Brexit, COVID, new more flexible working patterns and comparable pay for less stress have all been cited as reasons it is difficult to find people who want to work in dentistry. I do not see this getting easier in the near future. Most adverts you will see concentrate on features of the role they are advertising, their what or how. Here are few lines from adverts I found for dental nurses on Indeed.
Want to join the UK’s leading luxury dental clinic, at the forefront of dental innovation?
Exposure to cutting -edge treatments you wouldn’t see anywhere else, such as Nanofill Composite Bonding, full mouth dental implants and more.
Opportunity for a Full time, Qualified Dental Nurse whose career development is paramount.
We have experienced and friendly teams and our standards of leading-edge technology are matched only by our standards of great patient care.
All these adverts have features such as training, rates of pay, hours of work, assisting specialist dentists, bonus schemes, cycle to work schemes and even discounted dental care. I am not saying that some of these features aren’t attractive, but an individual will only apply for a specific job if the features reflect what they want. If a practice offered discounted orthodontic care, then a nurse with crooked teeth looking to save money on straight teeth treatment may be attracted to apply. The disadvantage of only advertising features of a job means you could get a team who are primary focus is what’s in it for me rather than a team who is aligned behind a common purpose, a why.
This is important because the most successful teams are aligned with a common purpose, and this is true what every industry they are in. It is also a fact that when teams are well aligned and share the same values, they are more highly motivated, have greater team cohesion, and better retention with a slower turnover. If your why is to help the people of your community keep their teeth for life, then make this the focus of your advert so you will find the people who stand with you, seeing more than just a job, a salary or discounted straight teeth.
Your why is your trump card
It is undeniable, if you want to stand out from the crowd, attract patients who value your services, build a great team to help you realise your dream and attracting finance for your practice then having a strong why is advantageous. However, when you look at people who have a strong why and purpose then you really see its true power. Why is where the rubber hits the road, it is where our motivation comes from to achieve incredible things. It is the force that helps us overcome obstacles, to try again and again, to work hard to realise our dreams. I saw this recently in a young man who had inherited a gene which meant he would get Alzheimer’s in his fifties. I met him on his route, running from John O’Groats to Land End, an average of 30 miles a day over 31 days to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research Charity. Jordan’s why is exceptionally clear and last time I check he had raised more than £100,000.
To uncover your why, schedule a free consultation with Pinnacle today and start building a more successful, purpose-driven practice.