1. “I don’t need new patients. I just need to increase my collections!”
This is as far from the truth as you can get. You need to accept the fact that new patients are the lifeblood of your practice, which cannot grow without consistently growing your new-patient numbers. By increasing your new patients, you’ll increase your collections, production and revenue, giving you an opportunity to save more, vacation more and be more generous to your family and community. New-patient growth leads to growth in every other area of your practice.
For many of our clients, increased new patients lead to the hiring of additional team members like hygienists, associates or marketing directors, implementing employee and patient appreciation events and even buying more space to accommodate more operatories. For many, the margin new patients provide allows them to give back to their community through activities like Dentistry from the Heart.
2. “I’ve tried everything!”
You may think you have, but no one has tried everything! There are always more options, usually outside the realm of your knowledge and experience. You haven’t tried everything; you’ve probably tried the same thing over and over again without a change in the results. It’s time to look outside the four walls of your practice.
Dental communities are great brainstorming opportunities as you can exchange strategies with fellow dentists. Utilize local study clubs (or even organize one!) or dental associations for ideas. But remember that this group learned what you did in dental school. Hiring a practice management coach with experience in running a business and delivering new patients will provide you with tools you didn’t get in dental school. Of course, with any advice you get, make sure it is proven and has withstood the test of time. Ask for data, results and references!
3. “This isn’t urgent. I have plenty of time to determine a plan.”
It sounds cliché, but time is money. Every day that you spend vacillating over whether you should create a plan to increase your new patients is a day you lose out on increasing the growth in your practice. In a lifetime, each new patient is worth about $1,500. If you lose just five new patients per week, you’re losing $7,500 per week. Are you really willing to risk losing this just because you can’t make up your mind?
4. “My town is too (small/remote/poor/etc.) to support rising new-patient numbers.”
It’s easy to blame outside circumstances for our problems, but this is untrue. Your problems are not unique! I have clients in tiny towns who were once happy getting five new patients per month. But when they learned how to generate new patients, their numbers shot up to 15, 20 or 25 new patients a month.Another dentist in Long Island, New York experienced six record-breaking months just three months after Hurricane Sandy devastated the area. When it comes to growing your new-patient numbers, size, location and economy are not acceptable excuses.
Small towns provide great opportunities for community. Become more engaged with yours by sponsoring the neighborhood sports team, participate in local fairs or parades or treat the town to an outdoor movie night where you can hold contests and provide giveaways. If you need to stand out in a large city, change your hours to accommodate your patients who are used to expecting businesses to be open later and on the weekends.
5. “I’m too old. I’m going to retire soon, anyway.”
Dentists are, on average, retiring much later in life than they were a few decades ago. It’s because they aren’t as prepared as they should be. If you aren’t able to grow your practice, maximize your new patients and increase your cash flow, retirement is a lot further away than you think it is. You need to be intentional about boosting your practice to the next level before you consider selling or getting out of the business. The best (and easiest) way to do that is to increase your new patients.
Remember the $1,500 value of a new patient. Even if you get a conservative 5-10 additional new patients a month, that’s an extra $7,500–$15,000 per month, which over the course of a year adds up to $90,000–$180,000. If your retirement is five years out, you’re looking at an additional $450,000–$900,000 more with just 5–10 additional new patients a month. How much happier would your retirement be if you knew you’d made—and saved—more than you had originally projected?
6. “I don’t have the right team in place to train.”
There’s only one solution for this excuse and it means you need to shake some things up in your office. I know doctors who’ve had staff issues for 15–20 years, but those same people are still working for them. That’s crazy! Team training isn’t the problem; it’s the solution. Training your team provides them with structure and a process that gets them engaged and on the same page. It’s a chance for the team to collectively understand your purpose and goals and shows them you care enough to invest in their professional development. It’s the best way to identify those who are over- and under-delivering. This might be just the thing your team needs to get excited about what they do. It also may be just the thing to weed out those long-term employees who are doing nothing for your bottom line.
7. “I have no resources to invest.”
It’s because you aren’t investing wisely. First, let’s remember the value of a new patient: $1,500. So if your investment can yield even one new patient a week, you’ll more than make up the cost of training your team, which is your greatest asset. If you aren’t regularly training your team so they can increase your new patient numbers and increase your production and collections, then you’re wasting your most precious resource.
I know plenty of dentists who focus their time, money and energy on getting the most continuing education credits they can and buying fancy, high-tech equipment to impress their patients. What we have found is that patients don’t even know what equipment you do or don’t have and choose their dentist based on the patient experience of the entire office, not the number of diplomas and CE certificates on the wall.
8. “I can fix my new-patient problem myself.”
The fact that you lack new patients in the first place is a huge indication that you can’t fix the problem yourself. Frankly, I don’t know any dentists who have successfully done this on their own. Generating new patients is a skill and it involves a process that works. Having someone on the phones who is friendly and courteous and speaks grammatically correct is not a process. Ours is a five-step system that helps your team to capture the right information, take control of the call and most importantly, schedule the appointment. Do you instruct your team on what your gut tells you about new-patient generation? Or have you trained them on a proven process that has been tested in practices around the world and is guaranteed to increase new patients? Team training is one thing you just shouldn’t attempt as a do-it-yourself project.
9. “I don’t have time in my current life. It’s too complicated!”
The best part about increasing your new-patient numbers is that there are plenty of options for you to transfer this responsibility to your team so you don’t have to do any extra work! Train your team to become new-patient generation experts, and they will be able to take full ownership of their results. They will be responsible for their own goals and for boosting your practice’s new-patient numbers, which will in turn increase results across the board.
10. “If I just invest more in my marketing, I’ll get more new patients.”
Marketing your practice is an essential tool for practice growth. But if your marketing is generating calls and these calls aren’t being converted into new patients, you’re just wasting that investment. You need to have a team trained to turn calls into scheduled appointments. This will give you a higher return on your investment without pouring more money into marketing.