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 | 5 Steps to Spark Momentum in 2009Kirk Behrendt
Speaker & Coach |
Yet another year in your wonderful career is underway. The kids are back in school. Your relatives have all gone back to their homes. Your house is now clean. And now it is time to get back to work on your ambitious goals for 2009.
Maybe 2008 was a great year for you, or maybe it wasn’t. Regardless, your resolve is strong to make 2009 one of the best years of your career. Even with looming economic concerns and negative chatter abounding, you and your team are ready to hit the goals you have laid out for January and the rest of the year.
The only problem is that while your ambition may be robust, your schedule is not. The economic concerns of our nation have now mutated into a deathly isolating virus known as “fear.” This virus shrinks the pool of readily available dollars and patients for discretionary spending. And as I’ve said many times before, ALL dollars spent on dentistry are discretionary. People don’t have to go to the dentist. In times like this, many of them aren’t.
This scenario can be quite damaging for teams that have a pessimistic outlook. Others with an optimistic outlook are seeking the keys to unlock sustained results that reflect success. This month we take a look at the key to unlocking the door to success.
This key is ”Momentum.”
Dentistry Is a “Momentum” Game What makes a great month of production in dentistry is momentum. This has been the case for your entire career, albeit sometimes not easy to see.
Think about it. Let's say that you have 50% of your production goal on the books for the month of January. Worry settles in. You think to yourself, “We are not going to make it.” You equate the word DOWN with being DONE.
Fast forward to Thursday. A really nice patient decides to move forward on a treatment plan that is fairly comprehensive. It makes your whole day and instantly sparks your enthusiasm. You feel like someone just pumped some fresh oxygen into the halls of your practice. You now go into the weekend feeling better, but still a little uneasy that you are short of your production goal. Then, on Tuesday of the following week, it happens again. Again your enthusiasm is sparked, but this time it is different. You now feel a jump in your step. What was previously a lousy month has now turned into a good month in the time span of a few days. If it happens one more time, it’s now a great month and dentistry is the greatest profession in the world. You and your team, for some reason, are now all smiling. You can feel something in the air, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. You can’t quite isolate it. But it’s there. What caused this?
It’s called “momentum.”
Your Practice Stimulus Package
Momentum brings with it an energy that changes every game and changes every life. It is the ultimate “Practice Stimulus Package.” Its side effects are greater than just financial improvements. It carries with it emotional stimulus. It carries with it morale boosts. With it comes career longevity and fulfillment.
There is no greater gift that you will ever be able to give yourself (professionally) than to be excited about where you are going -- to have momentum. With this gift comes a ripple effect of positive energy to everything you touch in your life. Positive momentum is attractive. People want to be a part of it. They are curious about it. Most of all they feel it with you and in you. It attracts great patients and the best talent in dentistry.
Momentum can also be negative. Negative momentum (or decline) brings with it a slow and steady deterioration of morale and staying power. As a business and a leader, you become unattractive to great patients and talent in dentistry. People don’t want to be a part of negative momentum.
There is no greater “stimulus package” than positive momentum.
Gator Momentum
Momentum is the name of the game in business, life and sports. There is no greater example of momentum in the sports world than the team that finished on the top of the college football world this season by winning the BCS Championship Game last week -- the University of Florida Gators. The Gators and the Oklahoma Sooners were battling hard to find a crack in each others' armor. Midway through the second quarter, the Gators found it. Down by 7, the Sooners drove down to the 1-yard line looking to tie the game. The Gators stopped them on four consecutive tries, creating the defining shift of momentum that changed the entire game. All of the steam that the Sooners had was immediately transferred over to the Gators in a manner that was irrecoverable.
The Gators went on to win the game 24-14, marking their 2nd national championship in 3 years. Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer did some marketing after the game and said, “You're out of your freaking mind if you don't play for the Gators.” He’s got a point. Not only was this game a great example of how momentum created a successful outcome, it is also a great example of how this momentum has shifted an entire football program to a perennial powerhouse that will only continue to attract success (along with the best talent in the country).
Great economic strategists, dentists, and football coaches all understand one thing. That “momentum” is the critical component to creating and perpetuating success in competitive environments. Seek it.
5 Steps to Spark Momentum in Your Practice
Make sure that you and your team are equipped with the right thinking. This all starts at the top with the owner of the practice. A lot of dentists equate the word DOWN = DONE. Down does not equal done. It is a temporary state of momentum deficiency. Make sure your team sees that DOWN just = LACKING MOMENTUM. Charles J. Givens said, “Success requires first expending ten units of effort to produce one unit of results. Your momentum will then produce ten units of results with each unit of effort.” Don’t expect or wish for momentum, work hard to create it. Givens was correct in stating that momentum has an equation behind it. To create momentum you must first invest in the things that create it, before you start to see its effects. Look for opportunities everywhere in your practice. One of the greatest questions you can ask yourself as an entrepreneur is “What opportunities are we missing?” Given the appropriate amount of time and listening, you will find that the answers will come easy and fast. Spend an entire hour discussing this question in your next team meeting. From it, create a list of actions for your business that will undoubtedly create momentum and seize opportunities that have been previously lost. Make sure that you list them in an easy fashion so everyone sees them (monthly) and knows WHO is responsible for WHAT. Call this document “Commitments to Create Momentum.” Realize that you cannot sit back and wait for things to happen -- you have to MAKE THEM HAPPEN every day. Everyone on your team has to be outwardly focused to help patients, listen to them, energize them and discuss possibilities with them. Focus on the positives more than the negatives. The kiss of death is to tell your team that “the practice is slow” without a follow-up positive plan for stimulus. Take the time to recognize elements of positive momentum and add energy to them. The more you do this, the more they are likely to happen.
No one knows how long the fear virus will continue to control the economic challenges this country faces. You can try to speculate and you can put your faith in a new Administration running this country, but it’s probably not a good investment of your time and energy. You are better off not trying to predict the future, and your practice is better served looking for opportunities to create momentum. Finding these opportunities for momentum and capitalizing on them is the ultimate stimulus package for you, your life and your team.
If you find it hard to create this momentum with your team it is critical that you put yourself in an environment that supports you in helping to create that momentum. Come to the ACT Dental Marketing Study Group this Thursday and Friday in Kansas City, MO. If you don’t go home with some positive emotional momentum, then you don’t have a pulse.
I wish great Momentum for you in 2009.
Kirk Behrendt
Speaker & Coach
ACT Dental Practice Coaching
800.851.8186
www.actdental.com
Kirk Behrendt is the Director of ACT Dental Practice Coaching. He has lectured all over the United States to major meetings and study clubs. He has extensive experience on practice profitability, team building, leadership and dental practice marketing/branding. Kirk and his team are primarily focused to positively impact the future of dentistry one practice at a time. You can reach him at 800-851-8186 or email him at kirk@actdental.com
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