The Everything Dental Rep

How many people make a new years resolution and actually stick to it?

I was going to write a whole story on this from some recent experiences – but there is so much material already! WOW! I decided to post links to some great articles at the end of this blog….

Did you know that 35 – 70% of practices will suffer from embezzlement over the life of their practice, and that the average is $105,000!! (link to the story)

The advice I can give from 27 plus years experience:
 
-Understand how to use the practice management software,
 -Understand basic accounting
-Know and trust your staff – review regularly and don’t be afraid to fire. 
-Make sure to check references of new staff, and use good hiring practices. 
-Learn how to interview and make sure of the quality of team members you are adding.
-Investigate rumors and don’t be afraid to be a boss.

How to prevent…

Chart audits, accounting audits, strict cash processing rules, employee accountability, having more than one staff member responsible for accounting,

Links…
Nebraska woman guilty of embezzlement
Athena Consulting (recognizing some of the signs)
The Wealthy Dentist  (very thorough!)
Ace Software  (understanding how to use your PM software)

Warren Bobinski
Success in Dentistry and Life.

Top 5 Dental Apps…and this is in no particular order…..

DDS-GP  - the patient education app. It better be good for that price!

Smartphone CE - the Doctor Continuing Education App

Dentpix  - Patient CE app

GURU  - the Henry Schein Patient CE app – with updateable content!! Me Likey!!

Blogshelf  - because they have a “Dentist” blog section featuring my ugly mug!

Boy do I have ideas on what we really need!!!  Had meetings over the summer with major dental publisher and it sounds like they may be doing something with apps….cool!! Hope I helped a bit

My bet is you will see a LOT of cool apps in the near future for Dental, and on mulitple platforms too! Keep an eye on this blog – maybe subscribe? Share? Twitter?

I am asking for a referral….. 

Thanks!

Warren Bobinski
Success in Dentistry and Life.

The difference between friendship and love is how much you can hurt each other….

~Ashleigh Brilliant

This last few weeks revealed some interesting developments in social media – things that I believe prove the value of social media.  This is my theory about the importance of social media.  The idea of Social Media is phenomenal.  Anything new that gets popular always suffers from bad press – in the case of Facebook its’ all the privacy issues.  In the case of Twitter, why would anyone care about twitter – like who cares if Ashton Kutcher just burped? (And besides, aren’t you supposed to smoke ‘hash tags’ and then tweet or even have so much fun you start to re-tweet?)

What Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and other big internet companies think of social media….

The visionaries behind the current internet revolution are all buying into the idea of social search.  So much so that Facebook has struck a deal with Microsofts “Bing” search engine.  Google is also offering Social Search, and has now talked about how they will start to weave ‘social search’ into result inquiries.  Twitter is now in the game….Facebook has even hired some major talent and former critic from Google to its’ team…

Google and Bing have both confirmed that Social Media does affect search engine results.  That means when patients are googling or binging to see who the popular dentist is in their area – they will get results based on where people are ‘checking in’ and ‘like‘ and ‘rate’.  In order for business and products to get noticed in the near future on the internet, they will have to be popular.  Imagine how this would be useful for yourself.  You google, bing or yahoo search don’t you?  Notice when you start typing – you don’t even have to finish typing and the results are already there? Notice  who is the dentist in your area at the top of the search list? What will happen when social media takes over the current SEO? It won’t just be links to other sites and the hundreds of other ways SEO can influence a search result – it will be the masses of people that ‘like’ you, ‘check in’ with you and ‘twitter’ and ‘facebook’ you.

Where do you stand on social media?

Many of us are just seeing Facebook and Twitter as annoyances that our staff waste a lot of time on – but if you really think about this….there are reasons that these can be great marketing tools – and something that people may be willing to give up a little privacy for…The fact that your staff are that addicted means something, doesn’t it?  Is there a way to understand and use this for mutual benefit?

If nothing else – its’ certainly worth learning a little more about with such explosive growth – especially if you plan to ‘market’ your product or services in the future…..

Warren Bobinski
Success in Dentistry and Life.

The $20,000 a day business…

How to get to $20,000 a day

-It can’t be about
the money.  How do you like that one?
Do it for the right reasons or you will be chasing the dragon. What are your
real reasons?

-It takes time.  Many years of establishing trust, building a
reputation, making mistakes and learning from them.  You will learn to plant seeds – seeds that
will grow, but need much nourishment. 
Then you will learn to plant bigger and bigger crops as you gain
confidence….

-It takes
education.  Learning from a variety
of successful people and what worked for them. 
You will learn the latest ‘techniques’ that benefit your customers
(patients).  Watching what your customers
(patients) would want, what the trends are – and learning how it can add value
to their lives, then teaching them this. 
Planting seeds – see #1, it takes time. You will be dedicated to your
education, and it will learn about constant
improvement….

-It takes dedication.  At first, you will have small success and a
lot of failure.  That is because you are
learning what works for others might not work for you.  You HAVE to do it your way.  Never give up.  It can be frustrating, but little by little
you will reach your goals.  Before you
know it, others will be asking you ‘how did you do that?” because you make it
look so easy – they don’t realize how much time
and education it took to succeed…

-It takes
organization.  You will need to be
able to work quickly and efficiently. 
Anything that helps you gain speed is critical, time is money.  Don’t fret over small details – worry about
the big picture and get the job done. Trust your gut, and trust your instinct
on decision making.  Admit when you are wrong
quickly, and fix it – then move on. 

-It takes a team.  Allowing others to use their expertise will
help you accomplish more.  For me its’ an
Equipment Specialist, a technician, a technical specialist, and customer
service.  For you its’ front reception,
CDA, hygiene.  I trust and allow my team
to do their best everyday – and its working for me.  They were brought to the team for a reason –
they love what they do, and they are excellent at it.  Let them do their jobs and listen to what
they have to say.  Your eyes and ears
can’t be everywhere.

What it doesn’t
take…

I don’t believe you can go to a course by some guru, come
home and start being successful on Monday. 
It is against all the principles that seem to work for the most
successful people – time, education, dedication, organization and team work do
not happen overnight. 

It takes trials and tribulations to find the recipe that works best for you – and its’ not about the $20,000 a day, its’ about whatever you make it….

 Over 27  years of observations brought to you by….

Warren Bobinski

Success in Dentistry and Life.

A woman was taking a shower when her 2 year old son came into the
bathroom and wrapped himself in toilet paper. Although he made a mess,
he looked adorable, so she ran for my camera and took a few shots.
They came out so well that she had copies made and included one with
each of their Christmas cards.

Sincerely,
Warren Bobinski
Success in Denitstry and Life.

 ~Sally Field

….all did it their own way…

“Sometimes an ego can corrupt a friendship…..”

I value my relationships on Facebook – its truly about my friends and my social network.  I want to have an interactive relationship – not just use this for my own agenda.  At the same time, I think I can gain an audience for my product (me, my blog and my writing) at Facebook.. The same way a business may be able to gain an audience.  Since I have used social media for several years I wanted to point out some reasons that social Media and Twitter are not working for some of my friends…. 

Social Media probably won’t work if….

You really aren’t social 

You
are only using it to advertise, not gain meaningful relationships.

You set up your account, but never check in or use it.  What fun is that?

You
bring little value to the table in your relationships – its all about what others can do for you, not what you can do for them

You only ever have a one way conversation.

All your friends have the exact same agenda as you – to sell something

You are all business, all the time.

You
don’t know or are afraid of how to deal with critics.

You
are fake.

You
don’t invest time in developing meaningful relationships

You
expect someone else to do it for you

You
set up an account and dont bother to friend anyone because you really still
don’t get it

You
are not educated on privacy and what Social media is really about

The annoying party guest…

Imagine showing up for a party and at first everyone is happy to see you – they let you in the door.  Then all you do is talk about why everyone should be your friend, but you obviously don’t take the time to even know the group you are talking to.  Friendly people just start ignoring you – others will shut the door, and majority will never tell their friends that they need to know you.

If you come to the table – bring something tasty to eat.  Sample the food the others brought, recommend the food you like – listen to the experts who give you ideas for other recipies.  We all want to eat good food, and share it with our friends…

This tasty treat brought to you by….

Warren Bobinski

Success
in Dentistry and Life

Help them understand – everyone will win.

~Warren

My thoughts on marketing – take what works for you.  

My number one thought when marketing – I try to think like a
customer.  What does your customer want
or need?

Education.

Our customers/patients do not know what we know.  They don’t spend 40+ hours a week perfecting
the skills that we do.  How can you teach
your customers what you know? 

Substitute Customer
with patient….

I used to drop in and visit my customers regular.  I would wait until they asked me what they
wanted – sometimes I would point out something really obvious and some sales
would be made.  Anybody could have done
that.  Some doctors told me “anybody
could sell dental supplies” ….that’s not what I wanted.  Can anybody do what you are doing right now?

Up the ante. 

I started writing this blog, and became better educated
about what my customers want.  My
customers want to have a great
treatment plan – not just have me drop by and annoy the staff.  They want to have a beautiful and highly
profitable and productive office (smile), but when we used to visit (exam) – I used
to keep telling what I thought they wanted to hear – here  is a flyer (everything looks ok), I’m a nice
guy, hope you buy from me again (don’t forget to floss). 

It was good enough.

Now, I learn all the latest trends and keep finding ways to
improve my customer’s lives –and my own business has become the talk of the
town.  Loyal customers, long term
mutually beneficial relationships.  All
Good!

Education is about planting seeds and nurturing.  Education is NOT selling.  Education
is helping people discover things they never knew were possible, and maybe even
having the pleasure of providing them with that amazing experience.

Time.

I make lunch meetings and supper meetings.  Whatever time works best – but I make sure we
have time for discovery.  My meetings are
called Business Discovery Meetings. 

A Dentist calls these exams. 
What can you do on your initial exam that would help you better educate
your patient on a full treatment plan – and do you give yourself this time – or
is this simply a 5 minute ‘how ya doing, it’s a nice day, you need a filling,
cya in a few weeks’ visit?

Tools

I use tablet PC, iPad, Blackberry and can be contacted via
old fashion calling, texting, BBM, Twitter, Facebook, Internet website, email –
you name it I do it. All because its’ what my customers want (and its’ good for
my customer and for business!)

What do your customers want? How can you better educate? What
tools would help them understand you are more than just a casual visitor? What
investments are you willing to make?

Blah Blah…

I noticed I rarely read more than 300 words in a blog….I
tend to be long winded. So if you want more – just subscribe.  This blog is DEEP!

Brought to you by…

Warren Bobinski

We used to only watch a commercial, see an ad on a billboard, listen to a radio ad, see it in a magazine or a newspaper, maybe even in the back of a taxi or written on the side of a building….