How To Find Gaps and Growth Opportunities in Real-Time
When running a dental practice, simpler is usually better. It’s true with systems and processes. It’s true with messaging. And it’s true with growth.
And these days, with so much going on, the simpler the better. We have more than ever on our plates. So, simple strategies to improve our practices are even more valuable.
There are few simpler growth strategies for your practice than to use a budget and profit sheet organized by procedure. If you don’t track revenue by procedure in one place, now’s a great time to start. Without it, you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities to learn what’s working best and what might be falling through the cracks, all in one place.
Once you have that set up, all you need to do is follow a few simple steps to identify gaps and growth opportunities for your practice.
Identify top performances.
Take a look at the past twelve months and identify your most productive months. Start with your best overall month. What procedures contributed to that? What procedures stuck out as low? You might be surprised at the answer to both of those questions. Many practice leaders are.
Did any procedures spike in on or two months? When you identify outlier performances for procedures, think back to those months and see if you can identify what was going on with those procedures that month.
When I did this in my practice, I noticed my best months had spikes in sealants, perio, and even dentures. That’s important because many practice leaders don’t think of dentures as a top contributor. We think high revenue will come from crown and bridge or clear aligners. But we did more than $10,000 in denture production during our best month.
Set goals and take action based on what you learn.
There’s a saying in business that people “vote with their wallets.” In other words, while it’s helpful to listen to what patients say, it’s even more helpful to watch what they do.
So, if you see production it tells you your patient pool is interested in those procedures. Take that information and use it to grow your practice and serve your patients better.
First, set big goals for those procedures. Several years ago, I hired a coach who challenged me to set bigger goals. It started with me setting goals. I was so proud of my goals. She was happy with them, too. But then she told me to double them. I was thinking too small, she explained. If you think too small, you act too small.
So I’d encourage you to set goals for those procedures that start at your best performing months. Set out to make your best month over the past year your lowest month over the next year. When you think bigger, it forces you to take bigger actions.
Once your goals are in place, identify the actions you need to take to make them happen. Identify patients who need those procedures. Get them scheduled. Talk with them about those procedures.
Turn on some marketing relating to those procedures. Do Facebook Lives about the procedures. Email existing patients about the procedures.
Talk with your team members about your goals, so they can be on the lookout for patients who might need those procedures.
Update your sheet weekly and review results at least monthly.
Once you set goals and devise a plan to achieve your goal, have a team member take five minutes per week to input real-time results. It takes just a few minutes for a member of the team to take the production by procedure code report and input the numbers for each service once a week. Update your numbers each week so you have the most up-to-date numbers and can adjust as needed.
At the end of each month, review the results from the past month and adjust goals for the following month as needed. As you hit your goals, you might need to set even bigger goals for the following months.
Are you looking for gaps and identifying opportunities?
If you don’t maintain a sheet of revenue by procedure, you’re missing a big opportunity to find gaps and discover hidden growth opportunities. These simple steps can help you turn that simple information to high growth for your practice in any environment.
If you’re looking for training or coaching for your team to accelerate your growth, click here to learn more.
