Take a look at our newsletter this month!
Part I
By Dr. Tom “The Gems Guy” Orent
around. You’re likely familiar with my “Perfect Storm” story. Twenty-three years ago, I was one million dollars in debt, divorced frommy wife, and embezzled by my office manager. I was told to file bankruptcy and nearly lost my home and my practice. Although there are several folks to whom I owe a debt of gratitude, Dan’s mentoring was the primary reason I was able to survive … and eventually thrive … in dentistry and here today on Planet Gems. Dan taught me what my father would have if he could have. But my dad was going through his own business and financial struggles. Before I continue, I’ll share a letter Dan just wrote to those whose lives he touched.
on the final journey of no more than a few days before exit. Consequently, I won’t be interacting here anymore. I have a couple of things to say to you. First, it has been a great privilege to have worked for you, and with you, and to have had your interest and patronage. You have made it possible for me to do work that interests me, that I chose, and that I felt meaningful and worthwhile. Second, I never thought of this as just a transactional business but also as a genuine relationship, a community, and a movement.
Thank you, Dan. Thank you for your friendship, thank you for being my mentor, and thank you for your guidance in business and in life. I had two of the most wonderful parents any man could wish for. I loved them both dearly. Until we lost her last year, my mother, Daisy, was a fixture at every Gems Family Members’ Retreat. My parents prepared me well for college and life. But, when I graduated from dental school near the top of my class, I had no idea how little I knew or how much I had yet to learn about the business of dentistry.
"I find myself in the unusual position of regretfully announcing my death."
A PERSONAL LETTER FROMDAN KENNEDY
FROM: DAN S. KENNEDY, PERSONALLY
TO: Magnetic Marketing No B.S. Inner Circle Members, “Lifers,” Friends and Advantage Family Members
As I said to you at the 2018 SuperConference in Orlando right after AdamWitty purchased GKIC, I never had a son, but, if I had one, I would want it to be Adam because of his big heart, integrity, and commitment to help entrepreneurs grow. Adam and I have worked closely together for the past 12 years. He has integrated and used my teachings in his business so successfully that he is the
I find myself in the unusual position of regretfully announcing my death. Usually people are having to do the opposite: deny rumors of their passage. I am writing this in hospice after a 10-day maelstrom of multiple overlapping infections, surgical procedures, and diabetic and heart conditions. This set in motion an irreversible downward spiral, and I am now
THEWIZARD BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Dan Kennedy is the man responsible for helping me turn my practice and my life
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... continued f rom cover
person I place my confidence in to pick up where I am leaving off.
me, on the stage was a kind of gruff guy I'd never heard of ... his name was Dan.
As I enter my final days, I hope OUR community, OUR TRIBE will stick together. Adam and the Magnetic Marketing No B.S. Inner Circle team need YOU, now, more than ever. Although I will no longer be with you, the community we have created together, the camaraderie we share, and the support we provide must continue. As my last request, please help me to keep our entrepreneurial community thriving to benefit you, your business, and entrepreneurs in the future.
I was so mesmerized by his speech (especially his Al the Plumber story of which I’ve never tired!), that I RAN to the back of the room in the middle of a pack of at least 400 Dentists who, that day, purchased Dan's flagship product (on cassette tapes), "Magnetic Marketing!" Dan taught me everything about business that my father would have, if he could have. When I first met him 23 years ago, I was like Willy Loman in "Death of a Salesman." I was clueless and penniless ... close to losing my home and my practice. Dan just looked at me with that gruff exterior (but heart of GOLD on the inside) and said, "You're doing this all wrong." And then, for the next 23 years, he helped me learn how to "do it right." I'll never forget the days we (a small group of students of Dan) used to spend with Dan in his basement (his "meeting room!”) ... or the original Platinum Mastermind he ran. Not only was Dan a GENIUS marketer and business mentor and friend (in his own way) ... but he had a wonderful sense of humor. The majority of the amazing business and LIFE connections I've made over the last 2 1/2 decades have been directly, or indirectly, the result of working with and knowing Dan. How many times have we all said, "ALL ROADS LEAD BACK TO PLANET DAN!" He designed and lived the life that HE chose. I can't think of another human being who was SO good at doing ONLY what HE wanted ... WHEN
All my best,
Dan
he wanted and with WHOM he wanted. Dan's definition ... "AUTONOMY."
Although as I write this, Dan is still with us, by the time you read this, he may be gone. He’s already hung in there nearly a week after he wrote the above letter, and, for the moment, is in critical but stable condition. "When I first met Dan 23 years ago, I was like Willy Loman in 'Death of a Salesman.' I was clueless and penniless ... close to losing my home and my practice."
Then there was his view on cell phones! He HATED them and would NOT have one. One day, during a break in a Titanium meeting, he needed to make a call. We're standing in the hall and he says to me, " Orent ... give me your phone." I handed himmy iPhone. Dan stared at my phone, then handed it back to me, and said ... "YOU DIAL!"
Dan, from Elizabeth and Tom … we LOVE you. Thank you for everything.
Part II of “Dan Kennedy” begins with “Lessons I Learned from Dan” and is continued in the October Newsletter
I MET DAN IN 1996.
I had just finished my presentation to 1,000 Dentists. Then I took a seat in the audience. After
Continued in October issue
CREATE AUTONOMY "I can't think of another human being who was SO good at doing ONLY what HE wanted ... WHEN he wanted and with WHOM he wanted. Dan lived his definition of autonomy."
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By Tom Rich, MBA, GG12 Senior Practice Analyst
Throughout the time I’ve been a Senior Practice Analyst, I have discovered there are two types of Dentists:
Dentists somehow believe that the overall performance of the practice is a direct result of their skillset and clinical know-how. So, if the practice is somehow suffering, it must be as a result of their lack of dental expertise. So, what do they do? They do what virtually every other Dentist has been trained to do: Get more clinical training. It’s like a patient scheduling an oil change for their car because they have a toothache. Sure, it might even be time for them to change the oil, but it will do nothing for the pain in their tooth. The fact is the best clinical training can’t overcome a single fatal flaw in the basic business fundamentals of a practice. When you treat your practice like a business, you allow yourself to take a different approach. You look at the primary drivers and business fundamentals and focus on how to improve those.
So, if it’s true that a practice is a business, why do so many Dentists resist acknowledging, thinking, or, more importantly, behaving like it is one? "Why do so many Dentists resist acknowledging, thinking, or more importantly, behaving like their practices are businesses?" They believe that if they have a “business,” it forces them to put profit before patients. They are already fighting the stigma that they’re seen as greedy, already-too-rich Dentists, and they don’t want to do anything to add any potential fuel to the fire. Another common thought process is feeling like they went through dental school to become a Dentist. Dentists can’t be bothered with all this “businessy stuff.” Dentists practice dentistry, and when they focus on practicing dentistry, everything else magically falls into place. While both of these theories are somewhat understandable, by not embracing the business aspects of a practice, Dentists allow themselves to take their eye off the prize. Plainly stated, practice-based thinking encourages, or even forces, Dentists to neglect and ignore standard business fundamentals, which causes the practice to suffer. When the practice experiences a downturn in patients or profits (or both), how do most Dentists react? The reasoning tends to fall in one of two camps: • •
•
Those who know their practice is a business, and… Those who haven’t realized it yet.
•
Let’s run a quick comparison between businesses and practices.
PRACTICE
• • • •
Income
Expenses Customers
Tangible assets (tools, team, real estate, etc.) Intangible assets (goodwill, brand, reputation, etc.)
•
• • •
Accounting necessary
Taxable services Saleable assets
"When the practice experiences a downturn in patients or profits (or both), how do most Dentists react?"
BUSINESS
• • • •
Income
Expenses Customers
Tangible assets (tools, team, real estate, etc.) Intangible assets (goodwill, brand, reputation, etc.)
For the next 30 days, Platinum members are eligible for a benefit typically exclusively reserved for GG12 candidates: your own custom RoadMap to Success with our Senior Practice Analyst. The RoadMap to Success process is designed to help you identify and fully leverage untapped opportunities and make your practice more productive and profitable. Call 888-880-GEMS (4367) to speak with your Personal Gems Concierge, and schedule a one-on-one RoadMap to Success today!
•
• • •
Accounting necessary
Taxable services Saleable assets
Holy Hanna! Wouldn’t you know it? Based on this comparison, it looks like a practice just might a business!?! It looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and even behaves like a duck … do you think it might be a duck?
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As 2019 winds down, the time your patients have left to use their dental benefits is dwindling, too. Yet, most patients forget or simply don’t know they are about to lose their remaining benefits! When patients let their dental benefits go to waste each year, they put their mouths and their bank accounts in jeopardy. But YOU also lose when your patients don’t take advantage of their dental benefits each year. You lose an opportunity to foster a healthy relationship with your patient. You lose (potentially sizeable) revenue. For each patient you fail to bring back in for routine recall, you may also be missing an opportunity to deploy a WHALYA (See Dr. Terrie Cribbs' success story on Pages 7-8 of this newsletter to learn more about this!) — losing the chance to help your patient achieve and maintain optimal health, and to turn a routine prophy and exam into a further profit. Get them back in before the end of the year and everyone wins! You could have your busiest Q4 yet!
"GoldRush Module 33 is designed to motivate your patients to use their remaining dental benefits before they are lost forever! The writing and design are already DONE-FOR-YOU."
do for your internal marketing, but, for those who are unaware of the value of this system, listen up !
Your GoldRush Patient Motivator System, an INCLUDED BENEFIT OF MEMBERSHIP, is a 100% DONE-FOR-YOU Gems Family Member internal marketing system. GoldRush is a benefit that, if deployed properly, will motivate existing patients to ask you for care! For modules promoting a specific treatment or service (e.g. Invisalign, Implants, Cosmetic Makeover, etc.), send out the emails, then wear the buttons and hand each patient a flyer for roughly six months (one recall cycle). Other modules (like the one we’re about to discuss) may be calendar-specific and thus run only at a certain time of year, and for just 30–60 days. Want to reignite and perform more Invisalign, implants, sedation, or cosmetic cases? Your GoldRush Patient Motivator System has a module just for that (there are 36 modules in all!) This month, we’re diving into the 33rd module: end-of-year insurance.
End the Year on a High Note: Create Your Own 'GoldRush!'
How do you motivate busy patients, who are running their kids to practices, prepping for the holidays, and nailing down last-minute work duties of their own, in your door to utilize their dental benefits? You’ve got to get their attention. Begin by deploying the “Use ‘Em or Lose ‘Em” Gems Family Member GoldRush Patient Motivator System module.
HANG ON. GOLDRUSH, WHAT NOW?
Longtime members of the Gems Family (inhabitants of Planet Gems) will instantly know what your GoldRush Patient Motivator System can
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Visit InsidersCircle.com SITE MAP GOLDRUSH PATIENT MOTIVATOR SYSTEM (FLYERS AND EMAILS) to find more GoldRush resources.
buttons while in the practice, and offer prizes (and CASH!) to staff members who wear the buttons in public and generate new patients. (This is a nice way to make this internal marketing trick into an external one.) And that’s it! Deploy this GoldRush module and you will see a measurable boost in your end-of-year revenue. Between the additional hygiene recall revenue and the added resulting restorative care, you could easily add $30,000 to $50,000 to your Q4 using this single simple Gem (then repeat every year!) For help with this Gem, connect with your Personal Gems Concierge or visit www.InsidersCricle.com SITE MAP GOLDRUSH PATIENT MOTIVATOR SYSTEM (FLYERS AND EMAILS) GOLDRUSH 033 End of Year Insurance!
NOW ABOUT YOUR Q4 PUSH …
Ending 2019 with more patients in the chair will set you up for success in 2020. It gives you one last interaction with patients you may not have seen all year and a chance to boost your yearly revenue with one last big push. The best part is that convincing your patients to find time in their busy schedules to come back in now is painless for you and your team. GoldRush Patient Motivator System Module 33 provides you with flyers, emails, and buttons to jampack your final quarter year. Each component of GoldRush Module 33 is designed to motivate your patients to use their remaining dental benefits before they are lost forever! The writing and design are already DONE-FOR-YOU. All you have to do is UTILIZE THEM!
Here’s a breakdown of what each piece in the DONE-FOR-YOU module includes ...
Word Search
• GoldRush Flyer: Just add your practice’s contact information and location and it’s PRINT READY! Then:
• Print and mail a flyer to every active patient on your list. Active patients are those who have been to your practice within the past 18 months. NOTE: Only mail one person per family address. • Print and attach a flyer to the charts for each patient visiting your practice the next day. The team member who seats each patient will very briefly read the headline of the flyer and perhaps just the very first sentence, then hand the flyer to the patient. Make sure every patient who comes to your practice receives one. NOTE: If you are a chartless office, attach a flyer to the patient routing slip used during seating. • Include this flyer in each piece of direct mail you send out to patients and local vendors, including bills, newsletters, and mailers.
• GoldRush Emails: Just drop in your contact information and they’re ready to blast!
AUTUMN
TOUCHDOWN
• Send the first email to all the email addresses you have for patients. Since it costs nothing to send an email, include everyone who has given you their address, regardless of how long it has been since their last visit (excluding, of course, anyone who has requested removal from your email list).
APPLE
HOMECOMING
SEPTEMBER
HARVEST
LABORDAY
CIDER
• Seven days later, follow-up that first email with email number two.
FOOTBALL
LEAVES
QUARTERBACK
SWEATER
• GoldRush Buttons: In addition to the emails and flyers, we’ve created buttons for your team to wear, corresponding to each GoldRush module. Have your team members wear the GoldRush
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90-MINUTE GG12 TEAM TRAINING WEBINARS: GG12 Dental Practice
over to InsidersCircle.com and click on the retreat banner in the top left corner for more information and directions. See below for details on dates and times.
Transformation members, please block out this monthly program on your calendar. These occur just once each month, but they could easily be the most important 90 minutes you and your entire team will invest. GG12 OFFICE HOURS: Twice each month, my office door is open for your visits. This is an opportunity for GG12 Doctors and team members to reach me directly with questions about dental practice management. GEMS INSIDERS’ CIRCLE™ QUARTERLY Q&A WEBINARS: Four times each year, I’m available in the evening for up to 90 minutes to answer your questions about any topics of your choice regarding dental practice management. GG12 AND INSIDERS’ CIRCLE™MEMBERS’ FALL RETREAT: Doctors and team members often tell us they have never experienced anything like our retreats in all their years of dental continuing education. This month, September, GIC Members and GG12 Mastermind Members will form lifelong bonds with their fellow members. Head on
Sept. 4: 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. EDT — GG12 Office Hours
Sept. 16: 8:30–10:00 p.m. EDT — Gems Insiders’ Circle Webinar
Sept. 18: 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EDT — GG12 90-Minute Monthly Team Training Webinar
Sept. 20: 10–11 a.m. EDT — GG12 Office Hours
Sept. 25: 6–9 p.m. EDT — Gems Family & GG12 Dinner at Dr. Orent's Home
Sept. 26: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT — GG12 and GG12 Alumni Mastermind Retreat
Sept. 26: 6:30–9:00 p.m. EDT — GG12 Celebration Dinner at Season’s 52
Sept. 27: 8a.m. to 5 p.m. — GG12 and GG12 Alumni Mastermind Retreat
For the latest up-to-date information about what’s happening on Planet Gems, go to InsidersCircle.com and click on “Calendar” (menu bar, top left of homepage). If you have questions, please contact your Personal Gems Concierge or call 1-888-880-GEMS (4367).
Sept. 27: 6–9 p.m. EDT — Gems Family & GG12 Dinner at Dr. Orent's Home
Sept. 28: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT — GIC and GG12 Members Mastermind Retreat
Dr. Meir Aviram, Israel Dr. Gerald Brown, VA Dr. Alex Balaban, IN Dr. Neena Parekh, CA Dr. Cathy Jennings, PA Dr. Kuzi Hsue, WA Dr. Walter Kostrzewski, CT Dr. Stephen Rubinkan, CA
Dr. Kristin Rushing, TN Dr. Katherine Tanaka, CA Dr. Jeffrey Ahlin, MA Dr. Samin Huque, TX Dr. Frank Galka, WI Dr. Steven Freeman, FL Dr. Christopher J Torres, CA Dr. Vigen Simchian, MD Dr. Candace Colella, FL Dr. Thomas Varin, CA
Dr. Jamie Breziner, CA Dr. John Frankis, NY
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Dr. Cribbs Overcomes Objections, Improves Patient Health, and Grows Revenue
Dr. Terrie Cribbs, GG12 Member
WHALYA TRAFFIC JAM
I’ve been a GG12 member since October 2014, and, in that time, my practice has received nothing but phenomenal guidance from Dr. Tom Orent and his team. We may pay them to help us, but they are the most generous group of people I have ever worked with. It doesn’t matter what problem we are facing. They will get into our practice and give us the agency to fix it. I have never seen another consulting team go through as much effort as they do to see us succeed. Because of their constant support and guidance, I have always felt safe deploying the various Gems the GG12 Coaching Team encourages. I know we can rely on a team of experts to fall back on if we stumble. When it came time to deploy the WHALYA (While You Are Here) Gem, I was a bit hesitant. This Gem encourages dental teams to save patients the time and hassle of another visit by asking if the patient would like the dental practice to “Take care of that today.” Problems diagnosed today, treated today. The WHALYAs “Gem” encourages team members provide top-notch customer service to our patients while scoring another boost in profits. It’s a win-win! BUT … this Gem required me to change my mindset. I was hesitant because I was under the impression that you should never complete a treatment on the same day it’s recommended. I had it in my mind that this was low-class service, and it wouldn’t be seen as important to the patient. I WAS HESITANT, AND I WAS WRONG!
"Making a change is never easy, but the results have been well worth the work we put into it."
We were overbooking ourselves, and we were adding too much stress to our already full workloads. We worried we were making previously scheduled patients wait too long and creating too much extra work for the benefits we gained. Never give in! We shifted our focus. We devoted our next staff meeting to find a solution to our WHALYA traffic jam. We decided to rearrange how we utilize our three dental chairs, and we now use our third dental chair as our overflow/emergency chair. Now, whenever we find an unexpected cavity on a patient using our WHALYA challenge and the DIAGNOdent pen, we have a specific chair devoted to their care, and the original chair they were sitting in opens up for another patient. After this shift, we were trucking along with our WHALYAs with little interference. Occasionally, we struggled with patients who were skeptical of our DIAGNOdent pen. I had a choice … quit and lose out on the benefits we were already reaping OR find a solution that works for us. Thanks to the confidence and support of my Gems Family, I chose the latter! I watched the DIAGNOdent presentation (GOLDMINE UNDERGROUND TEAM TRAINING TOOLKIT 033) again, and I learned a handy little trick. I was reminded to say, “Although extremely rare, if it’s a false positive, we will seal it for free.” This line was magic, and more people were trusting us! OVERCOMING SKEPTICAL PATIENTS’ DIAGNODENT OBJECTIONS
After boosting revenue an extra $1,600 in the first week we deployed this Gem, I can’t imagine ever doing it another way again. (That’s an extra $77,000 each year!) I now understand that even if a patient has a condition, the motivation to come back to our practice for an appointment is minimal. We may never perform the treatment, would miss out on the profit, and our patient would suffer with a festering condition that will only get worse and potentially painful as it progresses. Much like the other Gems our practice has deployed, I knew we couldn’t just tiptoe around this change. So, I went out and purchased a DIAGNOdent pen with the sole intention of pairing it with our WHALYA Gem. The best part was I scored a great deal on the pen … I bought it on eBay and only spent a third of what I would have spent on a new piece of equipment! Essentially, we had nothing to lose. Time for me to introduce the concept of WHALYAs to our team members. Of course, this meant we had to role play to really nail our communication with our patients. After practicing the simple WHALYAs verbal skill, we agreed our team would try for one WHALYA each day … and the tactic was an immediate success! It was a WHALYA frenzy.
Boy, was I wrong.
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Gems Inside
p.6. Happening on Planet Gems!
p.1. Dan Kennedy
p.7. Dr. Cribbs, a Genuine Gems Genius!
p.3. Do You Have a Business or Practice?
p.4. How to Make Q4 of 2019 Your Most Profitable Ever!
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reading clearly indicated caries. Upon opening the tooth, we encountered so much decay that we had to numb her completely before repairing the cavity. Those contrasting images had the potential to sell the power of DIAGNOdent to our patients, and I knew we had to use this to our advantage. I took the picture of the patient’s tooth pre-op, a second photo showing the decay, and the third photo is the gaping hole in the tooth (final prep) prior to restoration. I created a graphic for all our computers. Our team was empowered to use this image when talking to patients about DIAGNOdent, and we saw such a high success rate that I shared the image with Dr. Tom Orent and Dr. Lisa Weber, our Certified GG12 Coach. Dr. Orent created laminates of my graphic for all Gems members to use. If you’ve not received yours, just ask your Personal Gems Concierge to mail one to you. It’s also available on the members’ site. SITE MAP GOLDMINE UNDERGROUND
TEAM TRAINING TOOLKIT 033 THE KEY TO TRANSFORMING DIAGNODENT INTO A HIGHLY VALUABLE PRACTICE ASSET MORE FILES DIAGNOdent Laminate and Screen Saver Dr. Terrie C I am so proud of my team and the way we persevered through the hurdles this WHALYA challenge had. Making a change is never easy, but the results have been well worth the work we put into it. Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of Dr. Orent and the Gems Team. Every opportunity we have to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone has only afforded our patients better care and our practice ever greater opportunities. "Upon opening the tooth, we encountered so much decay that we had to numb her completely before repairing the cavity."
A PICTURE IS WORTH 1,000 WORDS!
We could do even better. We were already showing our patients the proof of their decay, but it occurred to me that “before” shots would really sell the findings of our DIAGNOdent pen. In fact, I had one patient whose tooth looked healthy and normal on the outside, but the DIAGNOdent
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