Chris Barrow’s Blog

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5.45am – alarm call in Sheffield and another encounter with the breakfast from hell – this time I plunge the serving spoon into a a vat of liquified scrambled egg and walk away, accepting tea and toast as my best option.

6.45am – sit down in the main hotel bar and begin work on my DBS PowerPoint slides for the second workshop series of 2007. As usual, this means opening the 2006 slides and deciding what to add, delete, adapt and update – as well as changing the slide backgrounds and clip art, mainly to amuse and stimulate myself as I tour.

9.00am – slides are finished and, as delegates arrive around me for a conference on “full employment in Yorkshire” I catch up with the overnight emails.

9.30am – depart Sheffield and pull on to the M1 heading South – (handsfree) calls with clients, team and family on the way.

12.15pm – arrive at Gallery Implants in Oxford – where my long-standing client Nigel Olesen has opened his new practice after searching for suitable premises these last 5 years.

I looked at the facility with Nigel 9 months ago, when it was bare office space – and I’m delighted to see the almost finished result – a purpose-built implant practice where Nigel has 2 surgeries connected by a sterilisation corridor, a hygienist’s surgery, 2 patient lounges and a recovery room, administration offices and excellent staff facilities – all that and ample parking, which his patients in Central Oxford love.

After a quick financial meeting with Nigel and his financial controller, I meet with the team over lunch to discuss their plans going forward and also speak with Nigel about his marketing plans for the year.

There’s going to be a lot to do here but at least they have remembered the cappucino machine!

3.00pm – leave Oxford for a “short” drive to Thatcham and the premises of Precision Dental Studio.

The owner, Richard Stock, takes me on a tour of the recently extended and refurbished premises – quite the most magnificent dental laboratory I have seen for some years in the UK.

5.00pm – after discussing Richard’s needs, I quickly draw from my extensive archive of slides and pop together a 45-minute presentation on marketing.

6.00pm – dentists arrive for the official opening of the refurbished lab. The local press are here and a few of us make history (well, in Thatcham anyway) with a group photo for the local rag. Then it’s in for the biggest buffet you’ve ever seen.

7.00pm – Chris Barrow, live and uncut, to about 35 dentists and some of the Precision team. There are a few old friends in the audience, including Richard and Chris Charon from Newbury who I always enjoy joking with. The session is lively and funny and we all agree to let me ramble on until about 8.30pm.

Audience disappears after Richard has presented me with a new leather journal as a gift – I am really touched by this as he has obviously done his research and provided a thoughtful and valuable “thank you”.

9.00pm – drive from Thatcham to Farnham and check in to The Bush.

10.00pm – in the bar for a solitary drink and to catch upon a few telephone messages.

10.45pm – read one line of current novel about 20 times before I admit to myself that I’m too tired to read and turn out the light.

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Breakfast at the Royal Victoria is an extraordinary event.

Served in the main hotel restaurant – more high ceilings and aspidestras.

What’s unusual is the hotel staff.

I arrive at 6.30am to find a very stocky and chirpy lady who literally shouts,

“MorningSirroomnumber

pleasehelpyourselfit’sselfservicewouldyouliketeaorcoffee?”

in one unbroken torrent of words that have me flinching out of my stupor.

She looks as if she could easily wrestle a cow to the ground and roll her own cigarette at the same time.

Having chosen a seat in a quiet corner with a modest assortment of scrambled eggs, mushrooms and toast, I watch a variety of male, Northern sales reps arrive, with their guts hanging over their trouser fronts.

They each fill up their plates with enough grease and cholestorol to feed an Eastern European break-away state – a perk of the job, no doubt.

Locals, these reps are – as evidenced by the coloquial “Ey up” that they exchange, the language of Yorkshire.

My waitress (name unknown) clearly knows many of them and bestows a “flower” before escorting them to their tables:

“It’llbecoffeeandtoastwon’titflower.”

Eventually, help arrives as the number of sales reps grows.

The first is an old man with a completely bald head and thick, dark-rimmed glasses – he must be 4 foot 6 and looks like a WASP yoda (or Arthur Askey if you can remember that far back). He seems only able to stagger around, mumbling, with plates of fried tomatoes, serving nobody. In one door to the kitchen and out the other, tomatoes in hand.

Then the door swings open and a young man hobbles, yes, hobbles in wearing a hoody, jeans and trainers.

“By ‘eck – I must have ‘ad about 25 pints last night.”

That much is obvious, by virtue of the difficulty with which he pulls the hoody over his head, dancing around the restaurant floor to the amusement of his colleagues and the inter-bacon guffaws of the guests.

Hoody off, he starts to walk around with a jug of orange juice – somewhat disconcerting as it transpires that his legs are different lengths, producing a rolling kind of walk that sends liquid slapping in all directions.

He is either disabled or recently joined the hotel from a Virgin train catering crew and unable to stop compensating.

I’m beginning to think this is all an elaborate joke.

It’s time to leave when the waitress is chatting to a rotund guest and loudly proclaims:

I don’t know about you flower but I’m sweating bollocks this morning.”

I’m off, before they all turn into zombies and eat me.

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I’m at the Royal Victoria Hotel in Sheffield this evening, after a 6-hour drive during which I connected by (hands-free) phone to clients, Team and friends.

The day began at 7.00am with a post-weekend email catch-up and a chance to sit and think about what I want to achieve in a busy week of travel ahead.

I’ll be journeying around the UK until Friday night:

• Practice visit tomorrow
• Meeting with client to discuss progress on a new implant centre tomorrow evening
• Visit to a different and newly completed implant practice on Wednesday
• And then a gig Wednesday evening at the official opening of a new dental laboratory
• Thursday practice visit
• Friday full-day workshop with specialist ortho practices at the Head Office of 3M Unitek

A full and exciting week.

This evening it’s a bar snack and emails at the hotel – one of the original great British Railway hotels of the 19th Century – my room is palatial.

The hotel bar is Victorian splendour.

An interesting contrast – Windows Vista on the table and a pint of Worthingtons from the bar.

A client asked me, this morning, to remind him of the wording:

Dear Mr. Barrow,

Now that we have reached the end of your current course of treatment, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for placing your trust and confidence in myself and the team here at Aardvark Dental.

We are delighted with the result achieved clinically and hope you are equally delighted with the outcome.

If there are any problems don’t hesistate to call us on 0123-456789.

At this time we normally remind our patients that the practice grows primarily through word of mouth recommendation.

Please find enclosed 3 copies of our business referral card.

If you know of any family, friends or colleagues who would benefit from a visit to a practice like ours, please pass the cards to them.

Thanks for your help.

The last 2 days I have been calling clients again – another round of our 15-minute telephone coaching meetings.

I am moved to mention that the majority of my clients do not have receptionists who answer the phone correctly.

I’m not criticising these receptionists – most of them are doing their best in the absence of a robust system/protocol/brand standard.

What’s concerning, however, is that these are clients of The Dental Business School – they are paying for our advice and not taking it.

All I’m asking for is very simple:

“Good afternoon, Stafford Street Dental Practice, Margaret speaking, how can I help you?”

It’s not rocket science is it?

But congratulations to Margaret (she is real) who won the prize for the best-answered phone yesterday.

There were a few others who managed the same:

• Greeting
• Name of practice
• Personal name
• Offer to help question

But many more would only include the first two:

“Good morning, Jones Dental.” Then silence.

• Greeting
• Name of Practice

It’s just not good enough in retail anymore.

And there were some that were completely emotionless and uncaring.

I like talking to the “Margarets” of this world – they make you feel special, welcome, appreciated.

I’ll pay extra if there is a “Margaret” on reception.

On customer service, I arrived at The Grand Hotel in Brighton at 10.30am this morning and everyone in their team – concierge, reception, lounge, bar, housekeeping – has been excellent.

I think they have heard my favourite phrase:

“No problem, leave it with me, I’ll get it sorted.”

I’d happily use this hotel for business or pleasure.

Take your dental team here for the weekend – and show them what you mean.

Marketing NEVER ends, marketing NEVER stops, you keep on marketing even when it’s raining new clients.

The last 6 months have been the best ever in 9 years of The Dental Business School.

And yet, here’s what we are planning at the moment:

• a 21,000 leaflet drop in the British Dental Journal
• a 20,000 leaflet drop in Private Dentistry magazine
• a letter to our “interested” database of 780 dentists, promoting one-day Practice Audits by our two in-house dental coaches
• a letter to the same database announcing the next round of UK taster days at the DBS workshops
• a twice-monthly ezine broadcast to 2000 readers announcing the schedule of one and two-day Intensives for the coming year
• an special offer in the ezine and newsletter for the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry
• a feature in the newsletter for the British Dental Practice Managers Association
• a review of our strategic alliance partners and meetings to dicuss marketing alliances
• a reprint of our 100-tips booklet for distribution at conferences
• a new offer to take our successful “Perfect Front Desk Team” Intensive in-house to specific practices
• creation of 3 new Intensives for our Autumn programme of events

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And that’s as well as public speaking engagements for yours truly which include:

• an evening at Precision Dental Laboratory in Newbury
• a UK tour with Isoplan (in progress)
• a one-day presentation to ortho practices at the Head Office of 3M Unitek in Bracknell
• a VDP conference
• a one-day special with the Newcastle IPG
• a s.63 day in Doncaster

Just in the next 3 months.

To carry on from my “cash is king” comments:

1. It’s all about cash flow;
2. Cash flow is all about sales;
3. Sales are a consequence of marketing.

Never take your eye off that ball.

Monday morning – it’s blowing a violent gale outside but I’m trying to re-create health and fitness as a priority in my life and go for a run before the day starts.

I’ve been a runner for over 25 years and every now and then leave it alone for a while. The latest “while” has lasted nearly 2 years and in the last few weeks I have felt an urge to start again. Always a tough start – body and lungs feel as if they have atrophied.

Yesterday morning I staggered and stumbled along the coastal pathway for an hour. Today I will keep to the streets, for fear of being blown out to sea! No exaggeration – a couple lost their lives that way down here just a couple of weeks ago.

We are in the grip of a sudden return to winter as a cold Northern front hammers the whole of the UK and Ireland.

My sacrifice for this committment to health is my early-morning email attack.

I have previously made the first 2 hours of the day about answering emails and I’m going to have to figure out a new routine.

As to focus…

We have spent many hours in the last few weeks discussing The Dental Business School 2010 and what that will look like.

It’s time to focus on the DBS in the next 90-days and our income requirements.

So I’ll be spending much of the next 48 hours in conversation with Team CB on our lead generation and lead conversion activities for the next 3 months.

Cash flow is always “king” – and if we take our eye off the ball whilst discussing the view from the top, there will be no mountain to climb (how many mixed metaphors is that? I sound like George W.)

The good news is that our level of enquiries is at an all-time high.

The bad news (if you can call it that) is that our marketing and sales systems can never be overlooked for an instant.

We are a sales-driven business – but then again which business isn’t?

Once a month I spend the day in 15-minute phone calls with my clients.

They book in via an on-line appointment scheduler and I call them at the appointed time.

Once the clients have been working with me for a while they “get it” that there is value in sending an email a day or so before the call, highlighting the topics they want to discuss.

I always emerge from these days energised by the conversations – and informed by the topics covered.

My clients are my R&D team – the questions they ask and stories they tell give me a clear insight into what’s “hot to trot” in the marketplace.

Yesterday I was asked:

• to explain how a new-business “pipeline” works
• to explain the Kolbe assessment system
• to help with an associate who is struggling to attract new patients
• to calm a principal who feels it necessary to micro-manage her team
• to advise a principal who is emigrating to Australia on a smooth hand-over of patients to her successor
• to review hygienist profitability
• to advise on managing branch practices effectively
• to forward a job specification for a business manager
• to help with the marketing plan
• to discuss how to remotivate a team of care nurses
• to offer an opinion on incorporation
• to review a marketing plan
• to suggest a contract for an in-house masseuse
• to encourage a principal to replace an assistant
• to calm down a principal in overwhelm
• to suggest some verbal skills training
• to congratulate a principal for taking a holiday!
• to advise on the implementation of new software

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And the encouraging aspect of all that was the absence of any negativity – nobody moaning about their “poor me” problems – just positive, focused people, attempting to build better businesses and lives.

After a day of calls I’m usually stir-crazy – and so a long walk on the beach was the next agenda item – and as I watched the sun go down I reflected on a very good day.

Saturday morning and, unusually, I’m sat at the back of the room watching somebody else present to my clients.

Dr. Asif Syed is spending the day with a pilot group of 7 clients, discussing and presenting on the use of Key Performance Indicators to keep your “finger on the pulse” of the dental practice.

Not just financial KPI’s but all of the key performance and behavioural measures.

I first met Asif 6 years ago at a BDA conference and we have become good friends. Additionally, he is one of the few people that can engage my entrepreneurial attention span for hours and not just minutes.

A very clever man who hasn’t done wet-fingered dentistry for 3 years now – he helps clients to improve profits via KPI monitoring – and I’m hoping he’ll be doing a lot more of that with our clients over the years ahead.

It’s a “red letter day” for Chris Barrow – not presenting.

This ends a busy but immensely fruitful week:

• Monday evening – Belfast and co-presenting with Isoplan
• Tuesday – our own Belfast workshop
• Wednesday – our own Manchester workshop (one of the best days in 9 years of the DBS)

• Wednesday evening my first trip to Old Trafford in 2 years, to see the Champions League game against Lille
• Thursday – a steady drive to London and a host of client phone calls
• Friday – for the first time in my life I walked across London Bridge with 500,000 people going to work in the Square Mile

My journey was to see a favourite client who has built an award winning practice. The amazing business family at Bow Lane Dental Group (and, by the way, one of the best web sites I’ve seen at Bow Lane). Breakfast with the principal, individual meetings with every team meeting, a group conversation in the afternoon and then early supper with the client to debrief him. A superb day that left me feeling 100% job satisfaction.

Arriving back at the new Hilton Tower Bridge (first class by the way) I discovered a dental conference taking place at the hotel – 180 dentists there for the day and some of my clients amongst them. It’s a small world.

So to Heathrow (the Hilton again) this morning.

I’ll be heading for home later and reflecting on a wonderful working week.

I’ve seen light-bulbs going on in people’s heads all week – that’s what I love about this work.

Because I’m sat in the lounge at Exeter International Airport – with hundreds of stranded travellers – waiting for a host of delayed flights, including mine to Belfast, where I’m presenting with Isoplan this evening.

After a week of no emails, no phone calls, no paperwork – in fact not even a conversation about business, it’s rather daunting to be heading off on 6 days of business travel.

Back with a vengeance – but with my batteries recharged. I have to admit buying a lottery ticket on Saturday “just in case”.

Don’t get me wrong – I would still turn up for work this week – and stay in coaching – just more free days and fewer focus days would be the reward.

In the event I didn’t even get one winning number (again)Â – so it’s back to reality.

This evening an invited audience on “The top 11 secrets for a successful conversion to private practice.”

Actually, I’m looking forward to a live audience.

If this flight ever leaves..

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