Chris Barrow’s Blog

Why do I:

1. get up at 5.00am to spend 2 hours replying to emails so that
2. I can run at 7.00am and
3. choose to live in such a remote part of the UK.

For the answer – click here.

My alarm call this morning is at 4.00am and I enjoy the fast dawn drive to Newquay airport in the Pontiac, under a clear sky and a full moon.

Weather’s clear and it’s going to be a great day – I’m off to Leeds to meet with Nigel Hargreaves and help him grow The North of England Dental Academy – his brainchild and a project I have been coaching him on for 12 months now.

I’m all set to spend a full day with Nigel and his business manager, Holly Whittle, discussing plans for 2008, with an emphasis on marketing his innovative new service.

I arrive at the airport at 5.30am and check-in for my flight- the screen is telling me that the expected departure is 7.00am – just 30 minutes late – so I make a couple of quick calls to Nigel and Holly, explaining the delay.

Nigel is due to pick me up at Leeds/Bradford airport.

Laptop on, of course, and a few emails over coffee as I wait – using my 3G datacard and a weak GPRS signal as the airport is in the wilds. Better than nothing though.

At 7.00am the 20 or so passengers travelling to “Bristol, Leeds and Manchester” (which means the Manchester people disembark in Bristol and we fly on to Leeds) are asked to come forward and answer an intriguing question:

If we cancel the flight, will you wait until this afternoon, take a taxi or ask for a refund?”

Great question.

I’m 6 hours drive from Leeds and a cab, taking my own car, or taking the later flight are all out of the question – so my answer has to be “refund” and cancel the day.

Call to Nigel to explain that it’s up in the air or, should I say, precisley the opposite!

Somehow, I have a vision of a thin, greying accountant, sat in an office somewhere, collating our answers and calculating whether it would be more cost-effective to find an aircraft or expect the ground staff to take the crap that will follow.

In the event – his abacus says “cancel the flight” – which we are told at 7.45am.

I’ve already discussed options with Nigel – who is a pure gentleman about the situation – we organise a conference call later today and a rescheduling of the meeting on the evening of 8th October, after a day’s coaching I’ll be doing just a few minutes drive away from him in Derbyshire.

Not so lucky for the other passengers – a teenage boy who has been left at the airport by his Dad on the way to university. A collection of tired-looking businessmen who climb into their company cars and face a long drive North. A nice young chap from Manchester who cannot face the cab and elects to wait until 5.00pm this evening for the next flight. A group of elderly ladies who clamber into a Ford people-carrier resigned to a 6-hour motorway journey.

I wouldn’t mind if some half-assed explanation were offered – they do usually come out with “due to technical difficulties” which we all know is bullshit but at least well meant.

This morning they cannot even be bothered telling us why.

Accountant 1, Customers 0.

“Dear Air South West

Do you realise that you are treating us like shit?

We have your wages in our pockets.

And we have had enough.

BMI Baby where are you?”

So its back to Bonnie’s this morning, for a bonus business development session.

And my stomach rumbling for lunch at 10.30am.

My thanks to Nigel for accepting this so graciously – it’s so nice to work with nice people.

And to the faceless, nameless people at Air South West – go screw yourselves. Perhaps I could interest you in some customer service training?

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After 12 months of creative destruction – and 48 hours of intense content development – we have drafted our “offer” for 2008, including:

1. Training days for the whole dental team;
2. Training Intensives for principals and senior management;
3. Business retreats;
4. Practice visits;
5. The 2008 Mastermind Groups and
6. The 2008 Platinum service (tailor-made coaching)

It’s an impressive document that has brought together all the ideas we have discussed and removes some of the tolerations we have around excessive travel.

All we need now is:

• a new company name and brand
• an extensive PR campaign to launch the new company
• an expanded support team to provide the services
• premises to house the new team
• a marketing campaign
• lead conversion and CRM systems
• capital to get through our business “J-curve”
• about 150 clients through the year

That’s not much to ask then!

Once that’s in place I want to return to the shelved subject of creating a business review magazine for dentists and a range of toolkits and other “off the shelf” products – but that’s now looking like later in 2008.

Today I’ll be working with Bonnie on the 2008 diary – so that there is enough room for Simon and I to deliver without killing ourselves. I plan to take 14 weeks vacation next year.

And we will be working on cash flows – so that we can figure out just how deep that “J” is and continue our conversations with bankers and investors.

All that – and my second trip to the dentist this week – for a crown preparation.

Oh – and a secret trip this afternoon that I’ll tell you about in due course – something personal but quite exciting.

I’ve been an advocate of this idea for years,since I first heard about it.

Why do dentists and their teams tolerate families arriving in the practice after school finishes – the children sugar deficient and hyper-active, the parents rushed by traffic congestion and impending dinner-time, the dentist and team frazzled at the end of the day?

“Because it suits the parents.”

Maybe so in the days of the horse and cart. Not in 21st Century Britain.

So why not do those long-suffering parents a favour – and introduce specific days in the calendar when you can “lamb-dip” all those little treasures and get the thing over with.

There’s no better a person to ask about this than my partner, Annie Bradley, who, as a hygienist at Meneage Dental in Helston, Cornwall, saw this system in operation for years.

When asked about the finer points, she replies:

Please bear in mind that the practice I worked in was very different, i.e had two and at one time three full time hygienists with three full time dentists.

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·        Children’s days were held during every school holiday. 1 during the Christmas break. 2 during the Easter break. 2-3 during the Summer break and one during each half term holiday.

·        Occasionally these would be themed, for instance a healthy pancake recipe competition on shrove Tuesday, dressing up and decorating the surgery on Halloween, dressing up and raising money on Children in Need day. It you book the dates out in advance you should be able to plan around what’s going on at the time.

·        Invite along the local newspaper or local radio.

·        Show Children’s DVD’s in the waiting room.

·        We used to book in 6 young children per half hour, all day.

·        Be careful to book the into age related groups.

·        The younger age groups (11 years and under) would all go into the hygienist surgery together (admittedly, we did have the space to be able to cope with that) and all the hygienists would work with the children on disclosing, tooth brushing and dietary advice.

·        The dentist would then come in and do the examinations.

·        Treatments were re-booked for another day.

·        Older children were given a ten minute slot with the hygienist, again for OHI, dietary advice etc and then sent through to the dentist’s room for an examination.

So if it can done in Cornwall – it can be done anywhere – give it a try.

A client in Northern Ireland recently shared a newspaper clipping describing his first children’s day – and the journalist was praising the innovation – free positive publicity.

I’ve been falling steadily behind with work these last few weeks – as a result of the sheer volume of work that accumulates as we continue to work with our clients and, at the same time, begin the process of building the new company for 2008.

Suddenly, a lot more business development time is appearing in the diary – including 4 days this week, working with Bonnie on cash flows, diaries and sales copy.

To accomodate that and my desire to kick off the marathon training, I’m implementing a new and tough schedule which involves an alarm call at 5.00am, 2 hours of client emails, a 30/40-minute run and then business development and/or coaching until about 5.00pm, when I start to turn back into a frog.

Today was the first of these – I love the solitude and peace of the early mornings – a time when my mind is fresh and uncluttered – I can light a candle, make a cup of tea and focus on answering questions.

This morning my run was along Gyllyngvase Beach at sunrise (aargh – sunrise at 7.00am!) – truly beautiful.

And then 3 very productive hours of writing sales copy with Bonnie at Harpers Bistro by the marina in Falmouth – a lovely location.

Its 5.00pm now and I’m just about to switch off and enjoy a concert at Princess Pavilions this evening, where Turin Brakes are playing. Falmouth doesn’t often see headline groups – very excited.

Although I’ve spoken and written about this before – it keeps coming up – clearly there are plenty of dentists reviewing their on-line presence at the moment (and they need to).

So – for the record:

Step 1 – can if find you?
1.   Google search engine optimisation
2.   Google sponsored links
Step 2 – do I like what I see when I get there?
3.   Profile – a clear indication of the type of patient you are looking to recruit – am I in the right place here?
4.   People – a piccie and explanation of your team members – will they be able to look after me in the style I desire?
5.   Premises – do the exterior and interior of the building suit my style and budget?
6.   Promises – all the Paddi stuff on customer service
7.   Prices – a guide that confirms you as reassuringly expensive
8.   Products – all that teeth and gums gibberish – not so relevant to patients but a big hit for referring dentists.
and here is a link to the finalists in the Private Dentistry finalists list:

Click here

Back on the road – and writing this post at my dinner table in The Village Hotel, just outside Liverpool. I’ll be working with a dental practice near here tomorrow on their patient journey and selling skills.

Today was the Marriott Hotel, Leicester (very nice too) and a day with Servicemaster, presenting to a mixed group of franchise holders on business planning, time management and team-building.

The Marriott certainly know how to charge – but the customer service was excellent throughout and the facilities very impressive – a giant, modern cube of a hotel with an internal atrium and lovely rooms.

This morning I wrote emails from 5.00am to 6.30am – then 30 minutes on a treadmill (still dark outside), before changing for breakfast and emails over black pudding and fried eggs (no carbs).

Working at the Marriott until 5.30pm – during which I was reminded of the distinction between:

• Young practitioners – who need to know “where the hell do I start?”
• Established business owners – who want to know “where can I send my senior team for training?” and
• Entreprenuers – who want a members-only club – to play golf, sit in the bar until 5.00am (which they did last night) and chew the cud and share the wisdom

Dave Stirling at Servicemaster is trying very hard to convince his head office to supply those services to their franchise holders – and I want to do everything I can to help him in that process.

By the way – seeing Dave in good form after some serious cancer surgery is a special delight in the day. It once again proves that, with the right attitude, the benefit of an early warning and some excellent surgeons, you can beat the “c”.

Back to this evening – The Village Hotel is quite a dump – but its a dump that’s trying its best – the staff here are 100% clueless and 100% enthusiastic – and that’s an acceptable combination. Since I was here last year they have installed free wi-fi – now that’s inspired.

Bottom line – I’m in a crappy hotel tonight and feeling like a lonely sales rep.

I have a bottle of Gavi by my side and a Filet Mignon on the way.

Lets see what tomorrow brings.

Please forgive the absence of blog posts.

Its just one of those mental weeks where I am emailing from 6.00am to 7.30pm, presenting from 9.00am to 5.00pm, travelling to the next location in the evening – bar snack at 9.00pm, bed at 10.00pm.

Crazy weeks where there is no business development time, no thinking time, no planning time – and almost no personal time – just books read on flights, on trains and a couple of pages before lights out, after falling asleep with my reading glasses on.

This week includes Manchester, Belfast, Manchester, Stoke, Gatwick, Worthing – and back to Cornwall late Friday.

Balance – what’s balance?

It’s a temporary thing – just one of those weeks that comes along every now and then because the diary happens that way.

I’m running on adrenalin and client enthusiasm – falling steadily behind with my emails and a stranger to my business partners and support team.

The good news is that meeting our clients and prospective clients is so much fun.

Yesterday in Belfast we listened as a principal shared his journey of the last 9 months with us – from tired and frightened owner of an NHS practice to a private conversion with Isoplan that has exceeded everyone’s expectations.

This coming weekend he is taking his team to Northern Ireland’s top hotel and spa for a pamper trip – as a thank you for all their efforts.

He has his life back – his team are super-keen and everyone has a future.

We at The Dental Business School were part of that process – and that floats my boat.

When clients say a genuine “thank you” for the difference you have made – those are the best moments.

Another 4.30am start on Friday morning – and another dawn over Bodmin as I drive 370 miles to speak at a dental conference in Lincoln.

Audience are members of the Regional Post-Graduate group and my financial reward for the day is very low – section 63 funding they call it – which means barely more than my travel expenses for the journey (although in the Pontiac that will be a small fortune!).

Ashley Latter is in full flow when I arrive at 11.30am – he is covering the morning session on Ethical Sales and I have an afternoon on personal planning and marketing for beginners.

My first gig since returning from holiday and a lively audience of 100 in an excellent venue – an Inland Revenue Training Centre that is state of the art.

I enjoy being back on my feet again – and meeting up with a former client I haven’t seen for years.

Why do Ashley and I do this?

Because its all about visibility in the profession.

Sometimes we are paid handsomely for a gig – sometimes the money is a pittance – you have to take them all.

500 miles driven by the end of the day – but 100 new friends created.

There is no fast way to success – only the slow way – here I am – 11 years into coaching dentists and still gigging my heart out.

My monthly call-in day is always a “main event” in the calendar as it provides me with an accurate litmus test of the issues that my clients are facing.

From Scotland to the South Coast there can be uncanny similarities in the questions I am asked – indicating that there’s nothing new out there – and also that consumers (the patients in this case) can be relied upon to be consistent in their desires and dislikes.

Themes yesterday included:

1. Dentists in negotiation on financial clawbacks from PCT’s – following alleged under-performance. I say “alleged” because the record keeping seems to be in dispute in many cases. PCT managers are taking a hard line, until it can be demonstrated that the dentist’s records are more accurate – then they capitulate. The moral – make sure your records (and especially those of your associates) are very well maintained and recorded;
2. Associate productivity continues to be below acceptable levels – if your associate is grossing £750-£1000 a day, you are in trouble. If you (as principal) are grossing £1000-£1250 a day, you are in trouble. You need more production – which means higher prices and longer sales conversations,  NOT MORE HOURS!!!
3. Marketing is finally happening – dentists are waking up to the fact that they cannot just sit there and wait for patients to return or arrive – they must take ACTION to ensure customer loyalty and promote new enquiries. I’m pleased that our next round of team training days are on this subject – just the right timing;
4. Its now time to launch your winter marketing campaign – obvious choice – tooth whitening – “would you like a whiter Christmas?” – with time-limited discount vouchers to drum up high-profit business in the weeks up to the Festive season – there are only 15 tooth-whitening weeks left to Christmas you know!
5. Dentists are buying and selling practices – 2 of my clients confirmed that they had concluded practice sales in the last 24 hours – both of them have “had enough” of ownership and want to get out of the rat race – that’s their choice – and in each case a good one;

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Dentistry continues to be a positive place to be – full of opportunity – for the right people.

I’m delighted to report record attendances at our workshops next week and in the coming months.

Bonnie tells me that the phone has been ringing all week.

We are all back from the summer vacation and getting down to business.

Don’t miss the boat.

And if you came back from the summer break, having had enough of where you are in business, ready to bite the bullet and take the plunge into coaching for success – then contact us!