Chris Barrow’s Blog

Met with my old friend, financial planner Max Horne, for dinner last night.

First off, drinks at The Dome and we joined the many assembled, oggling at the £25,000 of Christmas decorations inside the banking hall turned bar – simply beautiful.

Next door for dinner at Le Monde.

Here is a prefect example of a commodity (a meal) turned into a Unique Ability® process:

• A choice of four places to eat in the hotel
• Eat in Milan
• Eat in Vienna
• Eat in Paris
• Eat in Shanghai

Anybody else might have stated that they served Italian, Austrian, French or Chinese food.

But not here.

They have created four seperate “experiences”.

Last night we wined, dined, talked and laughed in Paris – a fabulous fun evening.

So now I’m starting to see UAP’s around me.

Walking back to the Caley last night, the Edinburgh skyline was stunning – the trees in the park festooned with lights, the castle illuminated- surely one of the most romantic and beautiful city-scapes in the world.�

A client call last night as I spend 7 hours battling north through traffic – client looking at buying a full NHS practice – UDA contract value is £400k and a corporate have offered 115% – cash up front and the partners can walk away (They will find immigrant dentists to do the “work” – see below for a definition of what that work might be).

The real scandal is the existing owners – guys in their early 50’s.

They have sales of £400k (just the NHS work) and Net Profit Before Tax of £200k!

How do they do that?

Lab fees FOR THE YEAR were £4,000.

They are doing hardly any dentistry at all – just endless check ups.

Day in day out – check ups with no treatment.

My client has seen some of their their patients – mouths in a mess.

The Government (PCT) send the cheque and get the tick – the dentist banks the cheque – the patients’ are walking around with rotten teeth and gums in blissful ignorance until something goes badly wrong.

Government-sponsored supervised neglect – absolute scandal.

My client wants to buy the list (the patients) and spend the next 5 years getting all the patients fit after a private conversion – has offered to match the price and they will take his offer “because he is a local dentist” – he gets a goldmine provided he can get the language right around “your last dentist was a criminal but I’m going to sort you out” – this is always a problem because the patients think the world of “old Mr Bloggs who never used to hurt me”. 

Ok Chris, for what my help is worth here goes . . . 

• Insurance Plan  
• I have a whiter smile The Smile Sparkle  
• I have straighter teeth The Smile Alignment Course  
• I have more or fewer teeth The Mouth Rehabilitation Plan  
• I have no metal in my mouth Smile-with Confidence Restoration Course  
• I am able to keep my own teeth A Smile-Longevity Enhancement  
• I have replaced my dentures The 21st Century Mouth Plan 
• I have fresh breath Fresh, Close-up-Confidence, Course 
• I have very few visits to my dentist Minimal Smile Maintenance Plan  
• I can afford what I have bought Investment in a long-term smile 

Hope that stimulates a few more ideas . . .Ian Falkland Islands 

I may not have shouted loud enough.

HELP

I want some help from you on discovering what we think the UAP’s would be in dentistry (see previous posts).

I’ve given you a top 10 list of outcomes that a dentist delivers to a patient.

The help I need is in designing a series of processes that would encapsulate those outcomes.

Obvious first port of call is:

The Complete Smile Makeover (c)

That would be a process that could involve anything from tooth whitening to dental implants – the technical stuff isn’t important – I want to get away from the technical stuff – and could be trademarked or copyrighted (is that a word?) by the host so that the process became exclusive to patients of that practice.

I suppose another way to achieve that would be to look at involving the practice name in the title.

Just as we have Breathe Team Training (c).

Perhaps you could have a dental practice called The Falmouth Dental Clinic – and then a process called The Falmouth Smile Makeover (c).

This, of course, applies to any business.

The Falmouth Back-Pain Relief Process (c) – lousy title but you see what I mean.

The Falmouth Happy Pet Plan (c).

The Falmouth Tasty Dresser (c).

The Falmouth Diet (c).

It’s about the process and not about the commodity.

Can somebody out there help me please?

I want to co-discover a short list of dental outcomes that can be UAP’ed.

Here – by the way – is a dental practice who are definitely thinking outside of that metaphorical box.

Wonderful concept from Marcos White and his team.

The UAP here is that he is advertising membership of his practice – pay a monthly subscription to receive ongoing dental care and a discount on cosmetic dentistry.

£3.24 a week to look good and feel good – sounds like a bargain.

Dentistry in a can – who ever saw that before?

A heavy frost outside this morning in Bracknell and I’m sleepless as we enter day 2 of our Intensive with 18 clients.

Our first day has been about:

1. establishing each delegate’s individual shopping list for the event;
2. introducing the distinction between leadership/behaviour and management/systems
3. looking at exampes of how that shows up in dental practice
4. explaining the Kolbe profiling system
5. analysing each delegates Kolbe profile
6. explaing how this toolcan be used to aid communication

Saturday will be about the application of this knowledge to the delegate’s own businesses and scenarios.

I’m enjoying the gig – and simultaneously exhausted by the demands currently made on my time and resources and emotions.A day of rest on Sunday will be welcome.

It’s time to recharge the batteries and consider what matters most.

So what would they be? We have to start by considering what the uninformed patient is looking for I want to feel happier and more confident because:

1. I have an end to discomfort
2. I have a whiter smile
3. I have straighter teeth
4. I have more or fewer teeth
5. I have no metal in my mouth
6. I am able to keep my own teeth
7. I have replaced my dentures
8. I have fresh breath
9. I have very few visits to my dentist
10. I can afford what I have bought

There’s a top 10 list if ever I saw one.What we have to do is now attempt to fit that list into a series of Unique Ability® processes that will differentiate you from the competition and avoid the commodity trap.Help!

A stimulating conversation yesterday with my industrial contract cleaners -applying what I have learned from my dental clients and where my thinking is at present.

We are discussing Dan Sullivan’s Commodity Trap and the development of the Unique Ability® Process (UAP’s) – you can learn more at www.strategiccoach.com.

What we have done in Breathe Business is to create UAP’s around our basic products and services:

1. Commodity = a one-day practice visit. UAP = Breathe Analysis
2. Commodity = a team training day on financial management. UAP = Focus on Money
3. Commodity = a 2-day workshop on leadership.UAP = The Authentic Leader
4. Commodity = a mastermind group for principals. UAP = The Breathe Business Club
5. Commodity = one of the business club days on increasing sales. UAP = The Sales Accelerator
6. Commodity = 1:1 coaching by Simon, Chris and Alun. UAP = Breathe Bespoke

So by creating a UAP we build credibility, we positively differentiate ourselves in the market – and when we trademark the UAP we create an increased sense of value for clients in purchasing the knowledge.

It’s a fantastic process and worth the fees we have paid Strategic Coach just to understand that.

I’ve been working with some of my dental clients on the application of this to their practices – and struggling a bit.

1. Commodity = a Procera crown. UAP?
2. Commodity = wall to wall veneers. UAP?
3. Commodity = implants. UAP?

I suspect you will guess the answers (there are two of them) – but it really became clear when I addressed the needs of the cleaners.

1. Commodity = we clean your office. UAP?

After some struggles we realised the two possibilities.

1. UAP the outcome or
2. UAP the process, the customer/patient journey.

Examples:

1. Outcome = a nicer smile. Commodity = tooth whitening. UAP = The Whiter Smile Makeover
2. Outcome = no more dentures. Commodity = dental implants. UAP = The Permanent Solution
3. Outcome = straighter teeth. Commodity = Invisalign. UAP = The 10-years younger plan.

Get it?

1. Outcome = a cleaner office. Commodity = 10 cleaners with mops and buckets. UAP = The Total Office Solution
2. Outcome = a cleaner workplace and carbon credits. Commodity = our environmentally friendly office cleaning package. UAP = Go Green (an actual product).

I’m starting to understand this now.

More to follow on how to UAP the process.

just mad busy – so apologies for the lack of recent posts.I feel as if I ought to have told you all about BACD and my adventures in Manchester and Halifax this week so far.I’m working flat out and finding time for blog posts difficult – but I’ll be back.Sales continue into Breathe Business and our BACD launch was a success.The brochures arrived in Hammersmith last Thursday – I saw them for the first time on Friday night.I realised that I have a business vision again for the first time in 4 years – and I’m enthused and on fire with the potential.Working with ServiceMasters International in Birmingham today – my last workshop for the largest industrial contract cleaning company in the UK – making their heads ache with elevator speeches and the difference between commodities and processes.Commodities are measured by function and price.Experiences and Processes are the way in which you receive the outcome that you desire.Marketing is about knowing what your customers want, making it easy for them to get it and making your solution irresistibly attractive to them.Marketing is about establishing barriers to entry for those you do not want to serve.Marketing is about making your offer easy to access and irresistibly attractive.My head is bursting with ideas….

After yesterday’s Leeds workshop I drove into the City Centre to visit with existing Bespoke clients Jack Cooke and Richard Moon.For the last year I have been working with them on their other practices at Ashby Dental and Wetherby Orthodontics – my work is done there.So now we are entering into year 2 of Bespoke coaching (and year 3 as clients) and they have asked me to switch the focus of my attention to The Headrow Dental Practice in the city.I visited the practice first – a lot less horrible than I had expected. It’s very tired and needs a complete corporate makeover (you can see photographs on my Facebook site).We discussed and agreed a short-term fix in the reception area whilst planning permission comes through for a much more extensive refurbishment starting in 2008.The team are excited and apprehensive at my arrival.Our conversations continued over dinner at Brown’s piano bar and I eventually pulled out of the city at 8.30pm to begin a 2-hour drive South to the Forest of Arden hotel.Good conversation with Ashley Latter on the way down. He is much recovered from last week – although we commiserated that he was celebrating his 43rd birthday in a hotel bar in Bournemouth, alone with a pint and a burger.Our joint grumble about the loneliness of the long-distance coach continues.Arrive at 10.30pm to unpack, press my shirt, clean my shoes and walk downstairs for a nightcap.The bar is heaving with drunken reps who have been at a sales dinner.About turn.Back up to my room to watch the end of Question Time in bed.Whilst all of this was happening – the team are launching Breathe Business at the BACD.A pallet arrives with 900 copies of all of our new stuff – and we are born – in shocking pink!I’ll be down there tomorrow and will send you some pictures.For now – emails all done – time to shower and prepare for the day ahead – last marketing workshop of the week and then a Friday evening drive down to London with Alun Rees as welcome company.

After a superb workshop in Gateshead (lovely crowd, all willing to learn) I accepted a lift from a client to the NHS walk-in centre across the river Tyne in Newcastle City Centre.Even this stupid man had to accept that I needed some professional help in dealing with my deteriorating health as I travel.The bottom line (forgive the pun) is that I have case of gastro-enteritis that is causing me a great deal of discomfort and means that I spend a good part of the day feeling nauseous.I’m slowly slipping into sleep deprivation and ill-health as I flog myself around the country, answering emails from 5.00am every morning, presenting workshops and driving between destinations in the evenings (whilst making hands-free phone calls).Rather paradoxically, the afternoons of the workshops are focused on strategies to maintain a good balance between work, rest and play!!!As Stephen Covey would say – “it’s harvest time” – and the crops have to be brought in.So I’m going to accept the advice of the lovely nurse who examined me last night – to “flush out my system” – and I’m going to keep going for the next few weeks and hope that I hold out. My other vitals were OK so there appears to be nothing more sinister going on than tiredness and a tummy bug.That sounds like me asking for a sympathy vote – sorry – didn’t mean it to sound that way.After my experiences with Ashley last week – maybe it’s just about burn-out reducing the effectiveness of both of our immune systems?Today, the marketing workshop in Leeds – expecting a good turn-out form what is normally a lively audience.The great news is that we have continued to “sign-up” clients for the Breathe Business Club – 2 in Edinburgh on Tuesday and another 2 in Gateshead.And today we go live with Breathe Business on the stand at the BACD conference in Hammersmith – so whilst I’m presenting in Yorkshire, the team are unpacking our brand new literature in London.Exciting times.