Jay Geier
Let's say that you just completed a marathon. A lot of necessary training, hard work, and dedication led up to the event, right? Now, fast-forward six months. Do you think you'd be able to complete another marathon without any continuous training? For most of us, the answer would be "definitely not!"
It's the same concept for training your team. You can't have just one training session and think the team will be good to go forever. You have to be consistent. You have to train your team regularly, just like you would train for anything else worth doing.
Imagine two offices. Office A works for 90 days straight-90, then another 90, then another 90. Office B takes one day off for team training, then works 89 days, followed by another training day before the next 89 working days. Now imagine that multiplied over a year or more.
If you had to pick one, which office do you think would produce higher results? Would you bet on Office A because there are more production days? Or would you bet on Office B because they did something intentional at the beginning of each quarter?
Well, here's what we know: We would bet on Office B every single time. Office B is intentional about results, taking one day off from production each quarter to train the team. Office B realizes that continued training is the key to staying ahead of the competition and commits to four training days per year.
Think about the last seven to 10 years that you've had your practice. You've probably spent most of your time and energy putting out "little fires" as they occur. That's called being "reactive," not "proactive."
You need to be intentional about making positive changes in your practice. You need to invest in your team so they can deliver for you and your patients. If you were being honest with yourself when answering the question above, you probably said you'd bet on Office B, the office that gets quarterly trainings. You know that quarterly trainings could help your team to be more focused, more engaged, and more results-oriented. So why don't you do it?
The truth is: If you want an office where your patients leave and think, "Wow! That was a great experience," you need to step up your commitment. You need to develop a culture of growth in your office, and the one way to do that is by constantly training your team. You need to let them know you are committed to their growth both professionally and personally.
Promise yourself to make the commitment in 2015. Make it a goal, write it down somewhere visible in the office, do whatever you need to do ... but start training your team! And we don't mean every once in a while. We mean regularly!
If you expect your team to be the best of the best, like marathon runners, you're going to have to give them the best training. If you want them to have consistently good results, you are going to have to train them consistently. And if you want them to be invested in the success of your practice, you will need to invest in them first.
Jay Geier is the founder of the Scheduling Institute and creator of the world-renowned five-star telephone training program that has revolutionized the way dentists attract new patients to their practices. He is finally revealing his secret for record-setting results, 600+ new patients in one week. Visit www.schedulinginstitute.com/rating to discover how he did it.
