The biggest celebration is when your customer or the market or industry you serve, respect and celebrate your success. That is when they say that you are worth whatever you are worth, and they celebrate and respect your worth. You are not called "a money grabber" but are celebrated for your contribution to their life. They want you to have your worth, your fame, your awards or your success. Their worth valuing is validation that the service you provide is respected and valued.
This is a very very hard thing to do and is judged on your behaviour. This is hard because you have to earn their trust, their goodwill and make them see value from a different perspective.
If you behave in their interest, then will see that you truly care about them and show them what you value about them. They see your value embedded in their value. They see aligned values. What you show value to, is what people will value.
If we talk about our 7 figure sums and big cars, and show value to that before, over and above the value to the patient, then ultimately they will see us as money grabbing. A few are so busy talking about our value, our 7 figures, how to build our 7 figure services etc. that forgotten amidst this is that the patients who are the ones who add that value to us. The way to create that value for them is to stop talking about us, and start talking about their value in this equation.
I take Tubules as an example (and I do not not to blow my trumpet). The Tubules team and I work long hours, helping people and showcasing the value of growth. We go to extreme lengths to tell people that our content and our iPDP are not the bog standard tick box. We work damn hard in every way to showcase that we are invested in the growth of the individuals. We make content with the highest production values that don't cut corners. We do events that are over and above the bog standard.
However our message is not about the depth of effort we make. Our constant message is that we are fully invested in the growth of others. Our recent growth diaries are an example of this. People see that value, they know that we value what they value - and I am sure those who truly see this, respect and celebrate our success. In their success and the wider profession's success likes our success.
Now translate that to dentistry - what do you do to show the public their version of dental healthcare success....
Many patients are searching for a way to get healthcare. The only reason they think dentistry should be cheap is because they have not seen the value of that healthcare. All they think is - a filling is plugging a hole without knowing the intricacies that make that filling survive long term.
Take the example of the GP who was on instagram calling dentistry in the UK a scam. His narrative was that his wife had a hygiene appointment and the hygiene appointment was a scam. He explained that this is because his wife paid for a private appointment with the hygienist, and only got a surface clean. The stains were not removed. He mentions that his wife was informed that having stain removal is a different machine and would be another cost. (I am not quoting exactly but summarising the message). The underlying fact is that this GP was talking about an outcome. When he (or his wife) visit a hygienist, their outcome was clean teeth. They do not understand what the cavitron does or an airflow does. Instead from his narrative, he was told that the airflow is an additional charge. He valued an outcome, not your process. You process may be different equipment for different purposes but that's not what the patients want. Your success is not their version of success.
The only way to understand their version of success, is to understand them and build value for them. Our conversations should be about the patients, and the purpose of dentistry. Our success should be because of achieving their outcomes and valuing their outcomes. Our success should not be at the expense of their outcomes.
So when we talk about the 7 figures, Kevin Rose says, "The question is whether those 7 figures have been achieved because of something (a cause of purpose) or at the expense of something (team wellbeing, patients best interests)".
"Talking about how much money you make from a service that most people have no choice but to use is what winds the public up."
"I would say as a patient, listen mate, please don’t brag about how easy it is to make so much make money. It’s about as credible as saying you make 7 figures from selling the air that we breathe. We have no fucking choice but to breathe it!"
"In fact given the choice I’ll buy my oxygen to breathe from the person I trust, independent of what car they drive or how much money they make"
So here I say: It's not the 7 figures, as much as the poor communication we have developed that has undermined trust. They do not see the value for them and here we are, busy exploiting the value for us.
Look at it from a patient's eyes....