Dental implant marketing is an important endeavor for any practice. And, as with any important endeavor, building a solid foundation is crucial.
And building a solid foundation is something any dentist can do, whether you’re just beginning to offer dental implants or whether you’ve been doing dental implant marketing for years but know your success could be greater.
In our recent blog post, Dental Implant Marketing – How to Lay a Good Foundation Part 1 – Collect Testimonials, we looked at an often-overlooked foundational piece – knowing the value of and techniques for collecting dental implant customer testimonials.
Today we’re going to look at a second important piece of our foundation – MOTIVATING every employee on your team for maximum success!
We’ll explain why motivation is so critical, how to find what motivates each of your employees, and finally we’ll look at motivating and involving your employees in your dental implant marketing for maximum success for your practice.
What Is Motivation, Exactly?
For maximum success with dental implant marketing, you must be able to truly motivate every employee on your team.
It might be helpful to ask a simple question: What does it mean to motivate someone?
Webster defines motivation as “to provide someone with a motive, impel.”
This is the key – you must provide each of our employees with a MOTIVE, or in other words, a reason to see the success of your dental implant marketing as their success!
This is especially important with younger employees. As you know, the motivational levers of younger employees are often different from those of your older, retiring employees, and it is critical to understand how to operate in this new world.
For an in-depth dive into the generational shifts in the labor market, read Part 2 Dental Implant Marketing – How Smart Dentists Are Maximizing Results in the Labor Crunch.
We’ll first look at how to focus on motivating EACH one of your employees and then we’ll look specifically at ways to motivate for dental implant marketing success.
How Do You Motivate EACH of Your Employees?
What motive truly impels each of your staff? Do you know what really gets them up every morning?
Of course, money is usually considered the main motivator, and usually that is a large part of an employee’s motivation. Top-tier dental offices are discovering two things, however:
(1) Engaging the WHOLE PERSON unleashes tremendous potential for dental practice growth and
(2) Providing a person with what they REALLY want inspires an organic loyalty that glues him or her to your practice in ways a high salary alone won’t match.
Although these top-tier dental practices necessarily offer competitive wages, they rarely find themselves forced to continually raise wages in order to keep their staff.
Being part of a growing, thriving dental practice that truly cares about them as a person represents tremendous value to dental employees, especially younger employees.
How Do You Motivate Millennials?
Besides, as many employers are learning from working with Millennials and Gen Z’ers, money is not the primary currency (or motivator) of everyone. Even in spite of rising inflation, many younger staff members see a paycheck as important, but ultimately secondary.
Here are some of the primary motivators of younger employees:
- Making a difference in the world.
- Maximizing personal fulfillment.
- Being part of a cause they believe in
As you can see, Millennials not only have a different purpose themselves, they will also want to know YOUR goals.
Attracting and retaining Millennials forces a dentist to, first of all, make certain that he/she knows what the purpose of his/her practice truly is.
Again, for an in-depth look at the mindset of Millennial and Gen Z employees, check out our recent blog:
Part 2 Dental Implant Marketing – How Smart Dentists Are Maximizing Results in the Labor Crunch
Are you about “Creating total health for all patients” or “Providing first-class smiles every time,” or something else? First, identify it, flesh it out, and then wrap your dental practice in this transformative purpose in a way that all employees can tap into.
This process will unite and focus your team on dental practice growth in ways that will amaze you.
This focus can’t help but carry over into your implant marketing and help you lay a solid foundation for it.
A Motivational Atmosphere for Maximum Success
Once you have identified your practice purpose and thought hard about each individual staff member might fit into that purpose, how can you incorporate visible, overall motivators into your office culture that will help you as you move into dental implant marketing?
Here is a checklist of things you should already be doing outside of dental implant marketing.
- Have daily production goals with clear rewards for dental practice growth above and beyond that level.
- Have regular employee awards/perks/shout-outs for innovative breakthroughs and exceptional performance.
- Be listening to staff suggestions about improvements and changes to your office and routine. Knowing that management values their contributions is incredibly motivating to staff.
- Refusing to neglect small things like regular break-room maintenance, drinks, snacks, etc. These things, small as they are, represent in tangible form your interest in them as a whole person.
- Providing new, up-to-date equipment for employees and making sure they understand exactly how to use it to do their jobs better.
- Be providing and encouraging CE for every employee in your office
- Be asking some questions specifically about individual motivation in each of your employee’s annual review sessions, using them to learn more about each of their primary motivators.
Motivating for Dental Implant Marketing Success
Motivating dental employees in a way that lays a foundation for dental implant marketing success is similar to the points we already discussed, but here are a few additional thoughts.
Although it certainly isn’t rocket science, it does require some strategic thinking from management.
- Share your specific marketing goals for dental implants with your employees. Taking the initiative to clearly communicate objectives will help them understand what is expected of them and how their individual efforts will contribute to the success of the practice.
- Offer comprehensive training and professional growth opportunities on subjects such as dental implant procedures, benefits, and how to effectively communicate with patients about the service. Knowledgeable and confident employees will help you promote dental implants to patients.
- Offer a specific reward/recognition system just for performance in meeting dental implant objectives. Some ideas for this include performance-based bonuses, recognition in team meetings, or even small perks like gift cards or extra time off.
- Encourage teamwork and collaboration among dental employees engaged in dental implant marketing. “Two heads are better than one” is not an empty saying; fertile minds feed off of each other and the benefits of support during intense marketing campaign seasons are immense for each employee. Millennials are especially good at collaboration, so don’t hesitate to give them a chance to shine.
- Monitor progress and celebrate successes as a group as well. Regularly track the results of your implant marketing efforts and celebrate achievements as a team. Again, publicly recognize employees who are making a difference on your team.
- Always emphasize the benefits of dental implants for patients, such as improved oral health, aesthetics, and quality of life. Truly grasping the life-changing nature of dental implants will have a powerful motivational effect on employees.
- Lead by example: As a leader, demonstrate enthusiasm and support for both dental implant marketing and each employee involved in it. Your passion for marketing will inspire them to follow suit and your care for them as whole persons will make them feel valued and inspired to fill their place.
Remember
Your employees are integral to your success with dental implants.
- Value them as whole people
- Understanding their primary motivators
- Remember this as you lay out objectives and goals for your implant marketing efforts.
All of this will do as much for your dental implant marketing success as the fanciest marketing plan around.
Wrapping It Up
Learning to truly motivate your employees, especially your younger employees, is one of the most powerful things you can do to lay a good foundation for dental implant marketing.
You will see what George Patton, Jr., meant when he said
When your employees are truly motivated, prepare to be amazed.
Dental Implant Growth Partner
For more help with dental implant marketing, reach out to Client Connection Group today!
Our proven strategies for getting in front of patients on social media will bring you all the cases that you need to fill the calendar for your motivated employees!