Winning awards sounds nice, but what will it do to help my dental practice? That’s a good question and it deserves a thorough, well-reasoned answer.
Perhaps the most potent fact to consider on this topic is that people like winners. They like being associated with winners. They feel that somehow your good fortune will rub off on them. It’s a bit like moths to the flame, only better. Your reputation is part of what attracts your client base. The opposite idea is easy to imagine, but we don’t want to go there. Bad reputations are obviously bad for business; good ones are what we want.
Winning awards is part of image building. Don’t ever forget that you are constantly in the sales game—selling yourself and your dental practice to your customers and to your community.
With the economy languishing in negative territory with little hope of a recovery any time soon, we all need to take advantage of every possible point of leverage available to us. Competition is tough, especially with the burgeoning growth of Dental Support Organizations.
Every opportunity to win an award for your business and your dental skills should be seized with glee. Each one is another opportunity to polish off your star in the eyes of your patients and in those of the community in general. But when you do win one of those awards, make a big deal about it. Put up party decorations for a week. Put a plaque on the wall with a colorful arrow pointing to it—“Another Award Won”—and include the date. Add the award to your appointment cards. Add a notice to your website home page. Post a notice in your front window and keep it there for a month (but no more).
But more than that, you need to keep thinking outside the proverbial “box.” Besides winning awards, how about creating awards for others? If you see something exceptional in your community, why not create an award in your name, or in the name of your dental practice, and make a big news event out of it. Receiving awards makes you look good, but giving awards makes you look even better. Like the old master once said, “It’s better to give than to receive.” And people respond to such generosity. Yet, so it all doesn’t seem so self-serving, consider extending the generosity to anonymous awards and gifts. There is something truly powerful about actions taken that are not based on any form of self-concern.
What kinds of awards should you pursue? Certainly, you’ve heard of a few dental awards. And why not include every continuing education certificate you earn? Each one shows that you are staying up with the latest in dental knowledge and procedures. Likely, none of your patients know about this, unless you tell them. Making a celebration out of each one tells them in a way that doesn’t seem like you’re hamming it up or overdoing it. But go beyond dentistry. Check into the Better Business Bureau and other commerce-related organizations. Check out philanthropic associations and work with them in doing outreach to the poorer sections of your community. All of these make you a more holistic part of your neighborhood and your neighbors will appreciate that.
