Do you have any big plans for your dental practice this year? If so, do you have a strategic plan for those plans? Last week, we talked about the difference between a vision and a strategic plan. In this post, let’s look at how to create a strategic plan for your big goals.  

When you create a Strategic Plan, what you are really creating is a roadmap that bridges the gap between where you are right now and what you want to achieve. Your Strategic Plan is what my partner, Dr. Jack Bayramyan, likes to call your Growth Positioning System.  

The planning process is a way of reverse engineering your vision into measurable goals and then developing a written plan with a clear understanding of the obstacles in your path, investments you need to make and the resources and capabilities you need to have to achieve these goals.  

For Your Dental Practice to Grow, first you Need a BHAG 

The steps laid out below are the exact steps that Dr. Jack used to develop and reach his BHAG or Big, Hairy Audacious Goal. The BHAG concept was developed by Jim Collins in his book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.  

One of the advantages of having a huge goal is that it gets you out of bed in the morning. We can utilize the Goldilocks effect here: your goal can’t be so small that it’s easily achievable and offers no excitement or challenge to you or your team; but it also can’t be so big that it’s seemingly impossible to achieve or too intimidating for your team to even think about. Your BHAG must be right.  

And you’ll know that your goal is just right when you can easily reverse engineer it and can build the roadmap to achieving it.  

This image illustrates how you can break a goal down into achievable parts over time. This particular goal is for a multi-site practice. The BHAG is growing the practice to “Serving 50k patients in 3 years.” We break this goal down into yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily goals.

In order to achieve the daily goal of 65 appointments per practice, you can reverse engineer that to see how you’ll achieve it. Do you need more operatories? Do you need to hire more hygienists or associate dentists? Do you need to overhaul your patient management software?

And remember, you don’t want to create a goal that is so big it feels unachievable or so small that you and your team aren’t inspired or challenged. It should feel a little scary but not terrifying. The same goes for your resources. Don’t over-commit your resources or take on something that will cost you or your organization more than you can afford in time or money. That’s why a plan is necessary, it will help you see what is achievable and what might need to wait.

Your Dental Practice Strategic Plan 

Ok, so you’ve got your BHAG. Now what? Let’s look at the exact plan Dr. Jack followed to reach his goal. This is a breakdown of steps you need to take and questions you need to answer for your strategic plan.  

Clarify what you want to achieve in your Dental Practice 

• You need to be very clear about where you want your practice to end up when you achieve your goal. For instance, you may want to increase the number of patients seen by a certain amount. You will need to know how many patients your team, practice and operations can handle and what the limit is so you can plan to face the challenges that will arise as more patients come into the practice.  

Write down your measurable goals into a well- developed measurable scorecard to be shared with your team  

• Very similar to the goal chart [see image above] that Jack created for his team, you can break down that goal into increments to see how to reach it, how to delegate the different tasks to your team, and how to create the correct strategies for measuring those goals.  

Set deadlines by breaking down your three-year goals into annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily objectives  

• One of the most helpful tools I’ve found as a CEO is insisting on my teams keeping a regular meeting cadence. Meetings dedicated to one topic, in this case your BHAG will keep everyone focused on the objectives and cohesive in your strategy.   

Identify and list all the obstacles in your path preventing you from reaching your goals and objectives 

• Taking the example above, of “increasing patients seen,” you can begin to see where your practice is optimized to receive new patients and where you may face challenges when that number increases. For instance, you may not have a big enough team. You may need to hire an associate or another hygienist. These are the specifics that you will become aware of when you create your plan and look for the obstacles to reaching BHAG.  

List all the resources and capabilities you need to transform those obstacles into growth 

• These resources may be a more robust CRM (customer relationship management system); You might consider hiring a marketing agency to help you attract, retain and track new patients; with these changes, you may find that your accounting software needs updating. Fleshing out the details of what you already have on hand and where you may need to expand, fund or source new resources or capabilities will save you money and time in the long run.  

Organize your goals into a sequence of priorities  

• Follow the 80/20 rule which states that 80 percent of your results will come from 20 percent of your activities. It’s important to list them in order of priority and sequence with detailed steps, dates and timelines.

Build an accountability structure for your team 

• Create a visual accountability chart with specific goals and deadlines for each critical role in your business: most importantly, marketing/sales, operations, and finance. That way, each person knows exactly what part of the BHAG they are responsible for while also knowing the timeline for execution and completion.  

Assign a member of your leadership team to each role. Note that some leaders may have multiple roles 

• Make sure that each team member knows not just what and when to execute and complete their responsibilities but how they’ll get your vision completed. They will need the proper resources and hands to get the job done. Another quick tip is reviewing that accountability structure in your monthly or quarterly meetings.  

Calculate the investments you need to make to acquire the resources and capabilities listed above  

• Reaching your BHAG will most likely take a lot of resources including money. You may need to take a business loan, source investors or find revenue in your business. No matter how you source and acquire that money make sure it’s accounted for and earmarked for your BHAG and not simply quotidian funds in your practice. You must keep your eye on the ball.  

The investment you make is a critical part of strategic planning. This investment is not only money, but your time and energy towards the commitment of achieving your BHAG and ultimately realizing your vision for your dental practice.  

Undermining the value of investments and confusing investments with expenses has been the greatest bottleneck to growth for many entrepreneurs and organizations. It’s a good rule of thumb to remember we must invest before we can unlock the benefits of growth.  

A New Vision for Growth for your Dental Practice 

Now that you’ve designed your strategic plan, you’re ready to execute. It’s a scary proposition to come up with a big goal, sell it to your team and get their buy-in and enthusiasm, gather the resources and then launch! In fact, it’s downright terrifying.  

But if you have a plan and you know how you will be getting from point A to point B, that is, as they say, half the battle. Having a goal, the roadmap to get there and the resources you will need to travel, is essential for success. But there is one more element you need in your tool belt: a mindset for growth and achievement.  

If you don’t believe that you can achieve what you’ve set out to do, no amount of money, energy or teammates will get you to your goal. Mindset is everything.   

One of my favorite writers is the athlete, David Goggins. He is a true inspiration and he has this to say on mindset and motivation,  

“If you want to master the mind and remove your governor, you’ll have to become addicted to hard work. Because passion and obsession, even talent, are only useful tools if you have the work ethic to back them up.” 

One of the best ways I know to remain steadfast in your goals, bust through your obstacles, find resources and community to keep you strong is a secret entrepreneurial tool called Masterminds.  

A mastermind is a group of peers that come together on a regular basis to work out their biggest challenges, share resources and lean on each other to get through the rough patches and celebrate the wins. It is the single most effective tool that an entrepreneur has in her entrepreneurial toolkit.

And you’re in luck! I run a regular mastermind exclusively for dentists. We get together regularly to discuss the biggest obstacles to growth that they’re facing in real time; share stories of inspiration; share resources and celebrate what’s working in their practices. It’s a wonderful community and we want you to be a part of our movement. Click the button to register for the next one and we’ll see you there!