Dentistry Webinars presents a new series to help dental practitioners navigate stormy economic waters.
‘Raise your prices’ is just one of the key pieces of advice that specialist business coach Chris Barrow will deliver to dental practitioners during his coming series of four webinars, kicking off on 24 March 2025.
The series is designed to help practices weather the current and coming economic challenges. The webinars – sponsored by Align Technology – will focus on issues such as pricing, particularly avoiding a race to the bottom in a price war with other practices, along with gold-standard customer service, as is fundamental to remaining profitable.
The economic cycle is ‘going to get tougher’
Dental practitioners are already coping with the effects of operating and payroll increases in excess of 40% of the past two years, driven by inflationary pressures and, more recently, the rise in employer national insurance responsibilities. And more is to come, warns Chris: ‘We are entering a phase in the economic cycle where it’s going to get tougher and more challenging to run a successful dental business.’ he says, adding that dentists are increasingly reporting ‘white space’ or gaps in their appointments books, compared with the post-COVID period.
Despite the challenges, Chris is optimistic that there’s plenty dentists can do insulate themselves in the current climate. ‘That’s what drove us to put this webinar series together – not doom and gloom, but solutions. If it’s getting more difficult to get new patients through the door and encourage bigger ticket items, such as Invisalign treatments, then what are the solutions which are going to make sure that practices continue to thrive and prosper?’
The webinar series will cover topics including budget management, profitability and efficiency, optimising operations to marketing. Chris will host a range of expert speakers – all clinicians operating their own successful practices, who will reveal how they maintain prosperous, profitable dental businesses.
The three Ps and three Rs
Running monthly from 24th March, Chris says the webinars will address practitioners’ top concerns, including what he calls ‘the three Ps and the three Rs’.
- The three Rs – recruitment, retention and remuneration are concerns for practices because some are losing good team members, either because they are leaving dentistry or because they are being headhunted. Remuneration, says Chris, is a big issue since the current chancellor increased the national living wage by 6.4% in the budget and the Bank of England announced that at the end of January, private sector wages were up 6.6% over the year, both of which are raising salary expectations
- The three Ps – productivity, pricing and profit. We know dentists are scared to put up their prices, but when your operating costs have gone up by 40% in two years, you’ve got to do some hefty price increases to even keep in line with that. And profit margins are declining, so that has a knock-on effect on cash flow, Chris adds.
Aside from offering solutions to the more complex issues dentists face, the series will also underline the importance of getting the basics right, from the way the telephone is answered, how patients are greeted as they enter the practice, the quality of treatment co-ordination and how the clinician develops empathy with patients by properly listening to them and presenting them with solutions which are appropriate and affordable for them.
The message he is giving to his clients is ‘aim high’ and target consumers who are more likely to have money to spend on dental care. ‘The interesting thing about challenging economic cycles is that the older, affluent patients are less affected than any other demographic. The best patient this year is me – a baby boomer – anyone born between 1947 and 1957.
‘We are living 25 years longer than our parents did. We are 100% fitter than our parents were and have paid off our mortgages and finished our school fees. We are relatively, if not completely, debt-free and we want to look good and feel good. And the best news of all, we have complex dental problems with expensive solutions!’
Chris urges any practitioners ‘who want to survive the next two years’ to sign up. ‘What we’ll be saying over these four webinars will be serious stuff, which comes from a challenging landscape, but it will be packed full of solutions. This series will give attendees a toolkit for survival.’
Click here to sign up to the webinar.
Catch up with previous on demand webinars:
- Straumann iEXCEL: one ecosystem, true clinical versatility
- Beyond straight teeth: multidisciplinary treatment planning
- Safeguarding – where are we now?
- Dentistry Live: root canal treatment
- Harnessing the power of AI for better precision, efficiency and patient care.
Save 40.0% on select products from L&L First Aid with promo code 40G4RTOE, through 4/11 while supplies last.
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