Excellence through guesswork

Us dentists like to get things right. The thought of going through a process where we try and fail multiple times scares many of us.

And, I agree that we don’t want to try experimental and unreliable treatments on patients. But, if you are not failing regularly with business ideas then you are not innovating enough.

Years ago when I started a new practice from scratch I knew very, very little about marketing. I just tried a lot of ideas, most of which were unsuccessful until I eventually discovered marketing gold.

One time I spent $2,000 printing a brochure for a letter box drop. I was sure it was going to be a winner.

After distributing half the print run I got zero response. It was not worth paying to distribute the rest so I dropped $1,000 worth of brochures in the bin.

It was a valuable lesson and I did not regret it because it taught me what doesn’t work and changed my direction for future marketing.

There is a famous saying about advertising that goes:

“Half of everything I spend on advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half.”

One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen is a colleague who graduated in the 1980s. At that time they became very successful. Now, 40 years later, they are still practicing in the exact same way they did in the 1980s.

The world has passed them by and they are now mediocre but they still stick to the old methods.

Bottom line is this.

Don’t be afraid to use some guesswork and try new things for running your practice. You will have some failures and you will have some successes.

But, if you keep innovating you will reach the situation of attaining “Excellence Through Guesswork”.