Could it be that the wrong hires are killing your practice? When things are NOT going as well as you like, there is a tendency to focus on getting more patients, hoping that will solve your problems. So you throw more money at advertising to attract new patients expecting that to fix everything.
But does it? 9 out of 10 times, I guarantee that it is not the marketing holding you back. Or your pricing. Or the competition.
It’s the team you have in place.
There is a chance you have the right people but they don’t have the training to be revenueproducing rock stars. But its more likely you have the wrong team member(s) that are never going to step up to the plate and be where you need them to be for you to grow to the level you expect.
Instead of addressing this personnel problem head on and dealing with it, it’s easier to hope the problem resolves itself so you ignore the warning signs because you are already too busy running your practice to open up a can of worms.
Now the problem starts to fester.
—You ignore it so it festers…
There is increasing discourse with the other team members who start complaining about someone not pulling their weight;
You can feel the tension among the team members and so can your patients, Important protocol is not being followed that could jeopardize patient care,
Your patients are complaining about the service they are getting (or not getting) or worse,
Your accountant says the numbers are suspiciously off.
Awareness is the first step. No matter how much you may like someone personally, if they are not a good fit, a change needs to happen. Once you acknowledge that, you can fix it.
You can no longer ignore this issue. It’s time to “free” that bad egg on your staff so they can work somewhere else where they are a better fit.
You now have the opportunity to hire the revenue-generating rock star you have dreamed about but weren’t sure how to identify…until now.
Staff salaries consume 60–80% of your operating costs so the goal is to get much more than that back in terms of productivity and results.
A-level talent makes the difference between a practice just getting by and an exceptional practice that stands out from the others.
Hire Character Backed by Skill
This is huge. Instead of hiring people and spending a ton of time and effort training them to be hard-working, loyal, passionate, team player and consistent, you hire people who are ALREADY hard-working, loyal, passionate, team-player and consistent. See the difference?
A-Players come packaged with the right mindset so you don’t spend extra time or money motivating them. They are motivated already.
Become What You Want
Come up with a list of attributes you want in a hire. Examples include: integrity, passion, discipline, self-starter, caring, results-oriented, process-drive, resourceful, pleasant demeanor and so on.
This will help you more clearly see those attributes in people who interview with you.
But here’s the tough part—be those attributes you want. Be the role model this A-Player can look up to.
A-Players want to work for an A-Player who challenges them and gives them opportunities to grow financially as well as mentally into a better person than they are now.
The Rule of 3
Some people are very good interviewees but they underwhelm you once they are on the job. For example, they bragged how good they are with technology and with people, yet you find they struggle to open excel and end up being curt with your patients. To avoid that, follow the rule of 3:
The A-Player will become obvious when you compare them to others and the B and C players will show their true character with so many points of contacts. This takes longer but it saves you so much time and money down the road so it’s well worth the process.
Pay for A-Players
Just like you tell price-shopping patients they get what they pay for, we can use the same mindset here.
When you pay extra for A-Players, you know this is money well spent because these top producers end up being free.
These quality team players always outproduce their salary and bring you opportunities to grow with less stress, liability and hassle.
If you are struggling to find great people to join your team, please reconsider your process for finding them, what you are looking for and how you pay them. In the end, it could it be that the wrong hires are killing your practice.
Jack Welch, Voted one of the best CEOs of our time ran General Electric and this is what he said:
“The one thing that hasn’t changed is the team that fields the best players wins.”
Catherine Maley, MBA is a cosmetic practice consultant, speaker, trainer, blogger and podcaster. Her popular book, “Your Aesthetic Practice/What Your Patients Are Saying” is read and studied by plastic surgeons and their staff all over the world. She and her team specialize in growing plastic surgery practices using creative patient attraction, conversion, follow up and retention strategies as well as staff training to turn team members into converting rock stars.
Click below to read “Today’s Cosmetic Practice Growth Funnel ” in its original format in Aesthetic Society News, Summer 2019, volume 23, number 3
