Simple Strategies for Goal Setting To Achieve Practice Growth

Start by setting and specifying your practice goals.

What business resolutions or goals did you set for your practice this year?

1. Increase revenue by 15%
2. Reduce expenses by 10%
3. Convert more patient consultations?
4. Create more profitable long-term treatment plans that create long-term patient retention?
5. Increase retail sales?
6. Develop a concrete follow-up process?
7. All of the above?

Did you know that according to U.S. News, approximately 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February? That’s pretty staggering, right? We want this year to be your practice’s biggest, most explosive growth year yet. So, here are some strategies to make those business resolutions and goals stick.

Make sure your goals are specific and able to be quantified. Instead of saying "I want more patients", or "I want to increase my revenue", choose a specific, measurable number.

Examples: 

• Schedule 1-2 more patients per week. Increase overall revenue by 20% this year
• Increase call-to-consult rate to 70%
• Book 7 cosmetic consults per day
• Increase skin care product sales by 15%Increase filler revenue by 12%Decrease overhead by 4%

When a goal is clearly defined, it becomes measurable. 

Maintain Focus and Adapt to Challenges

Goals should be realistic and attainable. Otherwise, you set yourself up for failure and frustration. There is no point in setting unrealistic and insurmountable goals. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

1. Is my team adequately trained in sales and customer service?
2. Can they overcome objections?
3. Are they delivering value?
4. Do I have the right team in place?
5. Do I have the necessary equipment?
6. Do I know what reports or key performance indicators to measure?
7. Do you know the ROI on each procedure so that you can determine how many you need to perform in a month to achieve your goal?

Determine a “By When” Date

By adding specific deadlines or “by when” dates to your goals, you are creating a sense of urgency to get them done. A “by when” date is something to shoot for and keep you on track. They can be tweaked and adjusted, but it is really important for accountability purposes to have a date in mind.  Rather than making only longer-term, end-of-year goals, assess goals monthly and celebrate the mini milestones throughout the year. Evaluate where you are in relation to your goals.

• Are you on track?
• Do you need training?
• Do you need additional resources?
• Does something need to be adjusted or changed before you can reach them?

Keep Your Why Close By

Take a few minutes to write down the why behind your goals. Knowing your why is a huge motivator and will help you keep your eye on the prize and stick to your resolution when you get frustrated along the way. We focus so much on the “what” that we often forget the why.

Here is a simple sentence to complete to get to your why. 

I set a goal of ______________________ so that ___________________.  This will give me more _____________________. 

Example:  I want to increase my retail sales by 20% so that I can hire an additional front-office team member to solely focus on following up on web leads. This will lead to more call conversions and more consultations. Increased profitability means potential salary increases to keep my team members motivated and loyal.

If it is a team effort, involve your whole team in creating the why behind the goal. 

Keep on Keeping On

The road to success is not a straight line. There will be ups and downs and weeks or months where you might come up a little bit short on your goals. The most important tip we can give you is do not quit in frustration. Don’t toss the whole goal out of frustration or feel defeated. Just keep moving forward and use the opportunity to see what you can do differently moving forward.