The Psychology of the Deal
In San Francisco at the AAO Annual Session and in the days since I’ve enjoyed watching the dogged pursuit of the deal. What deal? Any deal! We orthodontists get so excited about the idea of saving m...
I Hate Shoppers!
I hear this all the time. Whenever 3 or more orthodontists have a discussion of any length, the topic of shoppers is bound to come up. You can feel the indignation and almost smell the angst as each...
Enlightened Self Interest… & The Other Kind
According to Wikipedia, “Enlightened self-interest is a philosophy in ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to ...
Ask and You Shall Receive, Part III
There is no better time to ask patients to refer their friends, family and neighbors than TODAY. What did you think I was going to say? At debond? In the new patient consult? When they give you a comp...
Ask and You Shall Receive, Part II
As discussed before, PRIDE IS EXPENSIVE. In the modern world we must educate current patients on when and how to tell their friends, family and neighbors to come see us. This is a win-win as patients ...
Ask and You Shall Receive, Part I
The idea of asking current patients and parents for referrals strikes fear in the heart of most orthodontists! We are professionals and we don’t beg or act “salesy!” I used to think the same...
You Did The Right Thing!
One morning when my son was about a year old, he had a fever and obviously didn’t feel well. It wasn’t much of a fever and he wasn’t having major issues but I could tell something wasn’t right...
Wanna Bet?
If you could go to Las Vegas and play a game where you bet $200 with a 98 percent chance of winning $5000, how many times would you make that bet? Dumb question right? What about a 90% chance of win...
It’s So Obvious
I was showing our 7-year-old son how to use a cell phone so he could call us if he needed to. I kept telling him to “push the button that looks like a phone” but for some reason it wasn’t workin...
Mongolian Plumbing
The last time we were in Asia, we were told the story of Mongolian plumbing. I can’t speak to the truth of the story but the lesson is clear! Our tour guide explained to us that when the Mongols con...