Thorpe Park Hotel in Leeds was a fitting location to begin the Practice Plan workshop tour.
My relationship with the hotel goes back many years to the early days of The Dental Business School and I can remember presenting there with Karen Jones as my business manager and support – that’s a long time ago!
One of the many pleasures of yesterday’s event was the level of support and preparation from the Practice Plan team.
I cannot tell you how uplifting it was to walk into the room at 08:00 and find the tables set out with branded table numbers, slide booklets, notes booklets, action-planning worksheets and agendas – all looking lovely in the same branding as the PowerPoint template.
It makes such a difference, not only to the room but to the speaker.
Yesterday was very much a beta test of the material (and we let the 60 delegates know that right up front).
Last night 7 of us attended a 60-minute debrief and agreed which “bits” to include/exclude, expand/contract – so as to create an even better event in a month’s time in Crewe.
My over-riding impression is that there is just as much work to do with practices as there was all of the those years ago.
The only significant change from 10 years ago is the additional material and knowledge on web attraction and the combined potency of
- branding
- search engine optimisation
- a “sticky” home page
- special offers
- relevant content
- the benefits of practice membership
- niche marketing
The majority of those attending were looking very glazed by about 15:00, whilst I was still bombarding them with marketing “to do’s” – we had to take a little time out to explain that the material I share in the workshop can take up to 2 years to implement.
My special thanks to Alex Jones of Penistone Dental Care, who kindly brought copies of his new “Cathy Johnson” Welcome Pack and Referral Business Cards.
Alex also shared with the audience some very honest and open information about how long everything had taken and how much he had invested.
To deliver a dynamic workshop to an open-minded audience; to feel well supported; to be proud of the brand; to call on the experience and acknowledgment of friends – it doesn’t get much better!
