Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto noted in “Cours d’economie politique” in 1896 that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by only 20% of the population. Later, economist and management consultant Joseph M. Juran adapted this 80/20 principle to finance when he noted that 80% of sales comes from 20% of clients. He called this rule the Pareto Principle.

The Pareto Principle has been found to be true in other fields as well, such as computer science and occupational health and safety, and it is also true in dentistry. 

Our clinical skills and knowledge only account for 20% of our practice’s success, while the other 80% is due to all the other steps we take to bring extra value. everything else. So why does nearly 100% of our CE focus on improving our clinical skills and knowledge? And why do dental organizations develop conventions, annual events and seminars where more than 90% of the courses offered are clinical in nature and less than 10% are on the things that contribute to the majority of our practices’ success?

Some dentists never take any courses on psychology, leadership, business, accounting, or marketing. We often send our team members to these types of courses, expecting them to bring the information back to our offices, but the team members then struggle to implement anything without the direct input and approval of the dentist, who did not attend the courses and may not understand the value of the proposed changes.

I have spent time talking to some of the best business leaders, athletes, musicians, and more, who have had sustained, long term success and a regular theme from them is that their success is based on relationships. This was driven home again recently when I attended the 25th Crown Council Annual Event in Nashville, where Garth Brooks flew up from Florida just to present Dr. Jeff Gray with a Legacy Award. Dr. Gray hatched the idea of a charitable foundation to support changing lives locally, nationally and internationally and thus, the Smiles for Life Foundation was born. In 20 years they have raised more than $44 Million. Garth Brooks talked about how his success is based on relationships and it is the relationships with others that lead to the success of the Smiles for Life foundation as well (https://smilesforlife.org).

If success is all about relationships, how can we develop them with our patients? I previously wrote about successful relationships in the dental lab. In future blogs I’ll elaborate more on how we can do that with new patients so we can change the relationship we have with them from a professional one to a personal one, as well as how we can utilize this information to maximize our marketing efforts as well.

I challenge you to change your thinking. Assuming you have a CE budget, apportion 20% of your budget to learning more about the 80% of things that will truly maximize your practice’s success, and bring your team with you so they can buy into the concepts and help you create a culture of success.