Transforming Practices And Patient Care Through Innovative Strategies And Education
Dr. Christopher Phelps discusses his journey as a dentist and entrepreneur, sharing insights on influence, marketing, and the challenges of building successful dental practices.
Dr. Christopher Phelps stands as a beacon of innovation and expertise in the dental industry, seamlessly blending his roles as an entrepreneur, general dentist, and best-selling author. His influential works, including “Grow Your Dental Membership Plan” and “The COMPLETE Book On Dental Marketing”, have not only garnered acclaim but have also transformed the way dental practices approach patient care and marketing strategies. As a certified Kolbe Trainer and a Cialdini Method Certified Trainer, Dr. Phelps possesses a profound understanding of ethical influence and persuasion, skills that he adeptly applies to both his clinical practice in Charlotte, North Carolina, and his various entrepreneurial ventures. Through his initiatives, such as Golden Goose Scheduling and Dental Membership Direct, he has empowered countless dental professionals to enhance their practices and improve patient engagement. His commitment to education and mentorship is further exemplified by his founding of The Phelps Institute, where he trains dentists in the essential business skills needed to thrive in today’s competitive landscape.
Transitioning from his impressive accomplishments, Dr. Phelps’s insights into the intersection of dentistry and entrepreneurship reveal a wealth of knowledge that is both inspiring and practical. In our conversation, he shares the motivations behind his writing, the challenges he has faced in building multiple companies, and the strategies he employs to foster a culture of ethical influence within his teams.
How has your certification as a Cialdini Method Certified Trainer influenced your approach to both dentistry and entrepreneurship?
To start, going through this year long training process and getting to learn from Dr. Cialdini directly allowed me to devlop a deeper understanding of each Principle of Persuasion and how to ethically apply them to managing my team members, add more influence to my marketing systems and improve my communication and sales processes.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while founding and building multiple companies, and how did you overcome them?
Time was the biggest obstacle, followed by Multi-tasking. To overcome these issues, I made the concious effort to block/schedule dedicated time to proactively focus on my different companies and made sure focus on one company at a time. Once I was able to leverage that focused time, I was able to fix the problems in each company and continue to grow.
What inspired you to write “Grow Your Dental Membership Plan” and “The COMPLETE Book On Dental Marketing,” and what impact do you hope these books have on the dental community?
Grow Your Dental Membership Plan came about after I did a series of onsite educational events at active, independent living retirement communities. During my talks here, I realized that there was a barrier that was keeping a significant number of patient’s from going to see any Dentist unless they hurt or where in pain. Once I realized this barrier and that a Dental Membership Plan could help overcome that objection, I wrote the book to get the word out to my colleagues and improve patient care Nationwide. For The COMPLETE Book On Dental Marketing, I wrote that book during the COVID shutdown. Partly because I needed a “COVID” project to focus on during that downtime but also because the average dentist understanding of dental marketing and how to make it work for their practice is still severely lacking. With this book, I wanted to give them the answers they seek so that could learn, like I had to the hard way, how to be the CEO of their marketing department and correct the inefficiences on the telephone, treatment presentation and attrition that are costing us more in marketing than we should have to spend.
How do you integrate your knowledge as a certified Kolbe Trainer into your business practices and client interactions?
For my practice coaching clients at Sunrise Dental Solutions, I use Kolbe to help them have a better understanding of themselves and their team members. To give them objective criteria to define if this team member is the right fit for this seat on the bus or are they a better fit for a different seat. To evaluate the seat (job tasks and duties) as it may be miscategorized and really should be two different seats with two different set of instinctive strengths working them. When you start working in your Kolbe strengths, it’s not really work and your happiness, productivity and longevity in that job role can last a lifetime.
As the US Chief Executive Officer of the Cialdini Institute, what is your vision for the future of the organization, and how do you plan to achieve it?
As CEO, I plan to take the science of Influence and Persuasion that Dr. Cialdini has spent his life researching and developing and spread this information to the World. First, to help the people better defend themselves from those who might try to leverage the Principles against them in an unethical way. Second, to help everyone become more effective communicators. Both in their work and home life. To achieve this, it will require a combination of factors. First, integrating our trainings into in person and online University education programs. First in Business schools and then in all different types of graduate and undergraduate programs. Starting off understanding Influence and Persuasion can be huge advantage for those coming out of school today. Next, we’re recruiting existing coaches, consultants, organizational trainers to join us through our Cialdini Institute Licensed Trainer program. With more of us out there teaching this material to small businesses and large organizations, we can achieve our goal faster.
What strategies do you use to inspire and motivate your team, and how do you foster a culture of ethical influence within your organization?
It starts by laying out the challenge at hand and asking for their advice and input on how best to tackle and solve that challenge. From there, working as a team where everyone is clear on what their roles are and making sure they have the tools to achieve them. Lastly, adding the accountability we all need to stay consistent with the expectations that were given to us.
How do you apply Dr. Robert Cialdini’s principles of influence in your daily business operations and decision-making processes?
It starts with being the detective. Studying the situation at hand while attempting to identify which Principle or Principles of Persuasion are naturally present in the situation for us to tap into. From there, you have to step out of the situation for a moment and formulate a plan on how best you engage those Principles in an ethical way. Lastly, you take that plan and put it into action.
What do you see as the future trends in the field of influence and persuasion, and how is the Cialdini Institute preparing to address them?
I could definitely see new Principles of Persuasion being discovered. Dr. Cialdini himself found a new one, Unity that he wrote about in his last book, Pre-suasion. While there is ample research on the concept of Pre-suasion, which is arranging for a person to be more receptive to your message, before they encounter it, I’d love to see additional research around the idea of Post-suasion. What do you do after the moment with that individual has passed? How do you influence them back to the table to keep the topic alive? To address this, the Cialdini Institute is committed to funding future Behavioral Science research projects. Keeping our fingers on the pulse of the latest research to help guide human behavior and it’s application in the workplace.
