Dentaltown February 2022 - 63

Communicating objectives
Even good incentives will fail if they aren't communicated clearly,
fully understood and bought into by team members.
Make it about the team rather than about you and your business.
Explain that you're doing this because you appreciate them, know
you couldn't run your practice without them, and want to incentivize
and reward their continued hard work. You're excited to provide them
with opportunities to increase their total compensation by helping
you grow the business! In short, if they help you make more money,
they'll make more money.
Get them excited about the concept by emphasizing why
performance-based incentives are a win for the practice and for
them. Assure them you're there to help them learn, grow and
be successful so they earn more.
Then explain the mechanics. If necessary, meet with
team members individually to ensure they fully understand
their particular incentive and baseline and earn their buy-in,
and get them to take ownership and accountability.
Tracking progress
Incentives based on metrics that can't be
reliably and easily tracked are doomed to fail. Performance
data must be accurate, timely and
impossible to manipulate; stats must be easy to
track so people always know their status in relation
to their goals. People are motivated when they
know they're on track or ahead of their goal, which gives
them a reason to celebrate along the way. And if they're falling short,
they'll have time to adjust their actions to get better results. Increase
ownership by having each team member create and submit a simple
report that shows the fi nal result and payout due.
Pay, build, invest
Hand over incentive checks with a big smile and a huge
" thank you " for a job well done. By this time, you've already
collected the additional revenue from which payouts are made,
so celebrate the win-win.
Set the stage for continuous improvement. Build on momentum
by involving the team in setting new targets that will continue to
drive business growth while providing opportunities for even higher
Table 2
Tier
Baseline
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 4
Additional
New Patients
30
35
40
45
Payout
$125
$250
$375
$500
compensation. This communicates that increased pay has increased
expectations, and preempts any misunderstanding that fi xed salaries
have risen to a new level.
If payouts weren't earned, don't allow the team or yourself to
feel defeated! Show appreciation for their efforts, motivate them
to build on what you all learned in the process, and rerun the
incentive with adjustments, if warranted.
With proper structure, communication and execution,
incentives are an investment with a guaranteed
return. If you've had disappointing
experiences
in the past or think
i nc ent i ves don't
work, determine where
you went wrong. Learn
from your mistakes and try
again-and commit to creating an
incentive-based culture that motivates
team members to partner with you to
achieve your goals.
Meaningful incentives
i n s pi r e people
to go above and
beyond t he i r
d a i ly pe r formance
and give strong performers the opportunity
to earn more than ever-all while boosting your
bottom line. ■
dentaltown.com \\ FEBRUARY 2022 63
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Dentaltown February 2022

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