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784: Unlocking the Power of Influence in Your Dental Practice – Dr. Christopher Phelps

Do you wonder why patients decline treatment? Do you wish your team would get things done? Then you need to harness the power of influence! To help you understand the principles behind motivating others, Kirk Behrendt brings back Dr. Christopher Phelps, CEO of The Cialdini Institute, to share the seven shortcuts to positively influence those in your practice. To learn how to get more commitment from your patients and your team, listen to Episode 784 of The Best Practices Show!

Learn More About Dr. Phelps:

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More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:

Episode Resources:

Main Takeaways:

  • Understand Cialdini’s Seven Principles of Influence and how people make decisions.
  • Know which situations to apply each principle in so you have greater influence.
  • Guide your team and patients to your desired behaviors using influence.
  • Use influence ethically and honestly, not to manipulate or coerce.
  • Influence is all around, whether you recognize it or not.

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

1:17 Dr. Phelps’s background.

7:05 Presuasion and persuasion, explained.

10:13 Why this is an important topic.

11:42 Seven Principles of Influence, explained.

15:43 The power in combining these principles.

17:54 Emotion versus logic with influence.

19:08 How to implement these with your team.

22:54 The ethics of influence.

25:40 “Influence activate”, explained.

28:24 About the Cialdini Institute.

30:29 Final thoughts.

32:10 How to get in touch with Dr. Phelps.

Dr. Christopher Phelps Bio:

Dr. Christopher Phelps is an entrepreneur, general dentist, and an Amazon best-selling author. He currently practices in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is the host of the Dental Slang Podcast.

In his first seven years of practice, Dr. Phelps grew his practice revenue by a factor of 10x, growing from one practice location to four. After selling two of those offices for profit, he focused on maximizing the capacity of his remaining two practices and enjoyed two consecutive years of $1 million revenue growth in each of the two practices, effectively collecting with two offices what he had collected when he owned four.

Dr. Phelps is an expert in the science of ethical influence and persuasion, having received his Cialdini Method Certified Trainer (CMCT) certification under acclaimed behavioral scientist, Dr. Robert Cialdini. He writes frequently for industry publications such as Dental Economics, Dental Practice Management, Dental Products Report, Dentistry IQ, and Remin Media. He is the author of Grow Your Dental Membership Plan, and also published a CE article in Contemporary Esthetics Magazine. In 2016 and 2018, Dr. Phelps was nominated by his dental colleagues and selected the top honor as the Doctor’s Choice National Dental Award winner. Due to his high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement, in 2020, he was recognized by the Global Summits Institute as being one of the Top 100 Dentists in the World.

Dr. Phelps is the founder and president of Golden Goose Scheduling, The Phelps Institute, and Dental Membership Direct. He is currently the CEO of the Cialdini Institute.
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