Episode : #1,142: Why Do Practices Need a Consultant in the First Place?

Podcast Description

What are the most common reasons a dental practice reaches out to the Dental A-Team? In this episode, Tiff and Kristy discuss those woes of an office (systems, lack of team alignment, metrics, etc.) that lead doctors to ask for help, and how consultants can turn the sometimes-dreaded details and numbers into a story that everyone in the practice can rally behind.

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Transcript:

The Dental A Team (00:00)

Hello Dental A Team listeners. We are back here today with, we used to have this consultant takeover and I kinda like that. We are taking over the podcast, but we take over the podcast often, so I think we did away with that title. But I’m bringing it back today. Kristy, I like consultant takeover. How are you over there and how do you feel about consultant takeover?

The Dental A Team (00:19)

Absolutely. I’m doing good today. It’s a Tuesday, so it’s a weird day for us to be podcasting, but I’m just grateful for the time and to be able to help our listeners give some tips. It’s always a fun time when we can get together and podcast.

The Dental A Team (00:34)

I agree. I agree. It is a weird day and I kind of at the same time love it because I feel like I’ve had some consulting already today. So my brain is fresh on the consulting mindset. Not that I ever leave the consulting mindset. You can ask my son anytime we go anywhere. I’m like, okay, if they would have just said it this way or if they would have just reminded us this way, like I’m always consulting, but I agree. And Tuesday is an odd day for this.

⁓ Listeners, I hope that you have listened to a few podcasts. I think this is actually a really great follow-up. It’s a separate podcast, so it’s not like a two-part series, but I really do think that this is a wonderful follow-up to a podcast that Kristy and I have previously recorded about the top four KPIs. And today we really, really wanna talk about the story behind the results. And first I want to…

consider the reasoning behind tracking metrics. Why are we tracking metrics? And I think that will lead to the story. And I guess even before that, really I wanna talk about the woes of an office, the pieces that lead us to consulting, the pieces that lead doctors to say, please help me, I’m not sure what’s going on anymore, or to say more likely,

please give us systems, train my team on the systems. And we say, cool, you have systems, let’s figure out what’s working and what’s not working. So Kristy, I think first let’s highlight some of the reasons that we recommend tracking metrics because that will allow you doctors here listening, you team members here listening to really see where you fit into the puzzle and why this is valuable information for you as well.

Kristy, I think some of the reasons that I can think off the top of my head or some of the things that come to us are lack of accountability, right? Our team doesn’t understand what they’re supposed to be doing or they’re not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. I think payroll, I hear payroll is high. I hear cashflow, I don’t have any cash. I don’t know where my money’s going. My money’s not working for me.

The Dental A Team (02:34)

Thank

The Dental A Team (02:53)

What else? What else do you hear, Kristy? What are some reasons that you recommend?

The Dental A Team (02:59)

Yeah. Well, first of all, I think it helps team understand their role and their part in the bigger piece of the office. You know, it’s not we we do win together, but each of us, if we have things that we can champion and feel a part of something, ⁓ I think I see better results overall with teams and

The Dental A Team (02:59)

KPI tracking.

The Dental A Team (03:28)

When teams have clarity and they have understanding of a metric to know if it’s a healthy metric or not, they feel empowered to ⁓ go to the next level too. Otherwise, truly it’s when we see them, they say, my team’s just clocking in and going through the motions. It’s because they don’t really know their part and what they’re responsible for and truly if they’re on target or not.

The Dental A Team (03:53)

Mm hmm. I agree.

I agree. Yeah. So doctors coming and saying, again, like our team’s not in alignment, our team’s not doing what they’re supposed to be doing. Yeah, I agree. And then we’ve got some team members will come and they’ll say, I’m not fulfilled in my position. I want growth. I want to make more money. I want to understand more about what the practice needs to be successful. I have a lot of my office managers that just want to understand.

We have a lot of doctors who come to us and say, want to learn how to run my business. I want to have a personal life and not just a practice. I want to get home earlier. If you guys are falling into any of those spaces or insert your own reasoning, this information is for you. doctors and team members alike, I want you all to understand if you’re here today and you’re like, go numbers, heck yeah, I love numbers, phenomenal, welcome, we’re here for you.

And if you’re here today like Tiff, Kristy, I don’t wanna talk about numbers, they make me uncomfortable. We’re in a healthcare field. We’re here to help people not to talk about money. Welcome, we’re here for you. And I am here to dispel that mindset. I’m here to make sure that you understand the importance behind the numbers and the importance behind your practice staying in business. My opinion is, and maybe it’s crazy,

My opinion is if you’re not paying attention to your success and your failures, you don’t know where you’re going, where you’ve been, or what the gap is in between, where are you going to be in one, two, five, 10, 20 years? And if you’re not still here because you didn’t pay attention and because you didn’t have goals, because you didn’t know where you were going, you didn’t know how to successfully run and grow a business,

how many patients that you’re here to help, me and Sirthat, are left behind in the dust with maybe somewhere to go. I’ve known a lot of patients who have come to my dental practice I worked at for years that say, you know, I haven’t been to the dentist in 10 years. Why? What held you back? Well, my dentist, you know, he retired or he moved. They switched ownership and I just didn’t know what to do. I never found another dentist. ⁓

Break my heart. Like gosh, we preach that we’re here to help people, but we’re afraid to look at the success on helping those people and we’re afraid to make sure that we’re here for a long time. And in order to ensure that we’re here for a long time, financially, the practice has to be secure. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts around it. The practice has to be financially secure. You have to continuously be growing.

and you have to be in a growth mindset. Or just cut through the crap and call the BS and say, I don’t really care what happens. If you care, you also have to care about your numbers. And that may be an opinion that you don’t love today. I challenge you to come back in a week and re-listen. Tell me if you still feel that way. Great, let’s have a conversation.

But I truly believe with everything that I have, if we’re actually here to help people, we are gonna do everything we can to ensure that I’m here for a long time to help as many people as I can because I believe in what gifts I have to give to this world. And if you believe that, today’s conversation is gonna be incredible for you. So, Kristy, today we wanna talk about how the results tell the story. And I think everything I just said is the story, right? The way they’re thriving.

We’re surviving, we’re thriving, or we’re dying, right? I wanna be in that middle, that thriving. I really wanna thrive. I’ve survived for a long time. I personally, professionally have survived for a long time. And I think everyone gets to the point where it’s like survival is enough, survival is fine, but thriving is really freaking exciting and it’s so cool. And I’m ready to thrive. Tell me how you help practices see their results.

and the story there within. Because like I said in a couple podcasts, but more recently the one we just did together, you love results. You love tracking metrics and you love helping practices see their successes. And you really do a great job of pouring into them on a, gosh, like a leadership personal just love space. You pour into them.

and you do that within their results and you see those stories. So I want you to really walk through some of those stories that you see within the results and how do you help practices to be able to read and see those stories themselves.

The Dental A Team (08:44)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Well, I think we’re in a unique situation because we’re in healthcare, right? And we are already our compassionate, caring people. I was just in office and I was saying this to one of my teams. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a practice that didn’t have someone with those characteristics. And if I was, they weren’t there the next time I came back for sure. ⁓ And so with that, you know, to your point earlier, Tiff, I think that

we need to get over the fact that we are a for-profit business. Because again, along those lines, I’ve never seen an employee that said, don’t need a paycheck or that I don’t need a raise. I’m okay with what I’m making. So with that being said, I challenge how you look at it from the onset. But with that, think truly because we’re compassionate and caring and we get to do what we do and help people,

The Dental A Team (09:37)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (09:55)

The money just follows when you’re doing the right thing. So I truly like to take a step back and ask my teams, how do you define a healthy patient? Let’s start there. How do you define a healthy patient? And again, we’re never gonna do 100 % of the treatment on all the people that we see or that we recommend treatment on. But if there’s people walking out the door that don’t get treatment done,

There’s opportunity. There’s opportunity to grow and to, again, gamify it, get your patients healthy, and the money follows, if that makes sense. So to me, it all pivots around getting centered on what’s our intention, what’s our why for doing what we’re doing, and then we build around it.

The Dental A Team (10:35)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. I agree. Thank you for that. And I love that you said that like the intentionality I love intentionality and I think when you do know your why and when you do know what you’re going for it’s much easier to see When the story is right for you I within your results and I totally agree with that. I think when we set our goals They give us a journey to take they give us the path

Right, so we know our why, we know our reasons and we say, okay, great, these are our goals. This is a production goal, this is our collections goal. In order to meet those, we need this as our benchmark for our case diagnosis and treatment acceptance. This is how many new patients we’re gonna need to see in the practice in order to obtain that much diagnosis. All of these pieces lead into one another and the results there within tell us if the systems that we’re utilizing

The Dental A Team (11:15)

Thank you.

The Dental A Team (11:42)

are getting us to those results. So we know in order to stay in business, we need X amount of dollars. In order to continue to grow and stay in business, we also need this on top of that. So we know what our bare minimum is, we know what our profit margins are, we know what it means to thrive in dentistry and business. Now we have to say, okay, how do we hit that? What are the ⁓ systems that are gonna hit these goals with us?

And those stories, I think, I’m pivot for us just a stitch. 99.9 % of the practices that come to the Dental A Team, come to the Dental A Team, and they say, I need to be systematized. We need systems. We need systems. And I love it, because I’m like, awesome, slam dunk, I get to win, because guess what, you have systems. We get to sift through and say what systems are working for you.

The Dental A Team (12:16)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (12:39)

and what systems need to be tweaked and revamped, or maybe just thrown out and something new made, or maybe it’s an old system that doesn’t need to be used. Those results within those metrics are that story. So if we’re not able to hit our case acceptance, or we’re not diagnosing enough, and our doctor’s like, I don’t know, I’m getting enough new patients, just, I’m not diagnosing enough, I don’t have enough time in the room, our team is saying, gosh, my doctor’s so rushed, and.

The Dental A Team (12:54)

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (13:09)

takes him forever to get into my exam, and then when he’s in the exam, he’s like so quick, and he’s not even present, and he’s not diagnosing, but I saw all of this stuff. That’s a story, right? So my results was off. So my results not hitting the target. We’re not getting the diagnosis that we need, and we’re probably not getting the case acceptance on the limited diagnosis that we have. So we say why. We don’t say go, go, go, go, go, do more, do better. We say why.

is this happening? And if we work backwards from that and we unravel and layer the story, we start to see the systems that need to be improved in order to get a different result. That’s where the story really lies, is that it is in the results. The result is the story and we say, cool, that’s what we got. Now, how can we do something different to get a different result? And I think without

The Dental A Team (13:56)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (14:07)

unraveling that story, we’re literally living the definition of insanity. We’re just saying, okay, better luck next time. Next month we’re gonna do better. We got more new patients. We got more diagnosis. Our case acceptance is still mediocre, but we’re gonna get there. High five, guys. Next month we’re gonna do better. Unraveling it and finding the story within the metric is the key.

Kristy, I know you’ve done this a million times too. When the practice comes in, I say, well, great, I can give you a cookbook. I can give you an A to Z of what I think a dental office should look like. I can scratch start you a dental office, 100%. I can scratch start you a dental office. But you might not need that because you’ve been successful enough to find the Dental A Team. If you guys are here listening, my dental practices that I work with all the time, you’ve heard me say this, you know what I’m about to say.

The Dental A Team (14:41)

you

The Dental A Team (15:02)

I say it all the time, the practices that the Dental A Team attracts are successful practices. We do not attract practices that aren’t ready to get to that next level, that aren’t already doing incredible things. We attract the practices that know there’s more out there, that know there’s a missing piece, that there’s a blind spot within their view, that they just need that extra set of eyes, they need that expertise that says, my gosh,

Cool, tweak this. I think of implants, Kristy, and torquing implants because I can come in and I can give you a full torque and I can say, it’s in now. It’s totally in, it’s in, right? But it might be too in. It might be way too in. Or we can take a step back and really look at how minor.

The Dental A Team (15:38)

Yeah.

I’m

The Dental A Team (15:56)

the torque needs to be and those little small incremental torques to get the implant where it needs to be is how we place an implant. We don’t just go full blown, drill it in, 10 minutes you’re out. We’re taking our time and we’re finding it. And I think, Kristy, when I think about results tell the story, it’s more of like a, for me, it’s just that unraveling. It’s asking more questions. It’s being in the why, being in the like,

open-minded, curious. Yeah, you say that all the time. Being curious and saying, happened here to create this result? There’s nothing, I’m not mad. actually am completely indifferent. I’m completely indifferent and I’m just curious. Cool, that’s what happened. How do we get something different?

The Dental A Team (16:24)

I you.

Yep. I’m with you Tiff. I like to really simplify it because like you said, the numbers tell a story and if the story isn’t what we want it to read, then we dig in. And I like to simplify it and think of two different things. It’s either process or people. And when I say people, I don’t mean that ugly. I mean, you mentioned the recipe. Did I myself decide I’m going to change a cup of sugar for a cup of salt?

and then say their recipe doesn’t work. So whenever the metric isn’t where we want it, let’s pull out that system and revisit it. Because nine times out of 10, what I hear my clients say is, my gosh, why did we ever stop doing that? ⁓ Earlier when we were talking and we were talking like case acceptance and whatnot, literally ⁓ what popped in my head was James Clear and forming a habit because it’s usually one step, right?

The Dental A Team (17:27)

Yeah.

The Dental A Team (17:40)

One easy tool, like if you’re talking case acceptance, is do we take four pictures every patient, every time? Just by doing that, you’re going to find things that maybe you didn’t find before. And when we pull out the recipe of cases except as where we want it, and we’re like, yeah, why did we stop taking those pictures? Right? So again, people in process, we don’t have to be hard. It can be very, very simple.

The Dental A Team (18:06)

Yeah,

Brittany here on our team, No BS Brit, you guys know her, our HR guru. She likes to say choose your heart. It’s one of my favorite things. She said that one day like, I don’t know, six years ago, I don’t even know. I was so long ago and it changed my life. I was like, ⁓ my gosh, yes, choose your heart. And it works for anything. Is it more difficult to track these metrics right now and see the results?

The Dental A Team (18:11)

Thank you.

The Dental A Team (18:34)

Or is it more difficult to, in the long run, continue running the definition of insanity and wondering why things aren’t working? Right? So yeah, you’re gonna have to implement change. You’re gonna have to implement something that feels hard right now. But it’s going to create ease for the long term, right? So for me, I think, do I want hard for a short amount of time that creates ease for a long amount of time? Or do I want

The Dental A Team (18:41)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

The Dental A Team (19:02)

to choose the easiest route right now knowing that this is gonna cause heart again later.

The Dental A Team (19:08)

for agree with you, Tip 100%. And you know what? Something that keeps popping in my mind, again, because there’s this, I swear, taboo around the numbers, we’re missing the opportunity to celebrate when things go well, just because we’re so reluctant to look at the numbers. And I think that’s huge in our day. And again, especially in dentistry, we’re in the field of looking for things that are wrong in the mouth.

The Dental A Team (19:26)

I love that.

The Dental A Team (19:36)

And so to be able to have those metrics and when we’re succeeding, to be able to celebrate as a team and go, wow, look at the difference we’re making. Like, I hope that you guys choose, because it is a choice to look at those numbers differently and really celebrate. Because like you said, Tiff, most of our clients coming in really do have a lot of things going well. It’s just how do I get to that next level or how do I get to that next benchmark that I’m trying to get to?

The Dental A Team (20:05)

I agree.

I love that. think that’s like a drop the mic. yourself space to also celebrate because you are, keeping yourself from celebrating, you’re keeping your team from celebrating and humanity wants to feel accomplished. We wanna feel like we’re working towards something, right? My fiance has this theory that a man without a purpose is desolate, is no man at all, right? A man without a purpose has nowhere to go and eventually will just

fade out into nothing, right? And I can’t disagree with that because when we don’t know what we’re working for, when we have nothing we’re working for, why would I be inspired to work? What’s making me do this if I have no goal? Like there’s just, it’s just human nature to need a goal. And when we can see that, we can build the path to get there.

So I love that you said that and I love just giving purpose to life in the best ways we possibly can.

The Dental A Team (21:09)

Yeah. And I think to your point, Tiff, that is why I like to start with that North Star of why are we doing what we’re doing, because then tying it to the goal really does create more purpose and meaning for us when we’re doing it and when we achieve it, right?

The Dental A Team (21:26)

Yeah, yeah, and I think also, I totally agree, and I think also on top of that, taking it outside of even the patient’s health, because yeah, sure, okay, we have a dental office because we want patients to be healthy, cool. Is that why you have a dental office? Because you want patients to be healthy? Probably not, like cool, I want everyone to be healthy. Like, no you don’t, you wanna help people. You wanna show people the path to being better, to living longer, to having happier lives. You wanna give people a path.

to smile more often. How inspiring is that? Their health aside, like I’m gonna call it frank. You don’t care really about their dental health. You care about them as a human and how they show up in the world. You wanna give them a path to being a better person. That’s what your why is. ⁓ Tell me that is not more inspiring than helping people live healthier lives. Right, like cool. Yeah.

The Dental A Team (22:21)

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I agree

with you, Tiff, because truly when we get down to it, we always talk about the patient motivators, right? And sometimes that motivation is cosmetic because they want confidence to smile. And that is a different kind of health. That’s an emotional health, right? It’s so different. But yeah, you’re spot on. You nailed it.

The Dental A Team (22:40)

Absolutely.

And what’s your emotional ROI? If you’re not emotionally healthy, are you going to the doctor to figure out what’s wrong with your hormones and why you’re just not right? No, you might not have any decay in your mouth. That’s cool. Awesome. Cool. But if I can help inspire you to live your best life through your smile, whether it’s cosmetic, whether it’s knowing that your gums are healthy, whether it’s just saying, hey, you have a freaking awesome smile, and you walk out those doors more confidently,

I’ve done my due diligence, I have done my service. So what is it that’s actually driving you to want your patients to be quote unquote healthier? Like yeah, you’re providing that service, but that’s a service. Why did you choose to provide that service?

The Dental A Team (23:26)

Yeah.

It’s funny that you said that tip because my mind went to, ⁓ always shy away from the money part of it, and that’s what patients are buying, right? And so I hope you choose to look at that differently too, because people will spend infinite amount of money to get exactly what you’re talking about, right?

The Dental A Team (23:38)

Yeah.

Girl, I just heard somebody

say they paid $2,500 for hair extensions. Hair extensions, yeah. If for my male dentists out there, my doctor’s listening that may not be women who are up to par with what a hair extension is, go look that up. $2,500 to have longer hair. Yeah, yeah, go treatment plan that crown. Yeah, go treatment plan that crown, because you know what? They’re spending it on hair.

The Dental A Team (23:52)

⁓ gosh, yeah.

Most of them are your crowns.

The Dental A Team (24:15)

and eyelashes and Botox and filler and the list goes on. So you are a piece of that confidence too and you need to hold yourself to that standard. So go measure your results. That was a fun one. Thank you for letting me get on a little pedestal tangent, whatever you wanna call it. I enjoyed it. Kristy, thank you for helping us lead that path. And gosh, action items. Like go, we…

Go listen to the podcast with the top four KPIs if you haven’t listened to it yet. If you’re already tracking KPIs, like, yeah, Tiff, I got this. Kristy, what else do I track? Then reach out to us, but start looking for those pieces and start looking for those stories if you’re already tracking. What’s that next layer? That next layer might be just unraveling some of the stories there within instead of tacking on more just yet. So take a look at them, find your stories.

Reach out to us, [email protected]. We will help unravel stories for you all day long. And we will also help suggest any new KPIs if you’re at a point where you’re like, cool, what’s my next level of KPIs? We’re here for it. Drop us a five star review below, especially if you loved our tangent. We love hearing that. We are emotional beings at the end of the day. And when you’re ready to really look in and dive in and see what are some gaps that I might have in my practice, please head over to our website, TheDentalATeam.com.

take our free assessment, meet with our team. We’re here to help you whether you say yes, I want consulting and I want to have Kristy in my office or Nikki in my office or Pam in my office, whomever it may be, Trish, whoever, whether you’re ready to say yes to that or not, at least let us help you see some of those gaps where you can move forward with or without us. So, TheDentalATeam.com, go check us out and thanks guys, we’ll catch you next time. Thank you, Kristy, for being here with me today.

The Dental A Team (26:09)

My pleasure.