Teambuilding: How to Make Every Employee Your Best Employee

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Michael Menkhaus

Michael Menkhaus

By: Michael Menkhaus
Vice President for Expansion, MGE

As a practice grows, personnel must grow with it, and teambuilding can really make or break an office’s expansion. Many practice owners, by putting new employees on the job without proper training and apprenticing, can set themselves up for a loss in this regard.

I’ve seen it happen too many times that a new hire, such as a receptionist, gets put on the job the first day with little to no training and then is left by themselves. A week later the office manager wonders why phone calls are being mishandled and decides that the new receptionist isn’t going to work out or it’s easier to just do it themselves. The new employee was really never set up correctly to succeed.

I’ve also seen it the other way, where the new employee stays on board for months or years but is always making the same mistakes, and the other employees just figure that’s the way he or she is when in reality he or she was just never trained  or apprenticed properly.

You probably have at least one or more employees who really know what they are doing and who you can trust. Someone who seems to know what to do before you say it.  Whether it is your office manager, assistant, or a front desk staff member, it’s someone who you wish you could clone so that they could fill all the positions in the office. As you expand, you want to replicate that type of employee, but how do you do this?

You should “apprentice” new hires under your best, most experienced employees.

Obviously, any required training for relevant technical positions should be done before that, according to the laws and regulations of your state. Also, additional training is recommended for positions such as office manager, treatment/financial coordinator, and PR director. But beyond that initial training, the employee should apprentice under someone experienced in that job.

If the office manager has been scheduling proficiently for years and you hire a new scheduler, the scheduler should mirror the office manager as he or she schedules for a day or a few days, and outside of production time they can talk over and answer any questions the new scheduler has. Then the office manager should give the new scheduler a few patients to schedule under his or her supervision until they are able to schedule proficiently themselves and the office manager no longer has to have his or her attention on whether or not the job will be done correctly. It may take a while to apprentice them on all aspects of the job and get them confident in handling each of the little problems and issues that can arise. It should not take an endless amount of months.

Now, you are not necessarily looking for someone who does everything exactly the same way as the office manager. You’re looking for someone who can get done what they are supposed to get done on the job. The new scheduler doesn’t have to be every bit as productive as the office manager, but they do have to get patients scheduled properly according to the way you wish your schedule to be run. They should be able do the functions of the job themselves so that you or your office manager don’t have to constantly worry about it or need to intervene.

It is important early on in the training process, before you put them on the job fully, to give them a few small things to do themselves. These should be simple tasks that don’t require vast know-how or experience, for the purpose of ensuring that they can get things done and complete pieces of work assigned to them. This can be an early sign if the new hire will be able to perform on the job the way you need them to, regardless of training or apprenticeship period.

As I mentioned earlier, many positions do much better with additional training. An office manager should absolutely be trained as an executive, because that is what they are. You need someone who is able to handle all aspects of managing a practice. Treatment coordinators and financial coordinators should be trained on the subjects of communication and sales. A PR director should be trained in the subjects of PR and marketing. Training for all of these and other positions is available here at MGE. Give us a call at (727) 530-4277 to learn more.

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The Future of Private Practice – Bright or Bleak?

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Michael Menkhaus

Gregory A. Winteregg, D.D.S.

By: Greg Winteregg, DDS
President, MGE

Setting goals for the future is an important part of achieving success. But it can be difficult to motivate yourself if you’re unsure of exactly where you’re going. And while these past few years have been tough on dentists in private practice, the next 10 might hold incredible opportunity for those who are properly prepared.

When you take all the statistics into account, the dental profession is a great opportunity, not only to serve the public with an unbelievably valuable service, but for it to be financially rewarding at the same time.

I’ll start out with some cold hard statistics without getting into the opinions of “how many dentists are on my street?” etc.

  • Seven dental schools closed between 1986 and 2001
  • Dental school graduates peaked in 1981 at 5,256, dropped to a low of 4,171 in 2001 and only recovered back to 4,796 by 2009*
  • Female graduates have been about 47% of the graduating classes for the past five years while making up only 22% of “Professionally Active General Dentists.”*
  • 37.4% of all professionally active dentists are 55 or older. That’s about 63,000 dentists that will be retiring in the next ten years.*
  • The United States population has expanded by 37% since 1981 (from about 226 million to 310 million).
  • Seven new dental schools are proposed to be opened, but it will be years before they have any impact on the number of graduates.

To summarize:

  • Schools have closed.
  • The Baby Boomer Generation generally includes those born between 1946 to 1964.Those Baby Boomer Dentists are reaching retirement age and that wave will continue for at least the next fifteen years. We aren’t graduating enough doctors to replace the retirees and maintain the previous dentist/patient ratio.And that’s not even taking into account the natural growth of the American population.
  • The number of female dentists are on the rise but they are, based on these statistics, practicing for less time on average than male practitioners.  I’m not pointing this out for any other reason than to illustrate that the net result is less dentists.

So, overall, we have a decreasing supply of dentists with an increasing demand (population growth). And with the current potential to train dentists fixed at sixty-two dental schools there is no way for the supply to meet the demand for at least the next ten years. Just based on these numbers alone, it’s time to flourish and prosper in dentistry.

So, why aren’t you feeling so lucky about possessing a dental degree? It could be because you’re being limited by HMO/PPO fee-setting plans. And you can pound on your chest and be proud if you don’t participate but I’ll bet your fees are being held down by doctors who are in plans. You can’t charge what you’re worth because you will “price yourself out of the market,” seeing as the competition are receiving so little for their services.

Now, I want to be clear that I don’t believe that insurance companies are the “Evil Empire” and need to be brought under government control, etc. This is still the United States of America and free enterprise reigns. The only problem we have is that theexecutives who run insurance companies are better executives than dentists.In the business arena we are getting clobbered by playing their game, by their rules, on their turf.

So what is the solution? Learn how to build a fee-for-service private practice and start giving the patients what they need instead of only what some plan allows. But how do you do that?

It’s very simple:

  1. Learn how to promote and bring in patients for whom dental health is a priority (do the MGE New Patient Course with a money-back guarantee).
  2. Learn how to get those patients to want what they need (do the MGE Communication & Sales Seminar Series). We all know that money is no problem for most people once they decide they really want something. They just figure out how to get what they want.

The solution is too simple. Look at the success stories in this paper and decide that you will be the next one.

Playing the HMO/PPO game is a deadly trap. It limits the dentistry that patients truly need and it limits the fair compensation that the doctor deserves. Many recently licensed dentists have over $250,000 in student loans plus whatever debt it takes to start a practice. It’s becoming nearly impossible to get out of the huge hole with HMO/PPO fees.

Come to MGE and learn how to create a tremendously rewarding career in a profession that is, from what I believe, the best career opportunity in the country.

*Sources: American Dental Association, Survey Center, 2009 Distribution of Dentists in the United States by Region and State. © American Dental Association.  Reprinted with permission.  All rights reserved.  Any form of reproduction is strictly prohibited without prior written permission of American Dental Association.

 

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12 Fast Facts About MGE

Posted on November 18, 2011 by Michael Menkhaus

Every newspaper we publish includes a number of MGE client success stories.

If you’ve had a chance to read any of these, you may have wondered anything from, “Is this real?” to “How did they do this?” or maybe “How can I do this?”

Describing exactly what MGE does in one sentence can be difficult. And while the statement, “We’re a management training organization for dentists and dental specialists,” would be correct, it would leave much unexplained.

In any event, I wanted to use this opportunity to “fill in the blanks,” with some simple information about our company so you know who we are and how our help might apply to your specific situation.

And with that, I give you 12 fast facts about MGE:

1. There is no such thing as a “typical MGE client.” They might be a general dentist or dental specialist, and could practice in just about any environment or set-up you could imagine – rural, big city, suburb, partnership, solo, group practice and so on.

2.  MGE clients are spread across 45 states and our nation’s capital.

3.  MGE is a TRAINING ORGANIZATION. We teach doctors and their staff how to manage the office. For example: If you’re having a marketing problem, we would train you on the technology of marketing and provide guidance as you implement. The result: you know how to handle it from that point forward. We do this as opposed to consulting you on “what to do.”  The downside is that training can take longer.  The upside is you’ll own that knowledge, ability and certainty for the rest of your career and should be able to replicate the results time and again without further assistance. While MGE is not a clinical training organization – our focus is practice management – it is expected that clients maintain a high level of clinical quality and pursue appropriate CE to continue to enhance their skill as a clinician.

4.  The majority of the MGE curriculum and materials are based on the management and administrative works of American Philosopher L. Ron Hubbard.  We use this system for a very simple reason: it works.

5.  MGE has 40+ employees, ranging from consultants, trainers, executives and administrative staff.

6.  Most of MGE’s training is done at our 55,000 square foot facility located in Pinellas Park, Florida (in the Tampa Bay Area). Approximately once a quarter we hold training sessions in Southern California.

7.  Every client comes to MGE with specific needs applying to their situation and as such, there is no set degree of participation in MGE training services. A client may do as little as a two-day course, such as the MGE New Patient Workshop, nine days of training on case acceptance (The MGE Communication and Sales Seminars), up to the MGE Power Program, which takes an average of 12-18 months to complete and includes extensive training on case-acceptance, marketing, management and organization for both a doctor and office manager.

8.  Typically, a new client will begin with MGE by attending one of Dr. Winteregg’s free workshops or the MGE New Patient Workshop and then a few other seminars or courses before taking the bigger step onto the MGE Power Program from there.

9.  An analysis of MGE clients participating in or who have completed the MGE Power Program showed an average increase in collections of 31% within the first three months, an 89% increase within one year, a 132% increase after two years and a 232% increase five years after initial enrollment in the Power Program.*

10.  When a client completes the MGE Power Program they normally keep their skills sharp through MGE graduate seminars a couple of times per year (such as the MGE Owner’s Conference). The MGE Owner’s Conference provides a venue for graduate clients to share ideas and successful actions, network and learn advanced management techniques.

11.  An average of over 130 doctors and staff attend MGE seminars, workshops and courses at our Florida office every week.

12.  In late 2008, we began delivering a series of free one-day workshops all over the country. While this began as an effort to help the profession during the economic meltdown of late 2008 along with providing an easier way to learn more about our company, it is now a regular company activity. We call this workshop series “The MGE Effective Management Series.” Subjects include:

• The Art of Scheduling Productively

• How to Open the Door to More New Patients

• The Effective Case Acceptance Workshop

• The Real Solution to Cancellations and No-Shows

These seminars are free and contain quite a bit of valuable information. On the average I’m out of the office three weekends per month (Fridays and Saturdays) delivering one of these somewhere in the US. For more information or to schedule, contact our office or visit our website www.mgefreeworkshops.com.

Well there you have it.  If you’re looking for assistance with your practice management concerns, I’d start out with one of these steps:

1. Learn more about MGE by attending one of our Effective Management Series Seminars. They’re free and we might be doing one right in or near your area.

2. If you want to learn how to market your practice efficiently and effectively, do the MGE New Patient Workshop.  It comes with a money-back guarantee for up to six months, whether you’ve done the course or not. The MGE New Patient Workshop is delivered almost every week at our Pinellas Park, Florida office or about every quarter in Southern California.

3. Sign-up for the MGE Communication and Sales Seminars, delivered at our Florida office. Here you’ll find three, three-day seminars focused on how to really connect with your patients and help them get the treatment they need.

4.  If you have another more pressing issue (i.e. organizational or personnel problems), give us as call and we’ll work out the correct first step for you to take on our program.

As I mentioned above, every situation is unique, but we can help just about everyone if they’re willing to put the time and effort in. Take your first step and contact us today at (800) 640-1140 or (727) 530-4277.

Posted in Management Tips, Practice Management | Leave a comment

Front Office vs. Back Office

Posted on August 17, 2011 by Michael Menkhaus

Last week I was in Sacramento, CA with Dr. Winteregg to deliver the MGE Effective Case Acceptance Workshop. In speaking with a few of the doctors in attendance, I noticed something that seems to be a bit of a trend in dental practices all over the country: friction between the front office and the back office.

It is important for the front office to be in harmony with the back office. But in many offices, it can become a “Hatfields and McCoys” type of relationship, where the respective sides of the office are uncoordinated and even begin to butt heads.

Over the last fourteen years in which I’ve been working with dental professionals, I have made some observations regarding this dynamic:

You want your office manager to be someone who really is on the same page and/or wavelength with you, similar to how a good dental assistant would be. In fact, some of the best office managers I’ve worked with were previously dental assistants. They excelled as assistants to the point where the doctors initially could not fathom losing them as assistants. It isn’t necessary for the office manager to have been an assistant, but it helps to have that knowledge of what is needed for production to get done.

A good assistant knows how long procedures should take and also knows the importance of being in control and making the patients feel as comfortable as possible in a potentially uncomfortable procedure.

Similarly, an assistant who has previously held a front office position and/or routinely helps up front has a better understanding of what is being confronted by the front office staff.

Of course, both the front and the back are integral parts of the dental office and each is vital to its success and expansion. When there is no experience or understanding of what the “other side” does and what its purpose is, then you limit your growth. You can end up cutting your own throat this way.

The “front” gets upset because the “slow moving people” in the back are running behind while they are the ones getting an earful from patients left to wait.

The “back” gets upset because the front is “clueless” as to how things work in the back and are scheduling patients on top of each other to the point where they can’t get everything they need to get done.

This normally doesn’t get addressed and results in resentment building up between both sides. This resentment and animosity lessens the “friendly, caring dental office” feel for your patients despite all of us keeping our “game face” on as much as possible.

It also slows down and cuts across the efficiency as there is not a smooth patient flow front to back and back to front.

In some instances, patients pick up on this tension and this lessens the professional image of your office.

Now, I am not recommending you do a big group hug and hold hands. However, what is effective is for the office manager and each staff member in the office to get some reality and understanding of what a patient experiences on each step of the process of being taken care of by your office.

One way this can be done is with a little “demonstration.” Set up a time where there are no patients in the office for some staff training. Have each staff member take a turn pretending to be a patient in your office, beginning with being scheduled over the phone to walking in the front door. Have each staff member at their regular position and handle the “patient” the way they would normally. (You would course skip the actual clinical procedure, as this is only a demonstration).

Something like this can be a great way to help the entire staff gain an understanding of the rest of the office while also troubleshooting potential problems as they arise. Each staff member learns the roles of their teammates and how they interact with their own job. You can create different scenarios of patient needs and concerns at different points along this training session. You as the doctor should take a turn being the patient – this can also be quite revelatory.

There are other exercises you can do as well to improve speed and efficiency. Drilling and role playing various scenarios is similar to practicing for game day in sports. You iron things out and improve them so that you are ready for game time.

In order to run the office as smoothly and efficiently as possible, each player on the team needs to know exactly how they fit into the organization and how they contribute from their position. That is why training your staff members individually in addition to doing these exercises is essential.

At MGE, your staff will also go over a lot of the same material in addition to particulars of their specific job, which is important for aligning the staff and getting them on the same page with each other.

We offer training for Office Managers, PR Directors, Associates, Junior Executives, and Auxiliary Staff.

Take advantage of this training today and call (727)530-4277 and ask for me or Dennis Dezelic. You may also email me at mikem@mgeonline.com or Dennis at dennisd@mgeonline.com.

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Decision Making as a Practice Owner

Posted on June 1, 2011 by

MGE Dental trendsThis past weekend I was in the Los Angeles area to deliver a seminar which is of our Effective Management Workshop Series, the Real Solution to Cancellations and No-Shows Workshop to a variety of business owners (Dentists) in that area.

A couple things I observed there got me thinking:

1. Many dentists don’t realize that when they decided to open their own practice they were at the same time deciding to be “business owners.”

2. Helping patients to decide to pursue their needed treatment plan is getting them to take responsibility for their oral health.

Now, in order to make a decision, the person doing the deciding must – to some degree – admit that he or she is responsible for the consequences. Of course, as we go through life and we make some bad decisions and see ourselves and others cause bad consequences, we get a little gun-shy. We start to put off making decisions and become more indecisive in our actions.

But decisions are what lead to action. People who can make decisions and act on them right away are the people who get things done.

As a dentist, it is your job to help your patients to make the right decision. It is your job to take responsibility for their oral health. So first, you must make the decision yourself that you are going to take responsibility for this patient’s health and help him overcome any barriers he might have to receiving the treatment plan that he or she needs.

So let’s address some other reasons that might make someone a little gun-shy on making decisions.

As a business owner, many of us were never issued a User’s Guide to navigate that end of it and so don’t feel comfortable making many decisions outside of the operatory. That’s one of the early challenges we address with our clients at MGE: Management Experts, Inc. Getting trained as an executive and business owner is the answer for that.

Next, you should make sure that you’ve taken care of your own dental health. Is your dentistry current? Are you putting anything off or on wait?

I’ve seen many dentists trying to educate their patients on why they need their dental care immediately, while in the back of their head they’re thinking that they’ve been putting off their own care for months. When this happens, it waters down their resolve to help the patient receive the treatment they need. It’s detrimental to case acceptance.

So be a dentist and get your own dentistry done. Then make sure your patients do the same!

I personally don’t agree with the concept that you shouldn’t present full treatment plans, but instead only what insurance covers or only what the patient mentioned that he wants to fix. YOU know what’s best in regards to their dental health. You know better than the patient and the insurance company. So take responsibility for them.

If they don’t think they are in a financial position to pay for it, or they are deathly scared of root canals or have some other reason not to do treatment, help them work out how they can overcome these barriers and receive the treatment they need.

Your patient will respect you and they will get healthy because you will actually do the dentistry they need right now, not “just what their insurance covers.”

Best,

Mike Menkhaus

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How to Open the Door to More New Patients Workshop – New England

Posted on May 24, 2011 by

Last week the MGE Management Experts, Inc. seminar crew and I were in Hartford, Connecticut and Boston, Massachusetts to deliver the How to Open the Door to More New Patients Workshop . One of the problems I heard when talking with some of the dentists in attendance mirrored what I’ve heard at many of my stops around the country. This problem: “no one (patients) has any money.”

This seems to be a popular opinion in the dental industry, but I found something very interesting reading a recent article about Ford Motor Company. Ford’s earnings were 2.6B in the first quarter – a rebound from a 1.4B loss in the first quarter of last year. The CEO is quoted as saying that profits are soaring as consumers buy expensive add-ons to their basic vehicles. The most popular add-on to the $14,000 Ford Fiesta is heated leather seats! Are you kidding me! People who “have no money” don’t buy heated leather seats on an economy car.

In another article in USA Today, I read that Starbucks has become the #3 chain restaurant — passing Wendy’s and Burger King. It looks to me like more people are buying $4 lattes than $1 burgers.

It’s true that 9% unemployment is awful, but that also means that 91% still have jobs.

So look around you at the actual state of the economy, and don’t listen to those who are complaining about how bad everything is. People still have money to buy what they want. MGE clients all around the country are flourishing and prospering by helping patients get the high quality dentistry they need and want.

You don’t have to do crowns for $600 or less to try to grind out a living. What you do need to do is work on your ability to get cases accepted. I don’t believe that just because the economy isn’t as good as it was a few years ago doctors should now compromise treatment and allow patients to walk away without healthy mouths.

In the end, it really comes down to caring about the patient. Caring enough to help them through the barriers to signing up for treatment like money, time, or fear of root canals, and get them signed up for their full treatment plans. We cover this subject in detail at MGE’s Communication and Sales Seminar.

Until next week!

Best,
Greg

Posted in Economy, Practice Management | Leave a comment

Southern California – The New Patient Workshop

Posted on May 10, 2011 by

Last weekend, Dr. Winteregg, several MGE staff and I were in Costa Mesa (Orange Country), California for the MGE New Patient Workshop.

One thing Dr. Winteregg we have noticed in our travels is that when it comes to their business, many dentists feel like they are in a “dog-eat-dog fight for survival.”

You may have experienced this the last time you attended a dental convention. These conventions are supposed to be your opportunity to pick the brains of a presenter, or, more likely, a colleague, and see if you can come away with a “nugget” or “pearl” or something of note. But do these colleagues really want to share their most successful strategies with you? Perhaps you noticed that many of them perceive you as their competition.

Naturally, misery loves company so you can find many “friends” that will share their views on how bad things are and what is not working. But the true “pearls” are often held tighter to their chest than a winning poker hand.

Unfortunately, many dentists are under the impression that if they shared their secrets for getting new patients or case acceptance, etc. with their colleagues, they would take all of their patients or something of that sort. But let’s be real here: there are over 307,000,000 people in the United States. There are 36,000,000 just in California alone, and 20,000,000 in New York. And they all need healthy mouths.

In fact, the most successful dentists I’ve had the pleasure of working with enjoy sharing their knowledge with their colleagues, and actually get a kick out of being asked. They are not insecure because they don’t believe anyone other than themselves is their competition. They push themselves to do better than they did the month before, they want to soak up as much knowledge as they can, but realize ultimately it is their own certainty and their own ability that will really make the difference in the end.

So I propose a different slant here: What if you went out of your way to help your fellow colleague? What would happen?

The result I’ve usually observed in the past is this: You will do better yourself.

At MGE, we create an environment of friendliness and mutual support. Twice a year we hold an “Owner’s Conference” for our clients, where we conduct a Roundtable talk for them to share what they have been doing that year that has been highly successful. Everyone in attendance comes back with great new ideas to implement—they receive as much or more than they give. And you know what: they aren’t staring at each other warily out of the corner of their eyes; they aren’t trying to steal each other’s patients; and they aren’t trying to keep their successful actions a secret. They know that there are more than enough to go around. And if you were to go to each one of them and look at their production, collection, and new patient numbers you would be amazed at how they are regularly expanding!

It is actually quite a relief for many clients the first time they come to MGE because it’s also the first time they’ve been to a gathering of dentists that is 100% open, friendly, and helpful, without any air of distrust or stinginess.

Our clients take pride in sharing their successes and seeing others achieve them as well.

Try it, it’s liberating!

Wishing you the best,
Mike Menkhaus

Posted in Management Tips | 1 Comment

Northern California – The Art of Scheduling Productively Workshop

Posted on April 16, 2011 by

Two weeks ago, we were in San Francisco and Sacramento delivering the MGE: Management Experts, Inc. “Art of Scheduling Productively Workshop.” Over the course of the day, I had an opportunity to sit down with a number of the dentists who were in attendance. They were all very nice people and I could see, despite any business issues they might have had, that they all had a genuine interest in delivering excellent patient care. When I had a chance to reflect after the day was over, I realized something which I found very interesting: in the minds of the doctors I’d met with over the weekend (and at just about every other seminar I’ve been to) their patients, staff and location are controlling what happens in their practice.

Dr. Winteregg Lecturing at the Art of Scheduling Productively Workshop

Our external seminar unit at MGE travels all over the country visiting about six cities per month. I’ve found that in every one of those cities, the doctors my colleagues and I meet with are convinced that practice non-performance has much to do with things being “different” in their area of the country. The more we’ve seen this, the more obvious it has become practicing dentistry isn’t really that different at all from city to city. Sure there are peculiarities based on your location, but these wouldn’t be reasons for non-performance. You would just adapt to them. But are teeth that different city to city? When you fly from Chicago to New York (or Omaha) do you still need that filling? Are you still due for a 6-month recall?

During our out-of-town workshops, we often invite a local client to come by and share how they’ve been able to become more successful. I’ve seen seminar attendees hear these stories and realize that their area isn’t really a barrier to their success. And for them it seems quite liberating! I guess my point would be that you should be careful what you go into agreement with. If you are convinced your businesses shortcomings are attributed to your area or the economy for example, that “idea” becomes – at least for you – reality. I quite enjoy seeing new clients realize this and begin to disagree with some of these barriers, such as economy, etc. and begin creating a reality of a successful business.

It reminds me of one of our clients from Detroit—probably the area hit hardest by the recession. He just didn’t agree that the economy would affect him. When he saw other practices closing down, he decided someone’s got to treat those patients and it might as well be him. He acquired four new practices during the recession and they are all thriving. He’s just one of our clients among the ranks of the hundreds doing the same all over the country from New York City to San Diego, small-town Indiana, Ft. Lauderdale and so on.

If you would like to know how to improve conditions in your office, come to one of our free workshops. Click here and select the workshop you would like to attend.

Wishing you the best,
Mike Menkhaus

Posted in Economy, Management Tips, Practice Management, Scheduling | Leave a comment

It MUST Be the Economy – Right?

Posted on March 24, 2011 by

MGE Management ExpertsIf you’re struggling, it must be because of the economy—right? Or it might be unemployment, the housing bust or banks tightening their lending standards, creating a situation where people can’t afford dentistry anymore.  What the heck, let’s throw in reasons like global warming and the cost of lima beans in Peru.

OK, I was joking about the last two. But, I did it to make a point: if you are blaming your lack of success on any of the reasons above (or anything similar), then as a business owner you are in trouble.

You may have heard my story before, but I’ll give you the short version to illustrate my point: When I became a client in 1992 I was in a farm town in Indiana of ten thousand with eleven dentists.  The grocery store which anchored the strip mall I was in moved.  After that, all the other businesses left or went bankrupt with the exception of the public laundromat.  I couldn’t leave because I had eight years left on my lease.  And all this, in the middle of the Recession that Bill Clinton inherited when he took office.  It killed the economy in northern Indiana and people were afraid to spend money (sound familiar?).  I was having a hard time cashing my paycheck and was considering staff lay-offs for the first time in my (at that point) eleven-year career.

I then became an MGE: Management Experts client.  I walked in with all of the usual “reasons” why my practice was doing poorly—the economy, my location, etc. This stopped when I learned a lesson early on from MGE: that there are things you can control and things you cannot.  Do something about what you can control and don’t worry about the rest.

So I got to work and learned how to build a business. Through the MGE training, I learned how to promote to bring in patients who really cared about their mouths. I learned how to get them to accept the dentistry they needed—in spite of the economy.  And I learned how to run an efficient practice that rapidly expanded and made profit.  Twelve months after starting my training at MGE, the practice had doubled, I’d brought on an associate, and I was working twenty-two hours per week while the office was managed by my MGE trained office manager. And by the by, prior to coming on board with me and doing the MGE training, she had never worked in a dental office before.

Life was great, but I could see that many of my colleagues were going through what I had gone through; unfortunately, not all of their stories ended happily like mine. It was frustrating and I wanted to help. I decided to do something about it and within ten months I sold my practice to my associate and came on board at MGE as a partner.

I see every day how well clients of MGE: Management Experts are doing. Skeptics will say it is their location, the rich people in their area, etc. that has led to their success during these unbelievably tough economic conditions.  I have some really bad news for you—they are just like you.

They are high-quality, caring doctors who practice in locations just like yours.  They have patients just like yours, and unemployment is just as bad in their town as it is in yours. Now, this might come across as hard to swallow, because it takes away all of the “excuses.” I look at it another way—it’s actually great because if they can do it, so can you!  They are just like you!

We have a client in the Detroit metro area with two partners that has opened three new locations in the past four years—by the way, the recession hit Detroit in 2006.  Their business viewpoint is that while other offices are closing, somebody has got to take care of these patients so it might as well be them. They recently got 570 new patients in one month!  I know I said it earlier, but think about it, they are in Detroit which has (according to the news media) been hit harder economically than just about any area of the US.

I have a client in San Diego that opened a scratch practice in June of 2008, just as the recession was starting. He refused to participate in ANY PPO/HMO plans. His advisors said he was committing financial suicide and that he would be joining the plans in a matter of months. At the end of his first twelve months, he was collecting $60,000 per month and at the end of his first twenty-four months, he was collecting $120,000 per month while getting over 60 new patients per month.  He’s working three to three-and-a-half days per week, has an associate three days per week and six days of hygiene. And he’s doing all that out of only three chairs and he’s just added a fourth—to keep his expansion going.

Just for the record there are about 170,000 dentists in the US and about 20,000 +/- of them are in Southern California. If I were to buy into the “excuses,” I would have to believe that my San Diego client must be practicing by himself in the three square mile area where there are no dentists and all of the people have no dental insurance!

Again, pardon my cynicism here but it’s time to consider that maybe MGE clients have learned how to flourish in any economy, any location, any environment.  I know every one of them and I can tell you that they are just like you—good, hard-working, caring, quality dentists—with a few exceptions:  1) they were willing to step out and admit that they needed help, 2) they were willing to think for themselves and not buy in to the negativity spread about by the masses, 3) they were willing to think outside the box and never agreed that it was hopeless, and 4) they were willing to invest time and money in their most precious business asset…themselves!

Our program is not for everyone, but I’m telling you that success is just around the corner if you are willing to do 1-4 above.  We offer a New Patient Workshop to show you how to get fee-for-service patients into the practice for $1,495 with a money-back guarantee. We have an inexpensive three-seminar training program on how to increase case acceptance. For that matter, I even lecture all over the country for free in many instances on how to improve your practice. But there’s that old saying, you can lead a horse to water…

So take the plunge!  Call us and register for the New Patient Workshop or the MGE Communication and Sales Seminars. At the very least, attend one of my free one-day workshops and check us out for yourself.  The only way you can mess up on our program is to not do it.  Give yourself a chance to succeed.

(To learn more about my free one-day workshops, click here.)

 

Posted in Economy | Leave a comment

Don’t Feel Like the Recession is Over?

Posted on March 23, 2011 by

MGE Management Experts

Lecturing more or less non-stop across the country these past two years has given me a unique insight into the current mindset of many in our profession. In 2010 alone, I lectured for 42 out of 52 weekends across the country to close to 2,000 dentists and their staff, the majority of which were not clients of my company, MGE: Management Experts, Inc.

While the recession was declared over (as of the summer of 2009), I’m still finding quite a few of us who (still) see the “economy” as the reason for lack of practice growth or productivity.

I’ve seen quite a bit from my twelve years in private practice, followed by seventeen years as a partner at MGE. I’ve seen practices failing miserable during the “boom” years and I’ve seen practices that did extremely well during the “Great Recession.”

During my eleven years in practice before becoming an MGE client, I had about $60,000 worth of consulting from six different consultants. Despite all this, in 1991, my practice took a nosedive when the anchor store (a supermarket) in my strip mall moved out. Added to this, we were in the middle of a recession.  Collections dropped by 25% and new patients along with it. I was convinced my problems were my location and the recession. It seemed to make sense and according to “authorities” was the truth. Several consultants agreed I had location problems and the news media only confirmed our economic problems. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything about either of these “reasons.”

What was I doing wrong?  Nothing really, I just couldn’t find the real reason behind what was going on.

We dentists are for the most part a logical bunch. When we see something we can’t explain (like a failing or struggling office), we usually grab onto the most sensible “reason” we can find to explain our difficulties – no matter how illogical it may seem to others.

When you can’t make sense of a bad situation or figure your way out of it, it can make you angry, frustrated, or left feeling helpless.  Does any of this sound familiar?  This usually progresses to the next step—grasping a reason—any reason that makes sense to “explain” the bad situation.

During the last two years the “villain” has been the economy. Before the economic issues of 2007-2009, there were many other “villains” used as “reasons” for struggling practices.

Blaming my problems on my location and the economy didn’t lead to a solution for me. And I think we can safely say it won’t help you increase your numbers, either. You need to find out exactly why you aren’t doing well and fix that.

At MGE I learned to differentiate between the things I could do something about and the things that I couldn’t.  For example:  I couldn’t do anything about the grocery store leaving my strip mall which led to it being empty within a year.

But I could learn how to survey and promote, and when I did that I went from ten new patients per month to thirty-nine in just three months.

There are really three main areas that you can do something about. And that’s the secret to why so many MGE clients have flourished despite the recession. They learned how to:

1)      Promote and bring in quality new patients

2)      Get patients to want the dentistry they need

3)      Organize and lead a highly productive and profitable dental practice

If your car isn’t starting when you turn the key, you can have an opinion as to why it isn’t starting.  You can do the usual simple diagnostics: a) does it have gas? b) is the battery dead? c) is it in park?  If that doesn’t work you need to tow it to a professional for complete diagnostics.  He hooks it up to his gizmos and gets the real reason it isn’t starting and fixes it and then it starts.  That is a true “technology.”  You properly apply a workable method and you get a solution.  But it has to be able to be applied. Then that application gives you a predictable result.

When I became a client at MGE, I was initially skeptical that an actual business method existed that could make expanding a business predictable.  But I looked around and saw so many doctors at MGE doing so well that I really felt like I had nothing to lose by trying it out.

I had about an 80% increase in collections within three months and within a year we were up by about 133%, and I was working 22 hours per week with a full time associate. I was so excited! The staff at MGE basically had the attitude of “of course it worked.  We knew it would.”  No surprise to your mechanic when your car starts after he has fixed it either.

So that is the basic formula for every MGE client success.  You can learn how to manage your practice in all aspects and apply it.

And that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Posted in Economy | Leave a comment