The Business of Dentistry: Systems, Processes, and People for Practice Success

Understanding the Business Side of Dentistry

Most dentists enter the field with the primary goal of providing dental care, often overlooking the importance of business acumen. As Danielle Krammer points out, many dentists are ill-prepared to manage the business aspects of their practices, which can lead to challenges in profitability and growth.

The Role of Systems in Practice Management

Revenue cycle management and standard operating procedures (SOPs) are critical for maintaining consistency and efficiency in a dental practice. Proper management of these systems ensures that the practice can sustain operations and continue to grow.

Importance of Processes

Data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement are crucial in optimizing practice performance. By regularly reviewing practice metrics and refining processes, dental practices can enhance both efficiency and profitability.

People: The Heart of the Practice

A successful dental practice relies on a strong, well-trained team. Investing in team development and creating a positive work environment are essential for retaining top talent and ensuring long-term success.

Profitability vs. Revenue

Understanding the difference between revenue and profitability is key to a practice’s financial health. While revenue is important, profitability—what remains after expenses—is a more accurate measure of success.

Implementing a Coaching Approach

Danielle advocates for a coaching approach that involves regular training, feedback, and setting clear expectations. This approach helps team members grow into leadership roles and contributes to the overall success of the practice.

Conclusion

“The Business of Dentistry” provides valuable insights into the systems, processes, and people needed to run a successful dental practice. By implementing the strategies discussed in the video, dental professionals can navigate the complexities of business management and achieve their goals.

Transcript

00:00:00: A lot of you know, dentists go to school to be a dentist, and they don’t do a lot of schooling on how to run a business. You know, I look at every team member, and I say, you know, I want you to be me one day.

00:00:32: Welcome to the Dental Marketing Podcast, a podcast that helps dentists win in the online world of modern-day marketing. Each week, we cover the most cutting-edge marketing tactics and strategies that are working right now across our client base to drive leads, phone calls, and more new patients for dentists. Now here’s your host and founder of Kickstart Dental Marketing, Chris Pistorius.

00:01:03: Hey everyone, welcome to the No BS Dental Marketing Podcast. I am your host, Chris Pistorius, and on this show, we talk about straight-to-the-point, no BS tips, tactics, and tricks on helping you grow your dental practice.

00:01:33: Today we’ve got a very special guest. We’ve got Danielle Krammer. Danielle is a dental business coach. She is with Arizona Dental Solutions. Danielle, I’ll let you kind of introduce yourself as well, but I know you’ve got tons of experience in the dental field.

00:02:04: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I’ve sat in kind of every seat, and I’ve loved every seat I’ve sat in. I think when I introduced myself, I say, like, I’ve been every person except for the hygienist and the dentist.

00:02:35: I’ve truly appreciated every bit of knowledge that I’ve learned from all of them, and I’ve even had those corporate roles. I was a director of revenue cycle for a little while there, and I loved all the knowledge that I learned from that.

00:03:06: But I’ve truly found this passion since 2016, really getting to love every person that I run into in these offices, doing the business coaching side of things.

00:03:37: I really find this passion and drive on the billing side of things. Again, I was director of revenue cycle, so a lot of people don’t like to deep dive into the numbers. I do.

00:04:08: I have a true passion for making sure that things are done the right way and accurately on the revenue cycle side of an office. So I am super passionate when I go into offices to make sure that every system that’s in place with their revenue cycle management and the revenue of the practice is done the right way.

00:04:39: We all know cash flow is super important, right? So when I go into an office, I like to run reports, look at the analytics behind everything, and say, is there something that we can do differently to make sure that these systems in place are running the right way?

00:05:10: I wasn’t the one that wanted to be like shoved in a corner or shoved in a room with my head down in a desk, like doing numbers. I was actually the person that was super excited to be talking to the patients and the doctor and the team.

00:05:41: I think that’s one of the biggest reasons why just small businesses in general fail is because they go into business because they’re good at fixing cars or whatever it may be, but they may not be very good at marketing or hiring or firing or knowing the numbers. Would you agree?

00:06:12: I do agree. I think that, you know, a lot of what I do is I really try to elevate the team members. I look at every team member, and I say, you know, I want you to be me one day. I want you to have the knowledge and the skill set that I have because I’m not going to be doing this for the rest of my life.

00:06:43: I want to be able to step aside and know that I elevated each one of those team members in those offices in those seats to be me one day. And so I think it’s really important that each of the practice coaches just like me are out there sharing this information because without us, these doctors really wouldn’t know that information.

00:07:14: I’ve run into General practices in all states, like every status of these practices. I can tell you I’ve run into so I don’t know that I have like a real great answer for you. I’ve run into every status of these practices.

00:07:45: When I look at numbers in a practice, I can probably tell you just by numbers alone what systems might be broken in there, and then we go in and we train the team. So it’s less of like a profit margin, and it’s more of like what do these numbers look like?

00:08:16: And once you start improving those things, profitability starts to take care of itself, increase. That’s for sure.

00:08:47: One of the things that we might request my team and I might request is to have some of the practice reports sent over. So it really depends on whether or not the practice is using an analytic software, something like Dental Intel or Jarvis.

00:09:18: If we can get access to that system, that’s fantastic. If not, we’re going to ask for some practice details, reports from the practice and a profit and loss statement from the last year or the last two years.

00:09:49: We’re going to run a financial analysis for the practice and kind of see what things have looked like for the last couple of years and then month over month as far as the statistics of the practice. From there, that’s really where we kind of get an idea of what’s going on before we even get there.

00:10:20: We meet with the doctors. Sometimes we meet with the team right away. Other times, we’re going over what we’ve seen as far as numbers are concerned, and we get to really hear what the doctor’s concerns are, what are their issues, what’s their vision, what are their goals.

00:10:51: It’s really important to share the message that a coaching program should take at least like 12 months. You have to think that when we’re growing a practice, we’re growing with the practice, right? And we know that in order to grow the practice, we’re looking at almost the cycle of a patient and in recare.

00:11:22: For us, it’s important to find a good fit for us, and if somebody comes to us and says, “Look, I’m doing, you know, 10 new patients a month now. I need to do 25 by next month.” I just kind of chuckle and I’m like, “I’m sorry, this just isn’t the fit.”

00:11:53: So, yeah, I think it’s important to understand that we’ve got to grow with the way a practice grows, and we’re looking into the future when we’re growing. So anywhere from that like

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