February 28, 2025 • 34 mins
In this Ortho Marketing episode, Dean Steinman is joined by Greg Essenmacher, founder of GnA Consult. They discuss the power of team accountability in delivering an exceptional patient experience. They explore strategies for team development, leadership, and creating a culture where every team member plays a vital role in patient satisfaction. Tune in for expert insights on strengthening your practice from the inside out!
Ready to elevate your practice?
Contact us! https://orthomarketing.com/contact-us/
About Greg Essenmacher
Greg Essenmacher, a leading expert in Fixed Full Arch dentistry, transforms single office practitioners into successful implant practices through tailored solutions and cross-functional collaboration. As founder of GnA Consult, Greg enhances practice efficiency, patient acquisition, and treatment planning. With a focus on Fixed Full Arch for nearly a decade, he integrates best practices and hosts The Tooth Sleuth podcast.
For more information: https://www.dentalconsult4u.com/
Ready to elevate your practice?
Contact us! https://orthomarketing.com/contact-us/
About Greg Essenmacher
Greg Essenmacher, a leading expert in Fixed Full Arch dentistry, transforms single office practitioners into successful implant practices through tailored solutions and cross-functional collaboration. As founder of GnA Consult, Greg enhances practice efficiency, patient acquisition, and treatment planning. With a focus on Fixed Full Arch for nearly a decade, he integrates best practices and hosts The Tooth Sleuth podcast.
For more information: https://www.dentalconsult4u.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Greg Asenmacher, CEO and founder of GNA Consult.
On today's podcast, you're going to learn about team development
and how that can influence patient experience ultimate leading to
case acceptance. One thing that you can do and learn
from this podcast today is what you can do immediately
in order to improve one percent better today. I hope
(00:21):
you enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Orthomarketing dot com three hundred and sixty degree digital marketing
solutions for your practice.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Well, hello everybody out there on podcast land. It's Dean Steinmann.
I guess what. We are back with another podcast for you,
and I hope everybody is down from the super Bowl.
If you're from the Philly area, you guys must be
all stoked. If you're a Chiefs fan, kind of stinks,
(00:58):
but that's what you guys done for everybody else out there,
So hopefully enjoyed it. In someday when the Jets win,
as you know, I'll be a happy camper. But until
that day, I hope it comes. We have to just
show to close the book and say wait till next year.
So with that said, it's now mid February and the
Miller Winterer, So now we're going to talk a little
(01:18):
bit about some important things in the office. Most impointly,
it's about your staff, guys, and I have with me
as well, we as VIP guests, and I'm real stoked
to have with me today Greg Assenmacher. Greg is a
founder and CEO of j and a consult and we
had to talk about your staff and you're getting your
team accountable and getting them on board. So Greg, welcome man.
(01:41):
How are you today?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm great, and I love that you're talking about your jets.
It's all I have to say is that at least
you have one of the Super Bowls. And you've been
there being a Lions fan of fifty three years. We
don't even know what a super Bowl is. You know,
a bowl is something you eat chips out of and
you know they're super so hey, at least you have one.
It's been a while, but you have one. So hang
your hat on that and enjoy that from what was
(02:04):
that fifty five fifty six years ago? But at least
you have you have one.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I got one one. Unfortunately I was too young to
enjoy it. But I've been, you know, muddling through and
painful ever since. But you know, besides you know, only
people that could really get my pain as a Lion
fan or a Browns fan, you know.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So I mean, just like just like with the practices
that we work with and everyone who's listening to this
right just as football is, and it takes all fifty
three men on the roster plus some of the practice
squad plus you know, as the Lions did this year,
they had to pull people off the street and then
put them in and plug them in with everybody on
IR it's the same and all of those dental practices
(02:45):
that you're working in and all of your listeners are
working in. It takes everybody playing a role, and not
everybody's the quarterback, and not everybody's a wide receiver, and
not everybody plays defensive back. Everybody plays their role to
be able to uplift and be able to create a
great team. So I'm excited to talk about that today
with you.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Excellent segue man, excellent, you know, perfect right in. So
let's jump into that. Okay, So the doctor is what
would you say, he's the GM? Is the owner of
the team? Is the head coach? How would you categorize
the typical fental practice?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, I mean, you know it really depends on the
practice itself, right. So I mean some might be the
Jerry Jones, right, who's the owner and the general manager
and the you know, the president of player personnel and
and and but if it's a larger organization where it
might have you know, the doctor owner and then two
or three associates and they're you know, ten twelve operatories
(03:42):
and they have three or four auxiliary services. Right, So
clear liners are ortho and they're doing direct to consumer
marketing plus other auxiliary services full larch and sleep and
all of the others. He might be more of a
general manager, right, and maybe not doing you know, wet
handed dentistry, you know, twenty days a week or twenty
days a month, if you will. So it really depends
(04:03):
on the practices, and we work with all different kinds.
And then there's group practices too, where some are literally
in the C suite where they're literally just managing the
business and not necessarily in the business, but they work
on the business. So it's a great question, right, And
so for anyone who's listening, it really is appropriate to
talk about what we talk about and what we do,
(04:23):
which is all about the patient experience. And that's where
case acceptance really lies. And behind that is the team
development and growing your team in a very concerted way.
And I'm excited to talk about that here today because
that is foundationally. If you're doing any kind of direct
to consumer marketing, anyone listening to me, please hear this.
(04:43):
If you're doing direct to consumer marketing, which means you're
going out into the public and saying we do this
particular treatment, we do this service so ortho. Right, if
we're going to try to attract patients for a particular service,
it's so much different than if they're coming through your
high gene program, through the hygiene program. There's a little
bit of trust built up. You know, if Betty's been
(05:04):
coming in for three five years and finally it's time
to do player liners or some type of orthotherapy or
fill in the blank, that's a little different because they
trust your practice. They've been coming in time and time
and time again. They know some of the players. Even
if a few of the players have been switched out
because they've been traded, or they you know, were on
free agency and you brought them in because you think
you can make a run for the Super Bowl, Right,
(05:25):
that's a little different. If you're doing that direct to
consumer marketing and you're spending money specific to bring in
from the public, there is zero trust built in with
that patient or prospect because they're not even a patient yet.
To try to get them to do some particular procedure
with you, that takes everyone on the team being on
the same page, using the same language, having a consistent message,
(05:48):
and understanding what differentiates you in what you're trying to
attract them for from the guy or gal or big
box store right the DSOs down the street. What do
you do better, and there's always something that you do better,
and honing in on that message and making sure everybody
on the team, from the doctor to the assistant, to
the front desk to the janitor, everybody knows what that is.
(06:12):
So there's alignment. And that's so critically important, Dean, that
we find with our clients that are more successful, they've
got that messaging down and it's not just something stuck
up on a wall, but it's something they're living and
breathing every day.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Perfect. You have to have a game plan, you have
to have a strategy, you have to have this. I
always tell the people you can't when you put on
liners in You can't go from trade one to Trade seven,
to Trade three to Trade twelve. You have to have
the right program in place. And you know this is
you know, just more important is to have your foundation. So,
you know, Greg, let's take one step back before we
even do that, Let's tell you a story. Tell us
(06:47):
who is Rayhosbacker. What is it that you do?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, I appreciate that. So I've been in the industry
for eighteen years and I've worked really for two major companies,
right so, one of them Strawman Group, and they have
clear liners that big part of their gamer at least
for the last decade, if you will, since they did
purchase you know, everybody knows who they purchased, and they
really started lifting up that brand. But what really I
have learned over the years and now three three and
(07:12):
a half years ago launched G and A consult and
it really is to help anyone who's doing their type
of auxiliary service. And we happen to specialize in one
particular niche anyone who's doing direct to consumer marketing. It's
really every touch point of that patient journey and consistency
in that messaging that I talked about. Dean because it's
not just the digital marketing. If you call it a
(07:35):
clear aligner, everybody should be calling it a clear aligner.
If you brand it like in Visiligne, then everybody calls
it in Visiligne because something that we've found and we
know because research has been done on this, like a
lot of money, six digits have been spent with consulting groups,
bigger ones than ours of course on this particular point,
and that is that if there's inconsistency and messaging from
(07:58):
the digital right, so that would be the advertisement, website,
things of that nature out there in the ether for
the public to consume, to the messaging from the first contact,
that initial inquiry phone call, whatever the case may be,
front desk, and then the in person engagement, front desk,
dental assistance, clinicians, all the way through. If there's inconsistency
(08:19):
of what you're calling any piece of it, right, so
as the example, clear aligner, you know you're calling it brackets?
Are you calling it by the brand name you know
in visialigne, clear correct, go right down the list. If
there's any inconsistency in that. When it comes time for
closing the case, right, presenting the dollars the dollars and cents.
(08:40):
There's a subconscious for those patients, the motivation behind it.
They don't exactly know why sometimes because the why is
the motivation, what's the product? You've got to deliver a
good product? Like you said, you can't go from trade
one to seven to three to eight because that just
doesn't work clinically. But the motivation of that patient, they
they don't know why necessarily, but they can't get to
(09:03):
a yes because that inconsistency and messaging is called a
microfracture of trust. And again this is the direct to
consumer lane because they don't know you from the practice
down the street. They answered, and ad they thought, let
me give it a shot. I've wanted to do this
for a while, but let me see if I can
trust practice XYZ to do this for me. So you've
(09:23):
drawn them in somehow, You've gained the interest. Now they're
determining with their spidery ears all along the way, can
I trust them to actually do it? Will they deliver
on what they're asking for from me? And is everybody
involved going to be able to deliver them on their
clinical acumen? And for me parting with my money to
deliver on the outcome that I'm looking for, and that's
(09:45):
what we really find to be true with all of
our clients. That's what's critically important, So consistency and the messaging,
and that just requires training, training, and then on the
deliverables internally to hold people accountable to that. It's that
none of these pieces are extremely difficult or the big
pieces that help the uplift and case acceptance. It's a
(10:06):
bunch of little pieces along the way that we find
and have found with clients that make the big difference.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
How does a practice see the forest through the trees?
Because most practices have been doing this practice doing this
for five, ten, fifteen, twenty plus years. They don't realize
it's broken. They don't realize that there's no process in place.
So how do they what's the first aha moment that
a doctor will have to say, WHOA, I need a process?
(10:34):
And then how do they realize okay, what's broken and
how to fix it?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah? I mean foundationally, it really has to do with
the metrics. And I don't want to, you know, get
bogged down and say, well, if you don't know what
your metrics and measurables are, because that that can get
a little foggy in that usually comes a little bit
further in the process. The first is do you know
what your conversion is for what you're spending right in
that marketing? Right? That's your lane, right, Like, how much
(11:01):
are you spending on marketing? And what's your conversion rate
on those cases?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Right?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
If you're going to start talking about, oh, the leads
are bad, well, sure, like some of them aren't necessarily
going to be through, just like in your your email inbox,
some of it's junk mail. Let's just be honest, right,
they get a hold of your email address and some
of it comes through, and you're going to get some spam.
That's going to happen when you're out there doing direct
to consumer marketing. But it can't be that all the
leads are bad and some of marketing companies are better
(11:28):
than others. Let's just call it what it is, right,
But if all of them are bad, you have to
start taking a look in the mirror and saying, how
is my team handling some of these calls that are
coming in? So really it's transparency. So the first question
that I like to ask clinicians is tell me the
last time that you listen to a phone call of
(11:49):
an incoming call from a prospect, a perspective patient for
this auxiliary service that you do. Right, so for aligner therapy,
right for orthotherapy, have you actually listened to a call?
And if it's it's not you, then has your office
manager or whoever is responsible for those that are taking
those initial calls for the money that you're spending. Just
the awareness piece, and even as the owner and founder,
(12:12):
it doesn't mean you have to filter through all the calls.
But there are so many great programs out there, and
I don't have to go down the list, whether you
know it's Weave or Mango or next Health or we
can go right down the list where they can be
downloaded and it can be the first five to ten
minutes of your drive home where they can be downloaded
for you and you can listen to them on your
drive home. The awareness piece is so critically important to
(12:35):
know what is happening if a patient calls your office
or a prospect because they're not a patient yet in
your practice. Just having that awareness what is happening, what
is their engagement like on that initial inquiry, And that's
really where it can start before you get into the metrics,
before you get into how are you converting before, it's
(12:55):
holding marketing companies accountable before before all of that happens,
which is what we help clients to do. It's awareness.
And I know doctors are busy, right, I know you're busy.
You're trying to deliver clinical excellence. You're dealing with staff members,
you know that have sick dogs and sick children, and
you know, but you have to start somewhere. And starting
(13:17):
with the awareness piece is what we find is some
of the most eye opening. And then it's the decision
do you want to do something or not? And that's
what we find.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
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(14:20):
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Speaker 3 (14:28):
So now the checked off. Okay, there's a problem and
I'm aware of it. Now the next step is to
get your team involved. And so many practices have just
a very difficult time or process getting the team involved.
Why would they care? You know? And sometimes they put
the money out there they don't care, or they were
for this or this. So what would you suggest would
(14:50):
be the best way to build up some sort of
you know culture where everybody is responsible to make sure
that the practice is successful.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Well, I love what you just said there where everyone's responsible,
because if everybody's responsible, nobody's responsible. And so having individuals
responsible for a piece of a part of ultimately one
person's responsible for every step of right now, it's a
team sport. Like I said, but I can tell you
(15:22):
that you know, Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes were responsible
for throwing the football well most of the time. I mean,
every once in a while they'll have a trick play
thrown in and you know a running back or you
know a wide receiver will throw a pass. But the
vast majority, right, they're responsible for throwing the football, right,
Just like the vast majority of teams have one person
(15:43):
that's the punt receiver, right, or the kickoff receiver, or
have one person that kicks the field goals, one person
that you get my point, that specializes and it's so
important that one person is responsible for one thing. Now,
the team participates, of course, because you can't necessarily, let's
(16:04):
just say, kick a field goal unless you have the
other ten players.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
You have a long snapper, you have a holder, and
then you also have another eight guys on the line
blocking to make sure that somebody doesn't come running free
and blocks the kick. Right. So we know all that,
but there's one person who has primary responsibility for kicking
that pig skin up through the uprights and getting them
the three points when you're trying to make a field goal.
(16:27):
So this is what's critically important and so understanding that
someone has primary responsibility in it. So that's really where
it starts. And then the other point that I want
to make, and this is another area where I'm just
going to say it, and I hope I don't offend
too many people. But if I do, it's okay. Put
on your big boy and big girl pants. Because sometimes
I say things that are a little direct. I'm from Detroit.
(16:50):
Oftentimes it's let's throw money at the problem. They'll throw
money at it, meaning we'll give you a bonus per case,
or if we hit many cases, I'll give you this.
But it's directed at it's what do I think is
going to motivate my team in order to act in
a certain way, Rather than asking the team, what would
(17:13):
you like to do in order to get me to hear?
I want to get I'm here and I want to
get to there. How are you going to help me
get from here? If I get from here to there,
because that's my goal. If you all participate in this
to get from here to there, what would you like
to see as a reward? So often clinicians are afraid
(17:34):
to ask that question because they might think monetary reward. Well,
maybe what they want is they want a spa day
and you I want you to go with us so
that we can have you paint your nails, right, whatever
it is, but asking them to get the buy in, right,
which means as the owner, founder, CEO, regional, whatever it is,
(17:57):
depending on the size of the group, to be a
little vulnerable open to it. Doesn't mean you have to
agree to it, but at least getting the feedback and
if you need to do it anonymously because of the group,
whatever the case may be. It's getting the buy in
from the group of what would you like as a
reward system for what we're trying to accomplish. Because if
you're profitable in what you're doing in that auxiliary service
(18:18):
right in ortho, then you can certainly share a little
bit in the in the profits of that in a
proportional way. And that's what we do at Gena consult
as well. It's doctor owner right Dso leaders, if you
go from here to there, we know what your break
even point is. Everything above has a certain percentage on
top of that, what does that look like for you
(18:40):
and what are you comfortable sharing in And we don't
have to give all the details right to the team members.
But then what does that look like? And how do
we get active participation? And you mentioned the word culture, right,
that's developing a collaborative mindset, right, and from the clinician's
point of view or the owner's point of view, an
abundance mindset right, sharing the wealth, if you will. So
(19:01):
those are just some of the things that we work
with to be able to help break out of that frustration, right,
And that we've been doing this a long time, as
you framed it in the beginning, we've been doing this
a really long time and we just can't seem to
or it's not like it used to be or fill
in the blank, and how to break through the glass ceiling.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
So the biggest problem with every practice and the biggest
fear everybody has is change, all right, So how do
you get so you need mentioned before a great analogy.
If you don't have the right quarterback and the right receiver,
the right running back and the right blockers, you don't
have the right play. What if one or two people
just don't get on board, you know, but they've been
there for twenty years, how do you get them to
(19:43):
get on board?
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (19:44):
So busy already. I can't take on more, you know,
I'm so busy, I can't do this. Or I don't
want to learn something now, I don't want to know
the software they have to adapt. So what bit of
advice will to tell somebody who has somebody there for
twenty years. A person doesn't want to get on, but
they got no choice. But they're also going to be
afraid to lose that person. So what do you do?
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Yeah, it's it's a big challenge, right, and it and
it requires well there's two comments that I'll have to
that and I appreciate you bringing that forward because it
is difficult. Right. The first is that concept of living
from a place of fear. I'm afraid what will happen
if I ask somebody to make this change. Any clinicians
(20:25):
that are owning, managing practicing from a place of fear,
you've already lost that battle. And if you continue from
that place of fear, growth is going to be extremely difficult.
It just will be. This is this is known. I
have a lot of friends in the industry that we
work on this with clinicians as well. It's a it's
(20:45):
a tough spot. Do I know that it is challenging
in the market right now with good staff members. Yes,
I also know a lot of really good clinicians who
have fidelity that is amazing, but changes in evitable, so
change management. It's not it's not easy by any stretch
of the imagination, but is doable. The other piece that
(21:06):
I'll share with you, Dean, is there are some and
a great friend of mine, Chelsea Meyers, She's an amazing
human being. Her analogy that she uses and I love
analogies because this is what I remember. I remember through
stories more than I do through statistics or just you know,
someone like me just going on and on and on
and rattling on and on right And it is just
this that there are some people that do not choose
(21:28):
to change. It's almost as if they're in a deep
sleep and they you don't somebody who's in a deep sleep,
you just you don't wake them up. It's not good
for them, and they choose not to doesn't mean that
they're a bad person, but also there's going to be
a better fit for them somewhere else. And it sounds
crass and it sounds harsh, but the fact of the
(21:48):
matter is if the entire the entire practice is moving
in another direction. That person is no longer going to
fit into the direction of that group anymore. And that's
just the truth. So you know, EOS talks about right person, right, See,
perhaps it's not in that. You know, at GNA consult
we call it a micro team when they're talking about
(22:10):
you know, full arch that's my area of specialty. You know,
there's a micro team that works on and builds and
grow the full arch within an entire practice, right as
that auxiliary service. And if there is ortho within you know,
an entire practice, and that is you know, a specialty
within a GP practice. Not everybody necessarily is working on that.
They can certainly work within it if you will. And
(22:33):
that's another piece. Perhaps there's another role for them if
the organization is large enough. And that's just that's the
nature of the beast. And I've seen it happen over
and over where people are grateful afterward to say I
didn't know how to leave after twenty years, right, So
transitioning them into something else, whether within the organization or
(22:54):
outside of the organization. And again, I know it sounds
relatively harsh, but the fact of the matter is for
the owners and clinicians, it's grower die. It's a super
competitive market. And if they've spent you know in your
comments there, you know, five, ten, fifteen years, and they
see all the competition coming in and they see that
(23:17):
it's grower die and this is an area to be
able to build and grow their practice or their group. Necessarily,
it has to change. It has to evolve to meet
the marketplace and meet the patients where they're at of
what they're looking for. So evolving and growing, and I
just think that's critically important to be mindful of and
not be afraid of that, or to be person dependent.
(23:41):
And that's why you've heard me talk a lot about
processes and talk about how to put formulas together. So
it's not a human dependent but it's a process dependent
actions that you put into place in order to be
able to, you know, to work through some of those
challenges and to get help where needed. Because not everybody's
a natural people leader. And that's okay too.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Most aren't, you know, most are, and this is great
leaders out there and the great business people, but a
lot of them are you know, are experts in getting
teeth straight and getting teeth weight or getting teeth cleaner,
you know, overall health and then not experts on that.
So with that said, what's one thing that somebody could
do in order to keep people accountable and you know,
without micromanaging. What do they need to micromanagers or you know,
(24:25):
a certain checklist people have to respond because lest you
want to do is you do this? You don't want digits.
I always say to my company, I don't want digits.
I want to do it. You know, so did you
do this? Did you do this? Well? How would somebody
so give them one bit of advice? What's something that
they could do in order to have accountability to show
people doing it, but also not just say yeah, I
did it, check off and it wasn't done. So what's
(24:46):
one bit of advice they could do?
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, And it's it's one of the most critical piece
of advice. When we take a new client on. It
really starts with setting the expectation from the very beginning.
So it's not just here's a job description, here's we
want you to do, and here's the checklist of your actions. Right,
here's what you need to do. You need to do ABCD.
This is how you're opening duties, this is your closing duties.
(25:09):
This is what we need you to do for your
roles and responsibilities. Sure, that needs to be clearly spelled
out and it needs to be accurate and updated at
all times. But it's also one of the big misses
that happens is the annual reviews if they're being done
at all. There should be regular check ins on performance
(25:30):
and it should be two ways, right, So what is
the expectation of the owner for the employees and then
what are the expectations of the employee of the owner
of the company that they're working for. If there's open
dialogue and it's regular throughout the course of the year
at least once a quarter, then those expectations. It doesn't
(25:51):
have to be a checklist micromanaging. It's a regular cadence
and that's what we help to establish with our clients.
And it doesn't have to be The great thing is
it doesn't have to be the owner and it doesn't
have to be you know, it can be delegated to
office manager or other. But there are tremendous resources that
are available, like through different companies, through different HR companies.
(26:13):
HR for Health comes to mind, for one. It's a
great partner of ours at g Anda, consul and others,
because it all formulates for you and you can determine
what's most critically important, specialize in what you specialize in.
You didn't go to a dental school for all of
the HR things right and HR specialist, God bless them
all in the world. But being able to leverage a
(26:34):
partner that can help you with those things is such
a very small investment in order to help with the
people management side, so you don't have to micromanage, and
it gives a feedback loop for your team members back
to you as an ownership leadership team so that there
is more a communication that happens. It's so difficult when
(26:58):
the only time that there's feedback given to an employee
is when there's an issue that's one of the most difficult.
And so another way to do it as well, to
lift up is the morning huddle. If you're not doing
a morning huddle that talks about two things. One the numbers,
of course, what's your goal, what's your number to goal,
(27:19):
where are we at? And what is on scheduled treatment.
That's one side. The other side is what I call
the human side, and having some type of human side
and for a lot of clinicians. Right, the human side
is the most difficult side. The great thing is you
don't have to lead that part of it. But I
guarantee in every single practice there is somebody who is
(27:39):
really high in empathy in your practice. Like we talked
about before, how there's always people who can specialize and
lead certain aspects of your business. Let the person who's
really good in empathy lead that part of your morning huddle.
Doesn't mean your morning huddles have to be a half
hour long. It's just simple touch points. But it's just
like if you're going to go to the gym and
(28:00):
you're going to work a muscle. It's a muscle that
has to be worked, and that's what's critically important. That's
the check in. That's where you get to catch and
know if somebody comes in and they're not their regular
selves at a morning huddle, you would be able to
catch that and be able to support that and uplift
that so it doesn't seep into the entire office for
(28:21):
the whole day, affect the patient experience, affect your case acceptance,
and infect the entire culture for the day at the practice,
and that individual can feel supported throughout the day So
these are the pieces that really lead into what you
ask in the beginning of how do you avoid micromanaging
or have those little blow ups many blow ups and
then have staff members who just aren't satisfied or fear
(28:45):
of holding accountable because those things can be caught so
early on, at the very beginning of the day. And
then also through regular check ins through a mechanism of
feedback loop both ways.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Wow, well said man, that's great. All right. So two
final questions. So somebody's listening to this, and now you
want them to do one thing after listening to this
podcast because they understand there's a problem. What's one thing
that a practice posician should do right after this in
order to get themselves out of the mud?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I mean, I would say first and foremost is sit
down with whoever you consider your leader or leaders within
your group and do a fair assessment of self. Right,
so it starts with yourself, whoever is listening to this,
and then sit down with your leadership team and ask,
what's one thing that we need to do better and
how do we accomplish that in the next week.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
There's a great book called Atomic Habits. I read it
about three four years ago when it first came out.
Then my daughter in law gave it to me for
Christmas this year and didn't know that I'd already read it.
One of the core principles there is one percent better
every day. You don't have to change everything all at once,
but sitting down with leadership and say, what is the
one big thing that we are challenged with, and what's
(30:00):
one small change that we can make today, Whether it's
anything that I've talked about here right, the huddle, listening
to phone calls, whatever that looks like. And then it
doesn't mean that you have to rip off the band
aid and change everything, but it's just one small thing.
What's one small change that you can make to get
a little bit better. You'll know it right away, it'll
be glaringly obvious. And then if you need help, reach
(30:22):
out to somebody who can specialize in whatever that is.
If you haven't done any assessments with any of your
team members in years and years, take a look at
what does that look like to start there, and maybe
you wind it back and say, okay, what does it
look like to actually do a morning huddle, and maybe
you just start with that. Get feedback from the team
(30:43):
what does it look like if we do more cases,
what would it look like. I mean, there's so many
areas that we've talked about here today, Dan, in a
very short period of time. I've thrown a lot at you. Right,
There's really high level stuff and a lot of different categories.
But this is what we really work with with our
clients to help them to get better, faster and stronger,
to be more competitive in the marketplace. And these are
(31:04):
the areas that we touch on. So that would be
the one thing that I would say, you know, turn
that mirror around and say what what can we do better?
What's the air, what's the areas? And what's really the
one thing that we can work on today?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yep, well said man. You know you're better, stronger, faster,
the bionic man. You want to be better? You know,
six million dollars to buy you much of these days,
but back in the day it did. And I'm thinking
myselfie obviously and people to get it.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
But I know the reference, all right.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
So I have two final questions now. One is I'm
going to give you an opportunity to have lunch with
anybody in history. What are you sitting done with? Oh?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Have lunch with anyone in history. That's a really good question.
So many popped into my mind all at once. I
would probably want to have lunch with Maya Angelou her
I love, I love, and I'm I'm gonna paraphrase because
I won't get it right exactly. But she said, people
(32:04):
will forget what you say, people will forget what you did,
but they will never forget the way you made them feel.
And it harkens back to the question that you said,
you know, when you were talking about staff and challenges
with staff and holding accountable. It's not so much the words,
and it is a little bit the actions, but it's
really the way that you show up. And if you
(32:26):
really want to make connection with your team members and
create that authentic connection, is showing up authentically and that's
really all it takes. And it requires being a little
bit vulnerable and admitting when you make a mistake. And
we're all human, We're all going to make mistakes, and
mistakes are just learning opportunities that we haven't learned from
yet and it's okay, So yeah, that would be the
(32:46):
person that comes to mind for me.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
A right good I ever heard that? One's good? Great
response and Lastly, also, now I've got a lot of
powers in my hand besides this lunch thing. And also
I'm giving your the ability to put up a billboard.
I'm square. What's to say?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Love more?
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Nice?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
There you go, we can use the more love in
the world.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Good love it great, great, thanks so much for joining me.
I appreciate it. Guys, such insight here. Obviously, you know
you need this. It's very rare. I think the practices
all day long. I can count let it on one finger.
In the last month, how many people actually had this
in place? Okay, you need this. You know you have
to take a step back. Look at your health of
your business, look at how your processes are being run.
(33:30):
This is not twenty twenty, twenty fifteen or twenty before.
This is twenty twenty five. Things have changed. You have
to adapt. And you said it, you know, grow or die,
adapt or die. You have to adapt and you have
to learn. So be open. Great. If somebody wants more information,
what's the best way to talk to you and reach
out to you.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, best way is to find me on my website.
There's tons of free information on there, just on patient experience,
case acceptance. That's applicable to all auxiliary services and it's
dental consult the number four the letter you dot com.
That's the easiest way.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Consult for you dot com. Greg, thanks so much for
joining and appreciate reading Podcast LAMB. Thanks so much for listening.
Once again, we spoke. We had a lot of different
variables here and again. If you are an Eagles fan, congrats.
If you were a Jets are any other fan. Next
year is the year I could feel it. Listen to
this podcast guys, think and act. That's a great Thanks
(34:29):
so much everybody in Podcast LAMB. Thanks so much for listening.
Be safe, be happy, love and smile. Bye bye, everybody.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Worth of Marketing dot com three hundred and sixty degree
digital marketing solutions for your practice.
Hi, I'm Greg Asenmacher, CEO and founder of GNA Consult.
On today's podcast, you're going to learn about team development
and how that can influence patient experience ultimate leading to
case acceptance. One thing that you can do and learn
from this podcast today is what you can do immediately
in order to improve one percent better today. I hope
(00:21):
you enjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Orthomarketing dot com three hundred and sixty degree digital marketing
solutions for your practice.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Well, hello everybody out there on podcast land. It's Dean Steinmann.
I guess what. We are back with another podcast for you,
and I hope everybody is down from the super Bowl.
If you're from the Philly area, you guys must be
all stoked. If you're a Chiefs fan, kind of stinks,
(00:58):
but that's what you guys done for everybody else out there,
So hopefully enjoyed it. In someday when the Jets win,
as you know, I'll be a happy camper. But until
that day, I hope it comes. We have to just
show to close the book and say wait till next year.
So with that said, it's now mid February and the
Miller Winterer, So now we're going to talk a little
(01:18):
bit about some important things in the office. Most impointly,
it's about your staff, guys, and I have with me
as well, we as VIP guests, and I'm real stoked
to have with me today Greg Assenmacher. Greg is a
founder and CEO of j and a consult and we
had to talk about your staff and you're getting your
team accountable and getting them on board. So Greg, welcome man.
(01:41):
How are you today?
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm great, and I love that you're talking about your jets.
It's all I have to say is that at least
you have one of the Super Bowls. And you've been
there being a Lions fan of fifty three years. We
don't even know what a super Bowl is. You know,
a bowl is something you eat chips out of and
you know they're super so hey, at least you have one.
It's been a while, but you have one. So hang
your hat on that and enjoy that from what was
(02:04):
that fifty five fifty six years ago? But at least
you have you have one.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
I got one one. Unfortunately I was too young to
enjoy it. But I've been, you know, muddling through and
painful ever since. But you know, besides you know, only
people that could really get my pain as a Lion
fan or a Browns fan, you know.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
So I mean, just like just like with the practices
that we work with and everyone who's listening to this
right just as football is, and it takes all fifty
three men on the roster plus some of the practice
squad plus you know, as the Lions did this year,
they had to pull people off the street and then
put them in and plug them in with everybody on
IR it's the same and all of those dental practices
(02:45):
that you're working in and all of your listeners are
working in. It takes everybody playing a role, and not
everybody's the quarterback, and not everybody's a wide receiver, and
not everybody plays defensive back. Everybody plays their role to
be able to uplift and be able to create a
great team. So I'm excited to talk about that today
with you.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Excellent segue man, excellent, you know, perfect right in. So
let's jump into that. Okay, So the doctor is what
would you say, he's the GM? Is the owner of
the team? Is the head coach? How would you categorize
the typical fental practice?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Well, I mean, you know it really depends on the
practice itself, right. So I mean some might be the
Jerry Jones, right, who's the owner and the general manager
and the you know, the president of player personnel and
and and but if it's a larger organization where it
might have you know, the doctor owner and then two
or three associates and they're you know, ten twelve operatories
(03:42):
and they have three or four auxiliary services. Right, So
clear liners are ortho and they're doing direct to consumer
marketing plus other auxiliary services full larch and sleep and
all of the others. He might be more of a
general manager, right, and maybe not doing you know, wet
handed dentistry, you know, twenty days a week or twenty
days a month, if you will. So it really depends
(04:03):
on the practices, and we work with all different kinds.
And then there's group practices too, where some are literally
in the C suite where they're literally just managing the
business and not necessarily in the business, but they work
on the business. So it's a great question, right, And
so for anyone who's listening, it really is appropriate to
talk about what we talk about and what we do,
(04:23):
which is all about the patient experience. And that's where
case acceptance really lies. And behind that is the team
development and growing your team in a very concerted way.
And I'm excited to talk about that here today because
that is foundationally. If you're doing any kind of direct
to consumer marketing, anyone listening to me, please hear this.
(04:43):
If you're doing direct to consumer marketing, which means you're
going out into the public and saying we do this
particular treatment, we do this service so ortho. Right, if
we're going to try to attract patients for a particular service,
it's so much different than if they're coming through your
high gene program, through the hygiene program. There's a little
bit of trust built up. You know, if Betty's been
(05:04):
coming in for three five years and finally it's time
to do player liners or some type of orthotherapy or
fill in the blank, that's a little different because they
trust your practice. They've been coming in time and time
and time again. They know some of the players. Even
if a few of the players have been switched out
because they've been traded, or they you know, were on
free agency and you brought them in because you think
you can make a run for the Super Bowl, Right,
(05:25):
that's a little different. If you're doing that direct to
consumer marketing and you're spending money specific to bring in
from the public, there is zero trust built in with
that patient or prospect because they're not even a patient yet.
To try to get them to do some particular procedure
with you, that takes everyone on the team being on
the same page, using the same language, having a consistent message,
(05:48):
and understanding what differentiates you in what you're trying to
attract them for from the guy or gal or big
box store right the DSOs down the street. What do
you do better, and there's always something that you do better,
and honing in on that message and making sure everybody
on the team, from the doctor to the assistant, to
the front desk to the janitor, everybody knows what that is.
(06:12):
So there's alignment. And that's so critically important, Dean, that
we find with our clients that are more successful, they've
got that messaging down and it's not just something stuck
up on a wall, but it's something they're living and
breathing every day.
Speaker 3 (06:25):
Perfect. You have to have a game plan, you have
to have a strategy, you have to have this. I
always tell the people you can't when you put on
liners in You can't go from trade one to Trade seven,
to Trade three to Trade twelve. You have to have
the right program in place. And you know this is
you know, just more important is to have your foundation. So,
you know, Greg, let's take one step back before we
even do that, Let's tell you a story. Tell us
(06:47):
who is Rayhosbacker. What is it that you do?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, I appreciate that. So I've been in the industry
for eighteen years and I've worked really for two major companies,
right so, one of them Strawman Group, and they have
clear liners that big part of their gamer at least
for the last decade, if you will, since they did
purchase you know, everybody knows who they purchased, and they
really started lifting up that brand. But what really I
have learned over the years and now three three and
(07:12):
a half years ago launched G and A consult and
it really is to help anyone who's doing their type
of auxiliary service. And we happen to specialize in one
particular niche anyone who's doing direct to consumer marketing. It's
really every touch point of that patient journey and consistency
in that messaging that I talked about. Dean because it's
not just the digital marketing. If you call it a
(07:35):
clear aligner, everybody should be calling it a clear aligner.
If you brand it like in Visiligne, then everybody calls
it in Visiligne because something that we've found and we
know because research has been done on this, like a
lot of money, six digits have been spent with consulting groups,
bigger ones than ours of course on this particular point,
and that is that if there's inconsistency and messaging from
(07:58):
the digital right, so that would be the advertisement, website,
things of that nature out there in the ether for
the public to consume, to the messaging from the first contact,
that initial inquiry phone call, whatever the case may be,
front desk, and then the in person engagement, front desk,
dental assistance, clinicians, all the way through. If there's inconsistency
(08:19):
of what you're calling any piece of it, right, so
as the example, clear aligner, you know you're calling it brackets?
Are you calling it by the brand name you know
in visialigne, clear correct, go right down the list. If
there's any inconsistency in that. When it comes time for
closing the case, right, presenting the dollars the dollars and cents.
(08:40):
There's a subconscious for those patients, the motivation behind it.
They don't exactly know why sometimes because the why is
the motivation, what's the product? You've got to deliver a
good product? Like you said, you can't go from trade
one to seven to three to eight because that just
doesn't work clinically. But the motivation of that patient, they
they don't know why necessarily, but they can't get to
(09:03):
a yes because that inconsistency and messaging is called a
microfracture of trust. And again this is the direct to
consumer lane because they don't know you from the practice
down the street. They answered, and ad they thought, let
me give it a shot. I've wanted to do this
for a while, but let me see if I can
trust practice XYZ to do this for me. So you've
(09:23):
drawn them in somehow, You've gained the interest. Now they're
determining with their spidery ears all along the way, can
I trust them to actually do it? Will they deliver
on what they're asking for from me? And is everybody
involved going to be able to deliver them on their
clinical acumen? And for me parting with my money to
deliver on the outcome that I'm looking for, and that's
(09:45):
what we really find to be true with all of
our clients. That's what's critically important, So consistency and the messaging,
and that just requires training, training, and then on the
deliverables internally to hold people accountable to that. It's that
none of these pieces are extremely difficult or the big
pieces that help the uplift and case acceptance. It's a
(10:06):
bunch of little pieces along the way that we find
and have found with clients that make the big difference.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
How does a practice see the forest through the trees?
Because most practices have been doing this practice doing this
for five, ten, fifteen, twenty plus years. They don't realize
it's broken. They don't realize that there's no process in place.
So how do they what's the first aha moment that
a doctor will have to say, WHOA, I need a process?
(10:34):
And then how do they realize okay, what's broken and
how to fix it?
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah? I mean foundationally, it really has to do with
the metrics. And I don't want to, you know, get
bogged down and say, well, if you don't know what
your metrics and measurables are, because that that can get
a little foggy in that usually comes a little bit
further in the process. The first is do you know
what your conversion is for what you're spending right in
that marketing? Right? That's your lane, right, Like, how much
(11:01):
are you spending on marketing? And what's your conversion rate
on those cases?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Right?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
If you're going to start talking about, oh, the leads
are bad, well, sure, like some of them aren't necessarily
going to be through, just like in your your email inbox,
some of it's junk mail. Let's just be honest, right,
they get a hold of your email address and some
of it comes through, and you're going to get some spam.
That's going to happen when you're out there doing direct
to consumer marketing. But it can't be that all the
leads are bad and some of marketing companies are better
(11:28):
than others. Let's just call it what it is, right,
But if all of them are bad, you have to
start taking a look in the mirror and saying, how
is my team handling some of these calls that are
coming in? So really it's transparency. So the first question
that I like to ask clinicians is tell me the
last time that you listen to a phone call of
(11:49):
an incoming call from a prospect, a perspective patient for
this auxiliary service that you do. Right, so for aligner therapy,
right for orthotherapy, have you actually listened to a call?
And if it's it's not you, then has your office
manager or whoever is responsible for those that are taking
those initial calls for the money that you're spending. Just
the awareness piece, and even as the owner and founder,
(12:12):
it doesn't mean you have to filter through all the calls.
But there are so many great programs out there, and
I don't have to go down the list, whether you
know it's Weave or Mango or next Health or we
can go right down the list where they can be
downloaded and it can be the first five to ten
minutes of your drive home where they can be downloaded
for you and you can listen to them on your
drive home. The awareness piece is so critically important to
(12:35):
know what is happening if a patient calls your office
or a prospect because they're not a patient yet in
your practice. Just having that awareness what is happening, what
is their engagement like on that initial inquiry, And that's
really where it can start before you get into the metrics,
before you get into how are you converting before, it's
(12:55):
holding marketing companies accountable before before all of that happens,
which is what we help clients to do. It's awareness.
And I know doctors are busy, right, I know you're busy.
You're trying to deliver clinical excellence. You're dealing with staff members,
you know that have sick dogs and sick children, and
you know, but you have to start somewhere. And starting
(13:17):
with the awareness piece is what we find is some
of the most eye opening. And then it's the decision
do you want to do something or not? And that's
what we find.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
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(14:20):
practice success. Worth of Marketing it's not just our name,
it's what we do.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
So now the checked off. Okay, there's a problem and
I'm aware of it. Now the next step is to
get your team involved. And so many practices have just
a very difficult time or process getting the team involved.
Why would they care? You know? And sometimes they put
the money out there they don't care, or they were
for this or this. So what would you suggest would
(14:50):
be the best way to build up some sort of
you know culture where everybody is responsible to make sure
that the practice is successful.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
Well, I love what you just said there where everyone's responsible,
because if everybody's responsible, nobody's responsible. And so having individuals
responsible for a piece of a part of ultimately one
person's responsible for every step of right now, it's a
team sport. Like I said, but I can tell you
(15:22):
that you know, Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes were responsible
for throwing the football well most of the time. I mean,
every once in a while they'll have a trick play
thrown in and you know a running back or you
know a wide receiver will throw a pass. But the
vast majority, right, they're responsible for throwing the football, right,
Just like the vast majority of teams have one person
(15:43):
that's the punt receiver, right, or the kickoff receiver, or
have one person that kicks the field goals, one person
that you get my point, that specializes and it's so
important that one person is responsible for one thing. Now,
the team participates, of course, because you can't necessarily, let's
(16:04):
just say, kick a field goal unless you have the
other ten players.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
You have a long snapper, you have a holder, and
then you also have another eight guys on the line
blocking to make sure that somebody doesn't come running free
and blocks the kick. Right. So we know all that,
but there's one person who has primary responsibility for kicking
that pig skin up through the uprights and getting them
the three points when you're trying to make a field goal.
(16:27):
So this is what's critically important and so understanding that
someone has primary responsibility in it. So that's really where
it starts. And then the other point that I want
to make, and this is another area where I'm just
going to say it, and I hope I don't offend
too many people. But if I do, it's okay. Put
on your big boy and big girl pants. Because sometimes
I say things that are a little direct. I'm from Detroit.
(16:50):
Oftentimes it's let's throw money at the problem. They'll throw
money at it, meaning we'll give you a bonus per case,
or if we hit many cases, I'll give you this.
But it's directed at it's what do I think is
going to motivate my team in order to act in
a certain way, Rather than asking the team, what would
(17:13):
you like to do in order to get me to hear?
I want to get I'm here and I want to
get to there. How are you going to help me
get from here? If I get from here to there,
because that's my goal. If you all participate in this
to get from here to there, what would you like
to see as a reward? So often clinicians are afraid
(17:34):
to ask that question because they might think monetary reward. Well,
maybe what they want is they want a spa day
and you I want you to go with us so
that we can have you paint your nails, right, whatever
it is, but asking them to get the buy in, right,
which means as the owner, founder, CEO, regional, whatever it is,
(17:57):
depending on the size of the group, to be a
little vulnerable open to it. Doesn't mean you have to
agree to it, but at least getting the feedback and
if you need to do it anonymously because of the group,
whatever the case may be. It's getting the buy in
from the group of what would you like as a
reward system for what we're trying to accomplish. Because if
you're profitable in what you're doing in that auxiliary service
(18:18):
right in ortho, then you can certainly share a little
bit in the in the profits of that in a
proportional way. And that's what we do at Gena consult
as well. It's doctor owner right Dso leaders, if you
go from here to there, we know what your break
even point is. Everything above has a certain percentage on
top of that, what does that look like for you
(18:40):
and what are you comfortable sharing in And we don't
have to give all the details right to the team members.
But then what does that look like? And how do
we get active participation? And you mentioned the word culture, right,
that's developing a collaborative mindset, right, and from the clinician's
point of view or the owner's point of view, an
abundance mindset right, sharing the wealth, if you will. So
(19:01):
those are just some of the things that we work
with to be able to help break out of that frustration, right,
And that we've been doing this a long time, as
you framed it in the beginning, we've been doing this
a really long time and we just can't seem to
or it's not like it used to be or fill
in the blank, and how to break through the glass ceiling.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
So the biggest problem with every practice and the biggest
fear everybody has is change, all right, So how do
you get so you need mentioned before a great analogy.
If you don't have the right quarterback and the right receiver,
the right running back and the right blockers, you don't
have the right play. What if one or two people
just don't get on board, you know, but they've been
there for twenty years, how do you get them to
(19:43):
get on board?
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (19:44):
So busy already. I can't take on more, you know,
I'm so busy, I can't do this. Or I don't
want to learn something now, I don't want to know
the software they have to adapt. So what bit of
advice will to tell somebody who has somebody there for
twenty years. A person doesn't want to get on, but
they got no choice. But they're also going to be
afraid to lose that person. So what do you do?
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Yeah, it's it's a big challenge, right, and it and
it requires well there's two comments that I'll have to
that and I appreciate you bringing that forward because it
is difficult. Right. The first is that concept of living
from a place of fear. I'm afraid what will happen
if I ask somebody to make this change. Any clinicians
(20:25):
that are owning, managing practicing from a place of fear,
you've already lost that battle. And if you continue from
that place of fear, growth is going to be extremely difficult.
It just will be. This is this is known. I
have a lot of friends in the industry that we
work on this with clinicians as well. It's a it's
(20:45):
a tough spot. Do I know that it is challenging
in the market right now with good staff members. Yes,
I also know a lot of really good clinicians who
have fidelity that is amazing, but changes in evitable, so
change management. It's not it's not easy by any stretch
of the imagination, but is doable. The other piece that
(21:06):
I'll share with you, Dean, is there are some and
a great friend of mine, Chelsea Meyers, She's an amazing
human being. Her analogy that she uses and I love
analogies because this is what I remember. I remember through
stories more than I do through statistics or just you know,
someone like me just going on and on and on
and rattling on and on right And it is just
this that there are some people that do not choose
(21:28):
to change. It's almost as if they're in a deep
sleep and they you don't somebody who's in a deep sleep,
you just you don't wake them up. It's not good
for them, and they choose not to doesn't mean that
they're a bad person, but also there's going to be
a better fit for them somewhere else. And it sounds
crass and it sounds harsh, but the fact of the
(21:48):
matter is if the entire the entire practice is moving
in another direction. That person is no longer going to
fit into the direction of that group anymore. And that's
just the truth. So you know, EOS talks about right person, right, See,
perhaps it's not in that. You know, at GNA consult
we call it a micro team when they're talking about
(22:10):
you know, full arch that's my area of specialty. You know,
there's a micro team that works on and builds and
grow the full arch within an entire practice, right as
that auxiliary service. And if there is ortho within you know,
an entire practice, and that is you know, a specialty
within a GP practice. Not everybody necessarily is working on that.
They can certainly work within it if you will. And
(22:33):
that's another piece. Perhaps there's another role for them if
the organization is large enough. And that's just that's the
nature of the beast. And I've seen it happen over
and over where people are grateful afterward to say I
didn't know how to leave after twenty years, right, So
transitioning them into something else, whether within the organization or
(22:54):
outside of the organization. And again, I know it sounds
relatively harsh, but the fact of the matter is for
the owners and clinicians, it's grower die. It's a super
competitive market. And if they've spent you know in your
comments there, you know, five, ten, fifteen years, and they
see all the competition coming in and they see that
(23:17):
it's grower die and this is an area to be
able to build and grow their practice or their group. Necessarily,
it has to change. It has to evolve to meet
the marketplace and meet the patients where they're at of
what they're looking for. So evolving and growing, and I
just think that's critically important to be mindful of and
not be afraid of that, or to be person dependent.
(23:41):
And that's why you've heard me talk a lot about
processes and talk about how to put formulas together. So
it's not a human dependent but it's a process dependent
actions that you put into place in order to be
able to, you know, to work through some of those
challenges and to get help where needed. Because not everybody's
a natural people leader. And that's okay too.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Most aren't, you know, most are, and this is great
leaders out there and the great business people, but a
lot of them are you know, are experts in getting
teeth straight and getting teeth weight or getting teeth cleaner,
you know, overall health and then not experts on that.
So with that said, what's one thing that somebody could
do in order to keep people accountable and you know,
without micromanaging. What do they need to micromanagers or you know,
(24:25):
a certain checklist people have to respond because lest you
want to do is you do this? You don't want digits.
I always say to my company, I don't want digits.
I want to do it. You know, so did you
do this? Did you do this? Well? How would somebody
so give them one bit of advice? What's something that
they could do in order to have accountability to show
people doing it, but also not just say yeah, I
did it, check off and it wasn't done. So what's
(24:46):
one bit of advice they could do?
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, And it's it's one of the most critical piece
of advice. When we take a new client on. It
really starts with setting the expectation from the very beginning.
So it's not just here's a job description, here's we
want you to do, and here's the checklist of your actions. Right,
here's what you need to do. You need to do ABCD.
This is how you're opening duties, this is your closing duties.
(25:09):
This is what we need you to do for your
roles and responsibilities. Sure, that needs to be clearly spelled
out and it needs to be accurate and updated at
all times. But it's also one of the big misses
that happens is the annual reviews if they're being done
at all. There should be regular check ins on performance
(25:30):
and it should be two ways, right, So what is
the expectation of the owner for the employees and then
what are the expectations of the employee of the owner
of the company that they're working for. If there's open
dialogue and it's regular throughout the course of the year
at least once a quarter, then those expectations. It doesn't
(25:51):
have to be a checklist micromanaging. It's a regular cadence
and that's what we help to establish with our clients.
And it doesn't have to be The great thing is
it doesn't have to be the owner and it doesn't
have to be you know, it can be delegated to
office manager or other. But there are tremendous resources that
are available, like through different companies, through different HR companies.
(26:13):
HR for Health comes to mind, for one. It's a
great partner of ours at g Anda, consul and others,
because it all formulates for you and you can determine
what's most critically important, specialize in what you specialize in.
You didn't go to a dental school for all of
the HR things right and HR specialist, God bless them
all in the world. But being able to leverage a
(26:34):
partner that can help you with those things is such
a very small investment in order to help with the
people management side, so you don't have to micromanage, and
it gives a feedback loop for your team members back
to you as an ownership leadership team so that there
is more a communication that happens. It's so difficult when
(26:58):
the only time that there's feedback given to an employee
is when there's an issue that's one of the most difficult.
And so another way to do it as well, to
lift up is the morning huddle. If you're not doing
a morning huddle that talks about two things. One the numbers,
of course, what's your goal, what's your number to goal,
(27:19):
where are we at? And what is on scheduled treatment.
That's one side. The other side is what I call
the human side, and having some type of human side
and for a lot of clinicians. Right, the human side
is the most difficult side. The great thing is you
don't have to lead that part of it. But I
guarantee in every single practice there is somebody who is
(27:39):
really high in empathy in your practice. Like we talked
about before, how there's always people who can specialize and
lead certain aspects of your business. Let the person who's
really good in empathy lead that part of your morning huddle.
Doesn't mean your morning huddles have to be a half
hour long. It's just simple touch points. But it's just
like if you're going to go to the gym and
(28:00):
you're going to work a muscle. It's a muscle that
has to be worked, and that's what's critically important. That's
the check in. That's where you get to catch and
know if somebody comes in and they're not their regular
selves at a morning huddle, you would be able to
catch that and be able to support that and uplift
that so it doesn't seep into the entire office for
(28:21):
the whole day, affect the patient experience, affect your case acceptance,
and infect the entire culture for the day at the practice,
and that individual can feel supported throughout the day So
these are the pieces that really lead into what you
ask in the beginning of how do you avoid micromanaging
or have those little blow ups many blow ups and
then have staff members who just aren't satisfied or fear
(28:45):
of holding accountable because those things can be caught so
early on, at the very beginning of the day. And
then also through regular check ins through a mechanism of
feedback loop both ways.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Wow, well said man, that's great. All right. So two
final questions. So somebody's listening to this, and now you
want them to do one thing after listening to this
podcast because they understand there's a problem. What's one thing
that a practice posician should do right after this in
order to get themselves out of the mud?
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I mean, I would say first and foremost is sit
down with whoever you consider your leader or leaders within
your group and do a fair assessment of self. Right,
so it starts with yourself, whoever is listening to this,
and then sit down with your leadership team and ask,
what's one thing that we need to do better and
how do we accomplish that in the next week.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
There's a great book called Atomic Habits. I read it
about three four years ago when it first came out.
Then my daughter in law gave it to me for
Christmas this year and didn't know that I'd already read it.
One of the core principles there is one percent better
every day. You don't have to change everything all at once,
but sitting down with leadership and say, what is the
one big thing that we are challenged with, and what's
(30:00):
one small change that we can make today, Whether it's
anything that I've talked about here right, the huddle, listening
to phone calls, whatever that looks like. And then it
doesn't mean that you have to rip off the band
aid and change everything, but it's just one small thing.
What's one small change that you can make to get
a little bit better. You'll know it right away, it'll
be glaringly obvious. And then if you need help, reach
(30:22):
out to somebody who can specialize in whatever that is.
If you haven't done any assessments with any of your
team members in years and years, take a look at
what does that look like to start there, and maybe
you wind it back and say, okay, what does it
look like to actually do a morning huddle, and maybe
you just start with that. Get feedback from the team
(30:43):
what does it look like if we do more cases,
what would it look like. I mean, there's so many
areas that we've talked about here today, Dan, in a
very short period of time. I've thrown a lot at you. Right,
There's really high level stuff and a lot of different categories.
But this is what we really work with with our
clients to help them to get better, faster and stronger,
to be more competitive in the marketplace. And these are
(31:04):
the areas that we touch on. So that would be
the one thing that I would say, you know, turn
that mirror around and say what what can we do better?
What's the air, what's the areas? And what's really the
one thing that we can work on today?
Speaker 3 (31:14):
Yep, well said man. You know you're better, stronger, faster,
the bionic man. You want to be better? You know,
six million dollars to buy you much of these days,
but back in the day it did. And I'm thinking
myselfie obviously and people to get it.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
But I know the reference, all right.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
So I have two final questions now. One is I'm
going to give you an opportunity to have lunch with
anybody in history. What are you sitting done with? Oh?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
Have lunch with anyone in history. That's a really good question.
So many popped into my mind all at once. I
would probably want to have lunch with Maya Angelou her
I love, I love, and I'm I'm gonna paraphrase because
I won't get it right exactly. But she said, people
(32:04):
will forget what you say, people will forget what you did,
but they will never forget the way you made them feel.
And it harkens back to the question that you said,
you know, when you were talking about staff and challenges
with staff and holding accountable. It's not so much the words,
and it is a little bit the actions, but it's
really the way that you show up. And if you
(32:26):
really want to make connection with your team members and
create that authentic connection, is showing up authentically and that's
really all it takes. And it requires being a little
bit vulnerable and admitting when you make a mistake. And
we're all human, We're all going to make mistakes, and
mistakes are just learning opportunities that we haven't learned from
yet and it's okay, So yeah, that would be the
(32:46):
person that comes to mind for me.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
A right good I ever heard that? One's good? Great
response and Lastly, also, now I've got a lot of
powers in my hand besides this lunch thing. And also
I'm giving your the ability to put up a billboard.
I'm square. What's to say?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
Love more?
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Nice?
Speaker 1 (33:06):
There you go, we can use the more love in
the world.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
Good love it great, great, thanks so much for joining me.
I appreciate it. Guys, such insight here. Obviously, you know
you need this. It's very rare. I think the practices
all day long. I can count let it on one finger.
In the last month, how many people actually had this
in place? Okay, you need this. You know you have
to take a step back. Look at your health of
your business, look at how your processes are being run.
(33:30):
This is not twenty twenty, twenty fifteen or twenty before.
This is twenty twenty five. Things have changed. You have
to adapt. And you said it, you know, grow or die,
adapt or die. You have to adapt and you have
to learn. So be open. Great. If somebody wants more information,
what's the best way to talk to you and reach
out to you.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Yeah, best way is to find me on my website.
There's tons of free information on there, just on patient experience,
case acceptance. That's applicable to all auxiliary services and it's
dental consult the number four the letter you dot com.
That's the easiest way.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
Consult for you dot com. Greg, thanks so much for
joining and appreciate reading Podcast LAMB. Thanks so much for listening.
Once again, we spoke. We had a lot of different
variables here and again. If you are an Eagles fan, congrats.
If you were a Jets are any other fan. Next
year is the year I could feel it. Listen to
this podcast guys, think and act. That's a great Thanks
(34:29):
so much everybody in Podcast LAMB. Thanks so much for listening.
Be safe, be happy, love and smile. Bye bye, everybody.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Worth of Marketing dot com three hundred and sixty degree
digital marketing solutions for your practice.
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