How to Fill Your Schedule Without a Single New Patient w/ Dr. Spencer Greer

What does it take to be a better producer? For Dr. Spencer Greer, it's not about chasing new patients or pushing treatment.

In this episode, he shares the exact language he uses to present treatment without sounding greedy, losing trust, or pressuring anyone into a "yes." You'll learn where most dentists drop the ball on case acceptance and the traits that turn a surprising hire into a top producer.

The best part: the growth you're after is already sitting in your schedule.

Topics discussed:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:03) From salesman to dentist

(04:04) Building your career with intention

(06:56) Why he hands all production to associates

(09:25) The benefit to hiring new associates right out of school

(15:30) Communication mistakes (+ how to fix them)

(18:46) Having hard conversations without sounding greedy

(21:28) Presenting it delicately, with a real example

(22:42) How to handle rejection

(24:57) More production without more patients

(30:48) Dash Production course

Use code PAUL for 10% off Dr. Spencer Greer’s Dash Production course! The course starts on July 17th, so sign up here today: https://highleveldentists.com/

This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.com

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Transcript

Why Patients Politely Say No

Paul Etchison 0:02

What if the way that you've been taught to talk about patients about the treatment that they need is actually costing you filled schedules, profitability, and deep down patient trust? Especially in those situations when the treatment doesn't hurt or the patient didn't know that it was there. You're getting ready for them to politely say no by going to your front desk and saying, I have to check my schedule and I will let you know. You see, most dentists think the answer is to explain more, educate harder, and try to convince the patient. But that is exactly where the problem starts. Now, in this episode, we're going to show you a better way to present treatment confidently, without pressure, without fear of rejection, and without needing a single new patient to see some pretty dramatic results. I'm so excited that today I'm joined by Dr. Spencer Greer. He's the owner of two practices in Washington State. He's a dental coach as well, and he is one of the most popular guests that we have ever had on the Dental Practice Heroes podcast. Spencer just has a gift for really communicating in a way that helps dentists communicate treatment to their patients clearly, confidently, and without making it feel pushy. So you don't need more new patients. You just need to work on the way you communicate what you see to your existing patients. And that is what we're going to dive into today. Now you're listening to the Dental Practice Heroes podcast, where we help dentists communicate with more confidence, build stronger practices, and create a practice that doesn't rely on them for every little thing. I'm your host, Dr. Paul Edison. I'm a practicing dentist, a two-time author, a dental business coach, and the owner of a multi-doctor dental practice in the south suburbs of Chicago. All right, this is a great topic today. This is going to be one that you're going to want to share with your colleagues. It is so good. Let's dive in. So, Spencer, uh, if the listeners don't know who you are, I mean, I think they should, but if for some reason they don't, give us a brief introduction of who you are, what you do, and talk about your, I guess your setup in the dental world. You got multiple practices. Give us a short synopsis of who is Dr. Spencer Greer.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

I feel like I'm a pretty simple dude in the dental world. I'm nothing special in comparison to anybody who's practicing around me. My dental skills are just fine. They do a good job. I haven't gotten specially trained in anything that I can market, say, hey, come to Dr. Greer. I just do a good job for my patients. I do a good job for my team. I own two practices in Washington state. And uh I started being a dentist quite a bit later than the average. I was 33 when I graduated. Um, so I had a lot of just different experience beforehand that took me on an atypical route to becoming a dentist. As you and I have talked about before at length, I was a door-to-door salesman for several years, funded my college education through doing that. I had two kids already when I started dental school. I was actually in the dental chair when I

Meet Dr Spencer Greer

SPEAKER_00 2:55

realized, hey, shoot, I think I want to become a dentist. And that was two years after I graduated from college.

Paul Etchison 3:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

So I just kind of went with wherever the wind was taking me career-wise. I didn't really study up too much on where to live, what practice to go to. Then I became a partner with somebody, and then he said, should we start a second one? I said, Cool. I just kind of went with the wind. And that's a big regret that I have is not being really deliberate about where I want to go in the future. And that's a big thing of how I tell people, like, what do you want? Where do you want to be? What do you want dentistry to do for you? And then map things out. And uh I'm very fortunate of the path that I took. I wouldn't change it for anything. But I've got five kids. Uh, my oldest just graduated from high school. And now I'm moving on to the next phase of life, to where I have kids at home and kids outside of home. So looking forward to learning new lessons and challenges. And I've since transitioned to becoming a dental coach. I'm nowhere near uh the level that you are, Paul. But if people want kind of a beginner of how to become a better producer, that's what I focus on.

Paul Etchison 4:02

It's awesome, man. And I think for you and and what I've learned from you is you've got a really awesome way of presenting a treatment. You know, like you're not scared to take the shot, so to speak. And that's what I want to talk about today. But before we jump into that, I'd love to hear about if you could elaborate more on like what not being intentional about where you were going and what kind of troubles that got you into, like why the why the regret there?

SPEAKER_00 4:30

I don't know if I can call it regret, but it is something that I wish I would have been able to do better. Regret shows what I decided to do among my options. What I'm saying is I didn't really know better. And it's just not a skill that I've had to really research or be deliberate about that kind of a thing. You know, it requires people with experience and a vision that they can mentor them through and just say, okay, you know, what do you want out of this? And it wasn't until I had one of my first coaches, Justin Short, where he really had me go through an exercise where I had to be very diligent in my journaling of writing these things out. And that was a struggle. It was not free-flowing off of my pen. So I think that's just a challenge that more people need to do, be more deliberate about that.

Paul Etchison 5:17

When you look at the practices that you have right now, the two practices, what do they fulfill for you in your life now? How do they fit there? Like if you said, what do you want of your practices? What is that? And are you getting it?

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Yeah, well, first off, my practices serve a lot of people. I'm super excited just to see when I'm pulling in and I see the parking lot just full of cars. I go, man, that's a lot of people giving me and my employees their trust. And that's very honoring. I want my good people who work with me and for me. I want them to be fed really well by my practices. I want them to be paid super well. If we do better, I feel like they should earn more. I want them to be respected by their coworkers, by their leaders, by their doctors. So

Regret And The Need For Intentionality

SPEAKER_00 6:05

it's just a great cycle that we all feed into my practice. And the practice continues to just fuel back at us. It's a beautiful cycle that I really try to harp on that we need to put into it if we're expecting out of it. And it definitely didn't start that way. I've been pondering a lot lately of just employees that I've lost in the past. And we talked about regrets early. I definitely have regrets here of just how I approach things, how I approach topics of like what we could afford or what our budgets were or just what I expected out of people. I really think that my retention is better now because of my experience and my vision of, hey, if something goes wrong, it's not really that huge of a deal. I can fix it. I know how to do better. I'm not going to be as drastic and dramatic about it anymore.

Paul Etchison 6:55

So tell the listeners, what is your role in your two practices? Is like because I mean, I what is this the structure look like? I mean, you have associates. How often are you practicing? How often are you in each practice? What does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 7:08

So you and I have a different setup to where you started off by saying, let's have an associate come in and work with me. And you could layer in those associates side by side with you. I started out differently. I'm not saying one is better than the other, but I think size had something to do with it. I didn't really feel like we could both fit into my practices together. So I just said, okay, um, watch me for a few weeks, and this is how I do things, and then I'll want you to take over for me. So I would just have them replicate how I did things, and then I stepped aside and I would help them with any overflow or mentoring. And I've really taken the back seat. And it wasn't due to a vision that I had, it wasn't due to laziness or just burnout. It was due to the fact of Simon Seneca that leader should eat last. And I just took that to heart. And I figured, if an associate wants to work for me, why would he want to work for me? He or she. Why would they want to work for me? And I feel like one of them is money. You would want to make as much money as possible. And so therefore, I had to take a backseat to production and I had to give I'm gonna say it all, because it would basically be all of the production on the of the practice on that associate. So I gave it to them and I said, here you go. Make as much money as you want. We'll keep calibrating and making sure that everything is nice and coordinated between how I've set things up and how you're doing things so that there's a consistent experience for both the patients and for the team. And so I don't

Building Two Practices Around Associates

SPEAKER_00 8:45

produce anymore, except for when my associates need coverage. And that could be whether they're on vacation or if they have a really big case and somebody needs to come in and take the flow of the practice with hygiene and lower dollar procedures. Oftentimes I'll go into the practice and I'll help them out with some crown seats, with some post ops, with some limited exams, or catch them up on recall so that they could just keep going. And yeah, I'm not making production money on those procedures, but I'm facilitating things for them to continue to just really appreciate working at that practice. Because as long as they win, I don't see why I would lose.

Paul Etchison 9:24

Now, you know, I I've had you, we've interviewed you a lot. You actually came and you were one of our guests in our mastermind in our growth VIP program that we have, which was such an awesome session. Everybody kept talking about how much they got out of that. One thing I remember you said is that you prefer associates that are fairly fresh out of school because you don't feel like, I don't know if I'm this is the right word, that they've been indoctrinated yet, or they just haven't gotten into bad habits. Talk about that. Like what have you seen that is more advantageous to your style of practice for your associates that they are pretty fresh and ready to learn?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah, so I've just got to be clear that I have a very low number of associates that I've ever hired. So I don't really have much to choose from, but I have had huge success with new grads. And so, therefore, with that success that I've had with them, I want to stay with what's worked. And just think of this, Paul. How many people talk about their mentors? And we look at it as if this mentor really knows a lot, really is sophisticated and masterful in what they're doing. But in reality, they're just a more experienced dentist. Instead of looking at like, whose life do I want to replicate, whose income, whose stress levels, whose like hobbies and lifestyle do I admire rather than, oh, this guy's been a dentist for 18 years and I admire that. I always joke about dental school professors and teachers, and how we always say, Well, my teacher in dental school taught me A, B, and C. Okay. Yeah, that guy's that or that gal has been a dentist for a long time, but what are they doing in their life to really want to resemble that for you? So going back to your question of new grads and not being indoctrinated, I just think that too many people learn their lessons from either

Hiring New Grads With Hunger

SPEAKER_00 11:25

their own experience, which is not much, but it's their own, or just from somebody who's not really the reputable person that we want to be gleaning too much from.

Paul Etchison 11:35

So, what do you think it is about these fresh new dentists? Like, what are the mindset things that you are trying to instill in them that perhaps maybe somebody with more experience in the dental industry, like has already maybe wouldn't be open to these ideas?

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah. I love this question because I think of both associates and owners with this question. Owners who are listening to you are basically your associates. They're they're asking Paul and his guests, like, teach me more, teach me how to do more and how to be better. So I think that this applies to everybody listening to you right now. I had one associate come to me and he just like, oh my gosh, Dr. Greer, while he was a student, he asked me this. I want everything that you're doing. I'm gonna put all my eggs into your basket. Please find the room and have me come be your associate. Paul, I wasn't even looking for an associate at the time, but how could I say no to what he just said? So I said, okay, let's go. We'll figure this out as we go. And he watched me for his whole first week. I did not give him any production to do, I didn't give him a daily guarantee because I said, I'm gonna teach you how to properly hunt here. And if you want to do that, then learn. And so he came in with both humility and hunger. He wanted to learn, but he wanted to do exactly how he saw me do things. That required both of those things. And then so I had another associate come in and he was very humble. Okay. And he just didn't have this fight or this tenacity in him. But I said, hey, doctor, I'm going to turn you into something that nobody else could do. You're going to triple the amount that you're going to make with me based off of what you would make anywhere else. He came in with that humility and he was able to adapt to a hunger to want more and to be mentored. And to this day, it's been three and four years with each of these associates, and they have just thrived. We have beautiful relationships. I just want them to keep winning. And I say, hey, if you want to own somewhere, great. I totally respect that. But if you want to maintain a great associate lifestyle, I don't think that you'll win anywhere else, anywhere close to what we're doing here. So I really think that those it comes down to those two things, Paul. Any dentist who wants more and to just do better, they have to both be hungry and want it, but they've got to be humble and just understand, like, okay, I don't know everything. I know that there's a lot of other people out there who I can learn from. Paul, I went to a CE course and I was taking out some lower teeth. Um, I went because I wanted to learn how to more predictably extract canines. I love extracting, but I like when I look at the canines, I say in Spanish, malditos colmillos, which means damn canines, right? Like in my head, every time I'm just like, oh, here we go. And so I remember going to this extraction course and I was extracting some, you know, 23 through 26. All of a sudden, this guy grabs my hand over the forcep, and I just kind of shake. I go, whoa, you know, I'm a dentist. I'm not used to anybody doing that to me. And he goes, check this out, do it this way. And, you know, my pride was shot, but then I had to realize, okay, I'm only used to doing extractions how I've done it. I've got to learn somehow from other people how to do this. Take that lesson to any aspect of being a dentist or being a dental business owner. And there's a lot that we can learn from so many people. And some of it might not jive with us. But if we just take bits and pieces from all those who are around us, we'll really see what jives well. And um we can, we can constantly grow in our 30s, 40s, 50s, and beyond. We can keep growing within our realm.

Paul Etchison 15:29

Now, when you bring on your associates, I'm curious: like, what is it that you are teaching them? I know it's a lot of its communication skills. And this is what I'd love to zero in on for our listeners is there's a lot in communication where we're just completely dropping the ball. I mean, we know dollars case acceptance average 30 to 35% that's abysmal, saying that, you know, one out of three things we treatment plan will typically get completed by the patient. And I just had an experience in my practice recently. I got called in, I had to cover hygiene, five chairs of hygiene for an associate. We had two associates missing. Nobody was going to be there to check the hygiene. And I saw a lot of things on a lot of patients that I was wondering why has not this been treatment planned? Why is this a watch? What are we waiting for here? And I think it's to some extent, it's very easy to take all the layouts. It's very easy to say, this tooth is missing a cusp. It's completely gone. We need to crown this tooth. But we're missing a lot of the opportunities that I think is not doing right by the patient because we're scared to present a problem that doesn't hurt. They can't see, and they may not know is in their mouth. So I love if you could speak on the gift that you've been able to provide to your associates in what I would say is communication and expressing that treatment plan to the patient in a way that is not judgmental. It causes them to see the need and doing it and the value, and it gets them to say yes, which is the right thing for the patient.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

In my experience, my associates were not a plug and play. I was definitely on site with them a lot.

The One Hard Conversation Approach

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Uh let's let's talk about one where he was with me as I was producing. I was constantly in the practice with him. And then the other one where I was not producing, I was still constantly in the practice with him. It took a lot of deliberate time to be present. And yes, a lot of time, I was just not busy because he was in there producing while I was just trying to figure out something to do on the computer or with a team. And you can only do so many things before you're just like twiddling your thumbs and thinking, what is there to do now? So, given how much time that I spent with them at the start is really big on how they were molded into what they're doing today. I know a lot of people meet with their associates once a week. Um, they go over cases. Mine was very top heavy. And then I was able to release them and kind of spot check. You know, when you spot probe, that's kind of how I would spot check their x-rays or their notes or their work. Just make sure that we were aligned. And even one time, four years after he graduated, I brought up a point with an x-ray to an associate and I said, Hey, you know I respect you. I respect everything that you do. You're a much better dentist than me. But since this practice is under my name, I do own a lot of the work that you do. So I need to go over something on an x-ray. I hope that you can understand this. So I had to approach it delicately because he's not brand new, but it allowed us to have a conversation about um a concern that I had about something to where we could progress from that moment on.

Paul Etchison 18:45

What would you say? I mean, to the associates that are typically under diagnosing, other under-treatment planning, like the people. How do we have a say patient's coming from a watch a dontist? New patient comes in, and now they were maybe were at their previous dentist six months to a year ago, and you're gonna tell them they need possibly five, you know, full crowns and maybe a few other things. You know, you're gonna more comprehensively treatment plan them. How do you or you help your associates to present that in a way that doesn't make it look like you are just out for money, you're just out for greed, when we know they can go for and they can go to any other dentist in town and probably find somebody that's gonna say, Oh my God, you don't need that. You don't need that. That guy's a hack.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

I've learned this quote a lot from Dr. Mark Costas, but he quotes Tim Ferris, in which he said, Our level of success is directly correlated with the amount of hard conversations that we have. And so I look at a comprehensive exam as the hard conversation. So let's have the one hard conversation now of everything and approach it delicately and empathetically. When I say delicately, it doesn't mean sheepishly, but just understanding out of empathy, hey, patient, you probably aren't gonna like what I'm about to say. Delicately in that way. Now, if we under treatment plan and we say, oh shoot, this person needs five crowns, I'm only going to talk about the worst two today. You're setting yourself up for another tough conversation in six, 12, or 18 months, in which you're gonna have to say, Hey, you have this craft tooth. And eventually, why would they maintain trust in you when you they just saw you, they just got the work done, and they're like, okay, another one? Why? And most people will say, sure, I guess, but other people will question you and say, Is this guy just looking for crowns every appointment? Therefore, if we just have that one hard conversation, everything else from there is, hey, all of your work looks looks really great. Or like I told you before, we still have these issues. That's not hard. That's not hard because you've already brought it up and they make their own decision and you put your hands in the air and you just say, I'm just telling you what I see. I'm here if you need me. Hopefully it doesn't get worse on you. So that's what I've taught my associates, and that's what I teach all of my uh coaching clients is just treat this as a hard conversation that you want to have once rather than multiple times.

Paul Etchison 21:21

How do you delicately have that conversation? I'm just curious if you can give me an example of somebody that would be surprised to hear that they need some work when the previous dentist had just watched everything. Because I think that this is something that happens very commonly when people acquire a practice. We have existing patients that have possibly a lot of things being watched. Or if somebody, maybe, maybe their existing dentist has sold their practice, they didn't like the new person, and they're looking for a new dentist, some older patients. How can we approach that?

SPEAKER_00 21:54

So hey, Paul, my patient, I really appreciate your trust in being here with me today. Going to tell you a few things that I see. And I know that it might not be easy for you to hear because you've been very regular with your cleanings, you've been diligent. I don't know why you haven't been diagnosed with these things before, but I'm going to show you what the most recent studies show is important and necessary in current dental treatment. So, like I said, this may seem like hard news for you to hear, but I won't be able to go to sleep tonight if I don't tell you everything. So it's up to you on how you want to approach it. I'm just going to tell you what I see, what your options are, and how I can help you. That's how I approach it, Paul. Easy enough. Easy enough. Short and simple and sweet. Yep. And we take rejection personally. And the faster you understand that they're not rejecting you, they're just rejecting the treatment. You got to look at it this way. What if they went to any other dentist and they said the exact same thing? Just approach it

Rejection Reset And Detaching Emotion

SPEAKER_00 22:55

so that you're not taking this as a personal thing. Like yesterday, I treatment planned four lower left crowns, all for various reasons, uh, including a fracture, a missing filling, and two uh food impaction sites. They were really bothersome to the patient. And then he asked me about veneers. And so then I treatment planned, I don't know, another 14 veneers. And he walked out, not scheduling any of them. It's okay. You know, he's he wanted some things as optional and he wanted some things as necessary. And he said no to all of them, to all 18 or whatever it was. And so I did not lose any, I didn't have any stress about it. I just moved on because you do what they need, you talk about what they need, and then it's ultimately up to them. If I would have dwelled on that, I would have missed more opportunities throughout the day. When I was a door-to-door salesman and somebody would slam the door and cuss at me and threaten to call the cops on me, that could really shake me and lower my performance over the next few doors, which could have made for a missed opportunity to make a sale and make some money. The faster you can reset and just say, hey, you know, they just don't like people coming to their door. That's fine. That's that person. I'm gonna go try to find somebody else to help. That reset that you can have and just understand that everything is a numbers game. And you're gonna just tell people what they need and leave it up to them and not make it personal, not make it an emotional.

Paul Etchison 24:25

I love that, man. And I think those are good, it's a good message, and it makes me think that I need to have a difficult conversation with some of my associates because man, I did see a lot. And I haven't gone through all these charts yet to see who what associate is not treatment planning it, but it's time for a recalibration in my practice because man, we're seeing a ton of new patients, and they really wish they wanted to see more new patients. But I'm telling you, it's there. The treatment is there. There is plenty to keep them busy. They're just completely missing it. They're only taking the layups. So I know I have to go and sit down with my associates and do a recalibration, but I can tell you from working with a lot of my coaching clients, it's all the same thing. We're all, we have this new patient obsession that we just need more new patients, more new patients. And I'd love if you could speak to the idea that maybe we don't need more new patients. Maybe we need to capitalize on the opportunities that are already there and put more energy into that. Because as far as I'm concerned, that's the more difficult path, but at the same time, can be the more simple path at the same time. So I'd love if you could talk to that.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

We all want what's the easiest road. And I think that the reason that a lot of associates or dissatisfied owners are having struggles with their production levels is they're just making each encounter with their patients too easy. Um, hey, let's talk about something uh very low production or low value, uh, the single crown or the couple fillings or just like just keeping them recalled. Whereas you can actually find uh more things to talk about. Isn't it okay to just mention ortho to everybody just so that they all have the option? Are we being pushy? Are we being, you know, are we putting pressure on them? No, you're just telling them what you are good at, what you can offer them, and you're saying, do you want it? Not in that way, but you understand. It's just showing the options. And so if we just look at each encounter or each patient as more comprehensive and just saying, I'm gonna have uh more difficult conversations about the full treatment, or I've got some elective things that I can talk about, veneers and ortho. I'm just gonna ask more people if they want it. Now, Paul, you've done a lot of veneers and you've done a lot of ortho. Not every single one of those patients came in saying, I want veneers, or I want ortho.

Stop Chasing New Patients

SPEAKER_00 26:50

But because you got good at it and experienced at it, you had an eye and you said, Hey, not sure if you've really ever considered doing something, but I see these gaps or I see these, you know, rotated teeth. I'm able to do something with these if that's ever bothered you. Not saying that it's bad, but let me just show you what I've done. People are not gonna get offended at that because you're just doing what you do. This is just how we look at things, and this is what we're offering. So getting a new patient is not the right metric to look at if our treatment planning number is super low. What we have to look at is our opportunity that's already in front of us without more marketing, without more equipment or training. It's just right there in front of us. And I can't tell you how many doctors have immediately been able to just bump their production immediately without investing into anything because it's all right there. Now, I understand that there are exceptions. There's places with terrible location that patients don't see. People have bad bosses and they're not giving them production to do. I get it. But let's just talk about majority situations here. We do have a lot more opportunity at our fingertips than we imagine to. And that's basically the fundamental truth of exactly what I teach people. And I teach them how to find those things that are right in front of them.

Paul Etchison 28:14

Yeah, I think that's amazing. And it's it's a conversation that is very uh very pertinent to me right now in my life, that I I something I'm planning on discussing with my my team and my associates right now because I saw it and I I know it's there. And I know we're all guilty of it. I remember, you know, coming back from a a full arch class and just sensing that my level of treatment planning was different coming back from that class than when I left. And, you know, you find what is works within you with what you feel like is ethical. But I think it's a struggle when we're sitting there watching crowns, when we're watching things that we know are going to break, they're showing evidence of dysfunction, and we're scared to talk about it. And I always say to my associates, if you don't take the shock here, if you don't discuss this, and this person comes back with a tooth that needs to be extracted, can you ethically look that person in the eye and say, we had no idea. There was no way to know. I mean, yeah, there was a big crack in it, and we saw really old amalgam, and you know, but you know, sometimes those last 30 years and you know, there's no way to know. But you really can't. So it's like comes back to doing the right thing for the patient. And I really think presenting it in a way that is non-confrontational. You mentioned the veneer thing. I could show somebody veneers and I could be like, hey, if that's ever something you want to interest in, talk about more, let me know. Or I could say, so do you think I could get you signed up for that? One is gonna feel very non-confrontational, and one's gonna feel very high pressure. And, you know, the one that I'm gonna go with is like, hey, if that's something you're interested in, just let me know. I can, we could talk more about it. It's very, very soft sell, but it's it's allows me to tell that to the patient and not not feel bad about it.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

You bet. I hope that everybody has an opportunity to look at their treatment planning numbers so that they can see how much did we treatment plan this past month? I mean, I treatment planned $30,000 on that one patient that I referenced earlier, and he said no to all of it. Hey, it's okay. But to use your verbiage, I shot my shot. And so the more I'm going to just be up front with what the options are, the more likely somebody will say yes to it. If you have good options for each person, then just talk about it and present it. And then if people are like, no, thanks, just move on and it's all good. I'm not saying that I need to drill on every tooth, but if I see an option that is going to benefit them in whatever way, cosmetically, functionally, for their overall health, I'm gonna talk about it. And that's okay.

Paul Etchison 30:46

So you've got this course that you've been doing. I mean, you do it over like two years now. I've sent associates to it. They loved it. Everyone I know has said great things about it. Tell the listeners about where they can find information about it and what it is, because it's coming up very soon.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

I've done my production dash several times. I do it about two or three times a year. And I never know which one is gonna be my last one because, like I said, I am super busy. I've got these practices, I still produce sometimes, and I've got five kids, and uh who knows what's next. But the reason that I'm doing one again is because too many people have gotten this benefit of just immediately increasing their production. And so what we focus on is what's untapped right in front of them. I show them how we have specific conversations with our patients in the simple version uh verbiage. We go over what we can do in one appointment or a few appointments rather than stretching it out so much and how to finance everything, just make it make sense. So, Paul, the funny thing is, is I gave somebody a quote of how to replace one tooth. And then I thought, holy cow, I'm telling dentists how to revolutionize their production for the rest of their careers for less than the price that we tell our patients how to replace just one tooth. It's crazy. It's insane. And so if people are hungry and humble, like I talked about before, then I can help them to absolutely blow their old

Production Dash Course And Discount

SPEAKER_00 32:20

production numbers out of the water. Now, Paul, I'm just like you. This isn't this isn't a difference maker in my life to uh mentor and coach other dentists, but I have seen how it is a difference maker to a lot of their lives. And so that's why we keep doing what we're doing. I've heard you recently say, like, this is your passion, is to help these dental owners just get after it, after their best selves. And this is how I've been able to help both associates and owners in this one focused area, just making sure that the hours that they are in the office make the most financial sense. Because when you're in the office, do you really want time to scroll for social media? Do you really want to be able to just like, oh, you know what? I've got a long lunch break today. I'm gonna go somewhere and just like, and then you come back and you're you're full and you're tired and the office is super slow and you're just thinking, oh, this afternoon's gonna be a drag. Or do you want your day to be busy? Do you want it to be just like full of energy and motion and momentum? And that's what I focus on. So it's a four-week course starting on July 17th, just on Friday afternoon. It's all via Zoom. And everybody is welcome to either come live or watch the recordings, and we go over how to just do better at your production. And I tell everybody if you don't get the value out of it, let me give you some more of my personal time so that you finally get more production and get your ROI on this thing. Because it just makes absolute sense. Now, some people will be producing 60K and they're just like, I think I'm good enough with that. Well, do you want it to be 100K and still work the same amount of hours? Or they're probably producing 180 and they're like, I'm good with what I'm doing. And I say, Do you want more? I can work with anybody, I can make anybody do more. So I'd love to help you out with your associates as well if you need any of their help. Yeah. But your listeners have a discount code that is Paul P A U L for 10% off of the course. And we are starting on July 17th. They can register at highleveldentists.com. I'd be happy to happy to have owners, associates, teams. It all works great.

Paul Etchison 34:46

Yeah, I love that. And I think it's when you've got that associate that says, hey, I've been here a long time. I'm wondering if I can get a percentage or two raise. It's like, here's your raise. Go find it. Do more. Go do it. You know, it's so I love it, man. All right. So, listeners, check that out. You might be in this course, you might see a few of my associates there, you know. I got a feeling that you're going to. All right. Thanks so much, Spencer. Go check that out, listeners, and listen to some of Spencer's previous episodes on here. Like I said, they were the most downloaded, and they weren't just because of the title. The retention on those episodes was astronomical. Like most of like 85, 90% of the people that listening getting through to the end of the episode, which is that you might not know how to base that, but I will tell you, for most podcasts, it's about 60%. Most people get through about 60%. So, Spencer, you you you kept them going. And I gotta, you know, I hope you keep that belt and that that metal for a long time. I have a feeling you will. Dude, thanks so much for coming on. Always good to connect. And I I look forward to seeing where where you go and the things that you continue to do for the dental industry.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

You're the man, Paul. See ya.

Paul Etchison 35:55

All right. So one of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that there is already plenty of dentistry sitting right in front of you, whether you believe it or not, it already exists. It's already at your practice. The question is whether you are willing to get maybe a little uncomfortable and talk about it. Not in a pushy way, not in a salesy way, but in a clear, honest, ethical, patient-centered way. So here's what I would like you to remember from this episode. Start with hunger and humility. Just like Spencer said, it's so important. If you want to grow and you want to have more, better results from your practice, you have to be willing to learn from the people who are doing something better than you. And you have to be able to admit that you haven't got all the answers right now. And that's okay. And you gotta find the right teachers. When you find the right people and you're ready to learn, that is when you're going to grow. You've got to try some new things. And when you see new patients, have that hard conversation just one time. Don't be so worried about building trust over multiple visits and slowly letting the patients know that they need something here and there, not trying to overwhelm them. If a patient needs five crowns, the ethical thing to do is to be honest up front and tell them they need five crowns. But so often we see dentists that will slowly reveal one problem every six months and they wonder why the trust starts to break down with their patients. And do not take the no from your patients personally. Your job in your seat is to explain what you see, show the patients what

Key Takeaways And Next Steps

Paul Etchison 37:30

their options are, tell them what the risks are, and then let them decide what is right for them. And pay attention to what you think is the next step to changing your practice because we see it so often that people say, We need more new patients. I need more new patients, I need better marketing, I need all this. But honestly, if you're underdiagnosing or you're avoiding conversations with the patients that you already have, or they're just not saying yes to a damn thing that you're telling them that they need, more new patients, I mean, it may help solve the problem, but it is the more difficult pathway. Case acceptance is one of those things that could just have such a dramatic effect on your bottom line and everything in your practice. And it doesn't require anybody else to change anything, it only requires you to change something. And if you're looking for someone to help you set up systems in your practice that can increase case acceptance and help make you more money and just really help your practice with how everything is running, it'll help you help more people. It'll help you be a better boss to your team. If that sounds like something for you, please set up a free strategy call with me at dentalpracticeherals.com/slash strategy. I can share what it would look like for you to move through our seven-phase omnipractice system. It is our process of systemization of your office. It's not only going to make you more money, but it's going to bring you so much more peace. And I promise you, it is a gift to your team. We have made it so incredibly easy to roll out and implement in your office. And I promise, if you let us work with you, it will be the best money you've ever spent on anything ever. All right. Well, thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I appreciate you and I wish you an amazing week. Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you next time.