“Are you happy with your income?”

“How to improve your practice performance & increase your income.”

“Has your production stalled?  Get your starts on the fast track by hiring ‘click here.’”

“‘Click here’ to increase the income from your practice.”

“Download your free guide to solve your referral problems today.”

I did not invent any of the above.  Each is an exact copy of the text from an advertisement taken from the Internet, from trade magazines, from direct mail, etc. that we have tracked during just the weeks prior to my writing of this article.  They are all from currently popular and recognizable consultants.

For 35 years I have been watching new consultants come into the dental/orthodontic world, only to notice that most disappeared from the scene within 3-5 years.  Once their clients and the profession as a whole had learned that what these consultants were teaching was mostly smoke and mirrors, or that even the consultants with quality advice did not provide the support necessary to ensure the success of their doctor clients, word of mouth disappeared and so did those consultants.

The majority of those who failed labeled themselves as Practice Management consultants, a consultant who could handle almost any part of the operation of a practice.  These consultants taught those who listened that they were experts in scheduling, in marketing, in case acceptance, in patient financing, in delinquency control, and in just about any other operation in a practice that you could name.  The rest of the consultants who failed were those who declared themselves to be experts in one of those single fields.

Some, of course, stood out!  They walked their talk.  They knew their stuff and they supported their initial clients to ensure they did well, often very well, in the performance area they were hired to impact.  Almost all of those are names we all recognize today and we recognize them because they have been around the profession for 20+ years.

The rest did not stand out, at least not after the first year or two.  Of these consultants who failed, most did well, initially.  They did a lot of marketing such as the junk I listed above, had a lot of charisma, were chosen as lecturers at numerous venues, obtained name familiarity, and were hired by enough doctors to have initial financial success.  No consultant, none, is an expert in everything, and some of the “specialists” simply had bad ideas and wrong thinking.  They failed as well!

This article is not a recommendation to avoid new consultants.  In 1980 I was a new consultant with an idea that I believed would truly help doctors to increase production and profitability and, most important, the quality of life within their practice.  More significant perhaps, I was teaching things that were scary, things no one in the dental/orthodontic profession had ever tried or even heard of before.  I became successful because one doctor trusted me to deliver what I promised.  That’s no different from the consultants I spoke of earlier.  Doctors trusted them to deliver what they had promised!

Being new does not mean you do not know what you are doing or could not have a powerful and positive impact on practice well-being.  My concern is not with new consultants, but rather is with the persons coming into the consulting profession to make a profit from the doctors who feel lost and who will hire anyone who promises to provide results.  More often than not, their bad ideas and wrong thinking, which at first glance may sound wonderful to vulnerable doctors, cause grave and long lasting damage to the overall well-being of the practice.  Consider the following examples.

• With respect to building new patient flow, some consultants will tell you that the proper approach is to send direct mail advertising pieces, offering discounts, and offering free this and free that.  In fact, that is not marketing at all but is advertising.  This type of advertising is successful in that it will bring in a lot of new patients.  It is horribly unsuccessful in that it attracts 80%+ low end patients who are seeking low fee discount dentistry and orthodontics.  If that’s what you want to be known for in your community then by all means you can advertise in that manner, but case acceptance rates on new patients from this source will be roughly 35%!  Your delinquency will be sky-high and your rate of new patients referred by existing patients will be close to zero.  Is that really what you are after?

• Another consulting firm in business today will tell you to do no telephone screening, to learn virtually nothing about the prospective new patient during the new patient phone call, to do nothing to educate this prospective patient about your practice, how your new exam is not a quick “look-see,” etc., but to just get the new patient scheduled.  Each of the top Case Acceptance consultants in the country will confirm that is a recipe for disaster that results in “no-shows,” reduced case acceptance, and a serious reduction in the quality of life within the practice.

• Yet another consultant who is active today would have you change how you count case acceptance to make your numbers look good.  He will tell you to offer $500 down payments and long term financing to all patients, even those with a lengthy history of repeat bankruptcies, repossessions, bad debt, etc.  He will have you believe that most new patients come from referring doctors and that 80% of those new patients will be shoppers, and that the majority of your patients are only looking for easier financing terms.  Each of those statements is entirely false, except for the bottom 25% of practices feeding from the PPO’s and getting the rest of their patients from Yellow Pages, the Internet, and retail type advertising.  Again, it is entirely untrue for the great majority of the profession that are quality, fee for service, practices.

My point of this article is not to steer you away from new consultants, but rather to steer you away from consultants making promises they cannot keep and who would have you believe that building quality new patient flow, obtaining great case acceptance, having great scheduling, a perfect recall system, zero delinquency, etc., is easy.

There are no “gimmicks.”  There is no magic wand that will create the practice you want!  When you consider hiring a consultant, be certain you are hiring substance and not hiring hype.  Many consultants in the profession today will provide wonderful ideas, recommend excellent systems, and will provide the long term support to encourage and motivate you and your team to implement and stick with those systems.  Those are the consultants to hire and to stick with.  When some slick “consultant promoter” is promising you wonderful results overnight and promising you that getting those results is “easy,” you are speaking with someone with very bad ideas and wrong thinking.

So before you hire a consultant, check with a lot of their previous clients.  Let your staff call and speak with their counterparts at those offices.  Most of all, be certain that the answer to your question: “If you have the same issues at some point in the future, would you hire this consultant again?” is “Yes!  In a heartbeat!”